Hall of Fame coach Bill Walsh views the two-week gap between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl as only fair.
Likewise, CBS Sports President Sean McManus, whose network is televising the Feb.1 game between the New England Patriots and Carolina Panthers, sees it as the way to go.
They’ll get no argument from the NFL, which is getting back to its favored format after dealing with one-week breaks in three of the previous four seasons.
“Two weeks is the norm for logistical reasons and a lot of other reasons,” league spokesman Greg Aiello said. “All the planning, the moving of teams and fans getting to the game, it’s so much more intense when there’s only one week. Having that additional week elevates the game by setting it apart” from the NFL’s typical one game a week format.
Only seven of the 38 Super Bowls have been preceded by one-week breaks, including last year, when the Raiders were blown out, 48-21, by Tampa Bay.
“I think the Raiders really suffered from that,” Walsh said. “They didn’t get a chance to really know what they were dealing with” while playing against a Buccaneers squad that was much more familiar with them because of Jon Gruden, who coached the Raiders before going to Tampa Bay.
Walsh led the 49ers to three Super Bowl titles in 10 years as coach and had two weeks to get his team ready in each instance.
“Having those two weeks to prepare really is the only equitable way to have the championship game because the hype is so intense and the demands so great in the week leading up to it that you can’t really get anything done,” Walsh said.
While some may wonder why wait another week for the big game, McManus said the network appreciates the additional preparation time as much as the coaches and players.
“It gives our sales guys an extra week to sell the Super Bowl” advertising spots, he said. “The momentum just keeps building and building, so fan interest is greater.”
McManus noted that CBS is coming off televising last Sunday’s AFC championship game in Foxboro, Mass. He said it would have been “enormously taxing” to move all the technical equipment to the Super Bowl site in Houston and organize 71/2 hours of Super Bowl-related programming in one week.
Two years ago, the gap between the conference title games and the Super Bowl was narrowed after the Sept.11 terrorist attacks led to a postponement in the regular-season schedule.
This Super Bowl is only the second to be played in February. The other involved New England’s previous trip to the Super Bowl, in 2002, when on one week’s preparation the Bill Belichick-coached Patriots upset St. Louis 20-17.
“Last time, there was so much urgency because of the shortness of the week and playing one day and flying down to New Orleans the next day and all of that,” Belichick said.
“It totally changed the scope of time that we had to work with. Now we have more time. We will just try to allocate it and use it wisely.”
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AP-NY-01-24-04 0603EST
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