RealClearSports: Nothing Will Top Saints Win This Year in Sports

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

Eleven months to go in the year, and there's nothing left. Not after the Super Bowl. Not after this Super Bowl. Not after the way America got what it wanted and New Orleans got what it needed.

Not after the joy a football game event brought to a region, indeed to a nation, both of which could use a little joy.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2010

Newsday (N.Y.): Saints beat Colts in Super Bowl XLIV, 31-17

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

MIAMI -- The team from New Orleans beat the man from New Orleans. The Super Bowl that was going to validate the greatness of Peyton Manning instead verified the heart and hustle of his hometown Saints.

Peyton was supposed to lead the Colts to victory in Super Bowl XLIV. Instead, on a night of surprises, it was the other quarterback, Drew Brees, who led the team Peyton cheered for as a kid to a 31-17 victory before 74,059 fans at Sun Life Stadium.

Brees and a defense which did what couldn't be done against Manning.

The Saints kept the ball out of his hands, and then late in the game, when it was in his hands, turned an interception by Tracy Porter into a touchdown as stunning as it was crushing.

A franchise that for so long was so appallingly bad that its fans wore bags on their heads and nicknamed it the "Aints'' reached the summit of pro football. In their 43rd year of existence, the Saints finally have gone marching in.

Whether the championship in any way eases the pain of Hurricane Katrina's destruction 4 1/2 years ago is open for discussion. But moments after the final gun on that most famous of party thoroughfares, Bourbon Street, the city was already wild.

"Four years ago we were under water,'' Brees said, "and now look what's happened. I feel so good for the people there.''

Brees completed 32 of 39 passes for 288 yards and two touchdowns and was named MVP. Maybe because the Colts' Dwight Freeney was slowed by that sore ankle. Maybe not.

"I tried to imagine what this moment would be like for a long time,'' said Brees, signed as a free agent four years ago when Chargers wouldn't bring him back. "It's better than I imagined.''

It's hard to imagine what the favored Colts were thinking. They held a 10-0 first-quarter lead, and the game almost seemed over then. But it turned like that. The Saints had the ball for all but 2:34 of the second quarter, and even though they failed to score a touchdown on two plays from the 1-yard line, there was a sense the Colts could be stopped.

"We didn't care if they got 200 yards rushing,'' Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams said.

"We had to try to eliminate the bad plays and the big plays. It was a battle of wills, and we got it done.''

The Colts, the worst rushing team in the NFL, ran for 99 yards, and Manning passed for 333 and a touchdown. But he didn't come up with many big completions, as Williams had planned.

The Saints used three field goals by Garrett Hartley, who set a Super Bowl record for that number beyond 40 yards, and an onside kickoff to start the second half to make their presence felt. It was typically aggressive and gutty move by coach Sean Payton. Whatever works.

What didn't work for Manning was the fourth-quarter pass intended for Reggie Wayne with the Colts trailing, 24-17 and the ball on the Saints' 31, third-and-5. Porter grabbed it on the run and went 74 yards for the clincher.

"It was great film study,'' Porter said. "We knew on third- and-short they stack. It was great film study by me, a great jump and a great play.''

Manning used the word disappointment several times, but also said, "I know from us winning three years ago how exciting it was, and the Saints have the same feeling now. I'm excited for them.'' Manning's father, Archie, of course, was a quarterback for the Saints in their awful days. Peyton's brother Eli is the quarterback for the Giants.

It was a former Giant, tight end Jeremy Shockey, who caught the key touchdown pass with 5:42 left. Shockey's 2-yard catch, along with a two-point conversion pass to Lance Moore, first judged no good but overruled after a Payton challenge, gave New Orleans the lead for good at 24-17.

"I don't care about the catch,'' said Shockey, who didn't play in the Giants' Super Bowl win two years ago because of an injury. "I just care about the team.''

That team is the best in football.

"And it's not only for city,'' Saints owner Tom Benson said. "It's for the state. New Orleans is back.''

Copyright © 2010 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Garçon, Collie have been a revelation for Colts

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

MIAMI -- The good teams find them. That's why they're good teams. Somewhere in the draft are players who can meet a need, fill a void. For the Indianapolis Colts, those players were Pierre Garçon and Austin Collie.

Marvin Harrison was leaving. Marvin Harrison, for so long Peyton Manning's favorite target, was finished with the Colts at the end of 2008. Sure, Reggie Wayne and Dallas Clark would catch what Manning threw, but who would take over for Harrison?

As we've learned, it was Garçon, in his second season, and Collie, in his first. The Jets learned that, too.

In the AFC Championship Game, Garçon made 11 catches for 153 yards, the best numbers of his brief career. Collie had seven catches for 123 yards and a touchdown, the best numbers of his even briefer career.

