award-winning journalists new york times bestsellers no topic out of bounds no opinions left unsaid an institution for sports talk and information this is the sports reporters here's mike lupica mitch album and bob ryan i'm mitch album of the detroit free press i'm bob ryan of the boston globe and the espn and i'm mike lupac of the new york. I'm Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe and ESPN.

And I'm Mike Lubbig of the New York Daily News and MLB.com.

And welcome to our pre-Super Bowl edition of the sports reporters podcast.

When we were on television, we usually took this show on the road Super Bowl week.

We're not doing that this week.

I think Mr. Album will be there.

I think Mr. Ryan and I will not be there.

And guys, you know, we have spent a lot of time this week

talking about the immense tragedy that happened in Southern California

to the point where, you know,

it is completely overshadowed all the run-up that we're so used to in the big game.

But they're going to play the big game. But they're

going to play a football game. And, you know, we've talked about this for years. This is,

this is the closest thing we have to a national sports event. I know that we have other big ones,

but the whole country, about 6.30 Eastern time on Sunday night, will go to a football game. And it's,

it really is the closest thing we have to a national

sports holiday even on a sunday and guys here's what i've been thinking about this game

because we have so often in the past had off and i'm not saying that the 49ers can't play

offense you guys know what i'm talking about because we've we praised jimmy grapple and all that

but we have had offense versus defense Super Bowls in the past.

And more often than not, it's the defense that wins.

The Rams didn't beat the Patriots, despite their big offense last year.

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