Yes he can. 38-34. Exactly 1 minute for Brady to lead the Patriots back down the field. A field goal is no good - they need the TD and have 2 time outs left.
BRADY IS INTERCEPTED. Colts are going to the SuperBowl.
32 second half points. Fair play to them.
sounded like an epic Bandage, unbelievable 2nd half performance. Fair play to Peyton Manning, thats the monkey off his back. Any idea what time the highlights are on sky this evening? Wish i had stayed up now!
Christ that’s unbelievable. I didn’t heed Cullyeile’s advice but only stayed up until just before half time. At that stage a Colts win was unthinkable. The interception, the fumbled touch-down, the sacking near the Colt’s own endzone - it was some first half performance by the Patriots. Brady was converting his third downs with ease. Astonished to read that the Colts came back to win it. Some performance.
Irsay makes amends for sins of the father
George Kimball
America At Large: The participants won’t arrive in Miami until Sunday, but with Super Bowl XLI still over a week away, the storyline is already emerging: for the next 11 days we will be inundated with reminders that while no African-American head coach had reached the NFL’s Championship game in the first 40 Super Bowls, the 41st will match two of them.
With all due respect to Tony Dungy (Indianapolis Colts) and Lovie Smith (Chicago Bears), the inevitable feeding frenzy over their ethnicity will overshadow what seems to me an equally compelling aspect of the February 4th game at Dolphins Stadium, which is that Jim Irsay has at last been granted an opportunity to dispatch the ghosts of his father’s unseemly legacy.
No NFL owner before or since was as roundly disliked as Robert Irsay, once accurately described by the Baltimore Sun as “the most reviled man in football”. Always difficult to get along with, Irsay bought his way into the NFL in 1972 when he purchased the Los Angeles Rams and then, in an arranged deal, swapped franchises with Carroll Rosenbloom, who owned the Baltimore Colts.
The Colts were regarded as nothing less than a civic treasure. (Case in point: the Barry Levinson film Diner, in which Steve Guttenberg’s character, Eddie, agrees to marry his fiancee only after she passes a 100-question Baltimore Colts trivia quiz). Twelve years later, after reaching a backdoor deal with Indianapolis interests, on the evening of March 28th, 1984, Bob Irsay dispatched a fleet of moving vans to the Colts’ headquarters, and by daybreak the team had literally stolen out of town forever.
Brazenly uprooting the Colts was considered an unpardonable act, and not just in Baltimore. That the city was eventually rewarded with another franchise, the Ravens, did little to soothe local wounds. To this day, the doddering remnants of the Baltimore Colts Marching Band are trotted out in their blue-and-white uniforms for municipal celebrations. Longtime Baltimore fans were particularly incensed that, after moving to Indiana, the Colts continued to play in their Baltimore-vintage uniforms, and retained the Baltimore Colts’ team records as their own.
And until a bit after nine o’clock last Sunday, when the Colts scored the winning touchdown with a minute to play in a 38-34 win over the Patriots in the AFC Championship game, they had regarded Indianapolis’ annual play-off swoon with a certain schadenfreude. (Time and again in recent years, the Peyton Manning-led Colts had amassed the league’s best regular-season record only to be ousted, often by the Patriots, in the tournament for the Super Bowl).
According to his own family, the civic legacy of Baltimore wasn’t the only thing Bob Irsay robbed. Two years after he had spirited the Colts out of town, Irsay’s then 84-year-old mother told Sports Illustrated that her son had stolen family money and described him as “the devil on earth”. In the same SI story, Robert Irsay’s former wife, Harriet, said that “Owning a football team really made him feel powerful. Between his power and his drinking, he just became obnoxious. He was always belittling the players and coaches, constantly in a fit of temper.”
And then Johnny Unitas, the legendary Colts’ quarterback of the 1960s and 70s, said of Irsay pere: “You couldn’t accept anything Mr Irsay told you as being totally truthful.”
