A sports blog by and for Midwest Sports Fans
No, sorry, it’s not Marisol Gonzalez. As tremendous as the asset-shaping, crimson-colored IU dress (that’s how I imagined it, anyway) was that she wore to Super Bowl Media Day, it’s far from the best photo taken so far from Super Bowl 46.
And no, sorry, as cool as the picture of the lined-up Indy cars is, it’s not the best photo either.
Here is the best Super Bowl XLVI photo that I’ve seen of the many coming coming out of Indianapolis this week:
Another snowstorm is set to hit Indianapolis tomorrow, and city officials had been concerned it might affect the putative Super Bowl celebratory parade through downtown; this is no longer an issue.
The parade will instead be in New Orleans, even as their city had actually planned one win or lose.
Last night’s game in Miami Gardens was a grave disappointment for the Circle City, and a shocking end to a season that saw central Indiana’s team, a la New England in 2007, go undefeated (in games they actually tried to win), yet fail on the world’s biggest football stage.
There was the good, the bad and the ugly from this game.
I’m not even a Saints fan and I’m still beaming from last night’s game. I can’t even totally put my finger on why.
The team I picked in my family Super Bowl betting challenge lost, the team I picked publicly lost, and the team with the QB from Purdue won. Plus, the difference in the game was two touchdowns and it did not have the last second drama of last year’s Super Bowl.
But…something about seeing a good guy like Drew Brees win, seeing a star-crossed city like New Orleans get to enjoy a Super Bowl, seeing the Big Ten earn some respect on football’s biggest stage, and seeing “the football gods favor the bold” (as Robert Littal would say), made Super Bowl XLIV forever special.
Update 2/7/10: According to multiple reports, Dwight Freeney will start in the Super Bowl. He is apparently out on the field warming up, but expectedly favoring his injuring ankle. As Gregg Doyel of CBS points on his Twitter feed, “Freeney is active for XLIV, and warming up now. He’s got some serious (legal) drugs in him.”
Update 2/7/10: The latest injury update on Dwight Freeney, per Suzy Kolber on ESPN this morning, is that Freeney will warm up and test the ankle when he gets to the stadium and hopes to be able to get on the field for obvious passing downs. No one is really sure, however, how well the ankle will respond in pregame.
We know that if Freeney does play, the Saints will go after his ankle and try to get him out for good. This will be the most talk about subplot of the Super Bowl pregame shows.
Update 2/6/09: This is obviously one of the biggest stories of the week – if not the biggest – so I figured this post deserved an update and to be recycled back to the front page.
The latest on Dwight Freeney’s ankle injury is that while he did not practice on Friday, the Colts (at least publicly) appear to be optimistic about his availability for Sunday. He won’t play his normal set of downs, but the Colts are hoping that he can at least give them something on obvious passing downs. I’ll update this post again tomorrow with the latest.
Dwight Freeney is one of the most underrated players in the NFL over the past decade, and I say that even though the Colts’ DE was recently named to the NFL’s All Decade team.
Unfortunately for Indianapolis, Freeney is also the biggest injury story of Super Bowl week, with a torn ligament in his right ankle leaving Freeney questionable for Sunday’s game.
All of the talking heads that I have heard opine about Freeney suggest that the most likely scenario is for him to play but be limited, with his #1 asset – speed off the edge – hindered by some degree.
And while I don’t think that Drew Brees is the kind of guy who would ever wish harm on an opponent, I’m sure that he wouldn’t be too broken up about it if Freeney was too hobbled to get to him on Sunday night.
From the offseason to training camp to preseason games to the regular season to the playoffs, this has been a typically exciting NFL season. Tonight, another season comes to a close with the Greatest Spectacle in Sports (and Television), the Super Bowl.
The best team from start to finish in the AFC, the Colts, will face the best team from start to finish in the NFC, the Saints. With both teams staying relatively quiet this week – the only real bulletin board material has come from the Colts’ former coach – there is only thing left to do on Super Bowl morning: take a stab at predicting what will happen.
Here are seven predictions for what we will see tonight in Super Bowl XLIV.
Update: 2/7/10: The latest on Reggie Wayne, per Suzy Kolber on ESPN, is that he is fine and good to go this evening. Exhale Colts fans. Now, as for Dwight Freeney…
All week, Colts fans and Super Bowl observers have been playing close attention to the injury status of DE Dwight Freeney.
