Also, don't be surprised if it's the Raiders and Bucs, Broncos and Giants, Ravens and Saints, or any other pairing. There is no equivalent of the New York Yankees in pro football, to be penciled in as champion annually. Oh, once that was the case. Recall the Steelers of the 1970s. But the NFL has structuralized parity.
Mystery abounds, which helps explain the continuing popularity of it all.
The biggest mystery in baseball as we contemplate 2001 is how a team can pay one player a quarter of a billion dollars. Sam Ross Jr. is a columnist for the Tribune-Review.