One Supe Redux, 5 Semis Such

Six NFL teams have the week off, leaving 13 tilts, including 1 Super Bowl rematch (Tampa Bay beat the Raiders in the ’02 season Supe) and 5 semis/conference title games repeats.

Those 5 are Tennessee/Jacksonville, Miami vs the New York Jets, Atlanta Falcons at Minnesota Vikings, Carolina Panthers at Philadelphia Eagles and Chicago Bears at the S.F. 49ers.

Four out of 5 applies twice regarding these rematches.

Only the at Tennessee tilt today is at a different venue than the title game site while only the ’84 49ers went on to triumph in the subsequent Super Bowl.

Tennessee in ’99, Miami in ’82, the Falcons in ’98, and Panthers in ’03 all lost in the subsequent Super Bowl games.

I remember reading in Terry O’Neil’s fine book “The Game Behind The Game,” that he in CBS meetings with the S.F. staff knew Bubba Paris, pictured above would have a big game vs “the one year away,” Chicago Bears, in that ’84 NFC title tilt.