New England Hicks

Okay, I am a Colts fan, but when we were up by ten in the 4th quarter I was mostly excited as to what the East Coast media would say about the Patriots loss. I am sick of hearing about this New England team and how great they are. As a matter of fact, I am sick of Boston sports. I am tired of hearing about the damn Red Sox and now the Celtics are going to have a great season. Well, at least Boston College lost last night.

I don't want to talk about the game, but I do have an opinion about Massachusetts sports fans and it's colored from both personal experience and by the comments that their fans posted in response to the latest Bob Kravitz article.

The fact is that Boston has a strong history of racism and perhaps as a result it is one of the whitest major metropolitan areas in America. Small-mindedness and bigotry exist everywhere including Indiana. New England has its fair share of hicks too as evidenced by some of the comments below.

Indianapolis is nothing but the biggest hick town in the country! Go sleep with your cousin, you rednecks! Half of your bars have a two-tooth minimum that you can never satify!

Hmmm, Boston vs. Indianapolis...like there is any comparison between the two cities. Give me a break. What do you have in Indy, like two restaraunts that aren't a Chili's or Applebee's location?

Buckwheat Addai was good in the first half but the Pats adjusted and shut him down in the second. But the real MVP of this game for the Colts were the refs on the Colts payroll. The Pats overcame all that and still beat you.

Sorry fly-over country, we're just better...proved it in your house, with the refs in your pocket, the league in your pocket....What's Polian gonna cry about now?

Have fun cow-tippeng after your stores close at 8:00 pm.

oooo...nice comeback retaaaahd. we do look down on you because you s**k. where exactly is Indiana again?

Surely only the idiots from New England post on Indianapolis Star forum, right? I selected these quotations from the first few dozen posts. I have to admit that the one guy might be right about Chili's and Applebee's though.

Hey, we're new to this.

I attended the parade honoring the World Champion Indianapolis Colts yesterday. You got the feeling that the city was ill prepared for the celebration that would follow a Colts Super Bowl win. After several years of seeing our teams fall, you could understand why.

The city had announced a parade at downtown Indy at 4PM on the following Monday. I personally thought that was odd considering that other cities that throw a party after its teams' big victory wait a few days. That being said, with the weather hovering about a five degrees I layered up for the cold. With three layers, a vest, and a heavy coat on I ventured downtown to meet my buddies.

The 4 PM parade, with the Colts in buses due to the weather, was to culminate at the RCA dome with a rally. I met my buddies at four and after debating whether to brave the cold (and man it was cold) or go directly to the Dome, we decided to avoid the elements and go inside.

The Dome has never seemed to me that well constructed for pedestrian flow. It appeared even less so yesterday. With no security everyone made a mad rush for the lower levels. Someone thought it would be a great idea to hand out posters right where everyone had tried to enter. Don't get me wrong. I appreciate the sentiment but it really made getting inside the Dome an adventure. Once we made it through the entry way, we quickly discovered the lower levels had all essentially been taken up. We made our way to the upper level and made it there about a quarter after four.

While inside the Dome began filling up with Colts fans. On the field sat the stage and the team had roped off about three quarters of the Dome for fans. On each big screen the team replayed the Super Bowl. The crowd, having already seen the game and having dissected the plays over and over in their minds, still cheered at every big play. There was such a thunderous applause when Kelvin Hayden made his interception and took it to the end zone that you would have thought that no one in the Dome had ever seen that play before.

But then we waited. And we waited. I got a text message from another buddy that the Colts had just landed at the airport about the time we got there. I got a text message from another buddy that they went to the Colts complex before coming downtown. Then there was an announcement at 5:40PM that the Colts would begin the parade in ten minutes and the ceremony at the Dome at 6:20PM, about two and a half hours after the scheduled time. My brother, a family man, was with me and said he couldn't stay that long. We left to try to catch some of the parade.

We headed right for the Circle, assuming that would be where the action was. Then we waited. And waited. Finally someone said that Channel Six had announced the parade was cancelled. Cold and dejected we decided to go home.

