Dare I pick Minnesota to win it all?

Last year, I locked in my Super Bowl pick early and felt very good about the choice. For once, I wasn't trying to do a roster breakdown or getting myself all tied up in strengths and weaknesses. I was looking for a team with a chip on its shoulder, one that would be coming into the season with something to prove, a hungry team, nasty, etc.

The Saints were my Super Bowl winner.

Then they came out and lost their first four. And finished 7-9. All of which should make Brad Childress feel very nervous about the fact that I'm picking his Vikings to ... to ... dare I say, to win it all? Let's think this thing through.

Dallas is the winter-book favorite. The Cowboys are loading up with all sorts of fancy names -- Zach Thomas , who has already carved out a place for himself in Miami 's Hall of Fame, 'Pacman' Jones , whose pardon from the league office seems to be coming an inch at a time. Marion Barber got a new contract that stunned him by its magnificence. So did cornerback Terence Newman . They even gave Terrell Owens enough money to make him happy.

This is their year, right? Sorry, but I just don't feel it.

I look around the league, from the perspective of an individual coming off a nice, fat vacation, and I see the usual summer notes of unsettlement. Oakland 's Javon Walker , who should be trying to prove himself after Denver became the second team to give up on him, was found unconscious in a Vegas alley after he had supposedly spent the evening spraying nightclub patrons with bubbly.

"And they got mad at ME for carrying a gun," said the Cowboys Tank Johnson , who got busted by the league for building a home arsenal.

Once again, Jeremy Shockey is pouting for the Super Bowl Giants, their wideout, Plaxico Burress , is unhappy with his contract. The team is in a mid-June disarray mode. People look at the almost-unbeaten Patriots, expecting to see cheat sheets falling out of their pockets. Elsewhere there are ... but why go on? This is about my Super Bowl team, right? And why I have such positive views about the Vikings .

Dare I pick them to go all the way? They're a team for whom I never had much of a feel, and this goes back to their old Super Bowl days, when they were marched to the slaughter by any AFL or AFC team they faced. They're a team that turned timid and blew the NFC Championship game against Atlanta in '99, and then, two seasons later, brought a powerhouse offense into Giants Stadium for the same title match and got undressed, 41-0.

Since then? One playoff season out of the next seven. So why do I get this real hunch about them? OK, yeah, right now they're my choice for the winner of Supe XXIII. And here's why: