Your Week #2 Chicken Little Checklist

Alrighty, let's go over the checklist.

1. Lose your 4-time NFL MVP quarterback for an extended period.

Check!

2. Sign a replacement QB who was retired to be the starter because the guy who was your backup has a regular season QB rating of less than 10 and should not be allowed anywhere on the playing field.

Check!

3. Complete #2 less than three weeks before the regular season starts.

Check!

4. Go out the first week and lay a craptacular egg against a division rival.

Check!

5. If your a season ticket holder you should immediately go out and sell your tickets to all future Colts games.

Che...WTF!

Well, according to WTHR in Indy, they seem to think that Colts ticket holders will be jumping ship now that the team is facing a different kind of adversity we haven't had to face in quite a while.

INDIANAPOLIS - A blowout loss in the first game could prompt Colts' season ticket holders to sell or give away some of their tickets.

WTF! REALLY! Do you really think the sky is falling at this point? While the blowout loss to Houston was a tough one to swallow, it was also a page out of the Worst Case Scenario book. I don't expect Kerry Collins to have the same issues in the first quarter of the Browns game and end up in a 17-0 hole after one quarter.

And considering this weekend's game is the first home game, I don't think most ticket holders are in a hurry to try and make some cash versus seeing the game.

If we are 0-8 at the mid-season point, then we'll have a different story altogether.

It's more than just a first game loss. The first game without Peyton Manning in which the team barely showed a pulse might turn into an opportunity.

Again, see my previous point.

"I thought it was bad," said Brian Williams.

I thought he actually said, "I thought is sucked donkey balls!" But it is broadcast TV, so they had to clean it up.

Ticket brokers say it's a little early for a mass exodus but with the Cleveland Browns coming to town it could be a bellwether game. If the Colts play poorly again this weekend, the hometown faithful may decide to take advantage of the Steelers visit the following week, since Pittsburgh fans are known to travel well.

So basically you already proved you are jumping the gun with this article.

"Pittsburgh is a good traveling team. They can't get tickets to their own stadium, so a lot of times they go on the road. They got a lot of fans that travel, so we are still seeing a lot of demand for that game," said Kyle Kinnett with Sport Events.

This is actually true and was proved in the playoff game in 2006. Fans thought we would walk into the next round and people made a few bucks. Oops!

But some Colts fans aren't so quick to get rid of their tickets.

No shit, Sherlock!

"No, I wouldn't sell them. Not to them, no. No, I don't think I would sell them at all," said Shari Jordina.

"I'd sit through anything the Colts gotta do," Williams said. "No matter what. I'm a die hard Colts fan."

I think this is what most season ticket holders are saying. If you are that quick to sell your tickets before the first home game, then you are probably not much of a Colts fan in the first place.

On the Eyewitness News Facebook page, reaction was much the same Monday.

"I don't have them, but if I did, I would still be at every game. I'm a true blue bleeder, no matter the time. Standing behind a time that has taken us farther than I ever thought possible," said one fan, Gloria.

"Anyone who sells their tickets just because the #1 QB is out hurt is not a true Colts fan," wrote another fan, Rhonda.

Wham! Wham! Wham! (Sound of my head hitting the desk)

For now demand is steady, but there is a crack.

There are still plenty of fans who want to see a Colts game. With or without Manning. Even if the Colts are 0-8, I'm still going to go to a game and have a good time. It is all nice when your team wins, but you tend to take with you the overall experience of the game. The atmosphere, the camaraderie, the lighter wallet and the cheering are all part of going to the game.

"Demand is definitely the same. The prices have dropped a bit. I would liken it to when the economy took a dive a few years ago - predominantly our business was corporate America, corporate America, corporate America and the price was high. When that happened, the pricing came down and gave the opportunity for fans and people who haven't been able to attend these events in the past the opportunity to go. It's the same; I mean, it's a good team. It's a team sport. Prices are down but it's giving the opportunity to fans who couldn't afford to prior the opportunity to go now," Kinnett said.

Dude, the prices have dropped because your franchise player is not playing. It's not like trying to sell tickets to the Brickyard 400. You still have plenty of people who want to go see the Colts. However, since you are not sure what kind of play you are going to see at this point, you are not going to get the top dollar you were getting in previous seasons.

If you normally don't have the opportunity to attend Colts games, this could be your year. Tickets are going for face value.

And that is not necessarily anything new. When I checked Stub Hub there were some going for under face value, but they were the upper level sideline seats in the upper rows. Not sure why they are charging $69 face value for those seats, but they were selling in the mid-$40's. The cheap end zone seats were going for a few bucks over face value. So, like any event, there are some bargains. It's not like it is a pre-season game where you can't give the tickets away.

"It was tough to watch, but I would give them another chance. They are our Colts, so we have to give them a chance," Jordina said.


It's not like you're going to a game and being forced to watch Ishtar or Nothing But Trouble! The Colts are going to win games this year. The Colts are going to lose games this year. Kerry Collins will get more on track and the rest of the team will buck up and actually start showing up. It is not time to throw in the towel and play for a high draft pick. We do not know how long Peyton will be out. If the Colts can hover around .500 and Manning can come back after 8 games, then they may still have a shot at the playoffs.

Even without Manning for the season, the AFC South is winnable for the Colts. I'm not giving up on them yet, and it looks like most fans are not ready to either.

ESPN to '06 Colts - You Suck!

When you think of the 2006 Indianapolis Colts - do you think of them as overrated?

ESPN's Sal Paolantonio does! Good ol' Sal has labeled the Super Bowl XLI champs as the"most overrated Super Bowl winner." Really?!?

I'll give you that the game was not the most thrilling since it was the first Super Bowl played in the rain. But I think I've seen some worse Super Bowls (XX, XXIV and XXXIII come quickly to mind). Super Bowl XLI may have been the "sloppiest" and not just because of the rain.

There were plenty of mistakes made on both sides. Dungy choosing to kick-off to Devin Hester, which was run back for a touchdown. Rex Grossman doing his Chris Berman impression on a third quarter series - back, back, back. Peyton's lone TD pass to a wide-open Reggie Wayne because his defender was playing man while the rest of his team was in a zone. Rex's limp-wristed lob to Mushin Muhammad that Kevin Heyden intercepted and returned for the game-sealing TD.

I'll also give Sal that Peyton Manning did not deserve the MVP trophy. Dominic Rhodes (113 yds, 1TD) and Joseph Addai (77 yds) should have shared the MVP or if you had to pick just one, then Dom would have been my choice. The Colts put up 191 yards on the ground against the Bears who were 6th against the run, only giving up 99.4 yds/game during the season. Manning won the MVP because he finally won the "big" game. Most overrated MVP? Yes, you could probably give that to Manning.

Beyond that, I think that Sal is off his rocker. The Colts' much maligned defense allowed only one TD and one FG. Their run defense ranked the worst in the NFL giving up 173 yds/game. They held the Bears to 112 yards and no touchdowns. They harassed Rex all night and he really hasn't been the same since, really.

The Bears defense ranked fifth in the league. So that fact that Manning struggled in the rain should not have been too big of a surprise. It was a miracle that our running game worked as well as it did and that is why they should have be given the MVP.

And Sal, your title says the "most overrated winner", but you spend almost the entire article trying to prove it as the "worst" Super Bowl ever. Those are two drastically different categories. The Colts were the #3 seed in 2006, even while finishing 12-4. So they had two win three games to get to the Super Bowl. This was not the 2007 Patriots that are definitely the most overrated loser ever. The Colts had to beat their nemesis, the Patriots, in the AFC Championship. (A much better game.) The line was 6 1/2 points, which the Colts covered. Going into the playoffs, I do not remember hearing the pundits saying the Colts had the easiest road to make it to the Super Bowl or even a majority thinking the Colts would even make it to the Super Bowl. Overrated? I don't think so.

Sal never really gets into why he thinks the Colts were the most overrated team. I would have preferred to see Sal give his worst three, four or five Bowls and his reasoning why they are the worst. I would be slightly more understanding if I could see his comparisons against other "bad" winners.

Obviously, I am more than a little biased since I am a Colts fan. If this game had been between Seattle and Cleveland, then I might be inclined to agree that it was one of the worst Super Bowls. However, as I mentioned before, I can name a few other Super Bowls that were blowouts that I personally thought were worse or just plain boring. Frankly, Sal, I have to rate your article as one of the worst on Super Bowls.

Comeback Aftermath

If you watched the Colts' 31-27 victory over the Texans on Sunday, you witnessed a great and stunning comeback by the Colts. As wonderful as the comeback was (at least, for a Colts fan), there are some issues with how it is being described.

First off, a common way the Colts' comeback is described by sports media is to say that Houston blew a 17-point lead in the final 4:10, as if the Colts got the ball down 17 with that little time remaining. That's a bit misleading. The Texans scored their final touchdown with 8:18 left in the 4th; on the ensuing possession, the Colts took just more than 4 minutes to score a TD to make it 27-17. So the Colts had 8+ minutes to come back--still a very impressive (and unlikely) comeback, but not quite as madcap as only having 4 minutes to do it.

Secondly, some people seem to have not watched what happened in the game. For example, Tom Jackson, ESPN football analyst, said that the reason the Colts came back is "they have #18. He's the guy that sparked this comeback." Granted, Peyton Manning did his part in the victory--he led the drive to cut the lead to 27-17, and he threw the pass that put the Colts up 31-27 on Reggie Wayne's circus catch. But I didn't see Peyton on the field playing defense and forcing the Texans into 3 turnovers in the final 4 minutes. As great as this comeback was, I expect that Peyton will probably get more credit than he deserves from the media.

But this was a team win for the Colts that was helped out by dumb decisions by the Texans. The defense, which had been pretty lousy all day in giving up 27 points, made big plays to get the ball back. The Texans helped, and not just Sage Rosenfels and his spinning fumble-ruski. Houston's play selection late in the game was very suspect: after the Colts made it 27-24, the Texans still could have killed enough of the clock by running the ball and making the Colts burn their final time out. Instead, the Texans threw incomplete on 2nd down, which stopped the clock and saved the Colts time out. It also seemed to make Houston more desperate to make a first down, so instead of running on 3rd down, the Texans tried to pass, which led to the sack/fumble and the Colts taking over on the Houston 20.

As for the Colts offense, they didn't play well most of the day, but still put a drive together to make it 27-17 when all looked lost. And then they executed when the defense got the ball back with a chance to win the game. Again, this was a team win--snatched from what would have been a team loss. Many members of the media will ignore this and instead focus on Manning.

Oh, yeah: finally, this also from Tom Jackson on Sunday night's SportsCenter: "That's the third time this season that we've looked at the stat sheet and wondered how the Colts won a game."

Really? The Colts are now 2-2 after this win. Maybe Tom Jackson can see into the future.

Colts Win, Fans Of Good Sports Media Lose

Some thoughts and observations after the come-from-behind win for the Indianapolis Colts over the Minnesota Vikings Sunday:

Would somebody please outbid CBS the next time the NFL contract is up for negotiation? For fuck's sake, there are high school television programs who would have better production values and a better eye for the game than CBS. An example was on the Anthony Gonzalez/Reggie Wayne circus play, where Wayne scored an apparent touchdown. CBS had a grand total of two camera angles on the replay, one of which was the original shot (the sideline camera). The touchdown was overturned (and rightfully so), but it appeared that the spot of the ball was incorrect. It appeared Wayne's knee hit with the ball at about the one-foot line; the referee spotted the ball at the one-yard line. Of course, I have no way of knowing where it really was, since CBS had no functional angle of the spot.

Next up, WTHR-13's Dick Rea, summing up the Colts' win:

"...and the defense for the Colts did the job, preventing the Vikings from scoring on their home field."

Final score: Colts 18, Vikings 15. Technically, the Vikings scored five times. Dick, were you watching Matlock reruns again instead of the game?

And, then, our boy Bobby:

Manning's still good

This was no time for false humility, certainly not from Peyton Manning, who normally resorts to "aw, shucks'' platitudes in the moments after a huge victory...

He allowed himself a wry smile. "That was a good throw.''

A great throw. A game-winning throw. And maybe, just maybe, a season-saving throw. Not that teams can't win Super Bowls after starting 0-2 -- Peyton has a little brother whose team did just that last season -- but even in a Tom Brady-less league, 0-2 is no place to start a championship run.

This isn't the worst article in the world, especially by Kravitz's standards. Peyton did make plays crucial in winning the game Sunday--the throw to which Kravitz refers was what allowed the Colts to win in regulation. Honestly, Peyton played pretty well considering the offensive line played more like people voted off "The Biggest Loser" instead of NFL linemen.

Still, any reasonable person who watched that game would probably say that the defense was the biggest reason the Colts were able to come from down 15-0. They weren't perfect--at halftime it seemed Adrian Peterson was going to go for 280 yards or so by the end of the game--but they kept the Vikings close until the offense woke up.

Instead, Kravitz devotes his column to Manning and his heroics. Again, I'm not suggesting Manning played poorly, or that he wasn't at least partly-responsible for the win. But this article shows what typically happens in a game like this for the Colts--namely, Manning the media-darling gets the spotlight, and most of the credit.

I won't go through the rest of the article, except for:

Just when you started wondering whatever happened to No. 18, there he was in the second half of a game that seemed irretrievably lost, looking like No. 18 again -- minus about 15 pounds...clearly, he's not the old Manning quite yet. He's still not doing his full pregame workout routine, although he did more this week than he did last Sunday. And he's clearly lost some weight. The custom-made suit he wore after the game looked like one of those oversized jobs your mom used to buy, saying, "You'll grow into it.''

I love how none of the Indianapolis media mentioned Peyton's weight loss until John Madden mentioned it on Sunday Night Football last week. I also love how Kravitz uses the exact same observation that Madden made about Peyton's suit being too big. I don't know if it's technically plagiarism, or just stupidity.

Or maybe a little bit of both.