Last weeks loss to the New England Patriots at home was a little disappointing, but it did show that if you play your “A Game” and play the entire game, that New England is not the unstoppable juggernaut that the sports media would like you to believe. (Through the first three quarters the Patriots had one touchdown and one field goal. And not to mention their paranoid cheating allegations. Enough said.)

But in the overall scheme of things, the loss last week wasn’t such a huge deal. It only means that there’s a better chance that we’ll have to play in Foxboro in January instead of the comfy Dome.

Now to the game tonight against the San Diego Chargers…

I’ll start on a positive note as to not sound too bitter.

• Our defense (which supposedly sucks according to all “expert” accounts) was excellent. They allowed only 10 points, all in the first half. They had two interceptions. And they recovered a fumble for a touchdown. Oh, and did I mention that they suck?
• Our offense controlled the ball for 60% of the game.
• We had 386 yards of total offense.
• We only had 21 penalty yards.

Now to the more negative, the excuses as to why we lost this one that should have been another mark in the “W” column.

• We just came off of a bad loss.
• Peyton Manning threw a career high six interceptions. Not one. Not two. Not three. Not four. Not even five. SIX interceptions. He had four interceptions total in the whole first half of the season.
• It was raining.
• Peyton Manning threw six interceptions.
• We only had 17 active offensive players (and 15 by the end of the game).
• Peyton Manning threw six interceptions.
• Our special teams were anything but special, allowing for two touchdowns and not realizing that a touchback, or even an out of bounds kick, is better than giving up a touchdown.
• Peyton Manning threw six interceptions.
• Vinny was apparently having trouble seeing where the uprights were located. Twice. (Dare I mention nightmares from our previous kicker who was also one of the NFL’s elite?)
• Peyton Manning threw six interceptions.
• We received the losing end of an “inadvertent” blown whistle after an interception.
• Dare I mention for a sixth time that Peyton Manning threw six interceptions?

Say what you will about the above game killer list, but in my opinion this loss has to rest on Peyton Manning’s shoulders with the ridiculous amount of interceptions. Sure, it’s tempting to point to the special teams issues and the fact that so many players were out of the game on both sides of the ball, but you can’t really do that when your quarterback has an extremely unusual “off night”.

Yes, a few weeks ago Tony Romo proved that you can pull out the win while playing very poorly, but he was really lucky with his five picks and he knew that. And yes, we had ample opportunities to win the game and came close to doing so, but regardless if we had pulled it off, the interception issue seriously needs to be evaluated so it doesn’t happen again. (And you know Peyton is probably already watching the game film as I type this.)

Now don’t get me wrong. Being 7-2 still isn’t bad. And looking at our schedule I wouldn’t be surprised if we lose one or two more games to finish the regular season at either 12-4 or 13-3, still winning the AFC South. But my worst rational fear is that we’ll do this sort of thing in playoff game against a team that can capitalize on these sort of silly mistakes (like the Patriots or the Steelers). It has happened in the past and I’d rather not go there again.

So let me stop rambling about the past and look toward the future. We have seven games left and have a good shot at wrapping up the division and possibly even getting a first round bye for the playoffs (depending upon how the Steelers play). So there’s an outside shot at one home playoff game and a handful of really good playoff games. Another trip to the Super Bowl will not be an easy task, but it is doable. Let’s see how the rest of the regular season shapes up first though.

NOTE: If you want to leave a voicemail comment for The Trolley Dodgers Podcast, you can do so at 317-565-425.

For those of you who haven’t heard yet, Houston, Texas based Garden Ridge is going to open a store in Indy in February 2008. They’re going to be headed to the old Builders Square building on Lafayette Road, next door to where the new Wal-Mart is going to open up around the same time. This is great news for the Lafayette Square area since it has been a pretty tough place for business to stick around in the past decade. (Thus why there are local tax incentives to open up there. [See PDF])

Garden Ridge is a home décor store which sounds like it is similar to Old Time Pottery and the now defunct Waccamaw/HomePlace.  The only real competition around town is Old Time Pottery which is probably 25-30 miles away and when Waccamaw/HomePlace was located in Lafayette Square mall they seemed to do a decent business from what I could tell, so my guess is that they’ll do alright.

