Friday
NFL News, Top PostsThe mother of all Super Bowl XLIV Blogs
Outside of Dwight Freeney’s right ankle – it’s improving folks, please keep moving, there’s another Colts foot that’s no longer shrouded in mystery.
Rookie Jerraud Powers, who was the Colts’ top corner for much of the season, apparently broke his left foot three weeks ago.
We say apparently because Friday morning was the first time the Colts confirmed the seriousness of the injury.
Powers underwent surgery after the Colts’ 20-3 divisional round win over the Ravens, a game in which he had an interception in the final minutes, and missed the AFC title game.
Colts coach Jim Caldwell, unleashing his inner Bill Belichick, said that Powers needed “internal fixation of a fractured foot.”
SHOCK VALUE
Expect Saints TE Jeremy Shockey to play on Sunday, wonky knee or not.
Shockey, the former Giant who watched his former team win the Lombardi trophy from the owner’s box due to injury, says his knee won’t keep him out of Sunday’s Super Bowl against the Colts.
“It feels great,” he said. “If I somehow get hit by a car or a bus, I might not play. But I plan on playing.”
REGARDS FROM SOUTH BEACH
“It feels great. Anything I can do to get out of that cold in Buffalo, it’s great.”
Bills WR Terrell Owens, from his party at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach hotel.
Owens is part of the Super Bowl scene that includes parties or concerts by Rihanna, Timbaland, Jennifer Lopez, Usher, Chad Ochocinco and, ahem, Kim Kardashian.
SUPER BOWL LINKS
From Dec. 14: Super Bowl XLIV preview: How Colts, Saints match up
Super Bowl Media Day fails to reveal status of Freeney
Who Dat Nation includes Barack Obama
Top 10 reasons to root for the Colts in Super Bowl
Recipe for a Saints’ Super Bowl upset of Colts
Peyton Manning’s 5 best and worst games
Drew Brees’ 5 best and worst games
Super Bowl tale of the tape: Indianapolis vs. New Orleans
Carrie Underwood to sing national anthem at Super Bowl
Five Super Bowl matchups to watch
Super Bowl XLIV Preview – Manning, Colts to march over Saints
How the Super Bowl contenders, the Saints and the Colts were built
Super Bowl bets we wish we could make
SUPER BOWL MEMORIES
Sean Payton knows what it feels like to lose at the Super Bowl. And it’s not an experience he wishes to live through again.
“There’s a lot more nightmares about that Super Bowl than there are fond memories,” Payton said of Super Bowl XXXV, eight years ago.
Payton was the Giants offensive coordinator then and had to watch as a dominant Ravens defense led by MLB Ray Lewis clawed through his unit for a 34-7 win.
“You kind of feel it resonating from him. He was with the Giants in the Super Bowl, and he told us you don’t want to go to this game and lose. Almost to make it worth it, you have to win this game. You can just tell almost by his demeanor that he wants to win this. This is the first Super Bowl appearance by the New Orleans Saints, and I believe he wants to be the first head coach to win one,” said WR Lance Moore.
FREENEY UPDATE
Colts all-pro DE Dwight Freeney hopes to test his injured ankle in Friday’s practice ahead of Sunday’s Super Bowl.
Freeney, the Colts leading pass rusher with 13 sacks, tore a ligament with about two minutes left in the AFC championship game.
He is listed as questionable.
KEEPING UP WITH THE KARDASHIANS
For those wondering, Reggie Bush’s publicity-hungry girlfriend will be at the big game, sans any of her similarly attention-mad sisters.
According to Kim Kardashian’s stepfather, Olympic gold medallist Bruce Jenner, the eldest Kardashian will be there along with her mother, Kris, and brother, Rob, the lucky charm trio that attended the divisional playoff game against the Cardinals in which Bush scored a TD on an 83-yard punt return and a 46-yard run.
“That combination seems to be working,” Jenner said.
And you wonder where the girls get their self-centred nature from.
MILK MEN
Bush, the Saints RB, is one of two Super Bowl players being featured with a Got Milk poster, the other is Colts WR Reggie Wayne.
The national ad campaign will continue next week. The twist?
Only the player from the winning team will continue to be featured.
HAIR TODAY, GONE TOMORROW
Colts LB Clint Session and S Melvin Bullitt made good on their promise to get mohawk dos if they made it to the Super Bowl.
But they’re not traditional mohawks like the one sported by Freddy Keiaho when the playoffs began.
“This is a mohawk,” Session said of his thicker patch. “It’s not one of those vintage mohawks like Mr. T, but it’s got a little modern bling to it.”
“I jazzed mine up a little bit with three little slits in the back on each side for 33,” he said of his jersey number. “It was something we said we’d do and we stuck to it.”
