The Saints played their hearts out, and they deserved to win. I’ve never seen a team make such a gutsy move as that second half onside kick. No team has ever done an onside kick in the Super Bowl except in the fourth quarter. The Saints made history by doing that, and it turned the entire game around for them.

Now, Reggie Bush can finally get a ring! (Can a ring of a different kind be far behind? Now that he’s won the Super Bowl, you know Kim Kardashian will be looking to him for a ring of her own.)

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Post from: EveryJoe

Peyton Manning Pulled a Brett Favre

Fox Sports says Roland Hedberg was hit in the “hit in the back of the head by a puck during a junior game.” He was hit and then fell to the ice. Within ten seconds, he was attended to by someone who happened to be an off-duty ambulance driver, but to no avail.

Stories like this make you have a real appreciation for how dangerous sports really are.

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Post from: EveryJoe

Hockey Ref Dies After Being Hit With Puck

Saints Emotions

The Saints have had the emotional edge this entire season. People want them to win. They want the city of New Orleans, who has received such a bad deal the last few years, so have something to smile about. They want a team who has never been to the Super Bowl to go and take home the trophy.
Compare that with the (yawn) lackluster thought of the Colts and Peyton Manning winning another Super Bowl. Listen, I’m a huge Peyton fan, but I think he’s gotten a little bit too much credit for the Colts success. It isn’t all about Peyton.

Saints Errors

A lot was said about Brett Favre’s interception throw during the Vikings/Saints playoff game, but let’s not kid ourselves. The Saints played like a bunch of high schoolers who couldn’t keep their emotions in check. They had a bucket full of penalties, and yet still didn’t get called for the most important one (of hitting Favre below the knees.) But they got it out of their system. They will reign it in and use that emotion to play instead of implode.

Strategy

There’s no question that the Colts are the dominant team here. But that doesn’t always mean anything. Remember the Patriots and their “perfect season” – right up until they lost the Super Bowl to the Giants? There was no way the Pats should have lost that game. But they did.

Besides that, aren’t we giving just a little too much credit to Peyton Manning? Listen, he’s the “anti-Favre” right now. He’s likable. He’s a great player. It’s so much easier for people to agree on him. But like Favre, he’s just another player. He’s not a football mastermind. All the Saints have to do is get in his face all day and they will shake him up like they did Favre. If they do this, they will win.

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Post from: EveryJoe

It’s Saints All the Way, Baby!

Like the rest of the sports world, there seems to be a polarizing effect with Favre. You like him or hate him. He’s the greatest thing since sliced bread or he’s overrated. I expect fans to be of this mindset, but for sportscasters it’s their job to call all the details of a game.

Either, the sportscaster will go on (and on) about the abilities of Favre, how he can pull a magical pass out of his bucket, or come up with an amazing play. They will focus on him to the point of losing what else happens in a game. To the point of ignoring the other players, or somehow diminishing their contributions.

The reverse is also true. If a team Favre plays on loses, well then it’s automatically his fault. I saw this all over the Internet after the Vikings lost to the Saints. The only story seemed to be “Favre threw an interception” instead of the five key fumbles that the Vikings players made. Favre’s interception wasn’t (this time) the cause of the loss. But it didn’t seem to matter. This lazy reporting bugs me, because it dumbs down the game.

In the end, Favre is just a player. He’s got records, and statistically is the greatest one we’ve seen. But he is just one of the eleven out on the field. I wonder if sportscasters have forgotten that?

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Post from: EveryJoe

Does Brett Favre Make Sportscasters Lazy?

Barber got over his fumbling problem by working closely with coach Tom Coughlin, who helped him change the way he held the ball. A simple matter of fundamentals and – poof! – fumbling problem was solved.

At this time, I have to question Brad Childress as to why he wasn’t doing the same thing with Peterson before the championship game. He had to know that fumbling would likely be an issue. Barber tells NBC sports that someone needs to talk to Peterson and give him the what-for. He said:

“I think with Adrian Peterson, he needs somebody with authority — with a strong voice — to tell him, ‘Look, as great as a player as you are, you’re a liability.’ And that’s what Tom Coughlin did with me. He said ‘Tiki, I love the way you play the game of football, but you fumble and you’re a liability.’ It hits your pride in a way that makes you want to correct it, and I don’t think anybody’s ever done that for Adrian Peterson yet.”

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Post from: EveryJoe

Adrian Peterson? Fumblicious

But putting the Pro Bowl before the Super Bowl just seems to underscore the ridiculousness of it. Players getting voted in are the facts that fans care about. We want to know who are the Pro Bowl players on our team and we even want to have a say in it. But we don’t want to watch a meaningless game where players really don’t play their hearts out just because.

Couldn’t this honor of voting continue, with a banquet followed by those voted in. That way, we don’t have to waste three hours watching it, the players still get the honors they deserve, no one has to get injured, and the fans can still vote. Heck, the banquet could even be held in a nice warm city like Miami.

How about that instead? Anyone with me?

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Post from: EveryJoe

How About a Pro Bowl Banquet Instead?

He’s the got the stats to be a hall of famer, as Fox pointed out, “In a comparison with the 14 quarterbacks to make the Hall of Fame in the last 25 years, Warner has a better career completion percentage, yards per pass attempt and yards per game.” But it’s his personal story which makes his career in the NFL truly remarkable. He didn’t start in the league until he was 28, after playing in the arena league and working at a grocery store.

More than that, however, he is genuinely one of the nicest guys around. His Christian faith gives him a sincerity and humbleness that is so rare in sports. He’s sure to continue being an emotional leader for his league, even now that he’s retired.

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Post from: EveryJoe

Kurt Warner Retires

But you know Bündchen, who is married to Patriots QB Tom Brady, probably didn’t have the size bathtub you and I did. I mean, really, it was probably the size of a pool. Oh and by the way, People also reports that just six weeks after having the baby, she’s back to work and “ looking hot as ever.”

Of course she is.

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Post from: EveryJoe

Gisele Bündchen Gave Birth in the Bathtub

Now, apparently, the Colts have come to terms with the league and will send their guys to the game. The Colts players will go down ” via charter jet (reimbursed by the league),” hang out in Miami Sunday night and then wait for the rest of their teammates. This avoids hiking back and forth from Indianapolis to Miami.

Now that we’ve got that all worked out, does anyone really care? Seriously, it seems to be a status thing with players because as fans we could give a rip less who players in the Pro Bowl. For me at least, it’s enough to see who is getting voted in. I don’t care to watch.

Anyone else feel the same way?

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Post from: EveryJoe

Colts Will Send Players to Pro Bowl

First of all, I talked about having an emotional edge in my prediction post about Sunday’s games. I had predicted that the game would be close, but that emotions would run high, especially on the part of the Saints. I knew this game meant a lot to the team that had never gone to a Super Bowl, and the town that needed some great news. I suggested that if the Saints didn’t get their emotions under control, it would cost them.

The final score was a victory, but let’s face it, the amount of ridiculous penalties the Saints had showed that they were keyed up to the point of implosion, and those were the ones that were called. What about the lack of call on the low hit on Favre? The one that caused him to limp off the field? The rulebook clearly states that unless blocked or fouled into a quarterback, players are not allowed to lunge at a quarterback’s legs. But the Saints did, and there was no penalty for it.

The Vikings, on the other hand, had a set of emotions to work through themselves. How many fumbles did Adrian Peterson need to have before he stepped up and played decently. Favre threw a boneheaded interception at the end in a play meant simply to get more yardage for a Ryan Longwell field goal. What was coach Brad Childress thinking? Longwell could have still easily made that without needing to jam in another pass.

I still believe the Saints have the power to win the Super Bowl, but they need to seriously take a look at the way they played on Sunday and get their heads together. I doubt the Colts are going to have the emotional issues (dropped passes, fumbles, lame calls, and interceptions) that the Vikings had.

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Post from: EveryJoe

Saints Win So Much More Than Interception