Looking Forward to Super Bowl XXXV

The NFL's kickoff last Sunday marked the beginning of a season in which analysts' and odds makers' championship predictions are quite varied. While the mantra of the NFL was once "On any given Sunday, any team can win," a more appropriate reference may now be that any given season could produce an unexpected Super Bowl victor. Certainly there were few before the beginning of the 1999 season that predicated that the St. Louis Rams would win Super Bowl XXXIV, and the young 2000 season is notable for the varied predictions that have been made for the big showdown in Tampa.

That uncertainty, so different from past eras when dynasties marked the NFL, lends excitement to NFL cities across the country and was perhaps what league officials had in mind when constructing and implementing the current salary cap structure. Gone are the days of the mighty Pittsburgh Steelers, who marched through the 1970s in dynastic form, or the San Francisco 49ers, whose loss of Steve Young and other key players has left the team of the decade in the 1980s floundering in salary cap woes in the new millenium. And, of course, America's team, the Dallas Cowboys, who dominated through much of the 1990s, find themselves in dire straits after losing badly at home to division rival Philadelphia in their season opener last week.

For now, as the 2000 season unfolds and this year's football powers emerge, fans in large and small markets alike can be content in the knowledge that their teams all have a shot at the big game. And if this year leads to an unsuccessful bid for the Lombardi trophy, next year always holds more promise.