Who Should I Cheer For in the Super Bowl?: Reasons to Love and Hate the Ravens and 49ers

There are the few and proud Baltimore and San Francisco fans who are waiting in hot anticipation for their shot at another Lombardi Trophy on Sunday.  (For the record, I like a lot of things about both teams here, but I gotta go Ravens for my fellow die-hard lady football friend Jeanie on this one).  But for that other 94%-ish of fans who've watched their own teams go down on the spectrum from predictable to agonizing fashion this year (Falcons much?), you're probably still on the fence about who to adopt until September finally rolls around again.  Fear not, dear reader! Here's the fair and balanced Lady Blitz guide for you to weigh your options with Reasons to Love and Hate the Ravens and 49ers:

Reasons to Love the Ravens 

• Ray Lewis' Storybook Ending - Let's just get this one out of the way, and also not forget about potential fellow retirees like safety Ed Reed and offensive lineman Bryant McKinnie.  If you believe in games of destiny, Old Spice could not have fashioned a more outrageous ride into the sunset for Lewis than for him to recover from what was thought to be a season-ending triceps injury and take his AFC bridesmaid of a team to the Super Bowl for one last shot at a ring.  Velvet antler what? Set aside those PED and murder allegations for a moment (because they're coming).  If you want a more satisfying ending than the Seinfeld finale or The Notebook could afford, then you'll be cheering for Lewis to bring closure to a remarkable career on the highest note in the NFL.  As SNL recently purported, I would not be surprised to see him ascend at the 50 yard line after one final squirrel dance.

• Joe Flacco's Unlikely Rise to Elite - It's hard to envision a more appropriate doppelganger to the 2011 Giants than these Ravens.  A big reason for that is QB Joe Flacco's mercurial rise from a middling game manager to one of the best postseason QBs we've seen in a while not named Manning or Brady.  We all scoffed when he took a page from Eli and said he was one of the best in the preseason, and we felt totally validated for scoffing through Week 15, but Joe Cool has found postseason potential I don't know that even he thought he had before.  He has quietly answered his critics with big plays, minimal mistakes and a fighter's resilient mentality on the road against some of the best teams in the AFC.  Too bad even his father doesn't want to party with him if he wins the big one.

• An Underdog Breakthrough - Like Bruce Lee in Game of Death, the Ravens faced one of the toughest roads to the Super Bowl in recent memory, having to go up against increasingly difficult opponents in hostile settings during these playoffs.  They handled Andrew Luck with relative ease at home but then had to beat a hot Peyton Manning at Mile High in double overtime only to visit a hotter Tom Brady in Foxboro a week later.  To make it through that gauntlet at all is mighty impressive, but for the Ravens to get better and better against tougher opponents each week is more amazing, especially considering where they were in the regular season.  As 4-point Super Bowl underdogs, they will have their biggest test by far against a supremely well-rounded 49ers team, but you better believe Baltimore is going to leave everything on the field on Sunday to vie for the Lombardi.  Given the number of times the Ravens have knocked on the door in the playoffs with close but disappointing results, they'll be worthy underdogs to root for now that they've broken through against the odds.
• Finally, Variety in the AFC - Over the past nine Super Bowls, only three teams have represented the AFC (the Patriots, Steelers and Colts) compared to eight different teams in the NFC (the Giants are the only repeaters).  Consider the Ravens a welcome reprieve from the February deja vu of Bill Belichick, Peyton Manning and Troy Polamalu that we've grown accustomed to over the past decade.  It's refreshing to see some new faces and emerging stars whose stories we don't know as well yet.  Take aforementioned vets Joe Flacco, Ed Reed and Bryant McKinnie who've really held the team together this season.  Or the deadly WR pack of Jacoby Jones, Anquan Boldin and Torrey Smith--who played the best game of his career earlier this season mere days after his brother died in a motorcycle accident.  Or the real [Memphis native!] Michael Oher who's helped his team thrive by moving away from the blind side.  Or perennially reliable and versatile RB Ray Rice.  Or heck, undrafted rookie kicker Justin Tucker who has had a banner year after previous kicker Billy Cundiff ended the Ravens' 2011 Super Bowl hopes with a big whiff in Foxboro.

