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The hold that the NFL has on sporting America is only solidified by Super Bowls like this, when good guys win and heroes are rewarded and you feel OK even about the losers. You come away wondering what's not to embrace about something that can be so grandiose yet ultimately so human.
That's what makes the Super Bowl more attractive than ever. A record 144 million people, enticed by all the feel-good stories the NFL produces with such regularity, were expected to watch at least parts of the 41st edition Sunday. The 13 top-rated TV shows of all time are Super Bowls; no doubt this one will grow the list to 14, perhaps even carve out a place on top. This certainly is a platform unprecedented in all of our sports, and though this game may not have been particularly beautiful, the men who emerged as the most distinguished at its end are worthy of a spotlight that extended to 232 countries and territories worldwide.
Super Bowl 41 Super Bowl slideshow Vinnie Iyer: Colts beat up Bears Dave Kindred: Two big winners Wet, wild Colts win Manning wins MVP Grossman falters SN's final Power Poll Here is Tony Dungy, the first black coach to win an NFL championship, standing amid the confetti that fills the air inside Dolphin Stadium after the Colts' 29-17 win, sporting a smile incapable of disappearing off his face, knowing he has just made history. But what's so good about this is not just that the barrier finally and belatedly has been shattered by Dungy. It's also how he goes about winning. He is not the prototypical screaming football-coaching monster; he leads with calmness, with persuasion, with steadiness. With any luck, he'll become the model youth coaches will imitate instead of the guys who yell and demean.
And here is Peyton Manning, whose career sadly had come to be measured, unfair as that was, by his failure to win a ring. Now, we'll hear no more of such talk. It had all been so stupid, the debate about whether Manning lacked true greatness without a league title. But it taxed him greatly; late Sunday night, he seemed more relieved than excited about the victory. Thankfully, he refused to declare he now felt vindicated. "I don't play that card," he said over and over. We now can spend the rest of his time in the NFL determining where he stands among quarterback immortals.
These two men will be forever linked by this win over the Bears. Their much-chronicled years of disappointments were wiped out by a few joyous hours amid the first Super Bowl marred by persistent rain. If you look carefully inside what made this victory happen -- what finally brought satisfaction to a coach and his star -- you'll uncover something else: This Colts triumph came about once these men reached a compromise about the process of how you actually accomplish winning.
Maybe we roll our eyes when coaches such as Dungy call football the "ultimate team sport." But that is what Super Bowl 41 exemplifies. Our two heroes, one so steeped in defensive philosophies, the other an offensive demon, are happy now because the Colts no longer are a bunch of guys being carried by a star quarterback. Instead, they doused the Bears with one of those balanced squadwide efforts that wasn't anything close to an Indianapolis staple when Dungy took over as coach five years ago.
To think that the Colts could dominate a game of this magnitude without Manning's producing a career performance would have been unfathomable even five weeks ago. But that's what happened in this one; he may have won the most valuable player trophy, yet other teammates contributed mightily, too. The Bears were overwhelmed as much by Indy's suddenly suffocating defense and a patient, time-consuming, yardage-eating approach on offense as they were by Manning's individual talents. Manning's most significant contribution to this formula is how he now manages a game. In this one, he was content to feast on a diet of underneath passes; no need to be greedy with an overdose of lower-percentage shots deep down the field.
"We realized going into the playoffs how people were going to play us, and people played us differently than they had two years ago, differently than last year," Dungy says. "And I think the playoffs were just a great kind of laboratory for him to show his whole game. And that was getting us in the right place, running the ball, calling the plays, dropping the ball off, using everyone. He demonstrated his whole game in these playoffs. And it was pretty awesome to see."
It was just as awesome to see the influence Dungy has exhibited. This most gentle, God-fearing of men brought with him to Indy a reputation for conservative coaching, what he kiddingly calls "Buc Ball" after his years with Tampa Bay. It has taken him this long to meld his philosophies with a team that, through salary cap decisions, is intentionally built for offense. And with a quarterback who's given more authority to call plays and direct a scheme during games than any in football.
