It’s the biggest game on the football landscape if you measure by hype and coverage but no matter what you think of the game, the Super Bowl can suffer from the same afflictions as any other final game.

In spite of the glitz the season ending showdown provides, there is always the chance the shine can be scrubbed off when one or both teams serves up a stinker of an effort.

Promoters of a sport are always looking for the script which ends with a great game between two evenly matched opponents or failing that, an upset by a popular underdog.

Sadly, we often see one opponent demolish the other guy and the party gets pooped on early and often.

This nightmare has played out about 45% of the time if we use a 10-point win as the guideline for being a close game.

Who could forget 1988 when Washington beat Denver 42 to 10, 1990 when San Francisco took apart the Broncos 55 to 10 and in 1999 Denver got on the right side of the fight with a 34-19 win over Atlanta.

Wedged in between those games a stretch from ’91 to ’94 where Buffalo lost four straight Super Bowl games by a combined score of 139 to 75.

The Bills’ first game was the 20-19 loss to the Giants which Scott Norwood will never forget and always wakes up in a sweat when he dreams of the kick he missed.

After that game Buffalo showed up for the media scrums but never seemed to make it to the game, getting throttled by Washington and then back to back slams by Dallas.

The past few clashes have been dandies with the biggest margin of victory being 14 as New Orleans upset the Peyton Manning Colts so that still counts as a good one unless you are a Colts fan.

This year we have the top defence against the number one offence. The Irresistible Force against the Immoveable Object.

The script writers started on this back in September and it’s come down to one last scene to be played out.

Now we wait to see if we are tossing salad fixings at the stage or giving the teams a standing ovation for serving us a great game.

sports@reddeerexpress.com