At MetLife Stadium (82,566) in East Rutherford, New Jersey @ 6:30 PM ET/5:30 CT for kickoff. Fox will be broadcasting with Joe and Troy on the call, and Pam and EA reporting from the sidelines. The Broncos are a 2 1/2 point favorite.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie wants to make sure everyone knows the game is in New Jersey. Hopefully he doesn’t mess up the traffic flow by closing some bridges down like he’s done before to New Jersey natives. Would jeopardize his 2016 run for president. Maybe that would be a good thing as long as Hillary messes up too and we can get somebody better in the office.

There is no doubt this game is about Peyton and the Broncos offense versus Sherman and the Seahawks defense though Marshawn Lynch will have a say in matters as well.

Peyton had a monster year this year throwing for 5,477 yards, completing 450 of 659 passes (68.3%) with an NFL record 55 touchdowns (along with the yardage) and 10 ints. It was an all world year even for Peyton. The Broncos have weaponry on the outside with Demaryius Thomas (92-1,430, 14 TDs), Eric Decker (87-1,288, 11 TDs), Julius Thomas (65-788, 12 TDs) and Wes Welker (73-778, 10 TDs). Knowshon Moreno has rushed for 1,038 yards and 10 TDs. The Broncos played some pretty good defense against the Patriots in the AFC title game too. Shaun Phillips leads the defense with 10 sacks. The defense has really been banged up this year, but they’ve persevered under stellar defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio and head coach John Fox, a defensive guru.

The Seahawks are about the running game and defense and that’s usually a pretty good formula for winning. Lynch has rushed for 1,267 yards and 12 TDs. Russell Wilson has completed 257 of 407 passes for 3,357 yards, 26 TDs and nine ints. Golden Tate leads the receiving corps with 64 catches for 898 yards and five TDs. Doug Baldwin is an excellent player/gamebreaker, who’s caught 50 passes for 778 yards and five TDs. Percy Harvin, who has been limited this year with injuries, is expected to play. That could help the Seahawks if he’s not too rusty.

But it’s Lynch and the defense that makes the Seahawks a potential Super Bowl champion. Sherman, for all his talking, is an outstanding football player. He has eight interceptions on the season. Earl Thomas has five and Byron Maxwell has four. They led the NFL in interceptions this season with 28 and lead the league in turnover margin also.  And they have a fine front seven as well. Pete Carroll and first year coordinator Dan Quinn can really coach defense, so Peyton is going to have to figure out ways to throw underneath with crossing routes and the Broncos need to run the football effectively some too to loosen up the Seahawks defense.

Bruno Mars will be performing at halftime, and while he’s a little effeminate for me, he’s a pretty fun entertainer overall. So he’ll be fine. Watched the Budweiser commercial for the Super Bowl last night on Youtube. It’s fantastic. Commercials should be fun and entertaining with most likely some weird ones. GoDaddy I’m sure will be weird.

As for my prediction, I’m going to use the immortal words of famous poet Jay Jacobs (also Auburn athletic director0 and say it would be “Un-American” to pick against Peyton like it was “Un-American” to keep Auburn out of the national championship game. I can’t go against Peyton. The guy’s too great. Peyton and the Broncos get it done and Peyton captures his second Super Bowl and starts to solidify his place in history as possibly the greatest quarterback of all time.

Peyton 31, Seahawks 28

Couple of other notes:

Got Pat Perez winning the  Waste Management Phoenix Open. He finished in a five way tie for second last week at the Farmers Insurance Open and he’s an Arizona State grad, so I like his chances at home. The 16th hole is the stadium hole par three at the Waste Management on TPC Scottsdale in Scottsdale, Arizona (just outside of Phoenix). It’s a 162 yard par 3 and makes for epic theater with what looks like 20-25,000 fans in the stands surrounding the whole and cheering wildly for each shot each player hits. It’s like Lambeau or Soldier Field. It’s pretty awesome stuff. Played as the third hardest hole on the course yesterday, but there were some incredible shots there like Graham DeLaet’s shot that he hit two feet from the hole and Bubba Watson’s tee shot that landed eight feet over the hole and checked up. Bubba sank his birdie putt and is one shot back today at -8. Matt Jones is leading at -9 through four.

Like Rory to win Omega Dubai Desert Classic in the United Arab Emirates. I think that’s around Saudi Arabia. Tiger playing with him these first two rounds. I didn’t watch the second round yet, but Rory was at -9 and leading after yesterday. Rory with a beautiful eagle on the backside. Played terrific golf.

