This is a very risky post.   Sometimes it’s just wiser to stay out of heated debates and avoid the risk of others disparaging your character or intelligence.  Especially when all I’m talking about is football.

Right now the Indianapolis Colts are in the throws of their worst season of the teams almost 60 year existence.  That’s somewhat hard to believe considering all those years through the 80s and 90s when the team could essentially be excluded from playoff consideration after the second preseason game.  Those were the years that the Colts did an excellent job of devising a plan on how to be an abysmal failure by racking up gads of high first round picks who would be busts within two years.  The Detroit Lions worked the Colts plan to perfection thoughout the first decade of this millennium

Then the Colts had to go and mess up their string of futility by drafting Peyton Manning.  Of course Manning’s first year with the Colts was not much different than most of the preceding years, but gradually the team got better.  Many fans gave credit to the owner, Jim Irsay (probably deserved).  Others touted the genius of Bill Polian (maybe true).  Certainly, most fans sang the praises of the developing future Hall of Famer, Manning.  I’m not even factoring in the three head coaches during Manning’s tenure.  The truth is that through the efforts of all three men, the Colts became a powerhouse in the NFL for over a decade.  A very good run.

However, with the latest events (I’m referring to Mannings’ neck), it has become clear that one of the three men was more important than the other two.  Owners have a lot to do with creating a successful team, but I believe they have more to do with making a team an utter disaster.  We can think of several owners who just can’t seem to get out of their own way.  General managers obviously have a direct affect on the specific personnel taking the field, but once in a lifetime quarterbacks make all the difference in the NFL.  And while other players may be irreplaceable, superstar quarterbacks are 100% irreplaceable.

While I’m a big fan of Irsay and think Polian is a pretty good GM, the real reason the Colts have been a success is because of Manning.  No, duh, Einstein.  But the real debate, when it became evident that this season was lost (game 1 or game 2), was whether the Colts should  start planning for the future by drafting Andrew Luck (the sure thing, ready for the NFL quarterback) and move on from Manning or keep Manning and trade Luck for picks and players.  The other argument had the team keeping both quarterbacks but seems far less sensible to me.

Here’s what I think:

If (and it’s a big “if”) Manning is healthy, the Colts have to keep him and trade the Luck pick for more top draft picks and starters.  If Luck is as qualified and desirable quarterback as all the experts are saying (I wouldn’t know, I’ve never seen him play and don’t possess the expertise even if I had seen him play), then his value as a trade is sky high.  Maybe I’m delusional, but I believe many of the younger players on this year’s team are gaining valuable experience that will make them better next year.  Add that to the new and some top tier, experienced talent for the next season or two… and Manning, and the Colts have a chance to make a couple more runs at the Superbowl.

If the Colts were to ditch Manning (who has brought untold fame and cash to Indianapolis), the team would definitely be in rebuilding mode for the next several years.  The Colts know what they get with Manning.  He’s a smart, hard working, talented, elite quarterback.  With Luck the team gets a ton of potential.  Fans quickly get bored with, and GMs and coaches get fired because of potential.  This is a now society, and I believe the Colts have a better immediate future with Manning.

Not that I really want to focus on yesterday’s Super Bowl because my team lost, but having made so many previous posts on the topic, I feel obligated.

Yesterday, the better team won.  Ouch.  That hurts to say, but it’s true.  I felt that the teams were very evenly matched, and when you look back on it, which I’d prefer not to do, the final outcome really hinged on three or four plays, and for the most part, those plays went the Saints’ way.

Having made a pregame case as to why the Colts would win, here is what a friend wrote to me after the game:

“As I was saying…Better defense and a well-balanced offense is superior to a team that depends heavily on their QB, who somehow decided to turn in desperation to his anemic running game, which could only do so much in a game of this magnitude. Your thoughts?”

Here was my long winded response:

“Unfortunately, someone has to lose and it was the Colts this year. I will refrain from making excuses since I didn’t play the game. All I could do was yell at the TV. The other great thing is that my team was in the Super Bowl this year. They were there in ’07, and I’m pretty confident they will be knocking on the door next year and possibly for a few years after that. Most fans can’t say that. So I will enjoy the fact that the Colts went back to the Super Bowl and now enjoy an offseason where I will get a few more things done on Sundays.”

