What do the Super Bowl contenders do for the next two weeks? Train their asses off? Sunbathe in the tropics? Is the conventional wisdom that they need to work hard to keep that edge, or rest up to save their energy? The issues are both physical and psychological. You don’t want to peak too soon–or too late.
I imagine they spend a considerable time analyzing their opponent’s playbook and practicing against a ‘practice squad’ who is running those plays.
The first week is spent resting up and trying to recover as much as possible from injuries. The players are generally pretty beat up by this point in the season.
The second week is for training up for the game.
This thread would’ve been more compelling if the Dallas Cowboys and Tony Rom[e]o had made it through – although this funny Onion article would’ve been postponed or shelved had that been the case.
Eli Manning is boring by comparison.
I heard John Madden get asked this very question this morning, and his answer is that it is really all about building up the hype for the game.
It’s mostly about hype, but a good caoching staff can use the time to tweak their playbook and be less predictable. I’m convinced the lack of a two-week break hurt the Raiders for Superbowl XXXVII against their former coach Jon Gruden and the Bucs. Two weeks might still not have been enough, but Bucs safety John Lynch commented during the game the Raiders hadn’t run a single play they didn’t practice against during the week.
Having watched every Bucs game that season, I’m really not sure anyone could have pulled off much on that defense, they were the dream team. Of course they may have won a Superbowl, but before last December they had never returned a kickoff for a touchdown (they’ve been around since at least the 70s).
And as for the 2 week break - I always figured it wasn’t for the teams, but for everybody else involved. You’ve got to get a lot of stuff together for a Superbowl, especially merchandising - it’d be pretty tough to expect people to show up to work Monday and have everything done by the following Sunday…I mean they’ve probably got to print a million t-shirts alone.