Super Bowl XLIV Thoughts

Super Bowl XLIV and, “Who dat?” The Saints are no longer the Aints. Seldom has a sports championship of any time meant more to the fans of a particular city. Some personal musings from watching the big game:

• The Colts’ tackling was horrible. Scratch that… it was abysmal, deplorable, and any number of other craptastic words. Absolutely embarrassing for the championship game at the highest level of play.
• The onsides kick to open the second half will go down as one of the gutsiest calls ever. Think Boise State vs Oklahoma Fiesta Bowl huge. High-risk equals high-reward if ones pulls it off, and it takes a special kind of coach to throw such caution to the wind, especially in the biggest game of your career. Even though the Saints’ dominated time of possession in the second quarter, the second-half kickoff was the momentum turning point of the game; if a coach could be named MVP, Sean Payton deserved it for that play. Never underestimate the element of surprise.
• Regardless of whether the two-point conversion incompletion should have been overturned or not, Lance Moore’s acrobatics to reach the ball across the goal line to make it even a question were a thing of beauty.
• Peyton Manning had the opportunity to slap an exclamation point on his career with Super Bowl fourth-quarter game-tying and potentially winning drives. Instead he attempts a pass that someone of his experience should never have thrown. To be fair, the interception was not solely his fault. Reggie Wayne should have come back for the ball and stepped in front of the defender, and Tracy Porter–who had a fantastic overall game, accumulating 5 tackles and limiting Wayne to 5 catches for a mere 46 yards–made an excellent play. But in there lies the Peyton’s problem. Porter was sitting on that throw like a home-run hitter on a fastball with a 3-0 count and the bases loaded. He appeared to be waiting for that pass in a manner akin to the spy some teams leave hanging in the middle of the field in case a running quarterback makes a break for it; after all, it was Manning’s bread-and-butter play. Instead of reading the defense, Manning zoned in on Wayne and Porter made him pay for it.
• I lost a lot of respect for Peyton Manning for storming off the field without shaking Drew Brees’s hand. I don’t care how upset one is, shaking the hand of your opponent, winner or loser, is a simple sign of respect. No ifs, ands or buts about it, Manning came across as a sore loser, another bruised ego of the “me first” generation.

• March 1, 2010 -- Super Bowl XLIV Final Look Back – NFL Football (1)
• February 6, 2010 -- Super Bowl XLIV Saints vs Colts – NFL Football (1)
• February 18, 2010 -- Super Bowl XLIV Commercials (0)
• January 30, 2010 -- Pittsburgh Steelers Terrible Towel – NFL Football (2)
• December 16, 2009 -- December Tampy Noms (8)