He has gradually reined in Manning just enough to enable the offense to provide help for the Colts' smallish defense, which tends to wear down. To protect it, you control time of possession, you tally the most snaps, you grind out yards through a balance of run and pass. Want to know how this approach works? Examine the results of Super Bowl 41.
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The Colts had the ball for just over 38 minutes, the Bears for just under 22. The Colts registered 191 rushing yards, the Bears only 111. The Colts totaled 81 plays, the Bears 48. These are staggering advantages, even more impressive when you consider Indy carried into the game a reputation for finesse and Chicago one of power and might. Yet it was the Colts who were the tougher, the more physical, the more dominant on defense. And Manning was a complementary 25-of-38 for 247 yards, an interception and just one touchdown. So much for a dome team not being able to win in poor weather. And so much for an NFC team having a chance this season to win the championship. Just as the Bears were on this night, the entire conference was outclassed by the superior AFC.
It was particularly satisfying to Dungy to have his defense play such a big role against Chicago. This still ranks among the worst defenses, statistically, to win a Super Bowl, but in the Colts' four playoff triumphs, it was a different animal, a bear against the run (after being dead last during the regular season) and opportunistic enough to create a timely turnover or two. Chicago, which opened the game with a 92-yard kickoff return from Devin Hester, managed one 52-yard sprint from Thomas Jones that led to another first quarter touchdown and a 14-6 lead. Otherwise, it barely could gain yards on most of its rushes.
And that left its hopes dependent on not-ready-for-prime-time Rex Grossman, and he wasn't close to being capable of rallying his team.
That's what Dungy and Manning also showed -- the Super Bowl brings with it so much pressure and so many expectations that only the most experienced and mature need attempt to win a ring. Grossman is neither; the Colts based their game plan on stopping the run and forcing him to go after big plays downfield, sure they could turn his best intentions into errors. And they were right. This certainly is no forum for average quarterbacks still learning their profession. Grossman did not embarrass himself; the Bears' overrated defense was much more responsible for the loss. But he was grossly outmatched.
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Spend a week within the atmosphere of this NFL championship and you come away appreciating just why only the most secure players can survive. Its scope grows yearly. Forbes magazine rates the Super Bowl the most valuable sports event brand in the world, worth $379 million annually to all who rake in revenues from its various elements. Thirty-second ads for this year's game sold for $2.6 million; halftime sponsorship was expected to top $12 million. More than 130 international media organizations covered the game, and they did it in 33 languages. Television images were seen in China, Mongolia, Vatican City, Iran, Iraq and Antarctica.
Tickets with a face value of $600 were being scalped for thousands. One ticket broker offered six seats in Shaq's suite at the stadium for a mere $112,500. If you were content with an upper-level view, he could sell you a ticket for $2,800. Want a club view? It could cost you $10,182. Yet the game is so popular many were willing to pay such outrageous ransoms to attend.
The Super Bowl now is also the scene of megaparties. South Florida is the perfect venue for such craziness; the region doesn't need much reason to spend all night -- or all week, for that matter -- catering to the rich, the famous and the limo drivers who escort them from nightclub to nightclub. It seemed as if anyone who was anyone on the A-list made an appearance in Miami Beach during the days preceding the game; everyone wants to be associated with something this "in."
There's no sign, either, of a downturn, or even a leveling off, in interest. The NFL is coming off a hugely successful regular season, with record attendance and television ratings stronger than they've been in years. These trends continued in the playoffs; no wonder television networks are currently paying the league an average of $3.7 billion a year in rights fees. Network executives will tell you it's a bargain.
Just as it's a bargain for us to witness the kind of memories that Dungy, Manning and the Colts have given us. There's a reason the two embraced for a long time just moments after their victory. Only they understood the work, the determination and emotion that they had invested in this game and in their relationship.
For them, it was a mixture of joy and relief. For us, more reason to understand why these games are so super.
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