Suffice it to say that upon inheriting the team upon his father’s death 10 years ago, Jim Irsay became the most haunted heir since Hamlet.
Bob Irsay had been a mean drunk. His son was a closet druggie. (In 2002, on learning that he was the subject of a federal investigation, Jim checked himself into a rehab unit and confirmed that he had been abusing prescription drugs for at least seven years).
The 32 NFL owners are by definition millionaire movers and shakers, and it isn’t often that one of them moves in the same circles I do, but Jimmy Irsay has always marched to a different drummer.
He was certainly the only owner of an NFL franchise who had Hunter S Thompson’s home number on speed dial. He is an accomplished amateur musician who has a studio in his home, and jams with the likes of fellow Indianan John Mellencamp and our mutual friend, Stephen Stills. He plays a guitar once owned by Elvis Presley and regularly confounds more traditional sportswriters by sprinkling his interviews with obscure quotes from Bob Dylan.
And in 2001, he astonished the literary world by outbidding all other suitors, paying $2.43 million to acquire the original manuscript of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. A few months after Irsay had purchased the scroll, I found myself in Indianapolis for a Patriots-Colts game. Jim Irsay arranged for me to have a private viewing of the manuscript, in a vault at the Lilly Library in nearby Bloomington, where it was being restored.
In contrast to Unitas’ opinion of his father, Manning, the current Colts’ quarterback, describes Jim Irsay as “as good an owner - and as good a man - as there is”. (Some cynic is bound to point out that Peyton has 98 million reasons for his enthusiastic endorsement.)
Ironically, the Colts reached last Sunday’s conference title game by beating the Ravens, in Baltimore, the preceding weekend. Jim Irsay was all but hung in effigy on his return to that city, and the stadium was festooned with signs and placards bearing everything from insults to outright threats.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m delighted to see two black coaches in the Super Bowl, but I’m happy for Jim Irsay, too. “It’s taken faith and belief,” said Irsay, before adding in an oblique reference to his late father, “and exorcism of some of the things of the past.”
Just settling down to watch the greatest show on earth.
Prediction: Colts offence to just have too much for the Bears excellent defence.
27-20.
Watched the first half of the game last night and it was mayhem. A kickoff return for a touchdown in 10 seconds, countless fumbles and recoveries, one interception. Colts were two points ahead at half time but at that point I got the feeling it was all over. The Bears had a great start and the opportunity to press home their advantage but they weren’t getting first downs on their last 3 possessions. Colts on the other hand were under big pressure from the Bears defence but at the same time they managed to pick up short ten yard passes with ease.
The Colts really did destroy them all game. It was amazing it was only 16-14 at ht but they’d fluffed two kicks and allowed the Bears to return the opening kick-off 92 yards for a TD (what an incredible start). However, they were actually battering them as regards time in possession, first downs made, total yardage etc. and they just pressed on in the second half without panicking. What a superb half time show by Prince also - possibly the best half time show I have ever seen. Manning, Addai and Rhodes were the difference. As rock says the amount of short passes underneath to the running backs really hurted the Bears. I don’t want to slate Grossman but he was truly awful in the second half. Overall, happy that Manning finally has a Super Bowl ring - he deserves it.
What a fantastic 1st Quarter, for pure entertainment rather then good play. I know it was wet but the amount of interceptions, fumbles etc was unbelievable. Spot on rock saying the Colts were under pressure from the Bears defense but as the game progressed the Colts just wore them down. Felt sorry for Grossman. Was willing him on the make some good throws and then when he does one good one you think he might just grow from here but then he goes and gets intercepted right after. He made far too many mistakes. Read this morning that Peyton got the MVP. Didn’t think he deserved it though. THought Rhodes and Addai deserved it more. All in all it was an entertaining event up till the last 6mins in the last Quarter. It was funny listening to Don Johnson aswell!Great to see the minutes silence at the start and switch over to the marines in IRAQ.
