Colts Bears Headed to Miami
Congrats to the Colts and Bears on impressive wins yesterday. Interesting Super Bowl for me in that I have lived in both team's city/state at one point; and have thus cheered for them in some capacity.
Having spent some time in Chicago, Da Bears have allays been my favorite team in the NFC. I predicted they would win yesterday and was surprised that none of the so called experts questioned whether a dome team could win outside in January (no one has done it since 1970). I have to admit I was nervous when the Bears settled for field goals instead of touchdowns early on. Grossman's mechanics seemed off and his passes were sailing on him. On the key drive of the game, however, he found a rhythm and connected with his receivers. When Berrian made that amazing catch for the touchdown, that seemed to break the game open. The Bears cruised after that.
As I mentioned above, I went to high school and college and Indiana and considered myself something of a casual Colts fan for many years. But something funny happened after college, I grew annoyed with Peyton Manning. I was tired of his seeming endless commercials, the constant attention his family gets, and his poor play when it mattered.
I am not a fan of Bill Belichick and the Patriots have brought a great deal of pain to my Steelers. But I do have a soft spot for Tom Brady as he is the most successful Michigan grad in the NFL. So I found myself predicting and rooting for a Pats win. And the first half went as I had expected, with Peyton struggling and the Pats finding ways to score.
But clearly the second half was a different story. Peyton refused to give up and he found ways to avoid the rush and make plays down field. The Patriots seemed a little tentative and I thought Belichick was too conservative late in the game in going for field goals. As the Colts proved, touchdowns win games. Ironic, that they never had to use Mr. Clutch, Adam Vinatieri.
So hats off to the Colts and Peyton Manning. They proved me wrong. They were tough when they needed to be and they proved that they deserve a shot at a Super Bowl Championship. It should be a fun game as I would be happy with either team winning.
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Kevin, the Mannings are the first football family of many in the South. And a good bunch they are. I'm glad Peyton does annoy people for the reason you state.The NFL has loads of good guys, but the miscreants and outlaws steal all the time and attention. Peyton corrects that to a degree. Good people + sport... heavens what is this country coming to?
The 2d game was better in most respects partially because of the professional work of Nantz and Simms. Joe Buck-idiot and Aikman were fine for Chicago lovers; the rest of us lambasted their homer-ism. And Aikman told us little about the game.
I join Parcells and Cowher in despairing of the present state of things. The Media is to blame, first, as always, for encouraging the present culture. 16/32 head coaches turnover? I had to laugh after hearing the rumour that Bob Stoops might be a welcome candidate for the Dallas job; it seems Sooner fans are ready to boot him. If Michigan boots Carr, and Stoops goes, and, after one more year or so, Weiss is terminated.. THEN will Nick Saban STAY at Alabama??
Is there a safe college job outside USC and (this year) Florida?
Kevin, one more good comment, this from Tony Dungy 1/22 at a new s conference, where he addresses the fact that 2 black coaches are in the Super Bowl for the first time:
'being a good role model is important to the coach. "Hopefully young kids now will say hey, I might be the coach one day. So that's special. That's something that I thought about when I was an assistant and when I got the head job at Tampa, it was important to me to get some guys into the pipeline." That group included Bears Coach Lovie Smith.
"I know the type of person Lovie is. Lovie's got the same Christian convictions that I have. He runs his team in the same way. I know how those guys are treated in Chicago and how they play tough, disciplined football even though there's not a lot of profanity from coaches; there's none of the win-at-all-costs atmosphere. I think for two guys to show that you can win that way is just as important for the country to see."'
I've heard reports about the family atmosphere at Indy. If Chicago also is promoting the same, such bodes well for the future of pro football. And for football in general.
I find it amusing how quickly the "experts" have tossed Belichick and Brady overboard. It's the end of the Patriots dynasty. Tom Brady isn't Tom Brady any more.
I've been saying this this ever since Belichick became a genius: his system of bringing in lots of free agents with good cost/benefit ratios is fine. It works *extremely* well when you have a Hall of Fame quarterback on a sixth-round draft choice contract. All that extra money for free agents, it's like having a higher salary cap than the rest of the league. But once Brady gets a real contract, let's see how well the system works.
So far, it's working about as well as Tony Dungy's system. Maybe not quite as well.