Marketplace of Ideas Blog

We have reached the biggest secular holiday in the Western Hemisphere.

And, to the joy of most Packer fans, without Brett Favre as quarterback of one of the teams.

I bring that up only to point out that whatever Favre can be criticized for, such as three playoff-season-ending interceptions, no one can criticize him for his toughness, as demonstrated by photos (only for the strong of stomach) of the two injuries he suffered during the Vikings’ loss to New Orleans.

The Wall Street Journal’s Daniel Henninger has a theory about why sport is important to us:

What is the most highly valued thing in American life, perhaps in all human life? The answer is obvious: The most valuable thing in life is being a happy fan.

Most people would rather be a happy fan than anything else. Otherwise, there would not be so many fans for so many sports all over the world. This is irrefutable. …

Long ago, then-NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle figured out this greatest of all human truths, that the only value most people have in common, other than life itself, is the desire for a competitive home team. Family members who would sink a dinner fork into each other over Barack Obama’s health-care plan will do high fives in the living room later if the Cleveland Browns beat the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Rozelle got the league’s teams to distribute TV-broadcast revenue equally, so that no team would be permanently in the dumpster. Basketball and hockey did the same thing. Baseball has not, and it is well established that Chicago Cubs fans do not believe happiness exists.

Happiness has always fascinated thinkers, including America’s Founding Fathers. But were the Founders to revisit us, it’s not beyond imagining they would upgrade the Creator’s inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of fan happiness.

If that is the case, then the fans of the Colts and Saints are the happiest of fans. This is the Colts’ second Super Bowl in three seasons since the franchise moved from Baltimore in the middle of a 1984 night to Indianapolis. This is the fourth Super Bowl for the Colts’ franchise — the first two were the Super Bowl III upset by the New York Jets and the Super Bowl V win over Dallas, an 11-turnover trainwreck — all, interestingly, played in Miami.

The Saints, however, are visiting football’s Nirvana for the first time in franchise history — a history whose majority ineptitude eclipses even the Packers’ Gory Years. Say what you will about the reigns of error of Dan Devine or Forrest Gregg: neither of them had a 1–15 season, as did the Saints in 1980.

Not that much of the Baltimore/Indianapolis Colts’ history has been better. The Colts have one Baltimore and one Indianapolis Super Bowl win, but they also have a 1–15 season (and their one win was 28–27) in 1991 and, pre-Indy, a 2–14 season that cost them the number one draft pick, and an 0–8–1 season in the 1982 strike season. The tie? Green Bay.

While most Super Bowls turn out to be on-field disappointments in terms of the quality of the game, Super Bowl XLIV probably will be a fun game to watch.

That assertion is based on two factors: the quality of the Indianapolis and New Orleans offenses, and the fact that the best defenses of the four teams in the conference championship games, the New York Jets and Minnesota, aren’t playing.

ESPN.com’s Tuesday Morning Quarterback is geeked for the game:

Back in September, yours truly forecast an Indianapolis–New Orleans Super Bowl — both because I thought they’d be the league's best teams, and because I thought that if they did reach the Super Bowl, they’d play a memorable game. Why? In addition to having good players and smart coaches, the Colts and Saints have contrasting styles.

Watching Indianapolis is like watching a factory play football. The Colts are methodical, predictable, disciplined, mechanical. They don’t run trick plays. Their offense hasn’t shown a new formation, or even a new play, in months. Their defense rarely varies its fronts. The Colts win because no NFL team has better offensive timing, defensive discipline and overall precision. Review film of the Colts and you know exactly what they are going to do — the question is, can you stop them?

Watching New Orleans is like watching an outdoor cocktail party play football. The Saints are spontaneous, unpredictable, boisterous. They love trick plays. Every week the offense shows new formations and actions. The defense uses a zany style — blitzing way too much, gambling for interceptions way too often. No NFL team plays a more relaxed style or seems to be having so much fun. Review film of the Saints and you have no idea what they are going to do — they probably don’t, either.

When the mechanized, cybernetic Colts meet the wacky, laissez-faire Saints, I for one am expecting a fantastic game.

The two weeks before Super Sunday exist in part to let the media find or generate controversy. This year’s focuses on a commercial that is running — an ad with University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow and his mother to promote the anti-abortion cause — and a commercial that isn’t — an ad for a gay dating site featuring a Packer fan and a Viking fan.

The Super Bowl is always about stories. This year, Colts owner Jim Irsay is shown as the antithesis of his boorish father, the previous Colts owner. Colts quarterback Peyton Manning (son of long-time Saints quarterback Archie Manning) is not just the best quarterback in the NFL today, he could be the best quarterback of this generation. Contrast that with the mostly-pathetic Saints history and the role quarterback Drew Brees has had in New Orleans’ recovery from Hurricane Katrina. And there are Wisconsin connections, of course — Colts coach Jim Caldwell is a Beloit native, and Saints quarterback coach Joe Lombardi is the grandson of a former Packers coach you may have heard of.

As for the game itself: I look at football games by comparing offenses to the opposing defenses. The Saints love to blitz, but the Colts seem to invite blitzing and then pick on the single-covering defensive backs left to fend for themselves. The Colts won Super Bowl XLI by running on Chicago’s defense, so contrary to their reputation (the Colts finished dead last in rushing this season) they may run more than one might think.

Arizona coach Ken Whisenhunt, whose Cardinals played both teams this season, thinks the Saints need to score pretty much every chance they get and get at least some defensive stops against Manning and the Colts’ offense.

The history of first-time Super Bowl participants is not kind to those teams. With rare exceptions (Chicago and the New York Giants are two), generally the first-time Super Bowl participant loses, unless they’re playing another first-time participant (Green Bay vs. Kansas City in Super Bowl I or San Francisco vs. Cincinnati in Super Bowl XVI). While a Saints win would be the feel-good story of the decade in the NFL, given the Saints’ history and New Orleans’ recent history, the Colts seem to be the more complete team, and unless they play poorly (New England in Super Bowl XLII), more complete teams usually win the Super Bowl.