Being a northwest-sider, I’m looking forward to the changes in the area and will be sure to check it out when I have a chance.  And boy, does that statement make it apparent that I’m getting a bit older or what?  Getting exciting over a new Wal-Mart and a home décor store?  Wow!  Utterly amazing. I’ve got to go sit down for a minute …

WARNING: Political Content, Handle With Care (And a Grain of Salt)

While I’m not overly interested in politics in it’s current state (it is what it is), please humor me as I ramble off some thoughts about the 2007 Indianapolis Mayoral Election…

VOTER TURNOUT

For this “off year” election we had roughly 25% of registered voters turn out to vote.  They say that’s an average turn-out, but to me that seems kind of disappointing, especially since the vast majority of Indianapolis is registered to vote.  (Over 75% of the total population is registered to vote, and note that the total population includes children and people who don’t have voting rights.  So my guess is that of the people who have the right to vote, probably at least 90% or more of them are registered to do so.)

Anyway, it’s not as if it’s difficult to vote and in other countries people would love to have a say in who their governing officials are. My stance is that if you don’t vote and don’t have a really good reason for not doing so, you shouldn’t be allowed to complain about the government.  Wouldn’t that be like an atheist complaining about “acts of God”?

POLITICAL TERMS

Am I alone in thinking that there should be an eight year term to just about every elected office (or at the very least, eight consecutive years with a four year break)? Beyond that you can fall into “career politician” land and I can’t see how you can truly remain connected with the “real world” without living there for a while. Sure, a career politician might be the best candidate for the job, but it just seems like it would be too easy to start to think of it as a career and to begin serving your own interests instead of serving the interest of the public. This is across the board, regardless of party affiliation.

POLITICAL PARTIES

Man would I love it if our political system truly allowed for 3 or 4 true candidates/parties for each election.  Sure, they’re there as a gesture, but it’s very rare that they come into play except for “stealing” votes from one or the other main party candidates.  And that’s just tragic.

BART PETERSON

I’ll give Bart Peterson credit in that he did make some major changes while he was in office. While I don’t agree with some of them, it is good that he has something to show for his time in office (good or bad).

When it comes to the campaign, Bart was a ringer as far as all of the political pundits were concerned. From what I saw this was solely based on the campaign funding differences, which is just plain silly in my opinion. I heard the “experts” say that 95% of the time campaign contributions is what an election comes down to. But I think they missed the fact that this wasn’t a normal election. Money came into play BIG TIME, but not within their usual evaluation box. And I think that the Peterson campaign caught onto that a little too late.

The obvious major blow to Bart’s bid for reelection was the whole mess surrounding the police merger which was supposed to save us $40M but ended up costing more money, thus lead to a tax increase in order to cover the payroll. When you consider that along with the fact of the whole property tax fiasco AND the recent sales tax increase to fund the new stadium, there are a whole lot of people not too happy. Even though the other tax items can’t be solely placed on Bart’s shoulders, it is messing with people’s money and people don’t like that.

Other than that, I think the decision maker for anyone wavering one way or the other (or towards the other Peterson in the race) was the negative ads that were put out over the final week of the election. This was a clean election up until that point and these ads just made my skin crawl (I’ll spare you that tirade). I can tell you that if I had been wavering at all, this would have sealed the “no vote” for me.

GREG BALLARD

While I can’t honestly say whether or not Greg Ballard will be a better Mayor of Indianapolis than Bart Peterson was/is, I will say that I’m happy to see some fresh blood in there.  And if people don’t like the job that he’s done in his first term, they can go to the polls in four years and make their statement.  But I plan on giving him the time to prove himself either way, as change does take a little time.  (But please, oh, please…I’m begging here…we don’t want another commando around like our current governor…and I’ll spare you that tirade as well, as I really don’t have the time to go down that road.)

I really love the fact that Greg Ballard won the election on a such a small budget AND that he’s a political unknown. And dare I mention that he really ran his campaign as an Independent Republican?  These things have that entrepreneurial flare that just lights my fire.  It’s like rooting for the underdog and I dig that.

