Friday, February 09, 2007

NFL notes - 2/1/2007 - Super Bowl is over.

Super Bowl is finally over and I am glad Peyton and Dungy are the Champions. One of the few times nice guys seem to have won in life. Though Peyton's humility does seem a little fake sometimes, I still think he is genuinely a nice and clean-cut guy. But the guy I am really happy for is coach Tony Dungy. He seems like a true gentleman and he is the best guy to hold the honor of being the first ever black coach to win the Super Bowl.

But before I talk about the game itself, I need to get something off my chest. You really can't spell hypocrisy without the words N-F-L! I was in Vegas for the Super Bowl. Vegas is just a great place to be in general, but it's really fun to be there for the Super Bowl. With their 30+ HD television sets, huge screens, comfortable seats, free drinks and hot waitresses in sexy costumes, sports books may be the closest thing to heaven on Earth! Apparently the casinos used to have hugely popular public parties for the Super Bowl until the NFL sent them a letter few years back threatening to sue them if they continue to show the Super Bowl at their parties. NFL doesn't want their name to be associated with the casinos and the sports books are the only place where the casinos can legally show the game. Even in their betting sheets, some casinos call it the "pro football championship game" and not the "Super Bowl" because NFL doesn't like them using the term Super Bowl. What a load of garbage! I know football is king in this country, but if you pull gambling (including fantasy football) out of football, it just might end up being the next NHL. For the league to pretend like it's too good for Vegas is laughable. Don't tell me your 35 minute half-time show has nothing to do with the fact that the sports books have to come up with second half prop bets! I understand the sports leagues need to stay far away from the gambling dens, but this is NFL going way too far for no sensible reason.

As for the game itself, it was kind of a letdown. It started really well for the Bears with Devin Hester taking the opening kickoff to the house! It was an electric play to kick-off the game after everybody spent 2 weeks talking about how the Colts need to stop Devin Hester. Peyton also threw an early interception. It all went downhill from there for the Bears. The Colts dominated the game from that point on though the score stayed close and held our attention well in to the third quarter. But the Colts clearly took control of this game at some point in the second quarter. There were a lot of turnovers because of the rain and I think I saw 2 back-to-back turnovers on consecutive plays for the first time.

Rex Grossman was truly horrible in this game! This guy couldn't do anything right in the second half. Though the Colts were the better team, the weather, turnovers and the quick start kept the Bears in this game for a long time. If only Rex had even made a couple of big plays in the second half, this could have been a much better game. Rex fumbled the snap a couple of times, threw horrible interceptions a couple other times and just refused to keep the Bears in the game! It was not all his fault because the defense couldn't stop the run, but he didn't help even a bit. He got excellent field position every time because the Colts didn't want to kick off to Hester anymore. In fact, Rex predicts this correctly after the first TD. HBO's Inside the NFL shows "sexy Rexy" running around on the sidelines after Hester's TD saying "we got excellent field position the rest of the game because they wont kick to him anymore". Unfortunately that was Rex's first and last good call of the game. I wouldn't blame the Bears if they look elsewhere for a QB next year. The problem with Rex now is, if you play bad against the Lions in Oct, nobody is watching. But the whole World is watching on a Super Bowl Sunday and his every mistake is just magnified. It's going to be tough for him to erase this unless he improves by leaps and bound.

As for the Colts, the rushing attack was on and Addai and Rhodes carved up the Bears. Peyton managed the game well and didn't have to be spectacular. The Colts D was good too and Bob Sanders seems to be getting all the credit for their sudden turnaround in the playoffs. A deserving champ indeed. It's been 5, 6 years coming for Peyton. A true franchise player. This makes him one of the biggest names in Sports. Michael Irvin says he is now the MJ of the NFL. There might be some truth to it. He is the best player in the league and now he has a ring to prove it.

All in all a good season and it's time to wave goodbye to football.

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