SAN DIEGO - There is no picking this Super Bowl. You could feel good about either Oakland or Tampa Bay. You also could spot Al Davis in Paul Tagliabue's bathtub. Big Bowl 37 is a tribute to what the commissioner calls the NFL's top-to-bottom "competitive excellence." In Cincinnati, we'll just have to take Tags' word for that.

Oakland will win if its massive, corn-fed offensive line can keep QB Rich Gannon clean. The Raiders have too many hands catching the ball. In 18 games, Gannon has gone back to pass 699 times. He has been sacked just 38 times.

Tampa will win if Brad Johnson plays a neat game and Mike Alstott plays like a locomotive in the living room. Tampa's passing game can control the clock; Alstott the fullback is an all-world finisher near the goal line.

The Bucs have the best defense in the league. The Raiders' starting cornerbacks are both playing with metal plates in their legs.

Edge: Bucs.

The Black Mountain Factor: Brad Johnson grew up in Black Mountain, N.C., a beautiful town of 7,500 people snug in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The Rev. Billy Graham lives a few miles away. You have to like that karma.

The Black Hole Factor: Terminal adolescents uncertain of their masculinity.

Edge: Bucs.

Jerry Rice or Keyshawn Johnson? If you're in a plane trying to land in a blizzard, whom would you prefer behind the wheel?

Edge: Raiders.

Best Negative Bengals Reference of the Week: "I want to win a ring. I don't care if it's against the Cincinnati Bengals if they somehow slip in here on Sunday." - Keyshawn Johnson.

Edge: Bucs.

Best Invisible Owner: Al Davis looks like Elvis. Maybe he is Elvis. Malcolm Glazer looks to be Amish.

Edge: Raiders.

Best coaching look: Jon Gruden's Chucky face? Or Bill Callahan's poker gaze? Gruden is the typical maniac NFL coach. Callahan is the pizza delivery guy.

Edge: Bucs.

The Experience Factor: Oakland has nine starters over 30. Bill Romanowski has four Super Bowl rings, Rice has three. Johnson talks about one. "The experience comes in when the game is bouncing back and forth. That's when the veterans have to make a play," Rice said. Older players understand this road isn't guaranteed.

Edge: Raiders.

Best Me Quote of the Week: "I took this defense to the next level." - Simeon Rice.

Edge: Bucs.

Football Is Peopled with Bizarre Obsessives Factor: Gruden wakes up every day at exactly 3:17 a.m. Raiders wideout Tim Brown would rather play the game than attend the birth of his twins, due any minute, if he's forced to choose.

Callahan was asked if he ever ponders what he's missing, when it's 3 a.m. and he's watching film. Life, for example. "I don't sit there and wonder what I'm doing, because I'm so focused on what we're doing," the Raiders coach said. He seemed amused by the question.

Edge: Raiders.

Best Hype That Fizzled: San Diego braced for Raider Nation the way Britain braced for 1941. "Every time they come here, someone gets stabbed, beaten or killed," a downtown waiter told an Oakland newspaper. As of Friday night, everyone was still alive.

Edge: Bucs.

By the way: Davis is a guy who preaches loyalty, then moves his team around like a commuter changing lanes. Follow the bouncing Raiders.

Edge: Bucs.

The final tally is Bucs 7, Raiders 4. It probably won't be the final score. The Raiders have the more complete team. Rice's story is more compelling than Gruden's. Oakland scores just enough to win, 27-20. Davis emerges from a cave in Borneo to accept the Lombardi Trophy from Tagliabue who, at that very moment, would rather be a Bengals fan.

E-mail pdaugherty@enquirer.com

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