The Out Route

The popular opinion is in on Super Bowl XLI, and it's not good. Some liken it to the Tampa/Oakland disaster a few years ago. Most agree that this was the worst Super Bowl in the last seven years, at least. Technically, I thought this was true. The first half looked like the second half of a preseason game; the teams couldn't hold onto the ball and I spend 2 hours wondering how the Bears managed to beat the Saints.

But from an entertainment standpoint, I give a thumbs up. No one was really prolific, and the weather was part of that, but that's football. Isn't everyone's favorite football that which is played in inclement weather? Isn't that playoff football? So why shouldn't the biggest game of the season be the same?

I've had my share of fun with Peyton Manning over the years, but I've also been amused by his affable personality and, all things aside, he really is an incredible quarterback and a classy guy. No denying that. So he deserves it. Tony Dungy? Eh, not so much. But give the Colts credit -- they beat the Bears with sloppy, smashmouth football, which is to say, they shoved a spoonful of the Bears' medicine right down their throat.

And Bad Rex! Oh how it was great to see him again. With the teams' running games and defense matching stride for stride, Rex was put in the position of having to win the game for the Bears and he failed...miserably. He got flustered and began to ignore his reads completely, snapping into Dr. Gunslinger mode, which is just about the last thing you want to do in the biggest game of the season against a ball-hawking secondary in the rain. They will ALWAYS have the advantage in that situation.

You'll have to think the Bears will, at the very least, bring in a guy like Jake Plummer to back up and probably replace Grossman at some point next season, unless they just go for a starter in free agency and skip the mystery.

So that's the end of the '06 season; a remarkable one it was. Let the draft countdown commence.

Sorry for the short post, despite yesterday being the biggest American sporting event of the year. I've got big plans today. This is my last scribing of the day; I promise I'll be back to elaborate tomorrow.