What we know about Garçon, the sixth-round pick in the 2008 draft from Division III Mount Union (Ohio), is this: He was born in New York after his parents emigrated from Haiti, the country he honored by wearing a headscarf illustrated with a portion of the Haitian flag during interviews.

What we know about Collie, the fourth-round pick in the 2009 draft, is this: He was born in Hamilton, Ontario, while his father was playing in the Canadian Football League and grew up in northern California. What we also know was he spent 2005 and 2006 on a Mormon mission in Buenos Aires before returning to play two seasons at BYU and turning pro.

What we didn't know about either, as Manning said, is this: "You just don't know those guys are going to respond during the course of a season, during the playoffs . . . Those guys just have had a really calm look in their eyes throughout the year. That has been very comforting.

"We have counted on those young guys to make a lot of plays for us this year. I think it's unusual for two guys like that.''

Garçon was more kick returner than receiver as a rookie, but now he's more star than anything, with 16 catches for 185 yards in two postseason games.

"Losing Marvin and Anthony Gonzalez [with a knee injury] was very tough to deal with,'' Garçon said. "But as a team, we're always at the next man up. This is what you get paid to do . . . I always thought I had potential. And I have been working hard and getting ready for this time to come.''

Collie's work has been a bit unusual. Early on, he had trouble memorizing the Colts' complex playbook. "My wife would help,'' Collie said, "by giving me a play and then read the script from the previous day or the script about to be used. I teach her what I am doing, and if I got the play wrong, she would make me do it again.''

Judging by what's occurred, Collie's been getting most of them right. As few would have guessed in July, he and Garçon have become major parts of a team still playing in February.

Copyright © 2010 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Addai focused on wins, not his rushing stats

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

MIAMI -- He is the running back on a passing team. Joseph Addai doesn't get a lot of yards and gets even less respect, which is what happens when Peyton Manning is your teammate.

But as the Jets forlornly will concur, Addai helped get the Indianapolis Colts into Sunday's Super Bowl against the Saints.

There they are, at the bottom of the NFL stats in rushing. There they are, one victory from the trophy named for Vince Lombardi, who most likely would be appalled at the Colts' inability to pound the ball.

Except when, against the Jets in the AFC Championship Game, they pounded it when needed. Addai ran through seams that were unclosed because the Jets understandably had to be worried about Manning and his passing ability.

"The main focus,'' Addai said, "has been getting that 'W,' and that's what we've been doing. I think when we get the opportunity [to run], we make something happen.

"It's really how you look at it. If you just watch a game, you say, 'That's a nice run, that's a nice run,' but you look on paper and see something different. It's how you look at it, and what we have to work with. You have a great player in Peyton Manning, so you want him to make a lot of decisions, and he does a great job.''

The Colts averaged a paltry 80.9 yards a game on the ground in the regular season (and 282.2 passing). But Indianapolis did pick up 101 yards against the Jets, 80 of those by Addai at key times.

"It's an area we know needs improving,'' Colts coach Jim Caldwell said about his team's rushing attack. "But I do think there are certain times in certain ballgames, like the last one we played [against the Jets], where we have been effective.''

Nitpicking is a favorite activity in sports. It's not so much what you have but what you don't have that leads to discussions. So when the accolades about Manning ebb, the doubts about Addai begin. Perhaps unfairly.

Three years ago, when the Colts beat the Bears in Super Bowl XLI in Miami, Addai gained 143 yards rushing, the second-highest total for a rookie in Super Bowl history. He also had 10 receptions for 66 yards, the most catches by a running back in a Super Bowl game.

But this year he was bothered by a partially torn hamstring, so the Colts went to the infrequently used legs of rookie Donald Brown and the very frequently used arm of Manning.

Now Addai, who was a first-round pick out of LSU in 2006, is forced to defend himself to the media after the other team defends him on the turf.

"I always say I'm a human first,'' he said when asked if he's bothered when the Colts' running game is disparaged, "but when coaches call our number, we answer well. It comes down to being a team player and getting those 'Ws', and we've been doing that.''

Especially in the postseason, when it matters most.

Copyright © 2010 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Quiet Storm Colston makes most of opportunity

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

MIAMI -- The scene in the rearview mirror is less than appealing. "I don't have anything to go back to,'' Marques Colston said. But a few days before Super Bowl XLIV he is contemplating the future.

His university's football team no longer exists. Hofstra, where he developed the skills that elevated him into the pros and with the New Orleans Saints into the NFL's biggest game, gave up the ghost and the sport.

So Colston becomes the answer to a trivia question: Who was the last player from Hofstra taken in the NFL draft?

That was in 2006, the seventh round, as a supplemental compensatory pick, a position almost guaranteeing the wide receiver would not stick with the Saints. But he did, and started Week 1 of his first season.

