NFLaccess

Filed under: Colts, Saints, NFL Coaching, Super Bowl, NFL Quarterbacks

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — With confetti and congratulations pouring down on him after Sunday’s 31-17 Super Bowl XLIV ambush of the favored Indianapolis Colts, New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton – a guy who likes to celebrate — said he wasn’t sure he would make it to the traditional Monday morning winners’ news conference.

He showed up, hair uncombed, bleary eyed, looking every bit like someone who had just spent a sleepless night. Except that Payton did get some shut-eye, with some interesting company at his side.

Holding the Lombardi Trophy in his hands as he faced the cameras one last time before heading back to the Crescent City for what promises to be an epic “Who Dat” victory parade, Payton doesn’t sound like a guy who’s eager to let it go anytime soon.

“This thing laid in my bed next to me last night,” Payton said, holding the NFL’s championship hardware like it was a much-loved teddy bear. “I rolled over a couple of times. I probably drooled on it. But man, there’s nothing like it.”

The sterling silver Lombardi Trophy has a special connection to the Saints‘ organization. It is named for Vince Lombardi, the legendary Green Bay Packers coach. And Lombardi’s grandson, Joe, is the Saints quarterback coach.

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Filed under: Sports Business and Media

As it did for the New Orleans Saints offense, it took a while for CBS’ telecast of Sunday’s Super Bowl to catch fire, but once it did, the network’s broadcast was up to the challenge.

With game analyst Phil Simms turning in a fine performance, and good replays, particularly in the decisive fourth quarter, CBS’ 17th telecast of a Super Bowl was among its most memorable, even if it started slowly.

Simms, working his sixth Super Bowl, was especially strong, weaving in behind-the-scenes knowledge with solid insight. For instance, his second quarter point that the Indianapolis Colts‘ defense hadn’t seen a solid passing attack in weeks proved particularly prescient in the second half when Drew Brees began to connect with New Orleans receivers on short, quick passes.

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Filed under: Saints, NFL Fans, Super Bowl

NEW ORLEANS — They didn’t need to wait until the clock hit 0:00.

When Tracy Porter took off with a Peyton Manning pass meant for Reggie Wayne, pushing the Saints‘ lead to 31-17 with just over three minutes left in the fourth quarter of this year’s Super Bowl, the city of New Orleans took off, too, to a state of euphoria and overwhelming emotion.

There was an initial surge of joy in the Bourbon Street bar I watched the game in — people leaping into each other’s arms, falling over, jumping up and down with no concern for what happened to the contents of their cups. And then, after a minute, everybody looked at the scoreboard and the moment sunk in. The mood turned from festive to reflective.

That’s when a twenty-something guy in an LSU T-shirt made eye contact with me and broke down.

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Filed under: Super Bowl, Sports Business and Media

In a little over three hours, Super Bowl commercials starred squirrels, beavers, chickens, longhorn cattle, horses, dogs, cats, hippos, giraffes, whales, cheetahs, tigers, snakes, and people pretending to be dolphins. Oh, and babies and kids. Also, men were made fun of for not being manly enough. There was a time when the Super Bowl was such a cultural zeitgeist that you went to school or work the next day and discussed the latest catch phrase. Who can forget the cool teacher in sixth grade referencing, “You Got the Right One Baby”? Or the cat drive commercial during the height of the Internet boom?

Now?

Now advertising executives give us animals or children and you’re hard pressed to remember an ad for longer than a day or two. On Sunday it was my responsibility to assiduously study the commercials and bring you a countdown of the best and the worst. So that’s what you’re going to get. I’m counting down to the best commercial and alternating with the worst. The worst ads are in italics. Who got the best bang for their 2.8 million?

Read on.

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Filed under: Saints, NFL Coaching, Super Bowl

MIAMI — Contrary to what you’ll be hearing for the next few years, Sean Payton isn’t that smart. If he were, he would have waited a little longer before dropping a bomb on his kicker.

“Hey, we’re running it,” he told Thomas Morstead.

It was the Onside Kick Heard ‘Round The World. The only thing wrong with the call was that there were still 20 minutes left in halftime.

“I wish he’d told me at the end,” Morstead said.

Instead, Morstead had an entire performance by The Who to get nervous. But like almost everything else Payton did Sunday night, it worked to near perfection.

