BY JEREMY BLAKELY – FAN FUEL BLOGGER
It’s almost time for what football fans have all been waiting for, the Super Bowl. This match up will include two great teams which are the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers.
The 49ers have had many great teams, winning five Super Bowls (XVI, XIX, XXIII, XXIV, and XXIX). You hear the names of previous head coaches who have won Super Bowls with the 49ers like Bill Walsh who won three, and George Seifert with two. San Francisco is 5-0 in the big game, with many great players like Jerry Rice, Joe Montana, Steve Young and eventually adding Charles Mann and Deion Sanders.
Those were the good years but then there were the bad. From the year 1999-2002 there had been a change in ownership and during the years of 2003-2010 the team missed the playoffs each of those seasons.
Then a change was made. Jim Harbaugh, formally the head coach at Stanford University, now the second Harbaugh brother in the NFL to be a head coach. So far he has made quarterback Alex Smith who was the first overall pick from the 2005 NFL entry draft look like a starting quarterback. He posted 17 touchdowns and 5 interceptions with 3,144 yards in his first season with Harbaugh as head coach and this year Alex posted 13 touchdowns and 5 interceptions with 1,737 yards. Jim Harbaugh led the 49ers to a record of 13-3 last year and was one playoff win away from reaching the Super Bowl so talk about a great first year impression on the league! This year the San Francisco 49ers had a record of 11-4 to end the season. When the 49ers decided to make Colin Kaepernick the starting quarterback because Smith had got injured they have not looked back and now they are in the Super Bowl this year.
On the other side of the ball are the Baltimore Ravens and what appears to be the last season for linebacker Ray Lewis. Since the Baltimore Colts left for Indianapolis, the Ravens franchise has only won one Super Bowl which was against the New York Giants in 2000. Jim’s brother John has been the Ravens head coach since 2008 with a regular season record of 54-26 losses, plus 8-4 in the postseason. When the Ravens selected quarterback Joe Flacco who was chosen 18th overall in the 2008 NFL entry draft, they expected a good quarterback but probably never pictured a great one. Flacco has brought the Ravens to the playoffs in all five seasons he has played, which is five times and has won at least one playoff game each year.
These teams have great defenses and for the first time in NFL history its brother vs. brother in the Super Bowl. As much as future hall of famer Ray Lewis deserves a second Super Bowl ring he may not receive it because the 49ers stand in his way.
My question to you is who you think will win on February 3rd? Flacco vs. Kaepernick. Rice vs. Gore. Harbaugh vs. Harbaugh.
The choice is yours.
POLL:
Who will win Super Bowl XLVII?
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