SUPER BOWL

Notes Heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield, a man who earned $35 million for fighting Mike Tyson the second time, used to make 35 cents for every soft drink he sold at Atlanta Fulton County Stadium.

Tough times? Not for Holyfield, because, by selling soft drinks and popcorn, he was able to watch his beloved Falcons play.

“I would make about $20 for the day,� Holyfield said, “and I would make that last until the next week when I would do it all over again.�

He will be watching his Falcons play today as well, but he’ll do so far from the vendors, in a private box at Pro Player Stadium where Holyfield’s favorite team will be facing the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXXIII.

“I don’t have to stand on the sidelines to root for them,� Holyfield said, “because I know that the Falcons will win by 14.�

But he allows that, having seen his team finally reach football’s biggest game, he’ll be nervous before the kickoff.

“I’ll probably be so nervous I’ll catch a headache,� he said.

More nervous than before his March 13 fight against Lennox Lewis at New York’s Madison Square Garden for the undisputed heavyweight title?

“I’m not nervous before a fight,� Holyfield said, “because I’m in control. [Today] though, it will be like somebody else is driving the car.�

Don King, Holyfield’s promoter for the Lewis fight, says that, if the Falcons win, he’ll invite them all to the Holyfield-Lewis fight even though Madison Square Garden is already sold out.

“[Falcon Coach] Dan [Reeves] is the one who really makes me feel good,� King said. “If another coach had walked in there, it would not have had the same significance. But Dan is there after having [bypass heart surgery]. He’s there after getting fired in Denver after doing a great job. All of a sudden, they cast him asunder. He was a cumulus cloud and they didn’t want that cumulus cloud floating around. Then, he was a raindrop. They just swished that raindrop away, but it landed in fertile soil in Atlanta. Then it began to germinate, blossom and grow and mushroom into a Super Bowl. So there would be nothing more fitting and proper than for Dan Reeves to win this thing.�

If the Falcons are behind at the half, maybe Reeves should consider King for the halftime pep talk.