Over 100 million people are expected to view Super Bowl XLIV this Sunday night at 6:30 p.m. on CBS. And though the last two championship games have been thrillers (and actually there have been better games in the last decade than traditionally was the case in most of the earlier games ), former Indianapolis Colts coach and Tampa Bay celebrity Tony Dungy is predicting that his former team will blow it open in the 4th quarter.
Dungy, who has surprised some observers this year with his audacious and frank commentary as part of the excellent NBC pre-game show on Sunday evenings, says he believes the game, in which the Colts are 5 1/2 point favorites, won't be close. From William Rhoden's blog in the NY Times:
asked whether he felt Manning would need a last-minute game-winning drive in the Super Bowl to secure his legacy, Dungy said: “I believe that if they’re in the game Sunday and they need to drive to win the game, he’s going to do it. I don’t think the game’s going to come down to that. I think they’re going to be so far ahead that people are going to say, ‘Oh, ho-hum, he played a good game, they won by two scores, the Colts won their second championship.’ He’s going to have those rings Sunday night. I don’t think it’s going to be close.”
Dungy said he based his confidence on the Saints’ performance against Minnesota in the National Football Conference championship game.
“Minnesota is playing in New Orleans, they turn the ball over five times, have two or three stupid penalties and still lose in overtime. I don’t see how it’s going to be close. The Colts aren’t going to turn it over seven times.”
(Yesterday Dungy's son, Eric, a senior who played for Plant High School's championship football squad this past season, was among those who represented the team in getting a commendation from the Tampa City Council.)
This article appears in Feb 3-9, 2010.