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Some places court destiny:
Watch Florida right now!
of TheColumnists.com
Is Florida hot or what?
The state, the school, the players. They’re all dripping with triumph.
The Gator basketball team? Won it all last year and stands No. 1 today.
Gator gridders? Grilled Ohio State for the national title this month.
The Miami Heat? Reigning NBA champion.
Tennis, anyone? The Australian Open final over the weekend starred two Florida residents: Serena Williams of Palm Beach Gardens and Maria Sharapova of Bradenton. So much for my comment that Williams is too fat to consume another Slam. Serena devoured Maria 6-1, 6-2.
Golf? Tiger Woods, the general of the majors,
lives in Orlando. Heck, even former Gator running back Emmitt
Smith won "Dancing With the Stars."
Then there’s the Super Bowl kicking off Feb. 4. It’s
also all about Florida, with 75,000 cocked and ready to flash
camera phones at Dolphin Stadium.
Want more? OK, one of the starting quarterbacks will be Rex Grossman, the former Gator starter.
Really, that’s where the Florida party ends. Grossman might mean Big Man in German, but that won’t translate in this NFL title game. His Chicago Bears will turn into one word: losers.
Winners will be the Indy Colts. Especially Peyton Manning, the one-time Tennessee Volunteer who will avenge all his losses to Gator quarterbacks.
Just like he reversed his big-game flops to New England’s Tom Brady. When Peyton popped the Pats in the AFC title game last week, he wrote his own headline:
Oh, Man! No, Manning.
Look for a replay in the Super Bowl, only more decisively.
In this Man Show, Manning will manhandle Grossman 38-17.
And so the Colts will go 2-1 in Super Bowls, all in Florida. First came their 16-7 crash against Joe Namath and the Jets in 1969. Then came Jim O’Brien’s winning kick in their 16-13 booting of Dallas in 1971.
Florida is simply the hottest spot in history, sizzling against other areas that simmered in the last five decades:
Los Angeles in 1965. The UCLA Bruins won the college hoops title behind Gail Goodrich’s lefty shots. The Dodgers won the World Series behind Sandy Koufax’s lefty pitches.
New York in 1969. As Sports Illustrated quipped when headlining
the Knicks’ sprint to start the NBA season, “Overdue
Winner In New York.” That followed the Jets’ jog to
football’s alp and the Mets’ amazin’ race to baseball’s
peak.
Pittsburgh in 1979. The Steelers were thick into their dynasty. They
doomed Dallas in one of the truly super Super Bowls in January,
then rode Terry Bradshaw’s rifle to a second straight NFL
title. Also in Three Rivers Stadium, Willie Stargell gave the
Pirates the Pop they needed to win the World Series.
New York in 1986. The Mets messed with regular-season competition, then made furious comebacks against Houston and Boston to win it all. The Giants doubled the town’s titles by sacking the NFL.
L.A. in 1988. Laker coach Pat Riley made good on his prediction
of a second straight NBA title. Orel Hershiser pitched the Dodgers
to their second world crown of the decade.
The Bay Area in 1989. The San Francisco 49ers caught Cincy in January’s
thrilling Super Bowl, then rushed to a second straight NFL title.
On baseball’s side, the Oakland A’s rocked Frisco’s
Giants in the World Series.
©2007 by Bucky Fox. The illustration is from IMSI's Master Clips Collection, 1895 Francisco Blvd. East, San Rafael, CA, 94901-5506, USA. This column first posted Jan. 29, 2007.
You can visit Bucky Fox's website at www.BuckyFox.com
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