Super Blog II

Another Super Bowl, and another year that Joe Cleveland won't see his favorite team participating in it.

Normally, though, there's always a reason to root against a certain team that's playing in the Super Bowl. This year, that team is the New England Patriots.

Why root against the Patriots? Well, here's a few reasons for you.

For starters, the Patriots are considered a Boston team. Boston has been everything that Cleveland isn't over the last 10 years when it comes to sports, and networks like ESPN (based in nearby Bristol, Conn.) are always ever-so-happy to heap the love onto the Beaneaters. The supposedly cursed Red Sox have won two World Series titles (and knocked off the Indians to win the last one back in 2007-08). The Celtics won their 17th NBA title back in 07 and have also been a thorn in the Cavs' side when the Cavs were in the playoffs. The Bruins won the Stanley Cup last season. And, of course, the Patriots won three Super Bowls in a four-year span in the early 2000s and took an undefeated record into the 2007 Super Bowl before the New York Giants pulled off a huge 17-14 upset.

The Patriots are coached by fellow named Bill Belichick. You might remember Belichick as the coach of the Cleveland Browns before Judas Modell decided to move the franchise to Baltimore. Belichick went 37-45 as the coach of the Browns, with one winning season (and one playoff season) during his tenure. He cut Bernie Kosar in 1993, even though his desired starter (Vinny Testaverde) was out for several weeks and the Browns were 5-3 and in contention for a division title (that team wound up 7-9 and Kosar wound up playing in the Super Bowl that year with the Dallas Cowboys). During the playoff season, the Browns were beaten three times by the Steelers (including in the divisonal round of the playoffs). And, his team slumped from 11-5 in 1994 to 5-11 in 1995 as rumors and talk of a move to Baltimore demoralized the team.

No one figured Belichick would become the next great NFL coach after Modell fired him on Valentine's Day 1996 -- the first official act of the "Baltimore NFL Franchise" (they weren't named the Ravens yet). Heck, no one figured he'd even get another head coaching gig. But things lined up well for Belichick when he went to the Patriots in 2000. Drew Bledsoe's injury gave Tom Brady the job. The Patriots went to three Super Bowls in four seasons and won all three by three points apiece (the first two on field goals on the final play from scrimmage). Of course, there was allegations of cheating with Spygate, which included those first three Super Bowl wins, and then there was the chance for 19-0 in the wake of Spygate that came crashing down as an unknown receiver named David Tyree pinned a football to his helmet.

I think most Browns fans are over Belichick and the disappointment. However, there is something deep down inside of every Browns fan, I believe, that loves to see the so-called "genius" get his. I think that's why you'll see a lot of Giants fans in these parts today.

Let's not forget former Browns bust and the "nicest man Pittsburgh police have ever arrested" Gerard Warren, who is a backup defensive lineman for New England. Warren is the poster child for everything that went wrong with the Butch Davis Era of the Browns, especially since Davis took "Big Money" with the third-overall pick of the 2001 NFL Draft, passing up LaDainian Tomlinson and Richard Seymour, among others. Warren turned off fans with his lacksadaisical efforts on the field and his big bluster off the field, and many weren't sad to see him go four seasons later when he was dealt to the Denver Broncos for a fourth-round draft pick. Since then, Warren bounced from the Broncos to the Raiders to the Patriots, even getting cut after training camp this year. He claims that he was "misunderstood" in Cleveland and that the problem was everyone else around him. Sorry, Big Money, but the buck stops with you. It sickens me that a lazy (bleep) like you could slack your way into a 10-plus year NFL career and wind up in a Super Bowl. I hope to hell you don't get a ring out of it, either.

How about Chad Johnson, or Ochocinco? Forgot that he was a member of the Patriots? I think the Patriots forgot he was a member of their organization until he showed up on Media Day of the Super Bowl. Another poster child for the spoiled, pretentious diva NFL athlete, Johnson/Ochocinco preened and talked trash for his entire career with the Bengals. He was more concerned about touchdown dances than he was actually getting those touchdowns and helping his team win. He was a distraction that fueled opponents and angered his coach. The Bengals only went to the playoffs twice during his career with them, and never won a game. In New England, he couldn't grasp the offense, dropped passes during his few chances, and quickly disappeared from the gameplan. He had to check his attitude at the door or he would have been shown it very quickly. He'll be lucky to even play today. But, like Gerard Warren, it bothers me that a guy who slacked his way through an NFL career and put himself above his team all the time has a chance to win a Super Bowl ring.

And, don't you think Tom Brady has won enough Super Bowl rings and had enough of a charmed life already?

Yes, there's guys like Wes Welker and Julian Edelman and Twinsburg's Zoltan Mesko that you like to root for. But the negatives outweigh the positives.

No team with seven regular season losses or more has ever won a Super Bowl (there have been a few teams that have had the chance, most recently the Arizona Cardinals of 2008). But, I think that changes after today.

Giants 27, Patriots 24. Joe Cleveland says so.

***

Belichick isn't the only former Browns coach to wind up in a Super Bowl with another team. He's just the first to win one.

Forrest Gregg, who became the Browns head coach from 1975-77, compiling only one winning season during that span, went down to rival Cincinnati two seasons after his firing by Modell and, in his second year with the Bengals, took them to their first Super Bowl. They lost to the 49ers, 26-21, at the Pontiac Silverdome, but the fact that Gregg did it with Paul Brown's team (and Modell and Brown did not like each other at all) surely stuck in Modell's craw.