I’m disappointed that the Colts lost.  Probably not as much as those who spent a few thousand dollars to go to Miami and see the game live… although they got to go to Miami, while I shoveled snow here in Indy.  Ultimately, I’m just trying to enjoy the fact that my favorite NFL team is so good.  They’ve gone to the playoffs for eight straight seasons and had seven consecutive regular seasons with twelve or more wins.  This will not last forever.  Things can change quickly.  One day the Colts will not win twelve games in the regular season and they will not make the playoffs.  So while it hurts to see my team lose the big game, I’d rather feel this pain than the pain of my team being one and fifteen at the end of the season.

Now I’ll take some time to recouperate over the offseason and get some other work done. 

Congratulations to the Saints and Go Colts!

Oh, and one other thing, was it just me, or did pretty much all of the commercials stink this year?

The Super Bowl is almost here and my sports related posts will soon come to a close, but considering that I live in Indy and the Colts are in the Super Bowl, I have a few more football posts left in me.

Tonight I was watching the news and I saw Queen Latifah say that she was rooting for the Saints because they were the Cinderella team.  Since when?  If I remember correctly, the Saints only lost three games this season.  They dominated almost every team they played with a high flying offense and pounding defense.  Brett Farve was hit so hard two weeks ago I think they knocked his dentures out.

A Cinderella team is one that is not on equal footing with all the other teams, but for some reason is still competing and winning.  We see it every year in college basketball during March Madness.  A Cinderella is George Mason going to the Final Four, or NC State winning the whole thing.  The Cardinals of last year’s Super Bowl were more of a Cinderella team than the Saints.  I wonder if Queen Latifah was cheering for them.

Nothing about the Saints this season says “Cinderella”.  Sure the franchise has been a disaster for generations, but that does not make them a Cinderella.  Actually, for the past two or three years, the Saints have turned their franchise around, which is directly related to Drew Brees and Sean Payton.

In fact, the Saints remind me of the Colts before Peyton Manning showed up followed by Tony Dungy (Bill Polian had a big hand in there too).  The Colts were awful for so many years.  The only reason they were able to draft Manning was because they were flat out horrendous.  And they weren’t just bad for one or two seasons.  It spanned decades.

I get the fact that the Saints are the darlings of America right now.  It’s a great story.  A loser of a team for generations finally makes it to the Super Bowl.  The city is still rebuilding from Katrina.  And they’ve never won a Championship.  I would have been cheering for the Saints if the Colts had not made it.  I’m a huge Purdue fan, so I always want Brees to be a dominant QB in the NFL.  So it makes sense that the majority want to see the Saints win.

But let’s not kid ourselves.  The Saints are a high powered team that rolled through the season.  They are no Cinderella.  They’re an elite team.  One that is better than every other team in the NFC.  They are on equal footing with the Colts and should make the Super Bowl a spectacular event.

With that said, I still feel pretty confident that the Colts will win.  Maybe it’s destiny, but I think Peyton is on his way to three of four Super Bowl rings.  So my prediction for this one is Colts 35 and Saint 27.

So the Saints pulled it out and are headed to Super Bowl XLIV.  While I had imagined a “Perfect Bowl” (I created that term) between an undefeated Colts and undefeated Saints,  slightly imperfect Colts and Saints teams will have to do.

By the end of the NFC Championship game, it actually seemed like a contest of who wanted to win less.  Neither team looked impressive considering the Vikings kept giving the ball away and the Saints never really produced any offense.

I would have enjoyed seeing the Viking go, so we could have seen Manning vs. Favre, but I am much happier with this match up because Brees is a former Purdue quarterback.  So, I’ll wish Drew and his Saints the best, and quickly return to cheering my Colts on to a second Super Bowl Championship in the Peyton Manning era.

It could be a pretty entertaining game with a lot of offense.  On the other hand, the Colts defense looks very stout and the Saints put a huge beat down on Farve.  It should be a good game.  Right now I’m guessing the score will be the Colts 35 and the Saints 27.*  That sounds about right.

*I’ll reserve the right to change my mind a few times over the next two weeks.

Before the season started, I wasn’t too sure the Colts were ready to return to the Super Bowl. Now, in hindsight, I’m not sure what I was so concerned about. I’m not saying that I should have known from the beginning that the Colts would return to the Super Bowl, but I think there have been so many disappointments in past playoffs that it’s hard to be  over confident.

