Penn preps for Super Bowl

It looms on the horizon. It has often been called the greatest American holiday. And it has some Penn students very excited -- especially if those students happen to be from Baltimore or New York. Super Bowl Sunday is once again upon us and it has sports fans at Penn abuzz. The two Super contestants -- the New York Giants from the National Football Conference and the Baltimore Ravens from the American Football Conference -- have been busy yapping at each other over the last few days in Tampa Bay, Fla. -- the site of the game. And some students on campus have been waiting excitedly for pro football's biggest game, while others have been quietly preparing for it. Randy Cohn, a College sophomore from Long Island, N.Y., is a die-hard Giants fan and eagerly anticipates his team's chance at a World Championship. "I've been wearing my Giants jersey basically all week," he said. "I'm pretty psyched." Cohn, like many fans and pundits, had to be gradually convinced that his favorite team was for real. "I thought the Giants were mediocre this season, just the fact that midway through the season they were 7-2, and I was like, 'This team is just not that good,'" he said. "Their whole schedule [was] just teams that were not that good. And they just kept on winning, and their first real tough test was the Vikings, and we killed them." The Giants faced the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC Championship game two Sundays ago, a game which many experts thought the Giants had no chance of winning. Instead, the Giants annihilated the Vikings, 41-0. "My best friend at home is a Vikings fan and I just rubbed it in," Cohn said. On the other side of the ball, Ravens fans at Penn have been getting equally geared up for their franchise's first appearance in a Super Bowl. Wharton freshman Mike Faust, a fullback for the Penn football team and a member of the Penn wrestling team -- not to mention a Baltimore, Md. native -- is pulling for the Ravens this Sunday. "It's really great, not only for myself, but for older members of my family who remember the Baltimore Colts," Faust said, referring to the franchise that abandoned Baltimore in the early 1980s in favor of Indianapolis. "It's been 30 years since we've had a team in the Super Bowl, so it's pretty special." Faust points to the Ravens' defense -- which has been hailed as arguably the best defense ever assembled -- as the primary reason why the Giants will be eating crow come Sunday evening. Not everybody who has a vested interest in Sunday's game, however, is a Giants or Ravens fan. Jared Rubin, a Wharton junior and a native of Orange, Ohio, grew up as a Cleveland Browns fan and was heartbroken when owner Art Modell moved the team to Baltimore in 1995. "I'm rooting for the New York Giants," Rubin said. "If Art Modell gets the Super Bowl trophy, it would be like somebody sticking a knife in my heart, in my back. I hate the Ravens." And even though there are many on campus who care a great deal about the outcome of Sunday's Super Bowl, the majority of Penn students will watch either out of curiosity or an appreciation of sport -- or they will not watch at all. "I'm not really rooting for anybody because I'm not really a football fan," said Penn men's basketball team shooting guard Lamar Plummer, who will watch the game with his teammates. "I think it's interesting to watch it, though, because they're superior athletes. They're strong. They do a great thing, you know? They work hard at what they do, so I can appreciate that." Or at least he can appreciate the commercials.

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