Keiaho, however, went in another direction. He shaved it off. “It’s a business trip,” he said.
A RICH MANNING
Will Peyton Manning get A-Rod or Derek Jeter type money?
There’s no doubt that Manning is in line for the richest contract in NFL history, the question is how far up the Yankee chain will he reach?
Manning’s contract is set to expire after the 2010 season and Colts owner Jim Irsay says negotiations will begin after the season with a predictably bold ceiling.
“You know it’s going to get done,” Irsay said during media day on Tuesday. “I think it’s clear, and we’ll start on it this summer. That’s been the way we do things. And it’ll be the biggest in history; there’s not much doubt about that.”
Should the Colts win Sunday’s Super Bowl against the Saints, Manning, if he’s not already there, would bronze his statue among the very best quarterbacks to ever play the game.
And at the age of 33, with a 7- to 10- year contract window ahead, Manning could then break the bank.
The 4-time MVP signed an extension for $99.2 million in 2004, which included a then-record $34.5 million singing bonus. The final two seasons of that deal were voided because Manning met certain incentives.
Last year, Peyton’s younger brother, Eli, signed a 6-year, $97.5 million pact with the Giants that included $35 million guaranteed. On average, Carson Palmer is the highest-paid QB at $16.17 million per year.
With the likelihood of an uncapped season in 2010, it’s not out of the realm of possibility to see Manning snag the first $200-million deal in the NFL, with a $20-million annual salary and $40 to $60 million guaranteed.
One very interested observer will be colleague Tom Brady. The Patriot QB’s deal also expires after 2010.
NO DOUBTING THOMAS
Give Saints coach Sean Payton credit.
In 2007, New Orleans traded into the 4th round to draft all-Big 10 RB Antonio Pittman of Ohio State. But in training camp that summer and fall, the ballyhooed Buckeye could not keep up with a lesser known undrafted free agent out Illinois, who wasn’t even the Illini’s feature back.
Pierre Thomas made an impression then, just as now, with his work ethic, his drive and his ability. But it’s not every coach that will overrule his draft board. Payton, in his second year as head coach, did and that decision speaks volumes about his eye for talent.
At 5-11 and 210 pounds, Thomas did not have Pittman’s 4.4 40-yard dash time. But he does have heart and a natural ability to hit the hole quickly. Which is why Thomas not only supplanted Pittman, but also Reggie Bush, as the team’s primary ballcarrier.
Pittman did not play last season after being released by the Rams.
THE REF
Veteran official Scott Green has been selected to referee Super Bowl XLIV.
Green has been an NFL official for 19 years and worked Super Bowls XXXVI in 2002 and XXXVIII in 2004 as a back judge. The league selects its highest-rated officials at each position for Super Bowl duty.
The other officials in Miami will be umpire Undrey Wash, head linesman John McGrath, line judge Jeff Seeman, field judge Rob Vernatchi, side judge Greg Meyer and back judge Greg Steed.
Green, who has been a ref since 2005, arrives in Miami with his share of controversial calls.
He was the ref for the Packers-Cards wild-card game this season that ended with a possible facemask penalty ignored as Packers QB Aaron Rodgers fumbled on a blitz, a fumble that was returned for the winning score.
Last season, he overruled a Troy Polamalu interception return for a touchdown at the end of a Steelers’ 11-10 victory over the Chargers that had gamblers and betting line afficionados fuming.
And in 2003, he was the back judge that did not know Giants G Rich Seubert was an eligible receiver on a decisive play in the wild card game between New York and San Francisco. Despite Seubert getting mugged, no pass interference call was made and the 49ers won the game.
MR. CLUTCH
Adam Vinateri won’t kick in Sunday’s game but by just being on the roster, the Colts kicker will enter the record books.
With his 6th Super Bowl, he ties former Bills Don Beebe and Mike Lodish, who also attended with Green Bay and Denver respectively, for most appearances in the title game. Should the Colts win, the former Patriot ties Cowboys and 49ers DE Charles Haley for most Super Bowl rings with 5.
THE FREENEY FACTOR
The Colts’ Dwight Freeney confirms he has a torn ligament in his right ankle but still hopes to play in Sunday’s Super Bowl against the Saints.
“Hopefully, towards the end of the week it starts to get better,” Freeney said at Tuesday’s media day in Miami.
“The decision will come later on in the week. It’s kind of early now.”
Freeney, who led the Colts with 13 sacks despite missing 4 regular season games with knee, hip and abdomen injuries, injured his ankle with about 2 minutes left in the AFC championship game against the Jets.
“The competitor in me says they’ll never stop me from being on the field,” he said with a laugh.
“There’s some pain there definitely with throwing everything at it, all types of techniques to find the best thing to get this thing as good as possible. You name it, I’ve probably done it.”