I actually thought that Dungy leaving was a good thing. I think he was distracted and while I believe he is an excellent coach, he was too willing to keep certain coaches around too long. When Caldwell came in, he immediately addressed the defense and special teams. Finally, this Colts team looks solid on both sides of the ball.

As for today’s game, the Jets came out ready to play. While I previously stated that the reason the Jets would lose was because Mark Sanchez is a rookie, I did not say that they would lose because of his poor play. He played very well in the first half and really didn’t do much wrong in the second.  It really just has something to do with the “football gods”.  A rookie has never led a team to the Super Bowl, so why start now? It’s just too big a stage, and I was proven right (I like that).

So, now the Colts are going to the Super Bowl. Actually returning to the “scene of the crime” where they dominated the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI in Miami. Can they do it again? Can they beat the Saints or the Vikings. Well, whatever team comes from the NFC, it should be a great game.

So, at the moment, I’m thinking the Colts will win because of their defense. It’s hard to believe that the Colts defense would be the difference maker, but that’s the way it’s been all season. So, now I’ll go finish watching the NFC Championship and bask in the thrill of the Colts victory.

Rookie Quarterback

I’m biased.  I’ve been a Colts fan since they rolled into Indy on the Mayflower trucks in 1984.  So what I’m about to write is probably a bit slanted.

The Jets will lose on Sunday to the Colts.  And they will lose for one reason.  No, it’s not because Peyton Manning is Indy’s quarterback.  It’s not because the Colts defense is underrated and overlooked.  It’s not because the Colts are the home team.  It’s also not because Indy had the best record in the NFL this season.  It has nothing to do with the Joe Namath Jets beating them in the Super Bowl eons ago, and nothing to do with the 2002 Jets playoff win over the Colts.

Why will the Jets lose?  They will lose because Mark Sanchez is a rookie.

Can you name the last rookie starting quarterback to win the Super Bowl?  No.  What about the last rookie starting quarterback to go to the Super Bowl?  Again, you can’t because no rookie starting quarterback has ever gone to the Super Bowl.  Ben Roethlisberger is the youngest quarterback to ever go to the Super Bowl (age 23), but his rookie season ended in a loss in the AFC Championship game.

So, while all the “experts” on television are claiming that the Jets will win, I’m pretty skeptical.  I heard Tedy Bruschi on ESPN radio this morning tell me all the reasons why the Jets will win, however once I ran his commentary through my “Former New England Patriot Decoder”, I found that his bias was causing glaucoma of the brain.  In addition, all the guys on Dan Patrick’s radio show were predicting the Jets.  Can you say, “East Coast Bias?”

I’m all for the “experts” picking the other team.  Many of them know a lot about Xs and Os, but they can never really separate themselves from their personal biases.  Remember the midseason game between the Colts and Patriots?  On NBC, Rodney Harrison picked the Pats to win, and Tony Dungy picked the Colts.  Sure they had their reasons, but no one would ever convince me that their hearts didn’t make their final picks.

While I’m extremely confident that the Colts will win this Sunday, I’m admittedly biased.  I also have a healthy fear that something will go wrong for the Colts.  That’s why they play the game, right?  But in the meantime, I’ll keep listening to the “experts” discount the Colts chances, knowing they are usually incorrect.

This is by no means a sports blog, but I just realized that several of my latest posts are about sports.  More specifically, the Colts.  I guess it just reflects the time of year and some of my interests.  Pretty soon the NFL season will be over, and I’ll be on to something else.  (I’ll try to keep my Purdue basketball passion tempered and only make a few posts about their run to the NCAA Championship.)  In the meantime, before the Colts start their playoffs run, I was inspired to make a few comments about the Colts situation.

The Colts have put themselves in a no win situation unless they win the Super Bowl.  And even if they do win the Super Bowl, many fans won’t be satisfied, saying that they could have been perfect and they threw it all away. 

Anyone who has followed Colts football would agree that Bill Polian (General Manager of the Colts) is a smart man.  Of course it doesn’t hurt to have Peyton Manning as your quarterback, but Polian has continued to find players who fit the Colts’ system and allow Manning to excel.  However, Polian (not that he was alone in the decision) may have made a big mistake by insisting that the starters rest the final couple games of the season.   

