SportsFullCircle

The Super Bowl. Biggest football game of the year. World Championship between two conference representatives. National Holiday.

For more than 20 weeks, we waited, we speculated, and we anticipated this day of judgment. Everything up to this point is now just history. History that means little to nothing in the eyes of the people who have the only say in tonight’s outcome. And, after tonight…this game will make that history meaningful to one team.

The rest of us get to do what we’ve been doing all season, hope, or speculate. Cheer, or predict. While we may not have any say in the outcome, we are as important to the game as the game is to us. Our love for football has made the sport flourish to unprecedented heights over the past several decades. Now, in the year 2010, football is America’s game. We love to watch our favorite stars perform each weekend, we cheer on our favorite teams and attend their games with the motivating factor that this game, the Super Bowl, exists. With the league becoming more of a toss-up each season, hope for each and every   fan base is seemingly increasing as the sport withstands the test of time.

Fact: The last 12 Super Bowls have featured a total of 8 teams making their first appearance. The Saints make their first appearance tonight in Super Bowl XLIV.

The Saints. An organization that is living proof of what the NFL has become; a league of hope. In 2005, the forces of nature were against the the entire city of New Orleans. Katrina destroyed the city, ruined thousands of people’s lives, and added insult to injury to one of the worst franchises in the NFL- the Saints, usually dubbed “The Ain’ts” by their own fan-base. Their campaign that year was understandably awful, as they finished 3-13 without ever playing a real home game. When the year was over, the Saints had to start all over again, from nothing. Fast forward a half decade later, and they’re playing in the Super Bowl. Go figure.

With all the parity we’ve enjoyed over the last decade of NFL play, the future of the league should be pretty great, right? Well, if you’re a hard-core football fan, or if you’ve watched “ESPN” or “NFL Network” on your televisions in the past several months, you know that’s not the case. This off-season, after tonight’s big game, the thing that has kept our league so great, the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between owners, players and league officials alike, will expire. And unless major actions are taken soon, the NFL as we know it will be changed dramatically. 2010 will be an “un-capped” year, meaning team’s spending limits are no longer determined by fair rule. Instead, those blessed with powerful financial markets will take control. While this is ideal for the big spenders, the little guys will likely miss out. Small market teams like the Bengals, Bills, Jaguars and Vikings are doomed to suffer. To make a blurry future even blurrier, the NFL faces a potential work stoppage in 2011, meaning, a year without football. A year without football. Tough to swallow, isn’t it?

It’s harsh reality, but it’s not an inevitability. The solutions exist, and the greatness of modern-day pro football can be preserved with specific and complicated levels of agreement between the league and it’s players and owners. However, much like tonight’s game, this is one issue that we, the fans, can do nothing about.

So we end a decade, and possibly an era of NFL football with Super Bowl XLIV, a game between the New Orleans Saints (13-3) and the Indianapolis Colts (14-2), two teams that have done “whatever it takes” to win all season long. Comebacks, crucial plays made in game deciding moments, you name it, these teams have done it all this season. They’ve withstood criticism and and adversity from the media, shut the critics up, and got here. The Colts are the winningest team of this decade, and the Saints are the story of the decade. Now they face each other, in a match-up of two unstoppable forces. There’s no difficulty in picking the winner. The real challenge is facing the fact that one of these teams will lose this game.

The answer will be determined by one simple factor: possession. Who has the ball for longer? Who takes care of the ball the best, without turning it over or punting it away? And most importantly….who has the ball last?

It’s biased towards offense because it’ll be an offensive game. Let’s face it, the Saints defense, coached by Greg Williams, will be bringing the heat on Manning all night. Unless they can totally overwhelm the Colt’s offensive protection, Peyton will take advantage of this rather than fear it. His numbers against the blitz this season are only paralleled by his counter-part in this game, Drew Brees. The Colts will be looking to get pressure on him all night, as well, but that can’t come in the form of exotic blitzing.

The Saints offense is full of playmakers. Literally full of them; not one hasn’t had some type of impact this season, whetherit be Marques Colston, Reggie Bush, Pierre Thomas, Robert Meachem, Devery Henderson, Jermey Shockey….the list goes on. Everyone must be accounted for, so bringing the blitz and leaving any of these guys alone is suicide for the Colts, they must depend on their designated pass-rushers to pressure Brees. That Dwight Freeney ankle might actually be that much of a factor. If Brees has time to throw the ball all night, the Colts will be able to do nothing but hope that Peyton Manning can respond to every score the Saints will inevitably get.

Luckily for the Colts, that’s worked for them 16 times this season. Peyton Manning is unstoppable. He has not failed at any point this season. He will not fail in the biggest game of the season.

The Winner of Super Bowl XLIV:

Colts, 31-28.

Tanner Kish would like to thank all the readers for their season-long devotion to Piss Fumes, and that there is more to come! Enjoy the Super Bowl!