NEW ORLEANS — The journey to this Super Bowl wound through bounties and replacement refs, eventually bringing the big game back to the Big Easy — with a replacement quarterback, a sibling rivalry and a grand exit for one of the NFL’s greatest players, clouded by the obscure healing powers of deer-antler spray.
It is a Super Bowl of comebacks, of firsts and lasts, and — if San Francisco wins — the best.
A win over the Baltimore Ravens today gives the 49ers six championships, matching Pittsburgh’s titles in the Super Bowl era. Unlike the Steelers, the Niners have never lost one.
Of course, they haven’t won one in 18 years, either.
“There’s a tradition with the San Francisco 49ers, but I think these guys are paving their own way,” said Hall of Fame receiver and three-time champion Jerry Rice. “They’re playing with a lot of swagger.”
Or as owner Denise DeBartolo York said, “We’ve come full circle and the dynasty will prevail.”
New Orleans has come full circle, too. Ravaged by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, losing a quarter of its population, abandoned by the Saints for an entire season, the city couldn’t imagine hosting another Super Bowl. But as New Orleans recovered and rebuilt, it envisioned staging what Patriots owner Robert Kraft calls “the pre-eminent sporting event.”
The NFL agreed it was time to return. And even if Commissioner Roger Goodell is despised here after slapping the Saints with suspensions and fines in the bounty scandal, the vibes from the French Quarter and Warehouse District this week have been supportive, even uplifting.
“It’s also terrific for us to be back here in New Orleans,” Goodell said, joking about voodoo dolls in his likeness. “Our 10th Super Bowl here, the first since Katrina, and it’s clear this city is back bigger and better than ever.”
There’s the tale of the head coaching brothers, Baltimore’s John and San Francisco’s Jim, the first siblings to face off in a Super Bowl. And Ray Lewis, the pre-eminent linebacker of his generation on his self-proclaimed last ride. (His farewell party was somewhat sidetracked for two days this week when Lewis waved off a report that he tried to get unusual products like deer-antler spray to speed his recovery from an arm injury that sidelined him for 10 games.)
“There are so many storylines to this game that make it bigger than just the Super Bowl,” 49ers CEO Jed York said.
Such as the Harbaughs plot about sons of a lifetime coach who took different paths to the top of the NFL.
John, older by 15 months, has made his career standing on the sideline with a headset. He’s the only head coach to win playoff games in his first five seasons; his quarterback, Joe Flacco, has the same distinction as he heads into his first Super Bowl. Jim Harbaugh was a first-round draft pick and quarterbacked four teams in 14 pro seasons before going into coaching. He was an immediate success at San Diego — the Toreros in the college Pioneer League, not the Chargers in the NFL — and Stanford before the 49ers won a bidding war for him in 2011.
This week’s family reunion has been light-hearted, though that figures to change Sunday.
“It’s probably a little tougher emotionally,” John Harbaugh said of facing his brother. “It’s a little tougher just from the sense of I don’t think you think about it when you’re coaching against somebody else; it’s more about the scheme and the strategy. There’s a little bit of a relationship element that’s more strong than maybe coaching against someone else.”
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