I was walking back when I ran into some Colts fans. Figuring I would save them some time I told them the parade had been cancelled. They firmly told me no (let this be a lesson not to try to upset a guy in a chicken suit with a Colts jersey on) and told me it had started with the Colts on floats and not buses as previously reported. I called my brother and we ran back to the Dome.

At about twenty till seven, the parade finally made its way downtown. I couldn't believe how close the players were to the fans. The city didn't even rope off the streets. Each of us gave high fives to the Colts players who were sitting that close to the fans (except for Peyton, Reggie, and Marvin--most of the offense were on a very high float out of reach of the fans). To get a sense of how close everyone was to the players, click here. All the Colts wore their jerseys for easy identification.

The floats left a little to be desired. You got the sense that the Colts team was going to use buses but the players wouldn't hear of it. With that in mind they slapped together some floats real quick. Not withstanding that, it was amazing for the fans to be that close to the enthusiastic team.

We ran back down to the Circle and saw Bill Polian, Jim Irsay, and Coach Tony Dungy on a cherry picker. When Irsay held up the trophy the crowd went wild. From there we ran back down Meridian. The fans there were a little more subdued. No one was right up on the floats and shaking the Colts' hands. My brother looked over at me and said that he didn't think the crowd knew you can congratulate them personally. He then ran up and gave high fives to all of the defense players and that started the mad rush to the floats.

Notwithstanding the long delay it was amazing to see how excited and proud everyone was for the Colts and the city. I personally think a few more days of planning would have helped but in hindsight with the weather and five of the Colts going to Hawaii for the pro bowl, I guess it made sense. I also think that the city shouldn't have opened up the Dome. I know it was cold but think how amazing it would have been to see the fifty thousand folks in the Dome (published reports of 40,000 were off) on the street. ESPN reported today that there were "hundreds" of fans on the street. It would would have been much more impressive of an overhead view of all the fans along Meridian Street with the ceremony that took place on the Dome right in front of the monument. I am certainly not complaining because even with these few minor gripes I have been waiting for this for a long time and was just thrilled that it finally happened.

Plus the city now knows what to do for the celebration when we win Super Bowl XLII next year.

THE SUPER COLTS

A few days after the Colts finally defeated their arch rivals, the Patriots, to win the AFC Championship it finally hit me that the Colts were going to the Super Bowl. I was walking around the mall and after looking at all the blue T-shits for sale it finally soaked in. I even went so far as to whisper it to myself. Now I am not a casual fan by any stretch of the imagination as I have supported the Colts since my teen years. But I have grown accustomed to the disappointment of always falling short (as evidenced by my post noted below by Torpor). The idea of a team that I had supported so passionately having a chance to win it all just seemed too far fetched to believe.

Yesterday after kick off I felt the same way. But quickly with a few plays in the beginning of the game the reality sat in that not only were the Colts in the biggest game on the planet but we were in for a dog fight. After kickoff my stomach turned after Devin Hester took it to the house on the first play of the game. I grew more sick after Peyton threw an interception in the first quarter. But if anything these Colts have shown during the playoffs is they won't get rattled and they won't lose sight of their game plan.

Instead they got tough on defense and made Bad Rex look bad even for him.

Instead they got their running game going and torched Chicago's run defense for 191 yards.

Instead Peyton stood up and made plays that only a veteran who has been tested and who has learned from his past failures can make.

The game was far from pretty. You don't get the sense that this is one of those games that will be played on NFL films for years to come. But for the faithful we could care less. The Indianapolis Colts have won and have brought the city its first major professional championship since the great ABA Pacer teams of the 70's.

Some other amazing things came from this game. One you saw a very good man, Tony Dungy, have redemption both professionally and personally. Coach Dungy as you may recall was fired by Tampa Bay because of his inability to get to the big game. And you might also recall that personal tragedy befell him last year. Seeing him hosted by his players with his hands in the air gave a nice moment to a nice man whose respectful style of coaching is often over looked by the media who focus on his counterparts and their over the top personalities.

