Maras wins the Bee Super Bowl Challenge

SANDPOINT — For the second year in a row, the Bee Super Bowl Challenge has been won by a casual NFL football fan, at best.

Just how casual, you ask?

Sandpoint's John Maras originally phoned in a prediction for the Green Bay Packers to beat the Patriots with Brett Favre as MVP. Upon being called back and informed that the Giants had won the NFC Championship, he changed his prediction to a 14-10 Giants' win over the Patriots. The Giants ended up winning by a surprisingly low score of 17-14, baffling many experts and Vegas sports books, both of whom predicted much higher scores.

Maras, 66, says he "kind of knows what's going on" and that Sunday actually marked the first time in his life that he watched an entire Super Bowl.

"I wanted the Patriots to lose," he told the Daily Bee on Monday, describing how he came to his prediction. "I didn't want a perfect season, I like the underdog. I thought a low-scoring game was the only way they (Giants) could win."

Maras edged Alex Mauck to win the Challenge. Mauck predicted a 21-17 Giants win, and both he and Maras had Manning as MVP. Since both were seven combined points from the actual score, the final tie-breaker was points by the winning team, and Maras was one point closer.

Maras and his wife Sandy both entered the Challenge. Both have some famous sports lineage in their family trees, as Sandy is related to NFL great and former Sandpoint resident Jerry Kramer, and Maras is a distant cousin of baseball legend Roger Maris.

Maras said his grandfather and Roger Maris' grandfather were brothers, and that Roger's mom eventually changed the spelling of their name.

Maras, who went to the University of Oklahoma back in the early 1960s, says the only football games he watches anymore involve the Sooners.