SUPER Bowl XLIX will be contested in the desert but when it comes to intriguing plots and storylines tonight's meeting between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks is the most fertile of terrain.
For starters, in today's NFL, where the salary cap rules and top draft picks are distributed democratically to the worst sides, the Seahawks are bidding to become the first franchise to retain the Vinny Lombardi trophy for a decade. And who should stand in their way but the Pats, the last team to achieve this feat, part of three Championships this famous Boston franchise captured in four years during the early noughties.
There isn't a sport more strategised and analysed than American football, so it is fitting that tonight's televised spectacular at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, should also be a battle of superstar coaches. In one corner stands Bill Belichick, the evil genius who brought us "spygate" and is now attempting to extricate himself from "deflate gate".
The former refers to the 2007 row when the Patriots, where Belichick has been head coach since 2000, were found to have been secretly filming New York Jets defensive coaching signals; the latter the shorthand for the ongoing inquiry into the 12 footballs provided by the Patriots for their Conference game against the Indianapolis Colts a fortnight ago which didn't meet regulation standards. Although that match ended in a blowout, the conspiracy theory goes that flat footballs were designed to take the wind out of the sails of Andrew Luck, Indy's young quarterback, one of the most accurate deep passers in the league.
If Belichick is depicted as a cantankerous, wily old schemer, his opposite number's demeanour could hardly be more different. Pete Carroll, who was replaced by Belichick after he flopped in the Patriots' head coaching job, leaps around on game days like a hyperactive surfer dude or high school jock who is old enough to know better.
Yet this odd couple aren't so different: as former defensive co-ordinators, both know defense wins championships. When Belichick re-tooled the Pats' secondary this off season with the likes of Darrelle Revis and Seattle's own Brandon Browner, it was the ultimate compliment to the Legion of Boom, Seattle's self-styled Super Bowl winning crew.
With such able defensive minds around, a premium will be placed on offense. That is where Tom Brady comes in, a quarterback written off in early season who now stands on the cusp of equalling Terry Bradshaw of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Joe Montana for a record fourth Super Bowl victory.
As for his opposite number, it wasn't so long ago that Russell Wilson, a 5ft 11in kid from Cincinnati, Ohio, was pursuing a career in pro baseball. But the 2012 third-round pick has proven that size isn't everything - if you have the athleticism and spatial awareness of a point guard to think on your feet. Other protagonists are Rob Gronkowski, the Pats' unplayable 6ft 7in tight end, and Marshawn Lynch, Seattle's beast of a running back, who only opens his mouth when he wants to munch on Skittles. Katy Perry is on the half time show. There will be fireworks.
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