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OUT OF LEFT FIELD |
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BIG ONE |
 SAINTS QB DREW BREES ...won the battle of the quarterbacks |
...And Peyton Manning
Became A Mere Mortal
of TheColumnists.com
The definitive picture was on the front page of The Philadelphia Inquirer and The New York Times. It probably made the front pages of many other newspapers with savvy editors.
It showed the New Orleans Saints’ Terry Porter returning an intercepted Peyton Manning pass 74 yards for a touchdown. This upped the Saints’ fourth-quarter lead to what turned out to be an insurmountable 31-17 advantage over the Indianapolis Colts and a Super Bowl victory.
In the rear of the photo ingloriously lying on his backsides was Manning. He had tried to tackle Porter and been knocked to the ground by Saints’ defensive end, No. 91, Wil Smith. A diehard Colts fan could argue that Smith jolted Manning in the back, but it would not have affected Porter’s victorious jaunt. And it would have taken a foolhardy official to make such a call at that time.
Such is the oft juvenile nature of sports palaver that there now will be an abatement of the pre-game talk that Manning could be the greatest quarterback of all time. Because Manning lost what would have been a second championship for him, he sinks back to the ranks of mortals. That was inherent in Philly Inquirer columnist Ashley Fox’ piece which included the line: “That Manning, on the cusp of forcing the issue of who is the best quarterback of all time, made such a costly error at such a critical time was stunning.”
There is a tendency for media people to think only of modern-era athletes when ranking stars. “Modern” essentially means the TV era. Immortals whose feats aren’t available on the clips that ESPN and the like so frequently call up in its scene-setting coverage tend to be lost in the mist of time.
Dave Anderson, the semi-retired New York Times columnist, reminded people about some of the old immortals in his pre-game Super Bowl piece. He woke up the echoes of Otto Graham and Sid Luckman. A box showed that the Cleveland Browns’ Graham had won seven championships in his time (in the days when the National Football League/All America Conference games were the Super Bowls of that time). Luckman won four championships with the Chicago Bears.
I would add Sammy Baugh of the Washington Redskins to the list for the specific reason that Baugh, like Graham and Luckman, played in the days when the quarterbacks called their own signals. So the talk that Manning was the smartest quarterback of all time has to be taken with an arched eyebrow. (It should be noted that Bart Starr won five championships with the Green Bay Packers, but I am fairly confident he was directed by coach Vince Lombardi).
The cognoscenti argue that the defenses Manning faces--with exotic blitzes and liberal substitutions--are more complex and difficult to master than those in the past. Maybe so, but I can’t accept that Luckman, of Erasmus Hall High Brooklyn and Columbia University, was not smart enough to handle what today’s defenses would throw at him.
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We all have become accustomed to athletes gesturing to the sky after a stirring deed, thanking God for his/her help. We don’t see defeated athletes do that, of course.
There was a new twist on the God thing in this Super Bowl. At a key point in the fourth quarter, Indianapolis kicker Matt Stover attempted a 51-yard field goal. He missed. But he first thought he was successful. And he raised his two hands to the sky in the “thanks to God” gesture. But he was wrong and he walked off the field dejectedly. Did he feel God let him down?
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The idiocy of most
of the overhyped Super Bowl commercials makes you wonder about
the people who boast they tune in the Super Bowl to watch the
commercials. The inanity of men in jockey shorts hustling a product
is a tribute I suppose to the ad men/women who spent four years
in university to gain the wisdom that enables them to craft these
moments of genius.
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Sometimes I think President O’Bama lacks smarts. He appeared in a pre-game segment with CBS’ Katie Couric. For five moments or so he answered questions on the serious issues of the day. Boring. He said the same things he has been saying the past few months, notably in the State of the Union address.
This was Super Bowl time. He should have waved off serious talk. All it needed was a few hellos, a tribute to the athletes and the spectacle and his prediction on the game. Couric finally got around to that, and the President said that while he was rooting for the Saints because of the New Orleans Katrina angle, he favored Indianapolis to win.
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The Saints’ Super Bowl victory earned them the Vince Lombardi Trophy, which honors the legendary Green Bay coach whose Packers won the first two Super Bowls. New Jersey honored Lombardi, a longtime Jerseyite, by naming one of its Jersey Turnpike rest stops after Lombardi.
It turns out that the Lombardi rest stop (closest to New York City) became a meeting place for gay men. This inspired a protest from Lombardi’s widow, Marie. But to no avail.
©2010 by Stan Isaacs. The Stan Isaacs caricature is ©2001 by Jim Hummel. This column first posted Feb. 8, 2010.
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