Columnist Sal DeFilippo: Line on Super Bowl appears too high

Sal DeFilippo

Friday, Jan. 28, 2000 | 11:01 a.m.

Sal DeFilippo's pro football picks column appears Friday. Reach him at 259-4076 or sal@lasvegassun.com

With only one week between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl, the coaches for this year's clash of the Titans and Rams have had to prepare a little differently in years past.

For the previous nine years, the Super Bowl was played two weeks after determining the teams that qualify. The first week is filled with largely unnecessary hype, anyway, but it does provide extra time to size up the opponent.

Along with battling the bad weather in Atlanta, the coaches are battling the clock.

No doubt Jeff Fisher and his staff are reviewing hours of tape, trying to find the right play -- a cross-field lateral on a kickoff return, for instance -- that might help his Tennessee team, a 7-point underdog, win its first Super Bowl.

The Rams coaches also certainly are studying blitz packages and coverage schemes and offensive formations. All the Rams coaches but one, that is.

Dick Vermeil, the NFL Coach of the Year, has been here before. There's only one thing he could possibly have queued up on the VCR in his office.

"Old Yeller." Or maybe "Love Story." Definitely one of those tearjerkers.

How else can you explain his ability to cry almost on demand?

Ever notice that the Rams don't bother to dump a bucket on Gatorade on Vermeil after a St. Louis victory? They don't have to. He's still soaked from the halftime speech.

The only question that remains for Sunday is whether they'll be tears of joy. Either way, Vermeil will be prepared to handle it.

For the record

I picked Tennessee to beat Jacksonville outright last week, but also picked St. Louis to cover against Tampa Bay. I also was 1-1 on totals.

Super Bowl XXXIV

TENNESSEE +7 at St. Louis, under 48 -- This is usually the only game of the season I get right -- in fact, I haven't missed a Super Bowl against the spread in five seasons of writing this column, although the Green Bay-New England matchup was a push against the number three seasons ago. I'm surely jinxing myself now, but when your record is as bad as mine, you gloat whenever you can. I'm not a huge believer in fate as it relates to sports teams, but the Miracle Mets of 1969 and the 1978 Yankees and all those other teams who just seemed destined to win the championship in their sport usually did just that. Too many points, especially considering the Titans beat the Rams in the regular season. Al Del Greco is the difference. Tennessee 20, St. Louis 17.