Reasons to Hate the Ravens

• Waaaay Too Much Ray Lewis - Overexposure, thy name is Super Bowl media days, or more appropriately, Ray Lewis media coverage.  As storybook as Ray Lewis' swan song season has been, we've heard an awful lot about it and that unresolved murder case and now that alleged use of banned substances to help him bounce back at an ungodly pace from his recent injury.  Wherever Lewis goes, he attracts attention and not necessarily the good kind. For those hoping the Ray story lines will be going the way of Tebowing and the Thong Song a little sooner than later, a Ravens loss would erode Lewis' narrative more quickly and give more than a few fans a sense of moral victory.
• Bernard Pollard's One Man Wrecking Ball - Maybe this just applies to the Patriots, but Bernard Pollard plays a dangerous brand of football that has created a troubling wake of destruction over the years.  On his bounty-ful resume, Pollard ended both Tom Brady's and Wes Welker's seasons previously with tackles that tore both players' ACLs.  He also took out Rob Gronkowski's ankle in last year's AFC Championship and in effect made Gronk useless in Super Bowl XLVI.  This year, he gave Pats RB Stevan Ridley a concussion that cornered New England into a very one-dimensional offense.  If ever there was an angel of death in the NFL, Pollard is unquestionably that guy, and if everyone played the way he does, we might not have too many players off the PUP list in 30 years indeed.

• Joe Flacco's Inconsistency - Is it just me, or is anyone else nervous that Joe Flacco might regress in this game against a much better defense than he's had to face earlier in the postseason?  Baltimore fans have enough history with Flacco to know that he can be frustratingly streaky with sensational big plays on the one hand and woefully inefficient outings on the other.  Is this momentous postseason hot streak the sign of true progress for the emerging QB or just a karmic balance that is about to swing back to zero?
• General Mouthiness - One thing the Ravens do with consistency that I'm not a fan of is running their mouths about their opponents.  I get that Baltimore needed all the mental swagger it could muster to prepare for this incredible playoffs run, but the play speaks for itself. There's really no need to wish the Patriots "well" at the Pro Bowl or call their offense a gimmick after you've held the top scoring team in the NFL to 13 points in front of their home crowd.  Let's not forget Ray Lewis' obtuse pentecostal ranting whenever anyone raises a question about his character.  Undeniably, the Ravens have walked the walk this postseason, but it feels more than a little classless to take cheap shots after dominant performances or to invoke Jaysus and the rattlesnakes when you've got a big PR stain on your past.  At least this week, the smack is a little more mellow with the whole Harbowl dynamic.

Reasons to Love the 49ers

• Kaepernick Thrills - Side Note: I probably had way more fun than I should have making fun of Alex "Put me in, coach!" Smith this season, especially after he was benched, but I cannot express enough how impressed I've become with Smith's classy, selfless demeanor riding the pine despite having a career year.  But there is little question that Jim Harbaugh knew what he was doing when he made Colin Kaepernick QB #1 for the duration of the 2012 season.  Kaepenick has been a play-making diamond in the rough, and now he'll have the chance to make a splash on the biggest stage of the game.  I've already spoken about Kaepernick's ability to make big and mostly smart plays in the clutch, so you can expect him to show up on the highlight reel next Monday with some jaw-dropping passes and scrambles that will keep that Baltimore defense verrrry honest.
• Innovative Coaching - Until now, the 49ers' cutting edge play-calling has flown under the radar while other styles like the Patriots' wicked fast quick snaps have gotten ample attention.  No more, after what this postseason has shown us about San Francisco's aptitude for beating opponents in a multitude of ways.  The Niners' staff adjusted in a big way after an uneven close to the regular season with a whole new sandbox of plays in January from that pistol-heavy attack against the underprepared Packers to vertical pocket plays with TE Vernon Davis against the Falcons.  OC Greg Roman has proven himself to be a very outside-of-the-box thinker, and football nerds who love the Xs and Os will be in for some real treats when the Niners go to work on a smart and experienced Ravens D.
• A Perenially Elite Defense - Some including myself didn't think San Francisco would quite top the defensive pack again this year after 2011 yielded an extraordinary number of takeaways and minimal injuries.  True, the Niners didn't force as many turnovers this time around and had a couple fewer wins than last season, but you can't argue with what this defense has accomplished in 2012-13, especially now that they're in the Super Bowl.  San Francisco boasts four All Pro defensive players (five if you count injured second-teamer Justin Smith) and for good reason.  They've beaten Brady in Foxboro, Brees in the Superdome, Ryan in the Georgia Dome, and Rodgers twice, once in Lambeau.  You can count on some big hits and momentum changers when this group faces a revitalized Ravens offense, and the matchup between Baltimore's offensive line and San Francisco's front seven should be excellent.
• Jim Harbaugh's Facial Contortions - If ever there was a foil to Bill Belichick's Vulcan disposition on the sideline, Jim Harbaugh is that guy.  The fact that he already has an irregular heartbeat at his age is both troubling and all too appropriate for his passionate, rage-y antics.  He also has a pretty firm handshake, so I'm told.  Consider the West Coast Harbaugh a real x-factor in entertainment between plays on Sunday-- there's bound to be a player's mental mistake or a ref's botched call that will send his neck veins a-poppin' and his clipboard a-flyin'.  It'd be awesome to watch Jim's reaction after a Gatorade bath and even more awesome if he blows a challenge flag on something crazy.

