Urban Idealist

Super Bowl XLI (41) is in the books and the Indianapolis Colts are your 2006-2007 NFL Champions! I was able to watch the game in France at my apartment. One of the French stations was picking up the game, complete with commentary all in French. Words like: offsides, false start, touchdown, Dungy, linebacker, etc…are all pretty entertaining to hear pronounced the French way.

The game started at 12:30am here and got over around 4am…When the game was finally over I was both tired and really excited that they had won. One of my first thoughts was that I wished that I could have been in the States at Mark and Monica’s (sports bar) watching it with the guys in Sac…at least a place that I could yell or something…that wouldn’t go over well with my neighbors or with my wife and baby who were trying to sleep!

My pick of Colts 34-Bears 17 was pretty close! The final score was Colts 27-Bears 17…If they had hit the field goal, the extra point, and kicked a field goal at the end of the game instead of turning it over on downs I would have been money! I was actually surprised that the Bears only got a field goal after the first quarter! The Colts’ game plan was nearly perfect and they made the Bears defense look only normal. The Colts defense was amazing (as they have been during the playoffs) and pretty much shutdown the Bears offense.

I also called the MVP as Manning. I do think that he Peyton was the most valuable player, but I don’t think that he was the only really valuable player. A case could easily be made for Dominic Rhodes, Joseph Addai, or Bob Sanders. But the offensive line was great and the entire defense was outstanding. But for the Colts Peyton Manning is the mastermind behind the offense. The way in which he runs the offense sets up success for running plays and keeps defenses on the defensive…It also helped that after a secondary miscue in the first quarter the Bears practically played a prevent defense the rest of the game and allowed Manning to dump the ball on short passes and gain yards, completions, confidence, and time.

Another thing that must be mentioned is the character of Tony Dungy. I have always had a ton of respect for him and how he coached and I could not be any more happy that he won the Super Bowl and is the first African American to do this as a coach. I am proud of him as the coach of ‘my team’, but even more proud that he is a fellow Christian that lives out the values of the Kingdom in a very public way.

So now it’s on to next year…I already love our chances and the attitude of the players. Most of the ’stars’ are coming back and they always pick up good players in the off-season. And now that monkey (that never existed) is off of Mannings back I think that they will have more potential to be dangerous…at least I hope so!