The sentiment around Indianapolis immediately following the first loss was deadly.  The fans were outraged.  From my perspective, it has to be worse to lose a game on purpose than when your trying to win but lose.  In that situation a player can come off the field and truly say, “I gave it everything I had.”  A player who loses on purpose cannot say anything except, “sorry.”  And that’s exactly what Peyton Manning did a few days later.  Now the only thing the Colts can do to make it up to the city of Indianapolis or the state of Indiana and all other Colts fans out ther is to win the Super Bowl. 

If the Colts lose in the first round, Polian will want to schedule a long vacation to some place far far away.  I would think that if he showed up anywhere in public in Indianapolis, he’d be tarred and feathered.  Losing to San Diego in the AFC Championship wouldn’t be as bad because they have looked nearly unstoppable as of late.  On the other hand, San Diego has had the Colts number the last few years, so a loss to Philip Rivers would be unbearable.

It’s odd to say, but losing in the Super Bowl could possibly be the best result for the Colts.  I write this somewhat tongue in cheek, but think about it.  By getting to the Super Bowl, the Colts would have proven that resting the starters at the end of the season had no affect on the team in the playoffs.  It would also mean that the Colts got past the Chargers finally.  Moreover, if the Colts lose the Super Bowl, they won’t hear the outcry of, “We could have had a perfect season!”

So, while I hope the Colts go all the way, I’ll take it one game at a time.  In past years I’ve looked at this first game of the playoffs as a gimme.  But they’ve been nothing of the sort.  So this year I’m expecting the worst and hoping for the best… However, the Colts have beaten the Ravens seven straight, and it was this game in 2006 which helped propel the Colts to the Championship.  I’m hoping for the same result.

I thought about concluding with my prediciton for Saturday’s game, but why would that matter.  I’m biased.

So the Colts threw in the towel against the Jets.  That was ugly.  I guess the Colts wanted to see what it felt like to be Detroit for a couple weeks.  As a Colts fan, I hated seeing them lose on purpose to the Jets.  Now that’s not to say that they would have definitely won the game if Manning and other starters had completed the game, but when Curtis Painter and other second, third and final stringers came in, the final outcome had been decided.  Pretty much every Indy fan knew what was coming.

So The Perfect Bowl and The Nearly Perfect Bowl are no longer.  Now it will be like all past Super Bowls (except two).  The No One’s Perfect Bowl.  Like most Colts fans, I was pretty mad at what the team did.  It still irritates me that they essentially lost on purpose, but also like most Colts fans I’ll move on and hope and pray they show up for the playoffs. Maybe this whole thing will motivate them to go a little harder and prove everyone wrong who says that resting the starters when everything is sewn up is a bad idea.  It’s never worked for the Colts in previous seasons, but there’s always a first.

What do you think?  Who’s going to Super Bowl XLIV?

Unfortunately, my quest for The Perfect Bowl disappeared last Saturday.  It was fun while it lasted.  Now I’m on to The Nearly Perfect Bowl.  My hope is that the Colts will continue their winning streak all the way through the Super Bowl.

Today the Colts play the Jets.  While any team can beat another most Sundays, the Colts should be able to easily handle the Jets.  Of course it also all depends on who plays for the Colts this Sunday.  I’ve made it no secret that I would like to see the Colts play through the end of the season.  In years past, when they have rested their starters, the playoffs have ended poorly for the Colts.  The one year that they had to play all the way through the end of the season, the Colts won the Super Bowl.

So, I’m pushing for the Colts to keep playing and winning, and while I wouldn’t mind seeing the Saints join them in the Super Bowl, it doesn’t really matter any more.  Whoever plays the undefeated Colts would still just make it a Nearly Perfect Bowl.

Share your thoughts here or at http://www.squidoo.com/ThePerfectBowl

In a matter of three hours, my dreams of a Perfect Bowl were dashed.  I was so sure that the Saints would pull out all the stops and make a run at a 16-0 regular season.  Unfortunately the normally hapless Cowboys decided to show up.

So there goes my hopes for a Perfect Bowl.  Of course there’s always next year.

For now, I’ll continue to cheer on my Colts and hope they pull off the perfect season.  I’m thinking it’s their destiny.