Super Bowl Sunday

Just over eight hours of hype to go before the Super Bowl kicks off. Looks like there'll be some rain later, temps in the 70's.

All sorts of pregame details can be found here, with the view from Chicago, Indianapolis, and places in between.

Let's hope we can have a politics-free day, but that may prove difficult. We already had some global warming nonsense earlier this week and one fan would like to forget ethnic politics and enjoy the Super Bowl.

Straightaway after the Chicago Bears defeated the New Orleans Saints and then the Indianapolis Colts defeated the New England Patriots the type was set, the story locked in. Lovie Smith, the Bears coach, and Tony Dungy, the Colts coach, are both African-Americans, and this will mark the first time that an African-American coach has brought his team to a Super Bowl. That there would be two African-American coaches with teams playing against each other was too big a journalistic bonanza to ignore. Far from ignoring it, the fact has been endlessly emphasized. Great vulgar minds think alike.

Yet every time I hear mention of Lovie Smith and Tony Dungy as African-Americans, I wonder if this emphasis on ethnicity is a good thing. The more it goes on the more I feel that on game day Jesse Jackson will be called in to kick extra points, with Al Sharpton holding. Lovie Smith and Tony Dungy are superior men, smart, dignified, cool under fire, and high above the average of ex-jocks who have gone on to coach National Football League teams. Why make such a journalistic meal out of their being African-American? Nothing nearly similar would be taking place if the two coaches were Italian, Jewish, Irish, Ukrainian or Texan.

Enjoy the game!

Super Bowl XLI

The big game is about 50 hours away and it's time for my prediction. All you need to know about the game and other ancillary details can be found here. I tend to tune out the hype and just wait on the game. Even come Sunday, I can't take the endless pregame bonanza, so I settle in a bit before kickoff.

Colts -7 over Bears: Indianapolis is peaking at the right time after being dismissed late in the year due to their enormous struggles against the run, allowing 173 YPG during the regular season. Well, that's down to 73 YPG during the playoffs against good rushing teams. So I've boiled it down to their ability to contain the Chicago ground game and force Rex Grossman to beat them, which I just don't see happening.

Sure, Grossman may be able to make a couple of plays early, and the Bears should probably be the beneficiaries of decent field position due to Indy's poor kick coverage and the electrifying Devin Hester. Still, after seeing Peyton Manning dissect New England for 32 second-half points in the AFC Championship, I think the Colts will be able to move the ball with relative ease. So how does Grossman keep up? He doesn't. The Bears hang around for awhile, probably around 13-10 at halftime. Then Manning will methodically lead the Colts to a few scores in the second half and chew up a lot of the clock. My darkhorse hunch as MVP is Colts TE Dallas Clark. Though if Manning has three or more TD passes, he'll be the choice. Colts pull away and win 33-20.

UPDATE: Hondo adds a unique perspective.