Brandon Marshall Proclaims "Super Bowl" ... And We'd Expect What Else?

Ryan Kalil took a little flak from some - admittedly, including myself to a small degree - when he jumped out and said the Panthers were going to not just make it to, but win the Super Bowl this season in New Orleans. Last night at Family Fest, a certain Bears receiver made himself the most popular man in the building (well, more than he already was) by declaring, just between him and the over twenty-five thousand in attendance, "Super Bowl."

Brandon Marshall may be declaring some undeserved bravado to some... But admittedly, would we really expect any different from our athletes? Three things you will never hear from a professional athlete:

Man, just once, it'd be really nice to suck.

We're just setting a very modest goal for ourselves, you know, just hoping to be .500 this year.

I can't wait till we're golfing after we've gotten knocked out of the playoffs!

Seriously, if a Chicago Bear (or any other professional athlete) said any of those things, he'd be ridiculed out of town faster than last year's Colts' playoff hopes evaporated. I should hope that a professional athlete has his eyes set on his league's championship and on no other minor goal. And Lovie Smith feels the same way, despite how his "Beat Green Bay" diatribe when he first signed on is often (mis)interpreted.

"It would be hard to tell guys, ‘hey, let's try to win eight games,' ‘let's try to win the division,'" Smith said. "[Super Bowl] is the ultimate goal, what everybody in the locker room is trying to achieve. No problem with that at all."

Ryan Kalil is entitled to call a Super Bowl. Brandon Marshall is entitled to call a Super Bowl. Inwardly, all teams are treating the Super Bowl as the ultimate goal - it's news when a player voices it?

But now that it's said... Work for it and get it.

What do you guys think of players announcing their Super Bowl aspirations?