Alabama and Auburn want new coaches in basketball. I’m hearing rumblings for Pearl. I’m not a big fan of Pearl as a person, but Alabama and Auburn want to win, so he may get a job at one of those places. Really like Anthony Grant personally. Wish he could make a run, but it’s looking bleaker and bleaker for him. Tony Barbee has struggled at Auburn. It’s hard to win at football schools as a basketball coach, particularly at schools so into their football like Alabama and Auburn. But both schools want better results and they’re not getting them though Auburn beat Bama last night in the Jungle on the Plains. I would like to give each coach the rest of the season before finalizing judgment, but not looking that swift right now for either coach.

Bama got another jolt to an excellent recruiting class when five star Hoover HIgh School cornerback Marlon Humphrey (6’1″, 175) committed to the Tide yesterday. Alabama and Auburn are now waiting on five-star Auburn High linebacker Rashaan Evans to make his decision. Evans is 6’3″, 220 and he’ll probably change his mind 20 times in the next five days, but he’s an Auburn lean at this time. Alabama in it for five star wideout Malazhi Dupree as well. Dupree from New Orleans is 6’2 1/2″, 187 pounds. Alabama leads the country in recruiting according to 247 sports and Rivals. 247 has Alabama with five, 5 star recruits: Da’Shawn Hand, a 6’4″, 265 pound defensive end out of Virginia, Humphrey, Cameron Robinson, a 6’&’, 335 pound offensive tackle, Tony Brown, a 6’0″, 188 pound dback, who’s gotten in trouble already as he and Robinso are already on campus as two of the eight early enrollees, and the other five star is 6’2″, 225 pound Bradenton, Florida by way of Tuscaloosa athlete Bo Scarbrough. Scarbrough transferred from a Tuscaloosa High School to Bradenton, some factory down there. Anyway quite a class for the Tide. Evans and Dupree would make it maybe the best recruiting class of all time. It still may be if just Dupree commits.

Meanwhile, AU has the seventh best class in the country. Five-star wide receiver D’haquille Williams (6’3″, 213) is already enrolled. Williams is a junior college transfer from Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. Roc Thomas is the other five star for the Tigers. Thomas (5’11”, 206) is from Oxford, Al. and is an absolute stud. Watched film on him. Thomas is actually a four-star in the 247 composite rankings which are the measure that 247 uses to label four and five stars as opposed to their regular rankings. It’s a more specialized number. But Thomes is fantastic,. Highly impressed. Another key get is five-star linebacker Tre’ Williams (6″3″, 237) out of Mobile. Will watch more film on these guys over the weekend and give a more detailed report Tuesday, the day before signing day. Exciting times for Alabama and Auburn fans. Ohio State is No.3 in 247 team rankings, A&M is three, LSU is four and Florida State is five. Tennessee is six, then AU, Georgia is eighth, Notre Dame is ninth and Florida is 10th.

Kevin Durant is otherworldly good. He hasn’t gotten the publicity that LeBron has, and Lebron deserves it as he’s won two NBA titles in a row, but he proved he’s the best basketball player on Earth with his 33 point performance against the Heat on Wednesday Night with LeBron guarding him. He was hitting 30 foot 3’s; it was epically good. He led his team to a 112-95 victory over LeBron and the Heat in Miami. I picked the OKC to beat the Indiana Pacers in the championship this year. Think the Pacers are going to get the Heat in the finals of the Eastern Conference playoffs, but the Thunder to win it all. The Thunder have the best record in basketball (37-10) and they’re doing it all without their star point guard Russell Westbrook, who’s been sidelined for a month and a half with injury. Westbrook is coming back soon. Like this Thunder team to win it all. Durant is a first class guy as well.

My final four last week was MIchigan State,’ Zona, Louisville and Florida and I’m sticking with it, but Wichita State and MIchigan are looking pretty good right now too. Can’t count out Wichita State, Kansas or Duke either. And of course not Syracuse. But like the first four teams I listed to be my Final Four in my blog bracket. I’ll hold to that barring any major injuries on any of those four teams,. Cincinnati is a really fine team as well as is Villanova. Cincy knocked off the Ville at home last night. Looked very good doing it too. Florida looks like the best in the SEC with Missouri, LSU and Kentucky as the other contenders and Tennessee is in there as well. Pretty good year for the conference. Some are saying it’s down, but I actually think the conference is better than it has been for the last four or five years in terms of quality teams. There are some weaker teams in the lower half of the conference but those teams I listed above are good basketball teams. Florida looks like the best. The Big Ten is the best conference with the ACC, Big 12 and Pac 12 right behind.