I’m not at the Super Bowl (www.nfl.com).
I may be the only sports writer in America not at Media Day five days before the big event.
ESPN is there. So are Sports Illustrated and Fox Sports along with all the major networks. You’ll see that weasel Pat O’Brien asking stuff for Access Hollywood. Even those little pains in the butt from Nickelodeon are there!
Not me. C-VILLE decided not to pick up the tab this year (some issue with me, a large bar bill, and an expense report from last year’s bowl game).
 Peyton Manning’s smooth road to the Super Bowl contrasts sharply with the Cowboys’ bumbling quarterback Tony Romo, and the unsure hands of the Patriots’ Reche Caldwell. |
So in protest I refuse to talk about the Colts and the Bears. While Chicago head coach Lovie Smith and Indianapolis colleague Tony Dungy become the first black head coaches ever in a Super Bowl, I choose to ignore the historical relevance.
Nevermind that the NFL’s golden boy Peyton Manning got the “Monkeys” named Brady and Bill off his back, and don’t even think I’m going down the path of “with a win is Brian Urlacher placed into the lineup of greatest linebackers ever” debate.
Let’s talk about teams that are like me…not there. The teams that “could-a, would-a, and should-a been there”…like me. (Are you getting the idea, that I’d rather be on South Beach than Barracks Road?)
Sure the Colts and the Bears earned it, they deserve it, and they were the teams that fought blah, blah, blah!!!!!!
How about the teams that fate turned its ugly rear on?
What happens if Tony Romo doesn’t let that snap slip through his fingers on the potential game-winning field goal in Seattle on Wild Card weekend? What happens if Jordan Babineaux doesn’t pursue and make that tackle of Romo on the one-yard line?
Could the Cowboys have pulled the upset the Seahawks failed to do? Would it have made Bill Parcells stay? Way to go Romo, you ruined the Cowboys!
The “what ifs” were so emotionally bitter cold for some teams this playoff season it would’ve made Minsk seem balmy.
What could have been if Philadelphia’s replacement offensive guard Scott Young doesn’t move early on a fourth and 10 completion from Jeff Garcia to Hank Baskett? Instead, Eagles head coach Andy Reid freezes, deciding to punt with 1:56 left and two timeouts and the Birds never see the ball again.
The next day, in San Diego, the Chargers yak up five different opportunities to bury New England including a certain Bolts interception of Brady that gets fumbled right back to the Patriots. If San Diego wins, they host the AFC Championship and maybe the Colts aren’t that lucky this time around?
Then again, fate did turn nasty on New England when Reche Caldwell dropped a third quarter touchdown pass last weekend that my 4-week-old niece could have hauled in.
Yet this is reality.
Super Bowl XLI will feature the Colts, who finally got over a hump so big it’s registered as a mountain, and the Bears will try to run to a Lombardi Trophy with former Virginia star Thomas Jones.
You won’t be seeing the Cowboys. Neither the Chargers nor the Birds. The Patriots aren’t there…and neither am I.
Prediction: Colts 24 Bears 16.
Wes McElroy hosts “The Final Round” on ESPN 840. M-F 3pm-5pm.