Back in the spring I would have told you that you were nuts if you thought someone would beat Bart Peterson in the fall election, even with the police merger stuff going on. Carl Brizzi declined to go for the Republican nomination and the Republicans didn’t have a number two guy that they were backing, so the party basically just threw in the towel (until the very last minute when they saw that Greg Ballard actually had a chance). For reasons I won’t go into, I honestly don’t think Carl Brizzi would have beaten Bart Peterson though. And I’m sure the third choice would have gained enough votes to be the difference maker.

But anyway, congratulations go out to Greg Ballard on his Mayoral victory.  I’m looking forward to finding out more about him and seeing what his big picture for the city looks like.

This has to be the oddest PR I’ve seen around town in sports marketing (even toping some of the Indianapolis Ice promos in the past)…

Now if only the “aliens” would abduct certain players and plant a “common sense chip” in them.

The site that this video/commercial mentions, worldunexplained.com, just takes you to the plain Pacers home page. I think that would have had some marketing potential for the season as a whole (and would be kind of fun to organize), but hey, it’s a start of thinking outside of the box, right?

(Shameless plug: we’re for hire if they need some help.)

Here’s the Naptown Roller Girls / Tornado Sirens 2008 home bout schedule (a.k.a. “Season 2″). This coming season we’re treated to six home bouts instead of five. And while not officially announced yet, I’m assuming that the bouts are going to take place out at the Indiana State Fairgrounds again this year.

December 29 – “It’s a BOUT Time”
NRG vs. Kalamazoo Kamikaze Roller Girls from Michigan

February 9 – “Shove ‘em & Leave ‘em”
NRG vs. Burning River Roller Girls from Ohio

March 22 – “Lucky Harm”
NRG vs. Cincinnati Roller Girls from Ohio (WFTDA)

April 19 – “The Pint of No Return”
NRG vs. the Brew City Bruisers from Wisconsin (WFTDA)

May 17 – “Valley of the Brawls”
NRG vs. Pikes Peak Derby Dames from Colorado (WFTDA)

June 14 – “Hoosier Daddy”
NRG vs. Dixie Derby Girls from Alabama (WFTDA)

It’s hard to put into words the ambiance of a roller derby bout (and the crowd)…it’s just something you need to check out for yourself firsthand. I only made it out to one bout last year and was totally amazed at how much fun it was. The excitement was similar to when we had a “real” hockey team in Indy (the IHL version of the Indianapolis Ice)…and I might go out on a limb and say it’s even more exciting than hockey if you sit in the “Suicide Seats” where you’re actually right up on the track, sitting on the floor (remember, this is flat track, not that stuff you saw on TV in the 70’s and 80’s). And if you’re a fan of Arena Football, you’ll probably get into this.

I’d probably suggest leaving the really little ones at home, though there is a “family section” if you choose to bring them. That suggestion is based on your own enjoyment more than anything else…and there*may* be some things, mainly roller girls and refs “names”, that you don’t really want to explain to your kids in case they ask, or have them repeat them. Also, if you’re brave (or stupid) enough, like me, and actually want to sit in the Suicide Seating area, you do have to be 18 years old to do so.

See you there, down in front!

The kids took in quite a haul last night since the weather was nice and since we took them to my parents neighborhood again this year since people actually give out candy there (including full sized candy bars…and hot dogs)…for some reason most people/households in my neighborhood don’t partake in much of anything that involves decorating, landscaping, mingling, etc.  That’s fine I suppose, but it makes for a boring Halloween through New Years.

(Our first Christmas in our house I lit up the entire roof with Christmas lights…which made it easy for people to find our house (and gave me quite an electric bill)…but lately I’ve just stuck with some “icicle” lights and can tell anyone who hasn’t been to our house to look for the house with Christmas lights…and I’m not exaggerating.)

Anyway, back to Halloween for a moment…

We didn’t get started until around 7 pm (so much for the “official” trick-or-treating hours) and wrapped things up around 8:15 pm or so.  Last year it was so cold that I think the kids might have lasted 45 minutes (probably less), but last night was truly ideal…a little brisk but not too cold, on the brink of raining but not raining, with the wind howling and rustling leaves down the street.  Very ideal indeed.

