Sports Commentator Picks Super Bowl Contenders - NPR Morning Edition

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BOB EDWARDS, Host: The Super Bowl is still 10 days away, but the pro football action this weekend could be just as interesting. The two conference championship games on Sunday decide who plays in the Super Bowl. The San Francisco 49ers travel to Dallas to play the Cowboys for the National Conference title; in Buffalo, the Bills host quarterback Joe Montana and his Kansas City Chief in the American Conference championship game. Commentator and pro football player Tim Green says the Chiefs and Bills better get ready for more brutal weather.

TIM GREEN, Commentator: [on telephone] I was out last weekend doing some goose hunting before the Bills and the Raiders played, and I had mixed feelings because I thought to myself, `Well, it would be great to still be in the mix and be in the playoffs.' On the other hand, I couldn't even imagine what it would be like to have to play a football game in those frigid temperatures. I mean, I was covered from head to toe with just a little bit of space between my hat and my scarf that I could see out of. But, I don't think that the weather is gonna have the effect on Kansas City that it had on the Raiders last week because Kansas City, it's just as cold there, and they're used to playing outdoors on that frozen kind of turf. So I don't think it's gonna be quite the shock as it was for the boys from California, being the Raiders, last weekend.

EDWARDS: Well, these are both comeback teams. Maybe if you tuned in in the last quarter you'll see all the action.

GREEN: That's the truth. I mean, these guys both have put on great shows at the end. And when you look at the Bills, throughout the playoffs they never really panicked. This will be their four straight AFC championship this weekend, and throughout the playoffs they've just kind of had this air about them that, you know, they're always in control, almost like they have this destiny that can't be overturned by anyone else. And last weekend they held that confidence and brought themselves back at the end to win the game.

But I think when you talk about comebacks, I mean, I don't think Bill Clinton is the comeback kid, I think Joe Montana's the comeback kid. I mean, when you look at the way he has pulled things out, I almost get the feeling when I watch him that Joe Montana likes to let the other team get out ahead, you know, just to make it interesting, because he seems to just get this thrill out of having everything on the line, having to operate, you know, like a surgeon or like some kind of magician where he's just gonna pull things out of his hat at the end to win the game. He has done that so well for so many years that I think if I was on the Bills defense, and there was a minute left, and I saw Joe Montana trotting out on to the field, and I knew he was gonna be working down the field against me, I think I'd have this sinking feeling in my stomach, you know, like a gambler whose luck had run out.

EDWARDS: We should see a lot of running maybe in San Francisco and Dallas. You got Emmitt Smith and Ricky Watters.

GREEN: You know, you look at their offenses, both of them, and you just start going down the list. You start with Emmitt Smith for the Cowboys, and Watters for the 49ers, and you say, `Well, they can run, but they can catch too.' And their quarterbacks, you know, Troy Aikman and Steven Young, they can throw the ball, but they can run. The fullbacks, they can run and they can block, and they can catch. The tight ends, they can block like linemen, catch like wide receivers. The wide receivers catch, and then Rice for the 49ers and Irvin for the Dallas Cowboys, they'll run a reverse on you as well.

Then you got their offensive line. They're not only big, they're mean. And they can probably sing and dance as well. I don't think there's anything that these guys can't do. And when you face them defensively, you just have this kind of sense of being overwhelmed.

EDWARDS: Well, crawl out there on that limb. Who do you like?

GREEN: Oh, I like Kansas City and I like Dallas.

EDWARDS: The comments and predictions of Tim Green, a defensive lineman for the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League, and author of the novel, Ruffians. This is NPR's Morning Edition.

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[The preceding text has been professionally transcribed. However, in order to meet rigid distribution and transmission deadlines, it has not been proofread against audiotape and cannot, for that reason, be guaranteed as to the accuracy of speakers' words or spelling.]