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January 30, 2004
Super Bowl Notebook
Davis star in video game win over Pats
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
• Four days before the Super Bowl, the Carolina Panthers won a video version of the National Football League championship. If recent history is a guide, that may mean a Carolina victory over New England in the real game on Sunday.
The Panthers beat the Patriots 29-21 last night in a video-game battle between receivers Steve Smith of Carolina and Troy Brown of New England. The showdown took place before several hundred media members at a hotel in Houston, where the teams will play for the NFL title at Reliant Stadium.
The winning team in 989 Sports' annual "Game Before The Game" has also won the Super Bowl the past eight years.
"I hope we keep the streak alive," said Smith, who led the Panthers this season with 88 receptions for 1,110 yards and seven touchdowns.
The star of the video game was running back Stephen Davis of Carolina, who scored four touchdowns in the simulated game on PlayStation 2, which like 989 Sports is owned by Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.
Smith also made a key contribution with a third-down catch in the final minute.
"It was just good coaching," Smith joked to reporters.
• Three New England Patriots remained probable yesterday for the Super Bowl, and the Carolina Panthers had no injuries to report for the second consecutive day.
Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi, tight end Christian Fauria and running back Patrick Pass were given a 75 percent chance of playing against Carolina, according to the official injury report.
"I didn't have any setbacks, so I feel like I'm good and ready to go," Bruschi said. "We don't tell a lot of things about injuries around here, but I think you can tell by people's demeanors if they're going to play. If I wasn't going to play, I probably wouldn't be saying a word right now, and just sort of sulking. But, I think things are going well and I'm upbeat because I think things have gone well."
• Three Texans who helped drive the New England Patriots to the Super Bowl are returning to the state where their unusual football journeys began.
Fullback Larry Centers is in the 14th year of a career that started at Division I-AA Stephen F. Austin. Running back Antowain Smith worked at a factory for two years before enrolling at Houston, where he blossomed into a first-round draft pick at age 25.
And linebacker Larry Izzo was considered smallish coming out of Rice, the prestigious Houston school whose students are known more for crunching numbers than crunching tailbacks.
"It's like a storybook," said Izzo, who joined the Patriots in 2001. "I couldn't have written a better script to be practicing at Rice and to be able to show off the city of Houston. I don't know how many guys have been able to play a Super Bowl in their hometown, but it's an amazing experience."
Like Izzo, Smith is in his second Super Bowl for the Patriots. Smith, originally from Alabama, is enjoying the atmosphere in his adopted home.
"Everybody was asking me what there was to do in Houston," Smith said with a laugh. "I decided to have everybody over to my house. I'm the host. I'm the tour guide."
Centers, from Tatum in East Texas, is making his first Super Bowl trip after toiling most of his career with the Arizona Cardinals.
• The poise that makes Peyton Manning an award-winning quarterback might have saved him a few greenbacks in Houston.
After accepting a trophy based on Internet fan voting, Manning was asked about the officials not calling defensive holding on Patriots linebacker Roman Phifer when the Colts offense stalled on the final drive of their 21-14 AFC championship game loss.
"Can you get fined like three weeks after the game?" Manning asked.
NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy, who helped moderate the event, replied affirmatively from offstage. So Manning bit his tongue.
"I have no excuses for that game," he said. "You can't blame anybody, except the team and me in particular. In every game you're going to have calls you wish went your way."