Rick Pedone
SportsEditor

Let’s get this over with.

My Super Bowl prediction from last September was: Jets 23, Packers 20.

I checked and double checked, but that’s what it says: J-E-T-S 23, Packers 20.

Maybe I was thinking of the old hockey Winnipeg Jets. That would have made as much sense.

This is what happens when you try to be a little different with your Super Bowl pick. Just about everyone was going with New England as the AFC champ, and many others had San Diego, Baltimore, Pittsburgh and even Indianapolis before Peyton Manning decided to model neck braces all season. The Jets were the trendy, renegade kind of pick. So, we’ve learned a valuable lesson here.

When making Super Bowl predictions, trendy picks usually work as well as white leisure suits or Nehru jackets do in the fashion world.

On the plus side, I did have four of the six AFC playoff participants, whiffing on the Jets and San Diego, and overlooking Denver (along with everyone else) and Cincinnati. The Broncos and Bengals should have come to the playoffs equipped with those beepers they have on garbage trucks for the way they backed into the playoffs last weekend.

My NFC preseason work was almost as frightening. Dallas, Philadelphia and, ugh, the St. Louis Rams were whiffs. I hit with Atlanta, New Orleans and, of course, the Pack. I had the 49ers last season and decided to try someone different from the NFC West. That worked. Dallas edged the Giants for my NFC East wild card option, and the Lions were next on my wild card list after Atlanta. So, if the NFL had graciously expanded the playoff field this year to, say, 24 teams, I pretty much would have been on the money.

Ken “Young” Jackson was even more inept with his preseason NFL picks, going with the exact same group except for dropping Baltimore in favor of Indianapolis as an AFC wild card.

As bad as that turned out, at least he had the foresight to place New England instead of the Jets over the Packers in the Super Bowl, now a very realistic possibility.

Andrew “Flaming Spear” Sullivan’s Packers over Ravens is the other solid Super Bowl pick from the office staff as the playoff derby begins this weekend.

Unfortunately, Flaming Spear immolated with his FSU over Alabama BCS prediction.

I had Bama over FSU (go ahead and ask for my resignation), while Jackson went with Bama over Stanford. Almost everyone else on the staff had Bama in the title game except Brian “Big Man” McBride. He has LSU winning, although over Oklahoma.

I won’t mention editor Marvin Cortner’s guess of St. Louis over Baltimore in the Super Bowl. Oops. Or, his Oklahoma over Nebraska in the BCS. Double oops. He doesn’t care. He’s still reveling in the Cardinals’ World Series championship.

The Mighty News-Gazette Divine Nine:

No. 1: Packmen. No. 2: Sainted Ones. No. 3: Divine Niners. No. 4: Brady Bunch. No. 5: Ravin’ Ravens. No. 6: Bayou Bengals. No. 7: Roll Tide. No. 8: Flaming Spear. No. 9: Flameouts (see Florida’s NFL trio).

To the picks. We couldn’t wait to pick the BCS championship game, so we did it last week (Bayou Bengals by 4). There are some dysfunctional bowl games going on today, someplace (the Nestles Ukrainian Bowl?), but shouldn’t that madness already have ended?

Cincinnati at Houston (-3): The Texans might have been the No. 1 seed in the AFC if they hadn’t gone through quarterbacks the way Goodyear uses rubber trees. Bungles blew a 12-point lead against Houston at home last month. Not a good precedent. Texans by 2.

Detroit at New Orleans (-10.5): Lions make their first playoff appearance since 1999. That’s a whole millennium ago. Their chances today would be considerably better if Barry Sanders came out of retirement. Saints by 8.

Atlanta at N.Y. Giants (-3): Giants are one of the more unpredictable groups in the league, but when they get on one of these late-season rolls, watch out. G-men by 4.

Pittsburgh (-8.5) at Denver: Stillers fly into Denver with parts falling off, but it won’t take a whole lot to shut down the tumbling Tebows. Terrible Towels by 6.

Big Man McBride’s Super Sniffer Upset Special: Lions over Saints by 3.

Ken “Young” Jackson says:  Sabinators by 3. And, who’s playing QB for Houston, Warren Moon? Cincy by 1 in the “I’ll take the other rookie QB” upset special.

Last week: Sensational Centurion (9-1, 115-56) stifled Phlailing Phillie (7-3, 118-53).