Yesterday, it looked like another Colts star might be added to the questionable list for Sunday night.
WR Reggie Wayne, among the most productive receivers of this decade and one of the most underrated players in the NFL, had to leave Friday’s practice early after aggravating a right knee injury.
So how serious is the injury and will Wayne be on the field Sunday night?
It’s Monday morning, and you know what that means: time for me to give my gut instinct spread pick for Sunday’s games.
Of course, there are not “games” this weekend, just one game – the Super Bowl – which represents my final chance at salvaging some playoff pride.
By going 2-0 last weekend against the spread, courtesy of the Vikings sneaking by with a three point loss against a 3.5 point spread, I am now 4-6 during the playoffs after my stellar 135-106 regular season record.
Can I finish with a bang and pick the Super Bowl correctly? We’ll find out.
We are now only days away from the big game as the Super Bowl betting on this last week of NFL picks keeps flooding in.
This year’s matchup faces the top teams in each conference; The New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts.
It will be a star-studded affair in Miami, Florida this Sunday for Super Bowl XLIV.
I am already on record picking the Colts to win Super Bowl XLIV. I feel relatively comfortable that this is what will happen on Sunday night, but on a confidence level scale from 1 to 100, I would say that I’m at about a 50.
The reason is that it is the Super Bowl we are talking about here, a game that sometimes goes exactly as we think it will (Indy spanking the Bears a few years ago) and that, conversely, sometimes goes exactly how we think it won’t (the Giants beating the Patriots in ’08 and the Patriots beating the Rams in ’02).
The truth is that anyone who tells you they know what will happen on Sunday night is full of crap. We all just think we know a bunch of stuff that will probably happen might not actually end up happening.
So, since I haven’t really challenged my own initial gut instinct that Indy would win, I’ve decided to explore the Saints-Colts Super Bowl matchup and find a few reasons why the Saints, not the favored Colts, can win.
Surprisingly, it wasn’t that hard to do.
Miami is an…interesting…place.
I lived in Miami for two years after graduating from Indiana University and after living my entire life in Bloomington and West Lafayette (strange combo, I know). I’d been to Miami many times before, perhaps once a year on average, because my mom grew up there and we still have a lot of family down there.
Still, actually living in Miami was a pretty big culture shock for a small town Indiana dude like me.
That is why I am taking some time this morning to provide a few tips to all of the Hoosiers who will be heading down to Miami this week and next for the Super Bowl.
I know that many Colts fans made the jaunt a few years back when Indy beat Chicago in the Super Bowl, so some will have familiarity with the city, but I am sure that there will be many other Miami newbs bopping around las calles de Miami for the next fortnight. Those people need serious, expert, no-tongue-in-check-whatsoever advice.
And that’s why you come to Midwest Sports Fans.
I feel the need to preface this short column by noting that, though I live in Indianapolis, the Denver Broncos are my favorite team, and have been for a quarter-century.
Therefore, while I do support the Colts, I’ve only resided here four years, and neither bias nor subjectivity should be taken into account with any of my information or predictions about the Colts. In fact, I have been as honest and critical as anyone in this city toward the home team over the past month.
That said, I picked the Colts to easily beat the Ravens and Jets the past two weekends (almost on the numbers), and was correct. I will do the same for the February 7 game in Miami for similar reasons: the Colts are just a better team than the Saints right now.
There is no ticket in sports more sought after and expensive than tickets to the Super Bowl. And with four compelling matchup possibilities based on what happens today, I would expect that tickets will be going for even more than usual.
How much could you fetch for a ticket to a Manning-Favre Super Bowl? How high would the prices go in New York if the Jets make their first Super Bowl since Super Bowl III? And then consider if the Jets play the Vikings and Favre, their quarterback from last year. Think those might go for pretty high prices?
I think so too.
Regardless of what happens, whether it be Colts-Vikings, Colts-Saints, Jets-Vikings, or Jets-Saints, we will undoubtedly see historic Super Bowl ticket prices this year (even with inflation taken into account).
I decided to take a quick perusal of reseller sites like StubHub, TicketsNow, and Razor Gator to see where prices stand currently, before the matchup is even known.