Some typically American moments alright.
The coin toss is hilarious with the offensive captain, defensive captain and special teams captain all going up for it and then running around like idiots when they won it.
Then when Manning got MVP he was given a Cadillac. Fair enough but Jim Nantz had to read an absolute cringe piece about Cadillac then.
The worse is the Vince Lombardi Trophy gets presented to the owner of the club! I can imagine the scenes if Dermot Desmond went up to collect the League for Celtic. There would be a riot. Then he thanks the good Lord and so does coach Dungy. Manning was the only one to speak a little bit of sense.
The stuff at the start of the Super Bowl is pure nonsense. There was a cracking shot of a 6 year old kid in the crowd with the wrong hand in the air for the Pledge of Allegiance or whatever it is and his mother was dragging at his hand to make him do it right so he’d show better respect to the flag - never mind that it was the national anthem so it was the wrong gesture altogether. It took them ages to find a player who looked even remotely interested in the anthem. Then the troops in Iraq was pure comedy. There’s feck all support for the war in the States anymore but they still show the fecking troops. Fools.
You forgot the honorary captains too Bandage. Some chick just standing there in a smart skirt because her husband died. She didn’t even toss the coin because honorary captain Marino got to do that.
The Bears had an extra captain - what was going on there?
meant to post on this last night as it was happening but my tinternet is down at present. Thought overall the best team won. Bears had nothing on offence, Rex Grossman was a disaster. Having said that though the Colts defence really showed up in the post season having been terrible in the regular season. Didnt think Manning was the MVP but think it was always a cert if the Colts won he was gonna get it.
Some wonderful American moments. They certainly know how to put on a show. Watched the event with Pagey and we both agreed it was a wonderful moment when it went to the troops during the anthem, then the fly over straight after. God Bless America.
It will be interesting to see now how the whole thing shapes up in the off season. Think the draft weekend is in March. Also I expect to see Tony Dungy retire on a high note after last night. Also the rumour is that Bears head coach Lovie Smith could be on the way to Dallas to replace Bill Parcells as head coach.
No game now till September. Also next October the Giants will be playing the Dolphins in Wembley in the first regular season game to be played outside the US.
Did the 49ers not play the Cardinals in Mexico City either this season or last?
We were discussing the fly over last night. We speculated that each Head Coach nominated a country they wanted to take a hit and so the planes set off.
Draft is usally first weekend of March. I was over there in 2005 with work and it was on in Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan (don’t know if it’s held here every year) but there were thousands of supporters there for it. It lasts two days and the players get introduced with their mothers etc. Again, it’s really cheesy but very funny.
Yes there’s a lot of speculation already, the Colts could be hit hard as Harper, June, Freeney & in particular Rhodes are all free agents, and they have salary cap issues. Rumours that the Bears might pick up QB Garcia from the Eagles to replace Rex Grossman. And T.O. (Terrell Owens) is unsettled at Dallas, so remains to be seen if he’ll be kept there under brand-new coach Wade Phillips (a coaching veteran, yet to win a post-season game but with strong defensive credentials in every job he’s done, including his last post as defensive coordinator for the Chargers).
In fact news about the Dallas coaching job, and whether Brett Favre would return for another year with the Packers (he will) actually dominated the headlines here the week before the Superbowl. The speculation is even more ridiculous in the NBA though, the season is only halfway through and hopes are high in Boston. Not cos the Celtics are doing well though, in fact the excitement is for the opposite reason, as their 17-game losing streak (during all of which their best player, Pierce, has been injured) has given them the worst record in the NBA, and if they can maintain this form, it’s odds-on that the NBA draft lottery would give them one of the top two picks, allowing them to take one of the two huge stars of this year’s college scene, Greg Odem or Kevin Durant. Personally I think they should finish one season before worrying about the next, but I suppose the Celtics are a special case.
What’s the deal with the draft lottery - is there an element of chance in what order the picks are in? I always assumed it was determined solely by standings from the previous season but I guess that might make it too easy to manipulate.
