Steve Brownlee

With my sports cohort here at the Journal, Ryan Stieg, also wanting to write about the Super Bowl this week (in a column that will appear here Saturday), I didn’t want to step on his toes writing about the big game.

So I decided I’d try something new, rather than the ol’ prop bets for the Super Bowl where you get to bet on the color of the Gatorade dumped on the winning coach or how long the singing of the National Anthem will be.

From the Associated Press, which we rely on heavily for our news — both “real” and sporting-wise — I found a Super Bowl quiz.

So I’m going to take it and you can take it right along with me. And then afterward, I’ll share my sage advice — like that herb, you should probably just grind it up and toss it on your spaghetti — about who’s going to win the game.

Now, if you’re going to take this test along with the guy writing this stuff, I hate when they tuck all the answers at the end AND put it upside down so you have to turn your paper backwards to see if you were right.

On the other hand, if I just put every answer right after the question, that won’t be any fun as you’ll inadvertently peek at those answers and ruin the surprise.

So in an air of compromise — listen up Washington, D.C. — I’ll go through four of the 12 questions, then put the four answers out there before continuing.

I promise I’m not going to cheat, not use the Internet (and in particular, Google searches). All I can offer as collateral is my good name … well, how about well-intentioned name in predicting.

Here goes:

1. Tom Brady has won six Super Bowls. Which player has the second-most Super Bowl wins?

Answer (mine, that is): I’ll guess Terry Bradshaw as I think that was the team that won these games in more of a cluster than any other during the 1970s.

2. Name the seven starters (offense and defense) from the Chiefs’ Super Bowl 4 team to make the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Answer: Ooh boy. SB 4 was right around 1970, about a year or two before I started following sports when I was 10 or 11 years old. Let’s see, Len Dawson as quarterback…. OK, since Hank Stram and his famous “Let’s matriculate the ball down the field” quote doesn’t count as he was the head coach, I’m otherwise stumped.

3. Name the four QBs to start the Super Bowl with multiple teams.

Answer: Ah, c’mon. I was hoping for a question like “What were the dominant colors on the Buccaneers’ original uniforms?” I know that one, it’s red, orange and white. This one, hmm … Joe Montana … naw, don’t think he made it to the Super Bowl with the Chiefs. Ah, how about Randall Cunningham with the Eagles and Vikings? Wait, I don’t think his Vikings ever made the Super Bowl, either? OK, ya got me again.

4. Who was the MVP in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ previous Super Bowl appearance?

Answer: Right off, I’d say Jon Gruden, as it’s only the coach I really remember from that Super Bowl in what, 2002? And I remember the Raider (Oakland? L.A?) that skipped the game to deal with his personal issues. Got me again!

• The REAL answers: 1. Hall of Famer Charles Haley with five (forgot it didn’t have to be a QB). 2. Len Dawson, Curley Culp, Buck Buchanan, Bobby Bell, Willie Lanier, Emmitt Thomas and Johnny Robinson (got the first one). 3. Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Kurt Warner (the one with St. Louis, not Seattle) and Craig Morton. 4. Dexter Jackson

5. Who is the last non-quarterback Super Bowl MVP?

Answer: I’ll take a stab in the dark and say Emmitt Smith sometime in the late 1990s.

6. Who is the only Super Bowl MVP from a losing team?

Answer: I seem to remember an early Super Bowl with this sort of MVP, sometime in the first 10 years. Otherwise, stumped again.

7. What is the highest-scoring game in Super Bowl history?

Answer: Maybe that Rams-Titans game where who would’ve been the winning scorer was pulled down at the 1-yard line to end the game. Don’t know the score, though.

8. What is the lowest-scoring game in Super Bowl history?

Answer: Wasn’t the Joe Namath Jets-Colts game in ’69 (?) like about 16-7? I can’t see many lower than this.

• The REAL answers: 5. Julian Edelman in SB 53. 6. Chuck Howley in Super Bowl 5. 7. SB 29: 49ers beat San Diego 49-26. 8. SB 53: Pats beat the Rams 13-3.

9. Which city has hosted the most Super Bowls?

Answer: Oh, that’s got to be either Miami or New Orleans. Because it’s indoors, I’ll take the capital of Mardi Gras.

10. Who scored the first touchdown in Super Bowl history?

Answer: I think I’m supposed to know this one since it’s probably a Green Bay Packer. It’s got to be their running back, but those ol’ time names just escape me now. What the heck, at least it’s a name — QB Bart Starr.

11. Who has the most rushing yards in a single Super Bowl?

Answer: Since it didn’t work so well before, let’s try Emmitt Smith again. My second choices are Franco Harris and Walter Payton.

12. Which four teams have never appeared in a Super Bowl?

Answer: Well I can come up with one of them right away — the Detroit Lions! Add in the Cleveland Browns, Jacksonville Jaguars and I’m pretty sure the last one is the Houston Texans.

• The REAL answers: 9. Miami with 11. 10. Green Bay’s Max McGee in SB 1. 11. Washington’s Timmy Smith with 204 yards in SB 22. 12. Lions, Browns, Texans and Jaguars.

BINGO! I got the last one right. Looking it up, that means I win one of those finger “pullers,” the one where you put one of your fingers from each hand in the woven thingee and pull those fingers away from each other and you’re stuck in it.

Anyway, after all that fun, let’s actually look at the game:

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Super Bowl LV, Kansas City Chiefs (16-2) vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (14-5), 6:30 p.m. Sunday, CBS — With all this buildup, I’m sure you’re hoping you’re almost done with me.

So let me make this succinct — I had some doubts about the Chiefs to start the playoffs. They ended the regular season with a meaningless loss, and before that, at least seven consecutive wins. In those final seven wins, EVERY ONE OF THEM was by six points or less.

I saw it as boredom on KC’s part or maybe just a chink in the armor that’s been exposed as the season went along. Either way, they always say you can’t turn on the intensity like the flip of a switch.

At least you couldn’t until the Chiefs came along. With only a banged-up offensive line casting doubt, I’ll take KC’s offense having a 15-minute run — or a pair of 7 1/2-minute runs each half — as enough to pick the winner as the Chiefs, 33-24.

Steve Brownlee can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 252. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.