But Halloween is over and now it’s time to start talking turkeys, pies, football and Christmas and New Years parties.  There are only three weeks until Thanksgiving and eight and a half weeks left in the entire year.  Where, oh where, does the time go?

Apparently “trick-or-treating” will soon be a thing of the past in Indianapolis…

In Marion County, trick-or-treat hours are from 5 to 7 pm.

Police are reminding parents to keep their trick-or-treaters safe this Halloween.

• Try to finish before dark
• If trick-or-treating at night, carry flashlights
• Costumes should be visible in the dark

Ugh, hello, McFly? Need I really point out why this doesn’t make sense?

I’ll be *lucky* to have my kids ready to go by 6:30 pm…and that’s if we skip dinner. And due to new DST nonsense, the sunset is 6:45 pm this year, so for us that means it will be dusk at 7:00 pm.

Man, what happened to the days of 6:00 to 9:00 pm “official” trick-or-treating hours where you’d actually stay out until 9:30 pm when every last porch light was out? And when it was dark around 6:00 pm here in Indy.

Not that my kids really need to be out more than an hour, but still, this window just isn’t very realistic. I’m sure the police are thinking saftey first, as there is an abundance of kooks running around, but come on, this is a weekday.  Even until 8:00 pm would be much better for parents who have “day jobs” and don’t want their children wandering the streets alone.

Anyway, there’s an excellent chance you’ll find me toting my kids around after the 7:00 pm “close of Halloween”.  At least until the kids are bored or the last light has been turned off.

After two record setting (for all of October) 90+ degree days and an upper 70s day yesterday, our normal fall weather seems to be upon us.  While it was neat, and a bit odd, that my kids were able to play in the hose and their pool in October (you’re usually lucky if you can do that in mid-September), I am ready to be able to open the windows up in the afternoon to get the cool breeze flowing through the house.

The main downside that I see is that my pepper plants are probably going to bite it.  We’d had a decent first crop, but with the warm weather the plants began to flower again a few weeks ago and there are a ton of new peppers growing.  No such luck with the tomatoes though.

Anyway, I think I’m going to have to retire the shorts for the season and break out the jeans and long-sleeved shirts.  And then to make a run for new clothes for the kids once we figure out what still fits and what doesn’t.

OK, am I nuts for being aggravated that it’s hot this late into the year? Back in September it looked like Fall was on the way, but the past few weeks have been nothing but 80’s and even 90’s, as is the forecast for the next few days…

…and I think the oddest thing is that I was outside last night sitting on my deck, in shorts and a t-shirt, getting “eaten”by mosquitoes. What’s up with that? Aren’t mosquitoes supposed to be dead by now?

But my complaint isn’t so much the fact of the warmth, or even getting eaten by mosquitoes, but the fact that we’re probably going to miss out on the normal Fall weather and that the changing leaves aren’t going to be quite as spectacular.

For those of you unfamiliar with Indianapolis weather, our average high on October 1st is 71° and the average low is 49°. On October 31st the average high is 58° and the average low is 38°. So the temperatures drop quite rapidly and you usually only have a few weeks of the really nice mid-60 degree weather that I really cherish. And right now our lows are around are average highs.

So I’m hoping that next week brings more normal temperatures and that we still get our Fall weather, just pushed back a week or two. Because it’d really be nice to take the kids Trick-or-Treating without needing to wear jackets for costumes.

Ah, Fall is in the air…

The 2007 Indiana State Fair is over, the kids are in school, football season is under way, my garden will have soon produced its last “fruits”, I’ve already been apple picking (twice), the stores are clearing out the “back to school” and any remaining summer items to make way for Halloween candy, costumes and decorations, and best of all, after a seemingly long hot streak of 90+ degree days, the weather is starting to get back to normal…

While it only lasts for a very brief 6 weeks or so, I love Fall in Indiana and look forward to it with anticipation every year. Due to the hot weather the leaves probably won’t be as vibrant this year, but they should still put on a show. (If you’ve never been to Indiana in October, I encourage you to do so…especially Southern Indiana where we have a ton of trees.)

