SUPER BOWL LX ("60") PREVIEW

Two newly-rebuilt programs face off this Sunday for a rematch of Super Bowl XLIX.

The Brady-led, Belichick-coached New England Patriots dominated the NFL for two decades. They lost Super Bowls they probably should have won (New York, NEW York) and won Super Bowls they should have lost... most notably Super Bowl XLIX ("49") against the Seattle Seahawks. Everyone who had anything to do with Super Bowl 49 is gone from both teams, and yet this title match wreaks of "rematch." Whatever.

Here's what to actually watch for; we'll cut right to the chase.

Buried in all the NFL stats is the fact that these two teams are at the cutting edge of a sudden renewal of an old type of thinking in the NFL-- the value of sheer physical size. Think of NFL Football as a 3-legged stool-- Speed, Muscle, and the Intangibles (Brains, Discipline, Devotion, etc.) For two decades, Belichick & Brady could reliably advance to at least the conference title game with the Intangibles. Father Time inevitably ran down Brady, but what drove Belichick out of the league and into an embarrassing mid-life crisis was the growing dominance of Speed way above and beyond Muscle & Intangibles. But the pendulum always swings, and now, more than the other 30 teams in the NFL, both the Patriots and the Seahawks regularly rely on muscular, 3-tight-end alignments whether they are running or passing and have advanced to the title game this way.

Our prediction? Look for a muscle-on-muscle shoving match rather than a track meet. As for the outcome, the Seahawks look significantly stronger, but the Mike Vrabel-led Patriots seem to have that unmistakable whiff of destiny about them. If the Seahawks win, it will be because they've dominated the game; if the Patriots win, it will be because they somehow found a way.

I'm glad I'm not betting on this one,