Reasons to Hate the 49ers

• Terrible Fans - There are some NFL fan bases that are infamous for their unsportsmanlike conduct toward referees, opposing teams/fans, and even their own bumbling teams at times. 49ers fans may not have the national reputation that those cells of savage Raiders and Eagles fans do, but they can be a pretty unsavory bunch, especially during the playoffs.  For example, following several reports of antagonism from Saints fans during last year's divisional round in Candlestick, San Francisco police had to dress up as Giants fans for the NFC Championship to "sting" the hostile crowd.  In this year's divisional round against the Packers, nearly 100 fans were ejected from Candlestick and 25 were arrested for their public intoxication- and assault-laden charms.  On the flipside of the overzealous brand of Niners fans, how about the bandwagon that has crawled out of the woodwork this year?  I've seen more San Francisco decals and threads pop up in the past month than in the past 18 years combined. Where were all these proud diehards during the Mike Singletary or Mike Nolan era?

• Reentering a Dominant Era - Sigh.  As the sun gets closer to setting on the Saints' chances of another Super Bowl in the Drew Brees era, I am reminded of the olden days when New Orleans and San Francisco were "rivals" in the old-school NFC West.  No matter how promising a few of those seasons might have looked for the Saints at times, we were always stuck going against freaking Joe Montana and then freaking Steven Young and getting the proverbial wedgie from the divisional bully.  Now the Niners are looking nearly unbeatable for the long haul again with a stable of Pro Bowl defenders, a very talented coaching staff and a hot young QB that aren't going anywhere for a while in all likelihood.  If San Francisco takes home a sixth Lombardi this weekend, there's a good chance American will be seeing these guys in the postseason again and again and again until the Niners are victim to as much schadenfreude as the Patriots or the Cowboys.
• Colin Kaepnerick Pulling a Cam Newton - Don't get me wrong, Colin Kaepernick is still a long way away on the toolbag spectrum from self-proclaimed entertainer and icon Cam Newton.  But he's definitely on his way with his soon-to-be-mocked signature touchdown celebration and TBD flood of overplayed endorsement deals.  For those who think the biblical sleeve tats and admittedly heartwarming adoptive upbringing will shield No. 7 from the clutches of unlikability, how's this for consideration: young Colin has already made a legal move to trademark his "Kaepernicking" touchdown celebration, which by the way, is just kissing one's biceps.  Need we remind ourselves that this novel "trademark" has been used by sailors, bodybuilders and Hulk Hogan for centuries without the aid of intellectual property rights?  Heck, those guys weren't Kaep-blocked by a facemask either.
• Chris Culliver Pulling a Sarah Palin - Thank Kanye this happened during media day or I'd be just about out of brain power to finish this way-too-long post.  Many NFL players have been pretty vocal in recent years in support of gay rights, most notably Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe and Baltimore's Brenden Ayanbadejo, who has been using his Super Bowl spotlight to advocate for the issue.  Some players aren't so warm to the idea including 49ers CB Chris Culliver who said on Tuesday that neither he nor his teammates would accept a gay player in the locker room and that gay players should stay closeted for at least 10 years after retirement.  So that oughtta be an interesting homecoming for him in San Francisco.  Talk is talk, but after facing immediate criticism for his comments, Culliver... apologized?... by stating, "The derogatory comments I made yesterday were a reflection of thoughts in my head, but they are not how I feel." Deep stuff.  If Culliver is thinking about moonlighting on the debate team, I recommend that he think about it for about 10 years after retirement first.