Colts-Saints game really a win-win

Indianapolis Colts coach Jim Caldwell was asked the Monday following his team’s AFC Championship win if he felt like the Saints’ fairy-tale spoiler heading into Super Bowl XLIV.

“We’re not trying to stamp it out; we’re just trying to get in a position to win,” Caldwell said in reference to Hurricane Katrina’s 2005 horrific impact on New Orleans. “That region was absolutely devastated, and they’ve brought a lot of pride back, a lot of civic pride.”

To say the least.

This is a New Orleans team whose Superdome freezers were used to store the bodies of victims during the tragedy and a city that needed something – anything – to raise morale after the disaster.

On a less important note, this was a team that also, prior to the arrival of franchise players like Drew Brees, Marques Colston and Reggie Bush, had both a history and public expectation of atrocious football.

And just four short years later, who would have thought the pro football team from the bayou, previously commonly referred to as the “Aints,” would be playing for a world championship at such an appropriate time? In a way, one could see something like this coming simply because it was due.

“We played from behind, we played with a lead,” Saints coach Sean Payton said. “I think you develop a vision. I think our players felt that.”

What a ride and pleasure its been to see the Saints make this incredible run for their city and state. The Saints and their fans needed and deserved a break. Along with it came the opportunity to achieve even more.

That said, in the midst of all the rightful joy and pageantry, this type of situation is what could cost the Saints their first Lombardi Trophy. New Orleans has the excitement of being there, the relief and somewhat closure to Katrina and the unfamiliar experience going against them. In other words, they have distractions.

But the Saints aren’t the only ones marching to that number.

Take, for instance, the resting situation still surrounding the Colts. As much as it seems the sunny beaches of South Florida evaporated the question regarding Indy passing up a realistic possibility at 19-0, it’s still there; especially given Dwight Freeney’s ankle injury he suffered in the playoffs.

What if?

I would love for nothing more than this ongoing fiasco to end. It needs to. Yes, the Colts should have gone for the undefeated season given their final two opponents.
Football and sports immortality was at the door and it was shunned. While it seems like an obnoxious move, the Super Bowl – the primary goal – is still at stake.

“We worked very hard to build up that equity of knowing that we had the first seed so we could deal with those last couple of games the way we wanted to deal with them to position us for the playoffs,” Colts owner Jim Irsay said.

That’s fine, now win the Super Bowl. If so, it’s forgive-and-forget. The Colts front office will again prove they know more than us about dealing with and assembling not only model citizens but model football players.

It’s the first time since 1993 that two No. 1 seeds are playing in the season’s final game, but the circumstances for both teams make that stat seem minor. In a sense, this year’s matchup cannot go wrong with either team dancing in the confetti at the end of Sunday’s game. Just think back to recent years where there was one feel-good story, whether it was the Colts finally getting the New England monkey off their back in the team’s 2006 championship season or the Giants dethroning the undefeated and Spygate-guilty Patriots of 2007.

How great it would be to see the Colts’ season-ending controversy finally, or hopefully, end on the joyous, winning note the organization more than deserves? But at the same time, how just would it be to see New Orleans go from a city of travesty, turmoil and devastation to that of joy, unity and one of a champion?

In an age where image is a liability to the NFL, this is one championship weekend where the league cannot go wrong with its winner.