Two, you saw two great football players finally get their ring. Would Peyton never be considered a great quarterback if he failed to win the big one? Sadly in some people's eyes failure to bring home a championship would exclude him from conversations about the greatest at his position. Make no mistake, when Peyton is done he will own every record the NFL has for quarterbacks. With this monkey finally off his back and his realization that he doesn't have to do it all himself Peyton may put him in position to earn another ring as well.

You also can't overlook Marvin Harrison winning a ring. He has done so much as a player and like his coach, his understated personality is lacking in today's NFL.

It amazes me the way the city has embraced this team. For the past month the city residents have shown their pride as evidenced by the all the Colts gear you see people wearing and the thousands of people who braved near zero temperatures for the Colts pep rally on the Circle this past week. I went last night to get my Super Bowl champions T-Shirt and the store was almost a near riot. Fans in this city have been waiting for this moment for a long time.

Before I wrote this, I read an article about how the crowd at the Super Bowl was much more pro Bears. The writer also noted that the crowd wearing Bears jerseys had many of the players from the Bears past and mentioned that the Colts fans did not. This team with Manning, Harrison, Wayne, Clark, Freeney will be our players and will be the ones that we will remember as the beginning of our great football history. The Colts victory last night solidified the Colts fan base in this city for generations to come.

Enjoy the moment. If you will excuse me, I have a parade to attend.

Congratulations Colts!

Super Bowl Champs!!

I guess we're no longer the most cursed sports city as The Kid once claimed.

Here is an impromptu post-game celebration at the circle.

The Pey-Back Game

We gotta supa bowl ta think about!

If anyone can find the TV Funhouse clip spoofing Ray Lewis on the internets, I'd be greatly indebted. That's where the above-listed quote comes from. I've searched through Youtube, but to no avail.

What else is there to say about the great comeback by the Colts? In two weeks the Colts will be in Miami for the Super Bowl. If you're going to Miami, here is the ESPN guide to the city. I love that city and would love to go, but alas, I'll be watching the game here in Indianapolis.

The Bears matchup will be interesting. It's less than a 3 hour drive (depending on Chicago traffic).

There are so many Bears fans still around Indiana. Pre 1984, this area was a mishmash of fans. There were Cowboy and Steeler fans, but a lot of people looked to Chicago for the Bears. I was a Cowboy fan, but I remember having a Bears coat when I was a little kid.

This is especially hard for northern Indiana fans. After all, northwestern Indiana is nothing but a suburb of Chicago. A lot of pepple from the region know nothing about our state. When I was in college, my friends who came downstate for school said that they didn't even know who the governor of Indiana was until they left the region.

Anyway, there are Bears fans among us, so it should make for some interesting conversations around the water cooler.

Update: They still hate us in Baltimore

Be careful what you wish for...

At one point late in today’s game, I caught myself yelling out “C’mon Brady!”

Yes, I like many Colts fans were cheering for the hated Patriots to defeat the Chargers. Is it wrong to want to play the team that has caused us so much playoff misery? The thing that matters is the Patriots’ victory gives us the opportunity to host our first AFC championship game. Also, we won’t have to travel to San Diego to try to stop LaDainian Tomlinson.

So now we have a date with the most clutch playoff quarterback in the game. Be careful what you wish for.

Oh, and Baltimore, please get over losing the Colts. It has been 23 years now. You didn’t love them enough when you had them, so they left. The team played in front of a half full stadium, you wouldn’t build them a new one, and the Maryland state legislature forced Irsay’s hand. The Baltimore fans love to claim the football gods will not allow the Colts to win a championship while they are still called the Colts. They cry about all of this, yet they stole the Browns from Cleveland in much of the same manner.

It’s petty when your grown adult fans flip off our players, our fans and even get in their face and yell at them while they are visiting your city. It’s scary when one of your newspaper columnists has to write a blog post begging people not to riot if your team loses. It’s cheap when your public address announcer refuses to call us by our name instead he introduces us as the “The football team from Indianapolis”.

Let the healing begin.