The Front Row with MARK NELKE Jan. 30, 2011

I was thinking back to the last time I had a passionate rooting interest in the Super Bowl - sadly, this year's high school seniors would have been about 2 years old at the time.

It was, as it turned out, the last hurrah for my San Francisco 49ers, that 49-26 trouncing of the San Diego Chargers in Super Bowl XXIX in 1995, when Steve Young threw, what, 12 touchdown passes, Jerry Rice caught about eight of them, and Deion Sanders danced after an interception.

Since then, the 49ers have slowly, painfully, eroded into one of the more inept teams in the league, with a handful of talented players negated by general mediocrity pretty much everywhere else.

Now, with the team under new management, we'll soon find out how much of the 49ers' problem was the players or the coaching.

ANYWAY, I was trying to decide whether to root for the Packers or the Steelers in Super Bowl XLV next Sunday.

I don't have a real hatred worked up toward either team, though the Packers, now that I think about it, kept knocking us out of the playoffs throughout the latter part of the 1990s and, if you want, can be blamed in part for starting us on our decline.

So go, Steelers! Kick their butts for us!

Then again, I did pull for the Packers way back in the Lombardi days, when they won the first two Super Bowls ever played - back before the days of six-hour pregame shows and aging rockers filling time at halftime.

As I kid, I read Jerry Kramer's best-seller, Instant Replay, though at the time I had no idea where Sandpoint, Idaho, was, and also had no idea I would begin my sports writing career in the same town where he would grow up and play his high school football for the Bulldogs, and later have the good fortune to interview the should-be Hall of Famer on a couple of occasions.

More recently, the Packers are a feel-good story because of what Aaron Rodgers endured. There was talk he could be the No. 1 pick in the 2005 draft, but waited for hours on draft day as he slipped all the way to Green Bay with the 24th pick.

Then, when he finally got his chance when Brett Favre left, he still had to emerge from the giant shadow cast by the often-retired quarterback.

If he wins next Sunday, Rodgers will have as many Super Bowl victories as the Wrangler jeans pitchman.

More than once I’ve wondered what would have happened if we had drafted Rodgers with the No. 1 pick instead of, well, you know who we picked.

So go, Pack!

AS FOR the Steelers, we never had to beat them to win any of our five Super Bowls. They won four in six years in the 1970s, when we were crummy, and won their other two in the last five seasons — as we’re back to being crummy again.

They dominated the ‘70s in almost poetic fashion, with the Steel Curtain defense and Terry Bradshaw throwing beautiful passes and Lynn Swann making beautiful catches, and Franco Harris breaking free on beautiful, galloping runs. These days, they win with a munching defense and quarterback Ben Roethlisberger making big plays when seemingly all hope was lost.

Naturally, the Seahawk fans in this area will likely root against the Steelers, still steaming over the 2006 Super Bowl and the calls that went against Seattle in the 21-10 Pittsburgh win.

Yeah, like they’re the only fans who ever felt their team got jobbed by the refs in a big game.

Back in the 1983 NFC championship game, which I’m sure you all remember like it was yesterday, the 49ers rallied from a 21-0 deficit with three fourth-quarter touchdowns to tie the game at 21. But San Francisco was screwed out of a possible return trip to the Super Bowl when some clown wearing stripes invented a pass interference call late in the game that led to a chip shot field goal with 40 seconds left in the game and a 24-21 victory by the Washington Redskins.

I sure as heck wasn’t going to root for the Redskins in the Super Bowl but, naturally, John Riggins broke that memorable fourth-down run for a 43-yard touchdown and a 27-17 victory over the Miami Dolphins.

Damn Redskins.

But hey, I’ve gotten over that call, as you can tell.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via e-mail at mnelke@cdapress.com.