Super Bowl XXXI

SUPERBOWL 3I PICTURES  

By Pete Dougherty

Press-Gazette

NEW ORLEANS — From start to finish this year, these Green Bay Packers simpiy packed the biggest punch in the NFL.They showed it early in 1996, and they showed when it mattered most: During their stretch run to the NFL championship.The title became official on Sunday Jan. 26, when they returned the Vince Lombardi Trophy to its namesake’s home after a 29-year wait with a 35-21 win over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI at the Louisiana Superdome.

   The win culminated a five-year climb for the Packers, who as recently as 1993 were a one-dimensional team with a wild young quarterback in Brett Favre and his single passing threat of Sterling Sharpe. Now Favre is the toast of the NFL, the league’s MVP, and he has probably the most impressive array of weapons in the league, ranging from Antonio Freeman to Andre Rison to Keith Jackson and Mark Chmura, to the incomparable return man Desmond Howard. Almost every week this season one or several have stepped forward, and in the NFL’s biggest showcase was no different.

   Freeman and Rison caught long touchdown passes, Howard was at his backbreaking best, and Favre ran the team with precision."I think the Packers’ weapons now in the 19th week of the season speak for themselves," said Al Groh, the defensive coordinator for the vanquished Patriots. "The highest-scoring offense in the league. It’s usually done with weapons, so they don’t need me to speak for them. I think they’ve made their own statement here this month."The Packers finish the season at 16-3 and clearly the best team in football. With Favre, 27, just coming into his own, and with a nucleus of key players coming back, Sunday’s win begged for a Look forward as much as a look back. 

   Could this be just the start of something really big for general manager Ron Wolf and coach Mike Holmgren? Or will the possible free agency of players such as defensive tackle Gilbert Brown and linebacker Wayne Simmons erode the talent the Packers need to stay on top of the football world?"Our guys have done an excellent job Ron Wolf and Mike and the people in personnel have done a great job of evaluating talent7 said Sherman Lewis, the Packers’ offensive coordinator. "We’re going to Lose some good players, but we’ll also acquire some. As long as we have the quarterback and a good, sound defense we’ll be competitive. But to get this far you have to have a little luck too."Just how good are these Packers?

   They finished the regular season as both the highest-scoring and stingiest team in the NFL. They needed both against a Patriots team that had some quick-strike offense of its own that turned a 10-0 deficit into a 14-10 lead in a four-minute stretch late in the first quarter. That threatened to give the Packers’ dream season a bitter ending. But the Packers’ punch was too much. Favre finished the day 14-for-27 passing for 246 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. Most of those yards came on two scintillating plays: An audibled 54-yard touchdown to Rison on the Packers’ second play, and an 81-yard touchdown to Freeman that put the Packers back on top 17-14 less than a minute into the second quarter.Throw in Howard’s 99-yard kickoff return for a touchdown that won him the game’s most valuable player award, and the flurry was more than the Patriots could withstand.

 It also invited comparisons to the team after which this Packers’ club is patterned, the San Francisco 49ers clubs that Holmgren and Lewis worked for assistant coaches. Those teams won Super Bowls in 1989 and ‘90 with an offense as good as the game probably has seen.If Rison’s touchdown got the Packers off to a smoking start and Freeman’s a quick rebound from the Patriots’ surprisingly quick comeback, Howard’s might have been the biggest. New England stopped the Packers on fourth down on their initial second-half possession, and then the Patriots got a touchdown of their own that cut the Packers’ lead to 27-21.

But Howard slammed the door on the very next play and in some ways ended the contest right there with his 99-yard score. "Up until that point, I thought we still had an opportunity," said Patriots coach Bill Parcells.