OT: Props for Terence Moore and his genius article!
MIAMI -- The New Orleans Saints won't win that little game Sunday at Sun Life Stadium, because the Indianapolis Colts can't lose it.
This really isn't complicated.
In case you haven't been paying attention, here's one of the worst-kept secrets in the history of sports: the best team always wins the Super Bowl, along with the best quarterback -- give or take a few Jim Kelly chokes.
Now Drew Brees is a splendid quarterback and everything, but Peyton Manning is even better than that. Manning also has thoughts of solidifying his legacy among the NFL's all-time elite with a second world championship in four years. What that means is that the Saints are about a Manning shy of being the best team after the opening kickoff. And what that ultimately means is that the Colts will finish the evening with their fingerprints on another Vince Lombardi Trophy.
Here's another thing: everybody keeps taking about the role of destiny surrounding this year's Super Bowl, and they are right, but they are wrong.
They are right in mentioning that destiny is present in this situation. They are wrong in saying it only involves the Saints aiding New Orleans' recovery from Hurricane Katrina by coming this far for the first time during their 43-year history of mostly ineptness.
How about the Colts' destiny?
It starts with that Manning thing, which always is a Colts thing.
The Colts will spend Sunday evening leaving the world's greatest underachievers tag to the likes of the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Buffalo Bills. Courtesy of Manning's brilliant right arm and ever-churning mind, he helped the Colts win more games in a given decade than any NFL franchise ever.
He also pushed this team toward all of those other crazy numbers: a league-record 23 consecutive wins during the regular season (last nine games of 2008 and first 14 of 2009); 10 trips to the playoffs out of the last 11 years, including eight in a row; a league-record seven straight regular seasons with 12 or more victories; the only team ever with three 9-0 starts in a five-year span.
One world championship.
Just one. Given everything else the Colts have done during the last decade or so, winning only that one world championship is ridiculous.
Worse, this is only the second time the Colts have reached the Super Bowl during their otherwise run of brilliance. But no worries, Indianapolis, where that 500-mile race still isn't the same after years of self-inflicted decline, and the Pacers are about to fall of the face of the earth, and the snow keeps dropping with the temperature.
The Colts will spend Sunday evening leaving the world's greatest underachievers tag to the likes of the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Buffalo Bills. While the Dodgers just couldn't beat the superior Yankees, the Bills lost twice to the Cowboys of Triplets Fame (Aikman, Irvin and Smith) and dropped two other Super Bowls to Hall of Fame coaches Joe Gibbs (Washington Redskins) and Bill Parcells (New York Giants).
No disgrace with those situations. And should the Colts lose to the Saints, they will do so to a team that is the people's sentimental choice.
It's just that the Colts won't lose.
Courtesy of Terrence Moore, National Columnist for NFL Fanhouse:bricks:
