While it might not be the best Super Bowl in the new records department, it was a good game. The game started out on the wrong foot for the Indianapolis Colts, but once the Colts got it together the Chicago Bears ended up chasing after the Colts the entire game…in the pouring rain.
Here are some of my overall thoughts surrounding the Super Bowl:
DWIGHT CLARK & REGGIE BUSH
They seriously need to take the microphones away from the field reporters & commentators. On more than one occasion they referred to Dallas Clark as Dwight Clark (and so was the case among the sports writers as well) and during the game they even talked about Peyton Manning’s touchdown to Reggie Bush (not Reggie Wayne). Seriously folks, please do your homework before a game of this magnitude. You’ve had two weeks to familiarize yourself with the rosters of both teams and to figure out what Johnson’s and Clark’s were on the field, which Clark is long retired and which Reggie was playing in the big game. Come on, you’re getting paid for this, right?
INDIANAPOLIS 2011 SUPER BOWL BID
While seemingly many people don’t want a Super Bowl to occur “up North”, my hunch is that a big part of that would be from the whiny media who merely want to relive their college spring break days half clothed on the beach for a week with a beer in hand and attending parties every night for the week leading up to the big game. While that is nice and all, did they forget that there’s always the Pro Bowl in Hawaii the following week? And I bet it kills them that the NFL Combine is in Indy every year.
Anyway, I think that we would do a great job hosting. We’ve done it year in and year out with two large races (and a third one that most of us don’t think too highly of), Big Ten basketball tournaments, NCAA basketball tournaments (including multiple Final Fours) and the Pan American Games, not to mention the myriad of other events that we host throughout the year. And anyone that has traveled much at all can tell you that even the worst traffic in Indy isn’t really all that bad. The only real issue would be the weather outside, but as for a game you’d have no problems at all like the rain soaked game last night.
MVP
It’s nice to see Peyton get the MVP, but I think he knows as well as the rest of us that there wasn’t really a stand out MVP and that it was truly an all around team effort. Maybe Rex Grossman should have been considered the MVP as an honorary member of the Colts. Seriously though, we were getting close to this sort of team play last year and this year it finally clicked. Nothing against Edge, but the dual running back plan worked fabulously.
COMMERCIALS
I wouldn’t say that there was anything that I really liked this year, except the David Letterman and Oprah Winfrey CBS promo was hilarious. If I had to choose a favorite normal commercial, I’d say probably the Career Builder one where the delivery guy gets into the action.
PARTY IN INDY
The town is unofficially closed today, including many of the schools. The Indianapolis Public School (IPS) even closed, not due to the frigid weather nor directly to the Colts winning, but instead because their bus drivers decided to call in today and there was no way to get the kids to school (excellent and why didn’t they think of that while I was in IPS!?).
Monument Circle was packed last night, but I couldn’t convince my podcasting co-hort to join me in the festivities so I headed home after the party and watched the coverage into the wee hours of the morning. There were only a five “booze” related arrests and one unclear gunfire incident (someone apparently got a welt from being shot by some sort of gun). Overall, not to bad and no one was out flipping cars and setting them ablaze.
Today people began cramming the stores to land some Colts gear and there’s a parade at 4pm which ends at a pep rally at the Hoosier/RCA Dome before our Pro Bowlers head out to Hawaii tomorrow.
The town is electric and rocking and we’re ready to see what next season brings, but in the meantime we’re going to enjoy the Lombardi Trophy that we’ve all longed to see on display in Indianapolis, but have wondered when and if that would occur. While we all know that this is just a game, it is something that is truly bringing the city together and you just can’t put the ambiance into words. It’s just amazing to say the least.
“Look at the nations and watch –
and be utterly amazed.
For I am going to do something in your days
that you would not believe,
even if you were told. ”
-Habakkuk 1:5 (NIV)
