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The San Francisco 49ers square off with the Baltimore Ravens tonight in Super Bowl XLVII.
It's been a build up to the game marked more by the media trying to invent some interesting narratives for a pair of teams who are both excellent, but aren't exactly filled with personality. Ravens QB Joe Flacco may be the most boring guy in the league, or at least that was the assessment of his father. While Colin Kapernick looks like a fun guy with his tatted up arms and chin beard, he's a crushingly boring interview as well. The Harbaugh brothers may be demonstrative on the sidelines, but are guarded in press conferences and when appearing in public. Patrick Willis is one of the great defensive players in this league, but he's got nothing to say.
As a result, the big stories this week were basically unrelated to football. Ray Lewis was accused of using deer antler spray, which evidently is cheating? I bet that's something you never new before this week. 49ers safety Chris Culliver caused a controversy when he said he wouldn't want a gay teammate. He was vilified for the comments and certainly he's an idiot, but did anyone ask why exactly this was even a topic of conversation?
But for better or worse, that's the Super Bowl. It is a game, but it's also a TV show that 110 million people in the US are going to watch. For an event that big, there just isn't enough game to talk about. Plus, it's mostly covered by media who don't know anything about the game itself. But even the sports networks run out of things to talk about, which is how we get ESPN reporting, with full graphics, on which Harbaugh brother smiled more at his press conference.
As for our coverage this week, we've taken a look at some of the crazy prop bets, tried to decide who Eagles fans should root for, and even asked if we care about all the hype surrounding the game. But this is it. The final game of the season, so enjoy it. We get no more football until September.
- Baltimore Ravens (10-6 regular season) vs. San Francisco 49ers (11-4-1 regular season)
- Date: Sunday, Feb. 3, 2013
- Location: Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana
- Kickoff time: 6:30 p.m. ET
- TV channel: CBS (BBC, Sky Sports in the United Kingdom and CTV in Canada. A full list of international broadcasters is available here.)
- Live stream: CBS.com starting at 6 p.m. EST
- Announcers: Jim Nantz, Phil Simms, sideline reporters Steve Tasker and Solomon Wilcots
- Dial Global radio announcers: Kevin Harlan, Boomer Esiason
- Point spread: 49ers -3.5
- Money line: Ravens +140, 49ers -170
- Over/under: 47.5