"What I had to do,'' Colston said, "was take advantage of the opportunity I had by getting to camp. I took that approach and it worked out for me.''

Better than anyone might imagine. The Saints traded Donte Stallworth before the '06 season opener. Colston was named to replace him. Some replacement. Colston had 70 receptions for 1,038 yards and finished in a tie with Maurice Jones-Drew, behind Vince Young, as Offensive Rookie of the Year.

He is nicknamed The Quiet Storm for an unpretentious style that runs counter to that of many receivers. "That's just my nature,'' Colston said. "I just like to go out and handle my business, and do what I'm supposed to do. It just so happens that this is the biggest stage probably in the world that day. Hopefully, people will get the opportunity to see what I can do.''

The Jets trained for years at Hofstra, leaving for a new facility in Florham Park, N.J., before the 2009 season. Undergraduate football followed, the school deciding low attendance (4,260 average last season) and high costs were an unacceptable combination.

"It definitely hurt a bit,'' Colston said of the termination. "But when I was there we kind of saw the writing on the wall. There wasn't a whole lot of support . . . My initial thoughts were to the players. I found out they could transfer and play right away or stay on scholarship. That kind of put me at ease.

"But I used to go back the past few summers and work out with some of the guys. That's over.''

It was Hofstra, said Colston, that allowed the personal development he might not have achieved at a larger program.

"I wasn't very big, 175 pounds or so, and not very polished,'' recalled Colston about graduating from Susquehanna Township High in Harrisburg, Pa. "Hofstra offered me the opportunity to grow at the rate I needed to grow. If I had gone to a larger school I might have gotten lost in the shuffle.''

Now 6-4, 225 pounds, Colston believes he will create favorable matchups in the Super Bowl. "I see myself,'' Colston said, "as a guy who can be open even when I'm not open.''

Copyright © 2010 Newsday. All rights reserved.

SF Examiner: Miami’s been a good city to the 49er faithful

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

MIAMI — The years disappear. The memories remain.

Another Super Bowl in South Florida, this one between the Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints. Thoughts, however, turn toward other days and another team, the 49ers.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2010 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Media Day Get a Sponsor, Loses Laughs

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

MIAMI -- This time there was a sponsor. For Media Day. It's bad enough every spare second of television, every halftime score, every interview is connected to some sort of commercial. But Super Bowl media day, when hundreds of journalists shove and push to hear quotes that don't mean anything?

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2010

Newsday (N.Y.): Saints' Vilma wanted to face pals on Jets

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

MIAMI -- The memories are good ones for Jonathan Vilma. He sat there with the "C" and four stars on his New Orleans Saints jersey, talking about the way it was not very long ago with the Jets.

This is home for Vilma, where he grew up, where he graduated from the University of Miami. And Sunday, this is where at age 27, he will face the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV.

He's made it. The Saints have made it. The only way it might have been better were if the Jets had made it, if the Jets had beaten the Colts, and not vice versa, and come in to play the Saints.

"I was hoping that," said Vilma, "but not for bad reasons. I still have a lot of friends with the Jets, being with those guys only two years ago. I felt like they were playing real good ball at the end, good defense especially. I would have been excited for them."

Vilma was the Jets' first pick in the 2004 draft, No. 12 overall, a linebacker of speed and agility who was NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year. But fate and philosophy conspired against him, not necessarily in that order.

Eric Mangini's arrival as coach in 2006 meant switching from a 4-3 defense, where Vilma's skills as middle linebacker were best utilized, to a 3-4, where they were not. Then in October 2007, Vilma tore up his knee. Four months later, he was sent to the Saints.

"I just felt it was part of the business," Vilma said about leaving the Jets. "It was a situation where I didn't fit the system, whatever anyone could speculate. It didn't really bother me because I knew I was coming [to New Orleans]. I was wanted down here, and I was coming to a situation that was good. But I had a real good time up in New York."

Vilma's parents emigrated from Haiti in the 1970s. He has been active in the post-earthquake relief effort, raising money with sales of a T-shirt on which is written: "Department of Domeland Security," linking the U.S. agency and the Saints' covered stadium.

"That was my idea," he said immodestly. "The saying, the logo, everything about the shirt . . . It was something I felt like we needed, and it really helped [the proceeds] going to the Haiti relief effort. I can't do anything else besides that at the moment."

Vilma and tight end Jeremy Shockey have had parallel experiences. They were teammates at Miami, went to NFL franchises in New York - Shockey, of course, with the Giants - were injured and then were sent to New Orleans.

"He got hurt," Vilma said. "I got hurt. He got traded. I got traded. And we've been making the most of it since. It felt like we were a little slighted. I know that he had more controversy coming from New York. We won a national championship at Miami, and when we said, 'We're back at it again.' But it's only special if you win."

Copyright © 2010 Newsday. All rights reserved.