MICHAEL KIRAL / L’Observateur / January 20, 1999

During its telecast of the Minnesota-Atlanta game Sunday, Fox kept showing heavyweight champion Evan-der Holyfield on the Falcons sidelines.

It was an appropriate picture because both the NFC and AFC Championship games were like a good boxing match with the opponents going toe to toe to the wire.

In Minnesota, it was a classic case of the champion failing to deliver a knockout blow to a scrappy challenger and getting knocked out in the end.

The Vikings twice had double-digit leads but kept leaving the Falcons in the game. In the final minute of the first half with Minnesota leading 20-7, Vikings quarterback Randall Cunningham was stripped of the ball while going back to pass with the Falcons recovering deep in Viking territory. Onthe next play, Chris Chandler fired a scoring pass, bring the Falcons to within six at the half.

Minnesota regained a 27-17 lead in the second half but Chandler completed a clutch third pass to Terrance Mathis to set up a field goal. Still leadingby seven with just over two minutes left, the Vikings drove deep inside Atlanta territory and went to the dependable Gary Anderson to put the game away with a field goal. Anderson had not missed a kick in over a yearbut this time his kick started left and stayed left as it went past the goal post, leaving the lead 27-20 with two minutes left.

Chandler took full advantage of the opportunity, guiding the Falcons down the field and connecting with Mathis just inside the goal line for the tying score. On the previous play, the Vikings had just missed getting aninterception off a deflection.

Minnesota had two chances to pull out the win, one in regulation and one on its second possession of the overtime but Cunningham failed to connect on two deep passes to Randy Moss. The second was a deflection by EugeneRobinson, who has been to the last two Super Bowls with Green Bay and was picked up in free agency this year by the Falcons.

The Falcons started their second possession of the overtime inside their 10 and drove inside the Vikings 20 behind Chandler and the running of Jamal Anderson. In came Morten Andersen who had made so many of thesekicks for the New Orleans Saints and against the Saints in his career.

Andersen connected again, sending the Falcons to Miami.

In Denver, it was the reversed case with the underdog Jets failing to put away the defending champion Broncos. The Jets led 3-0 at halftime butsquandered chances to be further ahead with a missed field goal and fumbles. New York was able to take a 10-0 lead early in the third quarterafter recovering a blocked punt at the Denver 1-yard line.

The next 12 minutes would be all Denver, however, as the Broncos rolled off 20 unanswered points. After John Elway cut the deficit to three, JasonElam’s kickoff died in the winds of Mile High Stadium and the ball bounced back to the Broncos in Jets territory. Two Elam field goals later, TerrellDavis showed why he was the NFL MVP this season, rushing for a score from 31 yards out.

New York had a chance to get back into the game in the fourth but fumbled in Broncos territory. Two interceptions by Darion Gordon, one that set up afield goal and the other in Broncos territory, sealed the game. In the end,it was six turnovers and only 14 rushing yards that did in the Jets.

So Super Bowl XXXIII in Miami is set with one team expected to be there (Denver) and one that few could have imagined (Atlanta) when the season started. It will be a game of firsts and lasts as the Falcons are makingtheir first Super Bowl appearance and Elway could be playing in his last game and his fifth Super Bowl. Fans can only hope that it will be like lastyear’s game, one of the few close Super Bowls in recent years.

It is kind of ironic that it came close to being the Falcons and Jets in the Super Bowl. In 1996, those teams had the worst records in the leaguefollowed by the Saints. All three hired coaches that had previously ledteams to the Super Bowl – New York’s Bill Parcells, Atlanta’s Dan Reeves and New Orleans’ Mike Ditka.

Two seasons later, the former two are playing for conference championships while the Saints are coming off two straight losing seasons. And it was Andersen, who opened the 1990s by kicking a fieldgoal against the Los Angeles Rams on New Year’s Eve to put the Saints in the playoffs and whose release by the team was a symbol of its decline, who sent its biggest rivals, the Falcons, into the final Super Bowl of the decade.

Irony can be delicious but it can also be hard to swallow at times.

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