Six storylines to watch during Super Bowl 50 between Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos
Monday 9 January 2017 19:02, UK
It will soon be time for the talking to stop – and there has been plenty of that this week in San Francisco – and it will be the moment to turn our attention to the Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl 50.
But there are still a couple more days to ruminate and pontificate over the big storylines that have been written and spoken about countless times in the past few days.
Here are six stories to consider as you settle in for the big game from California, which will be show live on Sky Sports.
Peyton's last rodeo?
The 39-year-old Peyton Manning will be the oldest quarterback ever to start in a Super Bowl and he will do so with the weakest set of physical skills at his disposal than at any other point in his storied and legendary career.
During the course of the 2015 campaign, Manning has been forced to take a pay cut, benched, injured, humbled, told he came back one year too long and even accused of taking HGH when recovering from his four neck operations in 2011, a claim he denied.
Yet he remains just 60 minutes away from doing what so few NFL players get to do - leaving the game on their terms as a Super Bowl champion. No one knows quite for sure what Manning is planning for his future but his "this may be my last rodeo" comments to Bill Belichick a couple of weeks back give a strong indication that this is his final game.
If Manning's final game sees him retire as a champion after the most trying season of his career, it will be the story to end all Super Bowl stories.
A different animal
I cannot wait to watch Cam Newton play quarterback for the Carolina Panthers on Sunday because he is a physical specimen to behold and the hottest player in the NFL right now.
I watched Cam walk into a press conference on Thursday and thought they had sent in a defensive end by mistake. He is huge and time and again this week he was described to me as "a different animal" by Denver Broncos defenders.
By the time Sunday's game kicks off, there is no doubt that Cam Newton will have been named the Most Valuable Player of the NFL this season. Then we will get to see if he can live up to that billing and win his first Super Bowl title and become exactly what Manning predicted earlier this week… the new face of the NFL for the next decade.
A tale of two quarterbacks
Manning and Newton could not be more different, especially this season. Manning has accounted for just 11 touchdowns for his team including the playoffs while Newton has helped his team get to the end zone 50 times, either through his runs or passes.
The pair show that it takes all sorts to play the quarterback position. It is also interesting to note that Manning's worst season of his career has coincided with Newton's best and they are on a collision course in Super Bowl 50.
All of that would suggest it is advantage Newton. But we should also take into account that this is Peyton's fourth Super Bowl appearance and Cam's first. And this week, Manning has handled the media engagements with the poise and control of a politician. Newton, on the other hand, has appeared on the verge of a meltdown and has been the sulkier and surlier Cam that we knew from his early days in the NFL.
It might not matter a jot come Super Bowl Sunday but Manning has the big game experience and Newton simply cannot wait to get away from the media engagements and get back to playing and having fun.
Wade's warriors
A year and a half ago Wade Phillips was out of work, out of the NFL and sitting in a television studio with me covering the NFL Draft for Sky Sports. This week, Wade - who is one of the NFL good guys and a tremendous story-teller and coach - is back on centre stage as the defensive coordinator for the Denver Broncos, overseeing the best defence in the NFL.
Wade has 38 years of NFL experience under his belt and is masterfully pulling the strings for a Denver D that absolutely hammered and abused Tom Brady in the AFC Championship Game. There are a few plans in place around the NFL to contain Newton, but if anyone can come up with one, it will be Wade.
I spoke with Wade this week and he recalled: "I thought we did a great job on the NFL Draft. This is sweet because I've gone from unemployed to the Super Bowl in the space of one year". If the Broncos are to win this Super Bowl on Sunday it will be because of Wade and the efforts of key defenders such as Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware.
Heroic defenders
I have spent time catching up this week with two guys I have worked with in recent years here in the UK - Panthers defensive end Jared Allen and Panthers linebacker Thomas Davis. Both are key men on Carolina's roster and both are about to defy medical science and advice by playing in this Super Bowl.
Jared is going to play in this game on a broken foot and when I asked him about it he gave me the big sell and told me he is "absolutely fine with no problems at all". That was funny to me because Jared was acting like a kid trying to convince his parents that he is well enough to go out and play football in the park - he was forced to sit out the NFC Championship Game by head coach Ron Rivera and was not happy with the decision. It seems he is taking no chances at being sat down this week and has been super-positive about his injury since arriving in San Francisco.
Davis is an absolute warrior and the only player in NFL history to overcome three torn ACLs to the same knee. But there are many - myself included - who wonder how much tackling he can do with a broken right forearm from two weeks ago. Davis only had an operation a week ago and has 12 screws inserted into that arm but insists it will 'only' be "a pain tolerance thing" and he will be good to go.
If both men - who are serving as inspirations to their team-mates - play in this game and the Panthers win, it will be a couple of Super Bowl performances for the ages.
The coaches
Both head coaches have played in the Super Bowl - Gary Kubiak as a back-up quarterback for the Broncos and Ron Rivera as a linebacker for the 1985 Chicago Bears. Now they have a shot at winning the Vince Lombardi Trophy as coaches.
I have been struck this week by how utterly normal and, dare I say it, boring both men are when it comes to dealing with the media and talking about their teams. And I mean that as a good thing - there are no histrionics and emotional rants with this pair. They are just solid, talented and level-headed coaches who have a good feel for their teams as former players themselves.
But they will also create quite a story if they win the Super Bowl. In 2013, Kubiak was working so hard as head coach of the Houston Texans that he suffered a mini stroke at half-time of a game. And Rivera was working in television in 1996 before he had an epiphany and realised he had to get into coaching. He worked his way up from the very bottom as an unpaid volunteer coach with the Bears and is now at the very top of the game.
Both Kubiak and Rivera deserve their moment in the spotlight on Sunday night but knowing them, they will want our focus to be firmly placed on their players.
Enjoy the Super Bowl. For the record, I'm going for a Carolina win and think they will emerge victorious by a 27-17 scoreline.
Live NFL: Super Bowl 50
