By ANDREW BAGNATO
The Arizona Republic

At first glance, New England-Carolina appears to be the Super Bowl That Hype Forgot. Don't be fooled. This is still a Super Bowl, deserving of Roman numerals.

Beginning this week, it will generate more news coverage, higher television ratings and, yes, more hype, than any of the other three major professional sports championships.

Super Bowl XXXVIII pits two defense-oriented teams named for regions rather than cities, a Super Bowl first.

The regions the teams represent aren't traditional pro football bastions.

The real New England team is, and has been for decades, the Boston Red Sox.

Likewise, if you ask a shopkeeper in Asheville, N.C., for the Carolina score, he will assume you want to know how the University of North Carolina basketball team fared.

Even the Super Bowl's few marquee players are easily lost in a crowd.

Patriots starting quarterback Tom Brady, a former Super Bowl MVP, turned up at President Bush's State of the Union address last week, but many viewers had no clue who he was until his name flashed on the television screen.

Brady's counterpart, Jake Delhomme, is even more obscure.

"It's DUH-lome," he told reporters after the Panthers upset the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC championship game. "You know, however they say it, that's all right."

In many ways, it doesn't matter who plays in the Super Bowl, only that the game is played. The gap between the party and the game seems to grow each year.

The 10 most-watched television programs, based on total viewers, have all been Super Bowls, with last year's Tampa Bay-Oakland game drawing a record 138.9 million total viewers, according to A.C. Nielsen figures. CBS officials expect nothing less from this year's game, even if most viewers can't name five starters on either club.

"To a large extent, the rating is quite bulletproof, with the one caveat that you don't want a game that gets out of hand," Sean McManus, the president of CBS Sports, said during a media teleconference last week.

"Most people who get excited about the Super Bowl, who are the casual fan ... I think to those people it doesn't matter who the teams are."

The Panthers, a 9-year-old expansion club, have suffered from a minor identity crisis: Is it Charlotte's team, or does it belong to all of North and South Carolina? The Panthers have had to fight for space in sports sections that devote reams of copy to the area's favorite sport, Atlantic Coast Conference basketball. Now the Charlotte Observer is sending nine reporters (from a sports staff of 15) to the Super Bowl.

After the Panthers clinched the Super Bowl berth last weekend in Philadelphia, Carolina owner Jerry Richardson shook his head when asked if the victory meant people would love the Panthers now.

"We get plenty of love," Richardson said. "We get a lot of love, and I am grateful for it and they will keep giving it to us."

But the Panthers remain something of a mystery to outsiders. After practice in Charlotte last week, a visiting reporter asked Carolina head coach John Fox about "Jack" Delhomme.

"It's Jake," Fox replied. "His name is Jake."

The gaffe irritated Fox, but he's come to accept his team's low Q rating.

"Really, people don't know us, that's why we don't have any big stars," Fox said. "I think it's a matter of time, and I think we have probably opened some eyes thus far. It just takes time to build that name."

Give it a few days, Coach. The Super Bowl hype machine will do the rest.

Super games

Five Super Bowls that lived up to the hype:

1. XXXVI: This was supposed to be a coronation for "The Greatest Show on Turf." But the upstart Patriots pulled off a 20-17 upset of the Rams by going for a two-minute drive to win the game rather than settling for OT.

2. XXV: The Empire State Bowl between the Giants and Bills was a seesaw battle that culminated in a nail-biting finish, won 20-19 by New York.

3. XXIII: If there were any doubts about Joe Montana's greatness, there weren't after San Francisco beat Cincinnati 20-16.

4. XXXIV: The Rams went ahead lale on a 73-yard pass from Kurt Warner to Isaac Bruce. The Titans marched downfield but fell 1 yard short, losing 23-16.

5. III: No one was laughing at the AFL after the Jets shocked the mighty Baltimore Colts 16-7.

Super hype meter

Most hyped team in SB history: 1985 Chicago Bears. They gave us the "Super Bowl Shuffle" video, the Fridge, the "46" defense, the punk QB feuding with Pete Rozelle ... all before they even got to New Orleans. They lived up to the hype, too, stomping the Patriots, 46-10.

Game hyped as one-sided that turned out great: Rams-Titans Super Bowl XXXIV. The oddsmakers liked the Rams by a touchdown. But the "Greatest Show on Turf" almost blew the game after taking a 16-0 lead in the third quarter. It all came down to Tennessee's Kevin Dyson being tackled one yard short of the goal line.

Best game that came out of nowhere: Giants-Bills, Super Bowl XXV. Giants won NFC championship game despite not scoring a touchdown, and were underdogs to a powerful Bills team. With the Gulf War taking center stage, the game seemed an afterthought. But patriotic pregame and Whitney Houston's legendary anthem led to a feverish, memorable game. Giants won a gritty game with physical defense, overachieving individual performances on offense and Scott Norwood's missed 47-yard field goal on the last play of the game.

Hyped story line that came true: Would John Elway cap his storied career with a win in his final game, SB XXXIII over the mediocre Falcons? You betcha. Cue the sunset to ride off into.

Hyped story line that came true II: Would the Buffalo Bills avoid a four-peat losing streak in Super Bowl XXVIII against Dallas? Nope. Cue the crying towels.

Blame it all on Namath: Of course, Joe Willie's guarantee before Super Bowl III, and then delivering on it, was ground zero in turning this game from the NFL Holiday Invitational into the nation's biggest sports orgy.

Super busts

It's becoming tougher for the Super Bowl to live up to its hype. Three notable examples of games that fell far short of the hullabaloo:

XXXIII: Denver and Atlanta each finished the 1998 season with 14-2 records. The Broncos drubbed the Falcons 34-19 in Pro Player Stadium.

Denver's John Elway threw for 336 yards in the final game of his storied career.

XXXVII: Both Oakland and Tampa Bay cruised through the playoffs last season, setting up a highly anticipated matchup in Qualcomm Stadium. It ended 48-21 Tampa.

XII: After finishing atop their respective conferences with 12-2 records in the 1977 season, an expected shootout between America's Team (Dallas) and Orange Crush (Denver) never materialized, with the Cowboys jumping ahead 13-0 at the half and winning 27-10.

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