Peyton Manning can't win the Big One. A Tony Dungy team will never make it to the Super Bowl. The Colts are a finesse team...a soft team...a dome team that can't handle the elements. This is the kind of media-hype bull crap that Colts fans have been listening to for years now.
[Earmuffs, children.]
Fuck all that shit! The Colts just defeated the Chicago Bears 29-17 on the NFL's grandest stage, and Peyton Manning is your Super Bowl XLI Most Valuable Player.
I have to admit it. When the Colts defense gave up 375 yards rushing to the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 14 of the regular season, I nearly lost all hope that the Colts could win an NFL championship. When a loss to the Houston Texans in Week 16 cost us a first round bye, my foremost wish became that we would simply not embarrass ourselves in the playoffs...that we would do something respectable like making it to at least the divisional round before LaDanian Tomlinson or Corey Dillon gouged us to death on a national stage.
But after the Indianapolis Colts defeated the Baltimore Ravens in Baltimore, I started to believe again. I was optimistic, even though still gut-wrenchingly nervous, going into the AFC title game against the New England Patriots. When the Colts came back from 18 points down to Brady & Co. to secure their bid for the Big One, I began to feel something like confidence in the fact that Indianapolis was about to win a world championship.
To be perfectly honest, I wasn't as elated by yesterday's Super Bowl victory as I was with the triumph over the Pats. Vanquishing our bitter rival in the most dramatic of fashions when it mattered most gave me the highest high I've ever experienced as a sports fan. To borrow a few words from my friend and fellow Colts enthusiast Aaron Homoya: After we won the AFC Conference Championship, I pretty much felt we were entitled to a Super Bowl championship as well.
Watching the Colts win the Super Bowl was a dynamic and ultimately enjoyable experience. I yelled, sighed, complained, screamed, cheered, and even threatend to shove sharp sticks into a sensitive area of Bears players' bodies. But, at the end of the game, I didn't feel nearly as ecstatic as I did after the AFC title game.
What I felt most was an overwhelming sense of relief. The pressure that all those aforementioned naysayings create weighs heavily on the fans as well as the players. The mighty pessimist I am could not shake the fear that the Colts might exorcise all their demons this postseason save the most important one: winning a league championship. Devon Hestor's opening kickoff return did nothing to alleviate that fear. Neither did Muhsin Muhammad's touchdown reception in the 1st quarter. But when my home town boys turned things around and outscored Da Bears 23-3 the rest of the way, they cast out that final demon with extreme prejudice.
As the final second ticked off the game clock, I yelled in adulation. Then I immediately collapsed back into my seat and let the sweet, sweet feeling of total, unadulterated relief wash over me. "Even if we go 4-12 every season from here on out, they can't take this one away from us," I proclaimed to those around me. I would now add that even if Peyton Manning never reaches another Super Bowl, no sane or credible human being can deny that he won this Super Bowl. He has now undeniably surpassed greats such as Dan Marino and Jim Kelly. He is now at least as stellar a quarterback as Steve Young or Brett Favre. All of you in the media who have been riding Peyton so very hard these past 9-13 years may now begin apologizing profusely.
In closing, I would like to make sure that I am being crystal clear on something: It is my quarterback, my coach, and my team who are the 2006 Champions of the National Football League. And just who does that team happen to be?
The Colts, bitches. The Colts.
1 comment:
oh hell yeah!
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