However, every other head coach employed by the Browns (and there have been 13 total) has never gotten to a Super Bowl or won one after leaving the Browns. Belichick is the only one to become a champion, and even he spent four seasons back with Bill Parcells as an assistant coach with both the Patriots and the Jets before getting his second head coaching chance.

Not even the great Paul Brown could win a championship after Modell fired him. He took the Bengals to the playoffs a couple of times, but never got to a Super Bowl or won one. Even as simply the owner, Brown's Bengals went to two Super Bowls, but lost both times to a fellow named Joe Montana and the 49ers.

Marty Schottenheimer went to the playoffs nine times as the head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs and San Diego Chargers. However, his teams always choked in the playoffs (just like his Browns teams did) and he never reached a Super Bowl.

Bud Carson spent five seasons as a defensive coordinator with the Eagles and the St. Louis Rams after the Browns fired him midway through his second season as head coach, but his teams never made it to the Super Bowl. And, he never was a head coach again.

Chris Palmer spent three seasons as offensive coordinator of the expansion Houston Texans and was the offensive cooordinator last season with the Tennessee Titans. Neither of those teams did much winning.

Butch Davis never coached in the NFL again, spending five seasons as head coach at the University of North Carolina. He was fired this past season after his program was swept up in a few scandals and never got the Tar Heels into a BCS Bowl game, let alone play for a National Championship.

Eric Mangini works for ESPN and hasn't even been considered for an assistants job since the Browns fired him after two dismal seasons.

Romeo Crennel, after two seasons as the Chiefs' defensive coordinator, was promoted to head coach beginning this coming season. He hired Brian Daboll to be his offensive coordinator. Good luck with that.

Even Sam Rutigliano never did anything after the Browns fired him midway through the 1984 season. He spent a few seascons coaching in college, but never again in the pros.

So, Bill Belichick's success post-Cleveland is the exception to the rule, not the norm.

***

If Belichick wins tonight, he'll become just the second NFL head coach to win four Super Bowls. He'll join former Browns player and Cleveland native Chuck Noll, who won four Super Bowls during the 1970s with a certain team in Western Pennsylvania.

If either the Patriots or the Giants win tonight, they will join the four-time Super Bowl club. Currently, Pittsburgh (six), San Francisco and Dallas (five) and Green Bay (four) are the only members.

Both Tom Brady and Eli Manning are former Super Bowl MVPs. Believe it or not, this is the first the Super Bowl has had a matchup of Super Bowl MVP quarterbacks. The second Pittsburgh-Dallas Super Bowl in 1978 had a matchup of MVPs Roger Staubach, Harvey Martin and Randy White for the Cowboys and Franco Harris and Lynn Swann from the Steelers, and Terry Bradshaw won his first of two Super Bowl MVP award for performance in that game.

Also, the Pittsburgh-Arizona Super Bowl had Cardinals QB Kurt Warner (a Super Bowl MVP with the Rams in 1999) against the Steelers' Hines Ward (MVP of Super Bowl XL in 2005). Steelers receiver Santonio Holmes won the MVP from that Super Bowl.

Only one time in the 45-year history of the Super Bowl has a player from the losing team won the MVP Award. That was in Super Bowl V in 1970, when Cowboys linebacker Chuck Howley won the award despite the Baltimore Colts winning the game, 16-13.

The Cowboys also have the distinction of having the only co-MVPs from a Super Bowl (Harvey Martin and Randy White, Super Bowl XII in 1977, 27-10 win over the Denver Broncos).

This is New England's seventh Super Bowl. The Patriots are 3-3 going into today's game.

This is the Giants' fifth Super Bowl. They are 3-1 going into today's game, with their only loss coming in 2000 to the Thieving Bastards from Baltimore.

However, if the Giants win, they will match the Browns with eight NFL championships. Only the Chicago Bears (nine) and the Green Bay Packers (13) have more NFL championships, currently, than the Browns do.

New England has no other titles to fall back on. This will be its fourth, and will match them with the Baltimore/Indianapolis Colts and the Detriot Lions on the all-time list, if it wins.

This is the fifth Super Bowl rematch of all time, joining Miami-Washington (1-1), Pittsburgh-Dallas (2-1), San Francisco-Cincinnati (2-0) and Dallas-Buffalo (2-0). Only the Washington Redskins won the rematch on their first attempt (Dallas beat the Steelers in their third Super Bowl meeting after Pittsburgh won both matchups in the 1970s).

There has only been one former Cleveland Browns player who has went on to win a Super Bowl MVP award -- Kansas City quarterback Len Dawson (Super Bowl IV, 1969).

Currently, there are seven NFL teams that have never won a championship (none of which are Cleveland and Detroit). The unlucky seven are the Houston Texans (no Super Bowls), Atlanta Falcons (one Super Bowl), Carolina Panthers (one Super Bowl), Cincinnati Bengals (two Super Bowls), Jacksonville Jaguars (no Super Bowls), Minnesota Vikings (four Super Bowls) and Seattle Seahawks (one Super Bowl). The Buffalo Bills, who like the Vikings are 0-4 in Super Bowls, are credited with two championships from their AFL days.

There are only four teams that have never played in a Super Bowl -- the Texans, the Jaguars, the Lions and ... sigh ... the Browns. Cleveland is the only NFL city to have not only never played in a Super Bowl, but also have never hosted it.

It may not be next season, but I believe that Cleveland skid will be coming to an end, and sooner than we believe.

Go Giants! And, enjoy your Super Bowl festivities, wherever they are!

Until next time, remember that Cleveland Rocks!