Said Saints QB Drew Brees: “We’re planning on that he’s playing.”
A SUPER VICTORY?
“If we’re able to bring a Super Bowl trophy to the city of New Orleans, it might be the single greatest thing to happen to New Orleans. It’d be more than just a Super Bowl, just like reopening the Superdome was more than just reopening a stadium.” Reggie Bush, Saints RB, at media day.
TO THE HEART OF THE MATTER
“Someone just asked me who my favorite Kardashian sister was. I wouldn’t know how to answer that one.” Saints WR Marques Colston pleads the fifth, knowing the relationship between Bush and his girlfriend, Kim Kardashian
PICK YOUR POISON?
“If you sit back he’s gonna kill you. We’d rather go down swinging.” Saints S Roman Harper on Colts QB Peyton Manning.
Does that mean the Saints are resigned to the inevitable?
SIGN OF THE TIMES
Only on Super Bowl Media Day in 2010, would you have Redskins TE Chris Cooley, who’s working for the “Ochocinco News Network” taking a Twitpic of comedian Sean Majumder, in Miami on behalf of a comedy show for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, interviewing ESPN’s Chris Berman.
The Ochocinco News Network experiment
GROUNDHOG DAY
It was Groundhog Day for many of the 25 Colts checking into the same Miami hotel on Monday as they did three years ago but it was especially so for CB Kelvin Hayden, who was assigned the exact same room.
Up until that point, Kelvin Hayden, according to the Indianapolis Star, wasn’t clear on the particulars of the Colts’ trip into the city for Super Bowl XLI.
“Once we stepped into the hotel everything kind came back to me,” said Hayden.
“When I checked in and walked in the room it was kind of like, ‘OK, yeah, I kind of do remember this room,’ except for the whole scene of outside with XLI (banners).”
To complete the trip back in time, Hayden plans on wearing the same game-day suit to the stadium.
“Kind of a warm Miami look,” he said. “It’s kind of a pineappleish type color, a real live color. It gives you that South Beach feel.”
A HOLLYWOOD ENDING
Not that NFL Films president Steve Sabol has a rooting interest but he does have a filmmakers’ perspective on the prospect of a Saints victory in Sunday’s Super Bowl against the Colts.
“A Saints championship would be the timeless story of a team and a community, redemption and the power of believing in yourself, overcoming adversity, all the things that can tug at your heartstrings,” Sabol told the Times-Picayune. “It warms your heart, it gives you chills.
“It’s the kind of stuff they only talk about in Hollywood.”
“As a filmmaker, you look for stories,” said Sabol. “Not every Super Bowl has a compelling narrative. So many of these games are about stats and records. This would go way beyond that.
“If the Saints win, it would be such a great story. It would be about everything we’ve always celebrated at NFL Films.”
SUNDAY NIGHT SPECIAL
The Colts arrived in Miami on Monday except the 6 Indy stars who were selected for the Pro Bowl; QB Peyton Manning, S Antoine Bethea, TE Dallas Clark, DE Robert Mathis, C Jeff Saturday and WR Reggie Wayne.
Though they gave up an off day and missed their team flight, there were some perks, according to Manning.
“I got to fly on a private plane with six of my best friends and teammates,” Manning told the Indianapolis Star. “We had Ruth Chris Steakhouse food on the plane. Took a private escort into Miami, shook a few hands, had to wave. Did one interview and made $45,000 (for being on the winning side). I can think of some worse days to put yourself through.”
A SAINTLY PARADE
Famed New Orleans wag Buddy Diliberto once promised to wear a dress and dance through the streets if the Saints made it to the Super Bowl.
The Times-Picayune writer died in 2005 but that didn’t stop thousands of men from taking up his cause on Sunday, wearing anything from thrift-store skirts to a $14,000 wedding dress.
They marched and danced in front of thousands who lined the parade route from the Superdome to the French Quarter.
SUPER BOWL TIP
From Mark Lorando, columnist from the Times Picayune
“When the dude in the Who Dat T-shirt asks if you want to suck da head and pinch da tail, resist the urge to punch him. He’s not propositioning you. He’s inviting you to dinner.”
THE UNSPEAKABLES
Rain or no rain, fans attending the Super Bowl will not be allowed to bring umbrellas into Sun Life Stadium due to security reasons.
Also on the banned list are backpacks, strollers, laser pointers, coolers, bottles and cans, camcorders, pepper spray, horns, poles and sticks as well as fireworks, beach balls and flying discs.
That NFL sure knows how to take the fun out of a game.
“The message is, for the fans, please be patient with us,” Broward County Sheriff Al Lamberti said. “We’re just looking out for your safety. Because as we’ve heard before, we have to be successful 100 percent of the time, the bad guys only have to get lucky once.”