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Filed under: Colts, Super Bowl, NFL Quarterbacks, NFL Analysis

MIAMI — The great ones thrive in this situation. Everything has gone against you for the longest time. The whole world is watching. Your opponents have admitted often that they are scared to death of your skills. You’re trailing by a touchdown within the final six minutes of the Super Bowl, and you’re driving, driving, driving.

You’re Peyton Manning, seeking to prove without a doubt that you’re more than just a bunch of pretty numbers on your NFL resume.

Oh, well.

He’ll never live this down.

While this otherwise extraordinary quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts will reach the Pro Football Hall of Fame someday, he just moved closer to the city limits of the Chokers Hall of Fame.

I mean, you’re Peyton Manning, and you’re so close Sunday against the New Orleans Saints to becoming Joe Montana, a truly great one, who produced magic 21 years ago down the stretch of a Super Bowl on this same field. Near the end of that one, Montana hit John Taylor in the end zone to push the San Francisco 49ers past the Cincinnati Bengals.

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Filed under: Colts, Saints, NFL Playoffs, Super Bowl

MIAMI — There’s something about a Super Bowl stage that brings out the best in Indianapolis Colts running back Joseph Addai. He easily could have been the MVP of Super Bowl XLI three seasons ago at this same South Florida stadium, when the then-rookie gained 143 total yards in a victory over the Chicago Bears.

In that game, Addai lost his MVP trophy to quarterback Peyton Manning. In Super Bowl XLIV, his MVP bid — which seemed very legitimate at halftime with his 80 yards from scrimmage and the Colts leading the Saints 10-6 — was destroyed Sunday by a New Orleans offense that dominated in the second half and was outscored 15-0 in the fourth quarter.

Addai, meanwhile, was one of the few highlights for Indianapolis in what would be a 31-17 loss to the sentimental favorite Saints. The fourth-year back had 135 yards from scrimmage — 77 rushing, and 58 yards receiving on seven receptions.

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Filed under: Saints, Super Bowl

MIAMI — The brash and bold attitude the freshly anointed New Orleans Saints displayed on Sunday night is a trait they have flaunted all season. There was nothing fluke or lucky or miraculous about what the Saints did to the Indianapolis Colts here well before “The Who” appeared at halftime and well after the Colts wondered “Who Dat stole our thunder?”

You bet, the seeds for this whipping — a 31-17 victory in Super Bowl XLIV that began with the Colts scoring the game’s first 10 points and then being blitzed 31-7 — were planted when Sean Payton walked through the door at the Saints complex four years ago.

Instantly, he began whacking and whittling. Cutting wheat from shaft. Carving out whatever remnants of sulking, sorry losing mentality that remained, traits that had long helped strangle the franchise. Dumping grouchy players and lax coaches and overhauling the systems.

Payton had a hammer in one hand and a blueprint in the other.

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Filed under: NFL Injuries, NFL Playoffs, Super Bowl, NFL Analysis

MIAMI — Dwight Freeney never took a pain killing injection. He taped his badly sprained right ankle at least three times — twice at halftime — trying to keep the torn ligaments from ruining what was left of his speed and mobility.

Freeney played all four quarters of Sunday’s Super Bowl XLIV, but the Indianapolis Colts’ top defensive player and the rest of his teammates were simply no match for Saints quarterback Drew Brees’ astonishing efficiency (32-of-39 passing) in New Orleans’ eye-popping 31-17 victory.

Freeney was limited, as was right cornerback Jerraud Powers (left foot fracture), yet both were active. How effective were they? Powers didn’t start. But Freeney, who bull-rushed his way to a 7-yard sack of Brees midway through the first quarter — a clutch third-down stop that forced a 46-yard Garrett Hartley field goal — said he played almost a normal rotation with defensive end Raheem Brock.

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Filed under: Colts, Saints, NFL Playoffs, Super Bowl

MIAMI — If ever there was a Super Bowl champion that was more than just a Super Bowl champion, it’s the New Orleans Saints.

“We played for so much more than ourselves. We played for our city. We played for the entire Gulf Coast region. We played for ‘Who Dat’ nation,” said Drew Brees, who four-and-a-half years after the Saints were driven from their homes by Hurricane Katrina, led his team to a 31-17 win over the Indianapolis Colts.

“The city was 85 percent under water, most of the population moved to other cities, and none of them knew if they’d ever come back. It’s just an amazing feeling.”

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