Tradition dictates that Tampa's annual celebration of the invasion by the 18th-century Spanish pirate Jose Gaspar should fall in February. But a higher authority, that of the National Football League, insisted that this year Gasparilla should be brought forward to coincide with the city's third staging of Super Bowl XXXV.
With the $250 million boost to the local economy that the game brings, there was no question of allowing the mini-Mardi Gras pageant of boats and floats, booze and exposed breasts to remain a pedantic slave to the calendar.
Nor was there any question of the game itself, between the New York Giants and the Baltimore Ravens, failing to honour its perennial most valuable player: God. "The man upstairs said I would never take you through hell without taking you to triumph," said Ray Lewis, the best defensive player in football and the victorious Raven to whom the deity ceded the title temporarily after the game. "That's where I'm standing now."
Lewis's oratory was a reflection not only of an encounter his team dominated in a comprehensive 34-7 thrashing of the Giants but also of his own recent history. Twelve months ago he was in jail, accused of murdering two men outside an Atlanta club after the Super Bowl in Georgia, which he had attended as a spectator. In the event, the linebacker pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice.
Lewis was by no means the only player to detect the hand of God at Tampa's Raymond James stadium. "I think more than anything else it's faith and perseverance," said Trent Dilfer, who now possesses the unenviable branding of the worst quarterback ever to win the Super Bowl. He was all but run out of Tampa in 1999 after six error-prone years as the Buccaneers' quarterback.
The game itself never lived up to its billing. The two outstanding defences stifled most of the first quarter until, with just under seven minutes left, Dilfer's pass released Brandon Stokley for a 38-yard touchdown.
The most riveting moments came in the third quarter, with three touchdowns in 36 seconds. First the Ravens cornerback Duane Starks intercepted a Collins pass for a touchdown. Ron Dixon caught the ball from the kick-off and ran the length of the field for a touchdown that gave the Giants fleeting hope. Then Jermaine Lewis did the same from the next kick-off.
