First off, lets give both teams their just due for getting there amidst tough competition. That out of the way, It doesn’t matter weather the better team won or not, and my contemporaries in “big” media should stop blaming everyone and everything else but Peyton Manning for the interception with just over 3 minutes to go. As great as he is, he wasn’t good enough Sunday to beat the Saints, who wanted it in the worst way.
But it’s also time to tell the truth. If it wasn’t for President Bush “strongly” persuading New Orleans owner Tom Benson to “stick it out” in New Orleans for the sake of the people of the city and the state after Hurricane Katrina, the victory parade right now would have been held in San Antonio instead of New Orleans. The Superdome was rebuilt with federal money after the hurricane, tax money from you and me. We should have no problem with that either. If the same thing happened in Dallas or Arizona those stadiums would have been rebuilt as well.
Lets get back to the game now, shall we? Make no mistake here, the people of Cajun land needed this win, maybe more then the good folks of Indiana. It doesn’t mean the Saints are a better team on paper. It just means they were better on Sunday then the Colts were. The coaching was better, the players executed their game plan better, and the breaks went their way. We shouldn’t even be assigning blame here, we should just take it for what it was, a momentary lapse of reason. Brett Farve has them at least 6 times a year, and he’s supposed to be the modern day god of Quarterbacks.
So while everyone down in the bayou is in celebration mode, and all but 11 people showed up at the airport yesterday to welcome the return of the AFC champions home, we need to remind everyone that there much larger issues facing the game of Football right now other then did the better team won the Super Bowl or not. The game of football is facing several serious issues that have to be faced, not avoided.
One thing Mr. Goodell is right about: there needs to be more communication in the negotiations and soon if a lock out is to be avoided in just under 13 months. The owners may think they will win no matter what because the networks will still fill the NFL treasure chest, but no one really wins if there is a work stoppage, just ask baseball and hockey if they have recovered from their work stoppages yet. The clear answer is no, they have not recovered at all. It’s time for some common sense to take hold here folks. The players are not backing down, and neither is their new union leader, DeMaurice Smith. Maybe the owners thought they were getting a “softie” when this guy took over. They were even selling T-shirts in Florida at all the pre-super bowl events last week for 5 dollars each. It’s time for Joe average fan to be worried.