And while I’m thinking about Fall, we’re currently planning our October shows for Utter Oddcast & the Trolley Dodgers Podcast and we will need your input and help in the coming weeks for stories and such, especially for our themed Halloween podcast(s). Feel free to send items our way. And also, please check out both shows this month. We released a new Trolley Dodgers episode yesterday and will release one more episode this month. And we have a total of nine (yes, you read that right…9!!!) Utter Oddcast episodes that will be release in September (as of today, three are currently available and the other six will be released over the remainder of the month). And please leave us feedback via comment, e-mail form (td, uo) or voicemail at 317-565-4250.  I’ll post more info about that within a few weeks.

In our usual fashion the Indianapolis Colts lost a preseason game, but considering that the offensive starters played a whole three minutes I’d say that we actually didn’t do too bad by only losing by 13 points to the Dallas Cowboys.

While it’s a little hard to tell where you really stand in preseason games, it’s clear that the defense needs some improvement, but overall didn’t do too bad by only giving up 16 points.   While 16 points isn’t a stellar number, with our starting offensive we’ll win almost any game that we can hold an opponent to under 16 points so long as our offense or special teams don’t give away some free points.

That said, the time of possession for the opposing offense, especially early in the game, worries me a little.  We have a very fast offense which is useful, but our defense is a bit slow and allows teams to charge up the field with the run while chipping away at the clock.  Luckily our defense only allowed the Cowboys to reach the end zone once last night, but in the regular season I don’t see that happening.  Something must be done to give these guys a more level playing field as far as rest time goes.  But it is only preseason, right?

I can hardly believe that it’s already time for football to start, but boy am I ready for it along with some cooler temperatures and stove tops full of chili.

The WORLD CHAMPION Indianapolis Colts kick off the 2007 NFL preseason tonight against the Dallas Cowboys, and you can be assured that I’ll be watching even though it doesn’t matter for the season standings.

I think that our offense will be stellar again this season, but the “D” is a huge question mark. So seeing what sort of defense we can put together in the preseason will matter this year and if we can do better than the seasons in which we had to put up 35+ points to win a game,we should have a chance for another good run.

And boy, is our schedule a doozie with only a handful of seemingly “easy” wins. But that’s to be expected with wining the Super Bowl, so we can’t really complain too much, especially since New England is on our turf.

Here’s the complete run down:

Go Colts!

* All times local to Indianapolis. Kickoff Times may change after Week 11 due to Flex Scheduling.

We’ve wanted to add an Indianapolis focused blog to the Surge Bucket Media Network for a while now, so today we’ve launched Take Back Indy.  The focus of this blog will be issues that we’re currently facing in Indy and the subject matter will obviously vary depending upon what’s going on at any given point in time.

Many of the posts on Take Back Indy will merely mention specific issues and will encourage reader interaction to constructively discuss the issues at hand.   Also, the website will eventually include a forum component to encourage greater interaction.  Please stop by and comment when you have a chance.

Via the Indy Star…

A stormy eight-year relationship between Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Formula One ended today with the announcement the international racing series would not return in 2008.

IMS chairman Tony George and F-1 boss Bernie Ecclestone could not reach an agreement on a sanctioning fee to continue the U.S. Grand Prix. George had set today as a deadline for a new contract.

As long as the pompous Ecclestone is in charge of F1, that is fine by me.  I have never been to an F1 event as it just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me (parade “racing” and team “racing”) and I think a lot of Americans are in the same boat.  The main downside is that it will lose the city quite a bit of business for that week, but hey, we’re building a bigger and better convention center, right?   And next year the MotoGP comes to town, so that should help out and hopefully that will be a bit better than the GP car racing.

The 2007 NBA Draft wasn’t that full of surprises…Greg Oden went #1 to the Portland Trail Blazers with Kevin Durant going #2 to the Seattle SuperSonics. The other two Indiana All-Stars, Mike Conley Jr. and Josh McRoberts, went #4 to the Memphis Grizzlies and #37 to the Portland Trail Blazers respectively.

