The Other Guys

Currently Reading: The Civil War by Julius Caesar

Did you know there was another team playing in the Super Bowl on Sunday night? No, really it's true. I looked it up and apparently the New Orleans Saints are playing a team from the mid-west. Yeah, they're called the Indianapolis Colts. I'm not making this up guys. I'm being 100% serious. There's more to this Super Bowl thing than just another party in Miami and New Orleans.

Not that you'd know it by watching the national media. Yes, the Colts get mentioned on the big sports networks but on the non-sports stations you'd think this was all bout the Saints and the parties in Miami. Now, I won't lie to you, I've never been a fan of the Saints. I couldn't really say WHY. Maybe it's the black and gold uniform. Maybe it's the general FRENCH nature of their logo. Or perhaps it's something about the atrocious grammar of "Who dat?" I do know for certain that I don't like the fringed umbrella Tom Benson uses when he does his Benson Boogie. For that matter I don't like the Benson Boogie.

This dislike for the Saints goes back before this season. They've had some very disappointing games where the snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. They've had plenty of over-hyped seasons where everyone SWORE they were the next best thing. Then they pulled a Tony Romo and just choked and fell apart.

This may happen again you know. A lot of non-sports people will say that experience doesn't count for all that much, or at least it shouldn't. It's just another football game and they're a good team. Maybe. But anyone who's done live performances of ANY kind can tell you there's big difference between the comfort of your home stadium and the less familiar road stadium. And like it or not, the closer you get to the final game, the more pressure there is to perform. These guys have had two weeks living in a pressure cooker. That's where the experience comes into play. The guys who have been through this before know what it's like and can help the other guys stay focused on what's important (no, not the commercials, the game).

About the only thing I've really heard about the Colts leading up to the Super Bowl are things that are related to the Saints. Take Peyton Manning. Of all the things to write about him what's the one thing they keep drilling over and over? That his dad played for the Saints. Yeah. Years and years ago. So long ago that a large portion of fans never even saw him suit up. And yet, there it is, in article after article.

As for the Saints, well there isn't much information about the team and players themselves (unless you count Reggie Bush and his Kardashian girlfriend). What you hear about is how this team overcame adversity, though when it comes time to elaborate, the story always talks about hurricane Katrina (seriously, enough already!) and how they spent half of one season playing on a different home field while their stadium was being rebuilt. You get stories about how New Orleans, the city, is rebuilding after all the flooding. Sometimes there's a mention of the quarterback but mostly it's all about the city.

Just for the record, for those of you who may have forgotten, the New Orleans Saints is a football team that plays in the city of New Orleans. That's it. Their playing in the Super Bowl or even winning it has nothing to do with the city itself. Two separate stories and quite frankly, I'm getting tired of them both.

It's easy to see why the Colts don't get as much press though. Think back, as many years as you can. What's the big story coming out of Indianapolis? Yeah, off the top of my head I can't think of anything either except that THEY won the Super Bowl a few years back. So here's a little history about the team playing the Saints on Sunday:

• 1946 (12/28) Bankrupt Miami Seahawks franchise of All-America Football Conference moved to Baltimore. Bob Rodenberg headed purchasing group and the team was renamed "Colts" via a fan contest.
• 1947 (2/10) Cecil Isbell named head coach. (9/7) Colts won inaugural AAFC game, defeating Brooklyn Dodgers, 16-7, before 27,418 fans at Baltimore Stadium. (9/28) New York Yankees defeated Colts, 21-7, before a then-record Baltimore crowd of 51,583. Colts placed fourth in Eastern Division with 2-11-1 record, while drawing 199,661 fans.
• 1949 (12/9) The National Football League and the AAFC reached a "peace" agreement and the Colts were assigned to the NFL for the 1950 season.
• 1958 (10/26) Rookie DB-Lenny Lyles had 101t KOR vs. Washington to become first player ever with two 100t+ KOR in same season (other was 103t vs. Chicago 10/4). (11/2) Colts recorded first shutout, 56-0 over Green Bay, marking their sixth straight win and setting the club record for largest margin of victory. (11/30) Colts clinched first Western Division title, 35-27, over San Francisco before second straight record crowd of 57,577. QB-John Unitas tossed a scoring pass in a 23rd straight game to set a new NFL record (QB-Cecil Isbell, 22 games, Green Bay 1941- 42). (12/28) Colts defeated the New York Giants, 23-17, at Yankee Stadium in "sudden death" game for World Championship. Weeb Ewbank and 12 players from "The Greatest Game Ever Played" eventually became NFL Hall of Famers.
• 1969 (1/12) Colts dropped Super Bowl III to New York Jets, 16-7, at Orange Bowl. (5/17) Colts, Pittsburgh and Cleveland joined AFL teams to form American Football Conference as the NFL realigned for the 1970 season.
• 1971 (1/3) Colts captured the AFC Championship by topping Oakland, 27-17. (1/17) Colts won the first AFC-NFC Super Bowl, 16-13 over Dallas in the Orange Bowl on K- Jim O'Brien's 32-yard field goal with :05 remaining. Don McCafferty became the first rookie head coach to win a Super Bowl (later matched by San Francisco's George Seifert in Super Bowl XXXIV)
• 1984 (3/28) Colts in Indianapolis. (4/18) Season tickets offered for sale and overwhelming response yielded 143,000 requests in two weeks.
• 2006 (9/10) The Colts posted a 26-21 win at the New York Giants in the first NFL contest pitting brothers as starting quarterbacks, Peyton and Eli Manning. (1/21) Erasing an 18-point deficit with a 32-point second-half flurry, the Colts captured the AFC Championship with a 38-34 victory over New England. Manning (27-47-349, 1 TD/int.) scored on a 1t rush and guided the club to 17 fourth-quarter points. Indianapolis had second-half scoring drives of 76, 76, 67, 59 and 80 yards. The final drive concluded with a 3t rush by Addai with 1:00 remaining as the club produced the largest championship game comeback in NFL Super Bowl-era history. Indianapolis knotted the contest at 21-21, 28-28 and 31-31 before the final gamewinning drive. The club's berth in Super Bowl XLI followed those earned by the franchise in Super Bowl III and V. (2/4) The Colts earned a fourth World Championship in besting the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI at Dolphin Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla. In a contest played in steady rain and 67-degree temperatures, the Colts overcame a 14-6 second- quarter deficit. Led by Manning (25-38-247, 1 TD/int.), a rushing attack that produced 191 yards behind Rhodes (21-113, 1 TD) and Addai (19-77) and a defense that surrendered only eleven first downs and 265 net yards while helping produce five turnovers, the Colts out-scored the Bears 23-3 over the game's final 41 minutes. Manning teamed with Wayne (2-61, 1 TD; 53t) for the club's first score. Rhodes tallied on a 1t rush midway through the second quarter, and Indianapolis would not relinquish the lead. Vinatieri added field goals of 29, 24 and 20 yards to boost the club's lead to 22-17 late in the third quarter, then DB-Kelvin Hayden's 56t interception return early in the fourth quarter provided the final points. Manning became the first Colts Super Bowl MVP. Addai (10-66) set a Super Bowl reception mark for a running back. The victory marked the club's first title in 36 years, the last coming in Super Bowl V against Dallas, 16-13 on January 17, 1971. The franchise won NFL titles following the 1958 and 1959 seasons.

So there ya go. A little history about the OTHER guys playing this weekend's game. They're a good team. They're a solid team. And you know, they just may have the answer to that question: Who dat say day can beat dem Saints? Day be da Colts my friends :-)