Columnist Dean Juipe: Battle ends with Broncos in hero’s role

Dean Juipe

Monday, Jan. 26, 1998 | 9:10 a.m.

EVEN THE Hundred Years War had to end sometime.

Generations came and went, fathers continually giving way to sons.

Battles raged, then subsided. A once-passionate dispute lost its luster, if not its meaning and intensity.

Those in the trenches as well as those watching from afar eventually tired of the prolonged agonies and wondered if what they were experiencing or seeing was even the least bit worthy of their time and attention.

Finally, they were rewarded. In 1453, after what trivia buffs will tell you was actually 115 years of intermittent warfare, England withdrew its dynastic claims in France. It was a jubilant day in that part of the world.

And Sunday was a jubilant day in this part of the world, sports fans in the United States rejoicing in unison as their own Hundred Years War came to an end with an American Football Conference victory in the Super Bowl.

Well, it seemed like 100 years between AFC victories even if it was really only 14. Thirteen mostly one-sided National Football Conference wins -- by an average margin of 20.8 points -- had soured many on the supposed Big Game. The despair was such that many scoffed at their neighbors' hoopla and turned, instead, to alternate television programing like a full day of Andy Griffith reruns on WTBS or the all-day Beavis and Butt-Head Moronathon on MTV.

Credit the Denver Broncos, bless 'em, with revitalizing interest in what had become a tedious annual rite. Thanks to the Broncos' 31-24 victory over the Green Bay Packers in San Diego, the Super Bowl has its reprieve.

The (NFC) king is dead.

Come on, admit you're surprised. Oh, you may have taken the Broncos and the points, but, if you did, it was a calculated reaction to knowing the betting line was way out of touch with reality. Green Bay minus 14, or 13, or 12 or whatever it closed at, wasn't so much a reflection of the Packers' supposed dominance as it was the result of the NFC winning 13 consecutive years.

And everyone knew about The Streak. Everyone.

They talked about it on Good Morning America and they tried to dissect it on Jerry Springer. If not for President Clinton's forays, it would have made a Nightline segment.

Not a story came out of San Diego that didn't mention The Streak. Analyzed ad nauseam, there was no giving it a rest.

Now it's history, a curiosity from the past.

Now future Super Bowl games can once again be hyped for what they supposedly are, the end-of-the-season meeting between the two best or luckiest teams in the National Football League. Now Las Vegas oddsmakers can return to those golden days of yesterday when the Super Bowl line measured little beyond the apparent strengths and weaknesses of the participants.

Buoyed, perhaps, by the law of averages kicking in, the Broncos did the country a favor. They slayed the dragon.

Those still capable of celebrating after a full day of debauchery celebrated some more. They raised a toast to Denver and two to the AFC.

It was a happy time, parallel to that afternoon in 1453 when a triumphant France was bubbling and aglitter. A battle best known for its duration had finally reached its end.