The Indiana Pacers on the other hand pretended that they got into the draft this year, and I’m not going to join them on their journey into Neverland by pretending that I know what these goof-balls are up to. Something seriously needs to happen in the Pacers front office in order to make us a contender once again. Bad decision after bad decision has just hosed us to the point of only having one chip left to play, and that chip is a bit overinflated.

Who knows, maybe we can swing a deal with Portland to give Jermaine O’Neal back to them (along with the rest of the team) in exchange for Oden & McRoberts and then somehow steal Conley Jr. away from Memphis (maybe give them our “drafts” that are staying across the pond). Can you imagine the potential of having those three guys on the roster three or four seasons from now. And just the fact of having three “local boys” on the roster would sell out the Fieldhouse year-after-year.

But I digress as that will never happen for multiple reasons even if the other teams were willing. And I seriously wouldn’t be surprised to see Portland try to swing a deal to land Conley Jr. down the road provided the trio is healthy and have delivered on their expectations. Time will tell.

Who hasn’t been disappointed with food that looks great in an advertisement, yet doesn’t quite live up to expectations? Well, this pictorial page confirms what we already knew about the look of the food.

Now if only there were a way to do the same thing with the taste of the food…as my least “favorite” restaurant says, “Everyone Deserves a Good Meal.” Now if only they (and many others) could only deliver on that promise the world would be a better place.

Luckily Yats! never disappoints and I’m salivating at the thought as I type this. It may not be “pretty”, but boy do they have some fine Cajun/Creole food at an excellent price.

Oh, and did I mention that I’m not typically a “picky eater”? I’ll try most anything (reasonable) at least once, with the exception of the non-starchy vegetables, and I actively seek out non-chain eateries. I think I’ll have to blog my list of local eats some day. Until then, parents, don’t let your children eat crappy food. And please don’t subject your friends and family to it either. That just wouldn’t be nice.

Via the Indy Star…

“The fact that one is engaging in protected political speech does not obviate one’s responsibility to act in a civically responsible manner.”

…makes perfect sense to me, but I’m sure someone will pursue this further as being unconstitutional.

It’d been years since I had been out to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (I think the last time was 2001 when I went to the Indy 500), and even longer since I had been to the track on a weekday (I was in college the last time that happened). So, being self-employed this year provided an excellent opportunity to go to my first “Fast Friday” (with my dad, my brother-in-law & a friend), and I must say that there was quite a bit more track traffic than I had seen on any Carb Day I’d been to in the past.

The highlight of the day (besides watching the cars) had to be snapping over 1300 pictures of the cars, drivers, fans & “celebrities”. That alone is quite a feat and a quite daunting task to pick out the “best of”.

While down by the pits we saw Ryan Briscoe, Scott Sharp, Bobby Rahal, Johnny Rutherford and A.J. Foyt (telling the crew that he didn’t have all day to sit there…ugh, where are you going?). And we also saw Saliva in the pits, but opted out of the concert as we were a bit tired and hot. (If you don’t know who Saliva is, you’re not alone…I guess I’m starting to show my age a bit with my current music choices.)

For more photos, check out the Fast Friday 2007Photo Gallery.

Normally I’d root for the hometown team, but towards the end of this season I had root against the Indiana Pacers winning enough games to make the playoffs.  They clearly didn’t deserve to go for oh so many reasons, and is it just me, or does anyone else out there think that you should have to go at least .500 on the season to be eligible for the playoffs?  Stick to a 16 team format, but if there aren’t 16 teams at .500 or better, start handing out first round byes.  (Oh, but that would lose money for the league, right?)

Anyway, I am hoping that the Pacers clean house from management through the entire roster*.  Draft wise they’re hosed at the moment with a single second round pick, but trading Jermaine could probably land a few picks.  And trading the rest of the team ought to be able to gain a few more picks as well.  But looking at their draft pick history, that’s probably a bad idea since the poor choices far outweigh the few good ones.  Maybe they should pick up a handful of young guys (drafted or not) and land a few stable veterans to mentor the youth.  Maybe, just maybe, that would help things out, and get them back to really winning in about three or four seasons down the road.

