Super Bowl conundrum

The problem with the Super Bowl is that most football fans don't have a dog in the hunt. Most fans don't even have a grudge to bear against the teams in the big game. Thus the question is, for whom do we root? (Eff me, this guy has good grammar, the readers silently say to themselves. Since they can't really say it silently to anyone else. But I digress.)

How you answer this question reveals who you are. Fickle sack, or steadfast loyalist? Personally, I always root for the team from the NFC, even if I hate that team. When I became a football fan as a child, the Packers were winning everything and the American Football League was meaningless. When the two leagues merged and created the Super Bowl (which was not called that at first), I rooted for the Packers still, and they won the first two. It was nearly 30 years before I got to root for the Pack in a Super Bowl again, but I always rooted for the NFC to win the big game. I had to root for teams I hate upon occasion -- the Cowboys and Vikings come to mind -- but I did it.

But that came with a caveat. As an NFL fan, I decided I am allowed to root for teams that were in the NFL before the merger with the AFL, meaning that I was allowed to root for the Steelers, Browns and Colts. This came in handy in Super Bowl V, allowing me to root for the Colts against the Cowboys, and in XLI, allowing me to root for the Steelers against the Seahawks (who, after all, were an AFC expansion team before being moved to the NFC).

This weekend, it allows me to root for the Ravens, who used to be the Browns, against the 49ers. Since the 49ers beat the Packers in the playoffs this year, I want them to die. The fact that the Ravens have their roots in the old NFL lets me root that way Sunday. Go Ravens.