[stkelly52]

The Super Bowl
One of the most important things to have going into the Super Bowl is experience, and for that, Cincinnati can turn to Al Coble. This will be Al’s 6th trip to the Super Bowl in his career, and his second trip with the Bengals. Al has proven himself to be simply the best player in NFL history. He may have slowed a step or two with age, he is still consistently picking up 1800 yards per season, and upwards of 20 TDs a year. If the Bengals want to win today they will need to be led by Al Coble. Last week the Packers showed some real weaknesses early in the game against the pass. The Bengals are hoping that they will be able to find a similar advantage.

“Al, Tanya Lewis here from CBS Sports, could you tell us please if there is any truth to the rumor that you plan to retire if you win this game?”
“Right now, Ms. Lewis, I am just focused on winning this game. It is hard work getting to the Super Bowl and you don’t want to get here and get distracted by other matters that take your mind an concentration off o the game”
“To what do you attribute your great success over the past decade?”
“Well first I have been blessed with a God given talent, and I do that God for that every time I step onto the field. But you know, a lot of people are blessed with talent, but they never discover what they could have done with that talent. I need to thank my Daddy raising me to respect hard work. I also need to thank my beautiful bride. During that first year that I was in the league it was so frustrating sitting on the bench, and before we were ever married there she was encouraging me and helping me get through that struggle.”
“For all intents and purposes, you are the best player in this generation, how does it feel to be the best?”
“I am always hearing that I am the best player in the league, but I just don’t understand how anyone can say that. How do you compare a running back with a left tackle, or a defensive back, or a quarterback? I guess you could say that I am the best running back, though you might get some strong arguments from Marty Gage fans, but you can’t compare me to the other positions.”
“You bring up Marty Gage, the two of you came out of the same draft class, and there was a lot of speculation as to who was the better RB. Even today there is Questions as to who has had the better career. You are headed to your 6th super bowl, Marty’s been to 5. Marty has won 4 Super Bowls, you have just 2. You have 230 TDs, 16,500 rushing yards and 5000 receiving yards. Marty has the all time record for most rushing yards, and the most 2000 yard seasons. Marty has a much higher yards per carry average. You have 5 MVPs, Marty has 3 (assuming he wins this year as everyone predicts). Who has been the better RB?”
“It is an interesting question, and you know good and well that I can’t answer that. The problem is that we have completely different styles of play. Marty is this spectacular RB who consistently picks up huge chunks of yards on the ground. I on the other hand have multiple threats, that, while not as good as Marty at running, throw off the defense because they are never sure what to expect from me. Certainly over the past 5 seasons Marty has been superior to me. What also hurts it that during Marty’s first 3 seasons with the Colts Indy just didn’t give him the ball as much as they could have. He lost about 100 carries each year on that, but it is hard to argue with success, they went to three Super Bowls those years.”
“How do you respond to comments like those of RB Horace Samuel who says ‘Coble is a washed up has been, he needs to retire and let the young guys have the league’?”
“I don’t. Horace is a young kid with an abundance of talent. You will continue to see him succeed and as he grow older, he will grow wiser and learn to hold there tongue. Basically, comments like that are made by cocky kids and that is fine. Kids love to trash talk and it gets them pumped up for the game. But we will just have to see how he does on the field.
“Well thanks for taking the time for this interview. For CBS Sports, this is Tanya Lewis”