A SUPER RETURN?

A few changes would do wonders for NY-NJ to host big game again

THE BUILDUP to the New York Super Bowl was nearly four years from the time NFL owners voted for it on the fourth ballot in May of 2010 all the way to the last frustrated fan finally getting on the last New Jersey Transit train from MetLife Stadium more than two hours after the Seahawks overwhelmed the Broncos.

New York wants the Super Bowl again. John Mara guarantees NY-NJ will make another bid, Jon Tisch says he wants it every 10 years, but now all the cold-weather cities are lining up — Philly, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Seattle, Pittsburgh — to get in on the fun.

I felt all along this was a one-shot deal for a cold-weather game because it was New York and was a thank you to the Giants and Jets for building MetLife Stadium and a recognition of the Mara family being in the NFL since 1925. But the momentum could build to do it again. If there is another cold weather Super Bowl, I think it will be right back here in New York. There is only one New York.

But that hardly means New York got straight A’s.

Here is our report card from Super Bowl XLVIII Super Bowl Game: F Blame this on the Broncos. This isn’t the first Super Bowl they’ve ruined. I feel badly for fans who reached deep into their pockets to pay for tickets. The game was essentially over when the first snap sailed over Peyton Manning’s head. New York Atmosphere: B-minus When the game is in a smaller city such as New Orleans or Indianapolis, the Super Bowl takes over. You can feel the game is in town on every street corner. New York swallowed up the Super Bowl. There was not much of a buzz around town.

Excluding the 13-block stretch of Super Bowl Boulevard on Broadway that drew large crowds, there really was no sense the Super Bowl was in the neighborhood. There were Super Bowl banners hanging from many lamp posts, but New York was not caught up in Super Bowl fever.

Perhaps if the teams were based in Manhattan instead of Jersey City, it would have given the Super Bowl more of a presence, although it would have added major travel time for the Broncos to get to Florham Park to practice at the Jets’ facility and for the Seahawks to get to the Giants’ facility in East Rutherford.

Of course, if the Giants or Jets made it to the game, the Super Bowl would have knocked Chris Christie all the way back to page 15. Of course, they didn’t even make the playoffs.

The week was free of controversy with the players — limited trash talking, no players getting arrested, no altercations in bars — a headline writer’s nightmare. New Jersey Atmosphere: D There were plenty of fans outside the team hotels when the Broncos and Seahawks arrived on the Sunday before the game, but not so much the rest of the week. The teams stayed in Jersey City, Media Day was in Newark, the game was in East Rutherford, but the attention was on New York.

New Jersey had to keep reminding everyone the game was across the river and then there was the NJ Transit fiasco. A-List Celebrities: A John Mayer, Jay Z, the Doobie Brothers, Robin Thicke, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, were among those performing at Super Bowl parties. Stars of stage and screen were all over town. And LeBron was in with the Heat. Super Bowl Week Weather: B It was pretty cold most of the time, but it was late January in New York, so what did you expect? There were some flurries here or there, but no ice storms like the Super Bowl in Atlanta in 2000 or ice or snowstorms such as the one in Dallas three years ago in cities with no idea how to deal with winter weather. Super Bowl XLVIII Weather: A-plus Perfect football weather. It was a balmy 49 degrees at kickoff with 4 mph winds. The wind chill was 48. How lucky was the NFL? There was a blizzard in New York on Monday morning. Fans flying home the day after the game weren’t so lucky.

New Jersey Trains: F

Who gets the blame for the massive human gridlock at Secaucus Junction before the game and at MetLife after the game: NJ Transit, the NFL, the Super Bowl Host Committee? Somebody has to step up and take the blame. It impacted 30,000 people — nearly 40% of the fans attending the game. It was inexcusable. You can’t bill this as the first mass transit Super Bowl, basically force fans to take public transportation, cut the parking spaces by more than 50%, charge $150 for a parking pass and then fail to provide proper mass transit.

Driving to and from the stadium by car was not an issue. One fan told me he left the game with six minutes to go, was on his private bus by the time the fireworks started, the bus left as soon as it filled up and he was in midtown Manhattan in just 20 minutes. But fans taking other buses were reportedly told they wouldn’t be leaving until an hour after the game. Overall Grade: B The lights went out in the Superdome last year, but New Orleans is bidding for the 2018 game. Dallas was a disaster with the weather and the seating fiasco, and Jerry Jones will surely try to get another Super Bowl. Atlanta will have a new stadium in 2017 and the NFL rewards those owners with Super Bowls soon after the new building opens. So why not New York again? For the Super Bowl to return, a plan to fix the transportation issue will certainly be required. Super Bowl Boulevard was an interesting concept, but an indoor NFL Experience was also needed as a comfortable Super Bowl gathering place. The creative forces in the NFL office must find a way to make the Super Bowl feel as if it has taken over a city even as big as New York. And maybe the Giants or Jets can find a way into the game.

GO JOHNNY, GO GO

The Texans are surely going to take a quarterback at No. 1 over South Carolina defensive end Jadeveon Clowney. Matt Schaub is expected to be released in the offseason after a dismal year and the issue is whether Houston goes for gunslinger Johnny Manziel, a hero in Texas, Louisville’s Teddy Bridgewater or Central Florida’s Blake Bortles. Manziel won’t get past the Browns at No. 4. The issue with Johnny Football is he gets the kind of attention that Tim Tebow received coming out of Florida. Some teams don’t want to deal with that stuff. The difference is Manziel can play. He is a perfect fit for the Texans. He will inject energy into a franchise that going into the season was considered a Super Bowl contender but finished 2-14 with a 14-game losing streak after starting 2-0. . . . Four of the five Super Bowl losses by the Broncos have come when they wore their orange jerseys. They have been outscored in those games 167-38. Next year, the NFC is the home team and will have the choice of jerseys. If the Broncos get back, the NFC team could play psychological games and wear white and force the Broncos to wear their home jerseys. Denver should counter by wearing their alternate blue jerseys. . . . Last week I picked the Colts and 49ers in Super Bowl XLIX in Phoenix. Remember, the Colts beat the Seahawks, 49ers and Broncos in 2013 and those were the three best teams in the league.

AN NFC SLANT

Before the Seahawks beat the Broncos by 35 points last week, the previous 10 Super Bowls had been extremely competitive with some really compelling games. But now it looks as if the NFL is entering a time when the NFC will dominate — the Seahawks and 49ers are the two best teams in the league. They are young and talented. Remember, from 198496, the NFC won 13 consecutive Super Bowls by an average of 20.8 points. The 49ers’ 20-16 victory over the Bengals and the Giants’ 2019 victory over the Bills were the only games decided by fewer than 10 points. . . . Seahawks fans call themselves the “12s,” for 12th man. Seattle scored 12 seconds into the first half and 12 seconds into the second half of the Super Bowl. This was the second straight Super Bowl the second half kickoff was returned for a TD: Baltimore’s Jacoby Jones went 108 yards last year and Seattle’s Percy Harvin went 87 yards last week.