Da prediction

 I get it all the time during Super Bowl Week, because folks know what I did for a living for four decades and they can't help asking.

(Four decades! Man, when you say it like that ...)

They look at me and say, "So what's your prediction?" And of course I always give 'em one.

And then I say this: "But you don't want to listen to me. I'm almost always wrong about these things."

Then I tell them about  how my sister used to call me for advice when it came time to fill out her NCAA Tournament bracket, and how I would always say "Why are you asking me? You know I'm gonna be wrong. And not just wrong, but catastrophically, epically wrong,"

And then of course I would tell her what I thought anyway.

And later on, when I did indeed turn out to be catastrophically, epically wrong, the phone would ring and it would be my sister, saying "I thought you said ..."

"I told you not to listen to me," I'd always reply.

Which is what I'm saying to all Blobophiles now: Don't listen to me.

Don't listen to me, but my gut tells me the Big Roman Numeral goes one of two ways tomorrow. Either Tampa Bay wins a close one late, or  the Chiefs win by a couple of scores.

The former is the sexy pick right now, and it could indeed happen. I think Brady throws a couple of touchdowns no matter which way it goes. one of them to Gronk. I think he'll also get picked a couple of times, and sacked a couple of times, because he hasn't been immune to either in the playoffs so far.

I think the Buccaneers will sack Mahomes a couple of times, because they've had a pile of 'em this season and they bring everybody but the line judge on blitzes. And if they can do that enough and get Mahomes, the flow-iest quarterback in the NFL, out of his flow, they'll win 35-31 or something like that.

I don't think that's likely, though.

I think it's more likely the Chiefs get down early and then Mahomes starts doing Mahomes things. I think Brady, whose completion percentage is only around 55 percent in the playoffs, can't quite get it done this time. I think the undervalued Chiefs' defense, dinged early, shuts down the Bucs in the fourth quarter, and the Chiefs repeat as champs.

Final score: 35-24.

Let the hooting and ridicule commence,