Bottom line, they need to make some drastic changes and get some people on board who are committed to spending more time on the court than in court and to stay away from the bars and strip clubs.  Will that happen?  Your guess is as good as mine, but one would hope that they finally get the hint after the past few seasons of complete embarrassment with their personnel decisions.

* In the history of the NBA or ABA, has there ever been a team that had no players on their roster from the previous season (1st year expansion teams excluded)?

While it might not be the best Super Bowl in the new records department, it was a good game. The game started out on the wrong foot for the Indianapolis Colts, but once the Colts got it together the Chicago Bears ended up chasing after the Colts the entire game…in the pouring rain.

Here are some of my overall thoughts surrounding the Super Bowl:

DWIGHT CLARK & REGGIE BUSH

They seriously need to take the microphones away from the field reporters & commentators. On more than one occasion they referred to Dallas Clark as Dwight Clark (and so was the case among the sports writers as well) and during the game they even talked about Peyton Manning’s touchdown to Reggie Bush (not Reggie Wayne). Seriously folks, please do your homework before a game of this magnitude. You’ve had two weeks to familiarize yourself with the rosters of both teams and to figure out what Johnson’s and Clark’s were on the field, which Clark is long retired and which Reggie was playing in the big game. Come on, you’re getting paid for this, right?

INDIANAPOLIS 2011 SUPER BOWL BID

While seemingly many people don’t want a Super Bowl to occur “up North”, my hunch is that a big part of that would be from the whiny media who merely want to relive their college spring break days half clothed on the beach for a week with a beer in hand and attending parties every night for the week leading up to the big game. While that is nice and all, did they forget that there’s always the Pro Bowl in Hawaii the following week? And I bet it kills them that the NFL Combine is in Indy every year.

Anyway, I think that we would do a great job hosting. We’ve done it year in and year out with two large races (and a third one that most of us don’t think too highly of), Big Ten basketball tournaments, NCAA basketball tournaments (including multiple Final Fours) and the Pan American Games, not to mention the myriad of other events that we host throughout the year. And anyone that has traveled much at all can tell you that even the worst traffic in Indy isn’t really all that bad. The only real issue would be the weather outside, but as for a game you’d have no problems at all like the rain soaked game last night.

MVP

It’s nice to see Peyton get the MVP, but I think he knows as well as the rest of us that there wasn’t really a stand out MVP and that it was truly an all around team effort. Maybe Rex Grossman should have been considered the MVP as an honorary member of the Colts. Seriously though, we were getting close to this sort of team play last year and this year it finally clicked. Nothing against Edge, but the dual running back plan worked fabulously.

COMMERCIALS

I wouldn’t say that there was anything that I really liked this year, except the David Letterman and Oprah Winfrey CBS promo was hilarious. If I had to choose a favorite normal commercial, I’d say probably the Career Builder one where the delivery guy gets into the action.

PARTY IN INDY

The town is unofficially closed today, including many of the schools. The Indianapolis Public School (IPS) even closed, not due to the frigid weather nor directly to the Colts winning, but instead because their bus drivers decided to call in today and there was no way to get the kids to school (excellent and why didn’t they think of that while I was in IPS!?).

Monument Circle was packed last night, but I couldn’t convince my podcasting co-hort to join me in the festivities so I headed home after the party and watched the coverage into the wee hours of the morning. There were only a five “booze” related arrests and one unclear gunfire incident (someone apparently got a welt from being shot by some sort of gun). Overall, not to bad and no one was out flipping cars and setting them ablaze.

Today people began cramming the stores to land some Colts gear and there’s a parade at 4pm which ends at a pep rally at the Hoosier/RCA Dome before our Pro Bowlers head out to Hawaii tomorrow.

The town is electric and rocking and we’re ready to see what next season brings, but in the meantime we’re going to enjoy the Lombardi Trophy that we’ve all longed to see on display in Indianapolis, but have wondered when and if that would occur. While we all know that this is just a game, it is something that is truly bringing the city together and you just can’t put the ambiance into words. It’s just amazing to say the least.

“Look at the nations and watch –
and be utterly amazed.
For I am going to do something in your days
that you would not believe,
even if you were told. ”

-Habakkuk 1:5 (NIV)