I had always presumed it was determined just by standings too, but no, there is an element of chance. Originally the lottery decided the order of all first-round picks among non-playoff teams, but this has been amended on a number of occasions to favour the worst teams. The current system is as below, from wikipedia but it seems accurate. Actually I’m wrong in what I said previously, whichever team finishes with the worst record in the NBA (looking like the Celtics) will have a 25% chance of getting the first pick or a 21.5% chance (although this would change depending on who got the first pick) of the second pick, being a 46.5% chance of either. While they would be guaranteed (as below) of getting no worse than the 4th pick, getting one of the top 2 picks is seen as crucial this year as Durant and Odem appear so far ahead of the rest. Then again, I saw an analysis this morning of the 2003 draft-class (following the Heat-Cavs game last night), and the experts agreed that if they could pick again now, they’d pick the Heat’s Dwayne Wade (5th pick that year) ahead of the Cavs’ Lebron James (1st pick that year). Other big name first picks include successes such as Shaq (2002), Yao Ming (2002) and Dwight Howard (2004), but in 1998 the 1st pick was Michael Olowokandi, while 9th pick was the far better (we know now) Dirk Nowitzki.
From wikipedia:
"The lottery is normally held during the fourth week of May. The 2007 draft lottery will be held Tuesday, May 22nd.
Fourteen ping pong balls numbered 1-14 are placed in a standard lottery machine and four balls are drawn at random to determine the winner. Just as in most traditional lotteries, the order of the numbers are not important, so although there are 24 different orders of the same four numbers being drawn, all are treated as the same combination. That is, 1-2-3-4 is considered to be the same as 3-4-2-1. By eliminating the importance of the order of the numbers, the 24,024 (14x13x12x11) sequences are reduced to 1,001 sets. Of these 1,000 are divided among all the non-playoff NBA teams. The one combination not assigned is 11-12-13-14, which has never been drawn.
In the event a lottery pick is traded to another team, the record of the original team (whose pick it was before the trade) matters.
As of 2005, with 30 NBA teams, 16 qualify for the playoffs and the remaining 14 teams are entered in the draft lottery. These 14 teams are ranked in reverse order of their regular season record and are assigned the following number of chances:
250 combinations, 25% chance of receiving the #1 pick
199 combinations, 19.9% chance
156 combinations, 15.6% chance
119 combinations, 11.9% chance
88 combinations, 8.8% chance
63 combinations, 6.3% chance
43 combinations, 4.3% chance
28 combinations, 2.8% chance
17 combinations, 1.7% chance
11 combinations, 1.1% chance
8 combinations, 0.8% chance
7 combinations, 0.7% chance
6 combinations, 0.6% chance
5 combinations, 0.5% chance
In the event of a tie, a simple tiebreaker (usually a coin flip) is performed to determine which team gets the better position. The combinations for the spots in question are split evenly among the tied teams with any extra pick given to the winner of the tiebreaker.
The lottery is conducted with witnesses verifying that all 14 balls are represented once as they are placed in the lottery machine. The balls are placed in the machine for 20 seconds to randomize prior to having the first ball drawn. The remaining three balls are drawn at 10 second intervals. NBA League Officials determine which team holds the winning combination and that franchise is awarded the #1 overall draft pick. The four balls are returned to the machine and the process is repeated to determine the second and third picks. In the event that a combination belongs to a team that has already won its pick (or if the 1 unassigned combination comes up), the round is repeated until a unique winner is determined. When the first three teams have been determined, the remaining picks are given out based on regular season record with the worst teams getting the highest picks. This assures each team that it can drop no more than 3 spots from its projected draft position."
Thanks law - Good God that’s complicated. Makes sense though.
Where the fuck is @iamthelaw[/USER] @[USER=21]cullyeile[/USER] and @[USER=12]pagey1 these days?
Nobody cares.