Celebrity football contest champ Donny Osmond picks Giants to take Super Bowl
Las Vegas Sun
by Sal DeFilippo
February 3, 2012
When it comes to Super Bowl XLVI on Sunday, Mr. Purple is all over Big Blue.
Donny Osmond, who won this year’s Vegas celebrity picks contest with a 28-22-1 record against the point spread (a strong 56 percent clip), predicts the underdog New York Giants will beat the New England Patriots.
“I think the Giants are going to take it, but I don’t think it will be easy for them,” the Flamingo headliner said. “I think the score will be in the high 20s for each team.”
Osmond said the determining factor is one of football’s oldest, tried-and-true formulas for success.
“Everyone says defense wins championships, and if that’s the case, I think the Patriots have had one of the worst defenses throughout the season,” he said.
New England’s defensive unit was 31st in the NFL this season, allowing an average of 411.1 yards per game, only a half-yard per game better than the league’s worst defense, Green Bay.
No team in history has won a Super Bowl with a defensive that poor. The New Orleans Saints in 2009 allowed 357 yards per game during the season, most ever for a Super Bowl-winning team.
Osmond said the Giants defense (which ranked 27th in the league and is only the second team to allow more than 400 points and reach the Super Bowl) is still far superior and will be the difference-maker.
“The Giants are going to win based on their stronger defense, period,” he said.
Osmond won the celebrity contest by a game over Tara Palsha, prinicipal dancer in Vegas — The Show at Planet Hollywood and by two games over comedy hypnotist Marc Savard.
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Past winners:
2001 — Lance Burton
2002 — Clint Holmes
2003 — Rita Rudner
2004 — Oscar Goodman
2005 — Wayne Newton
2006 — Anthony Crivello
2007 — Rita Rudner
2008 — Wayne Newton
2009 — Lance Burton
2010 — Lance Burton
2011 — Donny Osmond
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