Putting the Wraps on XLI

More than 24 hours have passed since the Steelers were officially dethroned by the Colts as the reigning NFL champions, and I'm still trying to stop my head from spinning. Peyton Manning, the guy who "couldn't win the big one", won the big one. Tony Dungy, the coach who "couldn't win the big one", won the big one. Rex Grossman, the quarterback who "couldn't win the big one", didn't win the big one. The game pretty much played out like most of the pundits thought it would, which greatly disappointed me. So let's take a closer look at some of the key points of SBXLI and count down the days until Mike Tomlin takes the Steelers to Super Bowl XLII in his first season.

-Impressive performance by Dominic (don't call me Dominic, it's Dominique) Rhodes with 113 yards and a TD to boot. It was Rhodes' first 100-yard game since 2001. Conveniently, Rhodes becomes a free agent in the offseason, so he hit a jackpot on Sunday. Rhodes' game conjured up memories of Jeff Weaver, who posted a 5.76 ERA and 8-14 record in 2006, but parlayed a superior postseason into a one-year, $8.3 million deal with the Mariners. Much like the Mariners, I'm sure their dumb NFL equivalent will overpay largely based on one good game. Call it the Larry Brown Theory.

-Thomas Jones ran for 112 yards on the Bears' side, so as a reward he'll probably be traded by the Bears this offseason. I'm amazed that this is the same player who started a grand total of 18 games through the first four years of his career. But despite Jones' 2,500 yards rushing and 15 TDs in the last two years, the Bears have too much invested in Cedric Benson to keep Jones around. Maybe he could sign with Indy and replace Dominic Rhodes.

-Rex Grossman's many problems were pointed out before, during, and after the Super Bowl. With Grossman coming up on the end of his deal, do the Bears extend him? Is there still enough potential for improvement, or did this team win despite him in 2006? Are we ready to go back to the future to the Kyle Orton Era?

-The Bears defense was the true letdown of SBXLI. They bent but did not break. Unfortunately for them, they bent all too often. The Bears went almost an hour between offensive posessions. That wasn't good news for the rhythm of their offense...or the fatigue of their defense. A disappointing sperformance by the "Monsters of the Midway" for sure. Somewhere, Jim Belushi is weeping.

-Why did Grossman continue to try the deep pass given the fact that the ball was slick? Manning settled for short passes (2 completions over 20 yards) and earned a ring in the process.

That being said, Grossman's long ball reminded me of the one Ben Roethlisberger threw in the 2006 season. As soon as he dropped back for a bomb, you knew something bad would happen. And more often than not, something bad did happen. Unfortunately, Roethlisberger couldn't use the excuse that the ball was wet or the Super Bowl logo made the ball slippery.

-Adam Vinatieri finally missed a field goal. This happened in the same year that Tom Brady threw an interception and lost the AFC Championship to the Colts. The apocalypse is officially upon us.

-The commericals, as usual, were vastly overrated. The K-Fed spot was great, but nerds like myself had already seen it. Other than that, nothing stands out. To the people who "watch the game for the commercials": get a life.

-Prince did a solid job at halftime, but I don't get the set list of all the cover songs. And we thought those shadows, coupled with the placement of his guitar, were a thinly-veiled version of his own "wardrobe malfunction", if you get my drift.

-George Bush called Peyton Manning after the game. He wasn't congratulating him, he just wanted to know his thoughts on the situation in Iraq.

-Future Super Bowl locations: next year, SBXLII will be played in Glendale, AZ, in the house that Larry Fitz built. Steeler fans will remember that the last Super Bowl hosted by the Cardinals resulted in a Steeler appearance (and subsequent loss) back in 1996. I'm sorry I brought that up.

In 2009, SBXLIII moves to Tampa, who last hosted Super Bowl 35. You remember, that tremendously exciting Baltimore-Giants matchup in 2000. Seriously, how could they top Trent Dilfer vs. Kerry Collins? Jon Kitna vs. Andrew Walter?

In 2010, the game travels back to Miami, who will have suffered through three years without a Super Bowl. I presume they will not build a dome by then, which should be disappointing to all those knee-jerking louts suggesting today that "all Super Bowls should be played in domes". Let me get this straight...we hear all week about how great Miami is, then it rains for the first time in a Super Bowl, and we're supposed to uproot everything and move to a dome?

So where are we supposed to play these games? Detroit? No, can't do that. The same miserable talking heads who covered that game gave us nothing but columns like "Why do they have the Super Bowl in Detroit?"

I guess they could play it in Indianapolis. But since the Colts are predicted to make the Super Bowl every year, that's not too fair. It would be like home-field advantage in advance. They could play in New Orleans, but their owner may still move them to LA, so that's out. How about Minnesota? Imagine all the love boat jokes! That would make life so much easier for the media. The columns and segments would write themselves! But let's get realistic. Maxim models don't travel to Minnesota, and you can't have a Super Bowl without VIP parties. So Minny is out. We could play it in the KingDome, but Seattle tore that down. Cross that off the list. So we're left with St. Louis. And if you can find something wrong with St. Louis (other than a city that's only sin is loving ol' Mark McGwire), then I'd like to hear it.

-Coming later: some links for the link-deprived and a rant about the NHL. Good stuff, I promise.

Where is Mondesi? NOT in Miami.

Sorry for the lack of goods today. I've been like Waldo this week. No one knows when or where I'll show up. Geez, even Bill Simmons has been more consistent posting stuff the past few days.

So where was I? To quote the great Latrell Sprewell, I was working on the site that "puts food on my table". I changed some of the color schemes, added some new categories, deleted some stuff...I'm just trying to make it more user-friendly. I have to inspire more collectors to part with some of their treasured mementos. In Pittsburgh, that's no small task. It's nowhere near being done, but I made some progress. I'm also working on an affiliate program that will pay websites/blogs that link to Steel City for any sales and/or consignments generated. Again, it's still in the development stage, but it should be done soon.

Being that I was so engrossed in my work today, I was too focused to even turn on some talk radio in the background. But I feel I should make some sort of comment on the Super Bowl, mostly because I've completely ignored it to this point. So here are some thoughts on "the big game".

I feel absolutely zero excitement going into the game. I don't think it's sour grapes because the Steelers aren't involved; I've enjoyed past non-Steeler Super Bowls just fine (although the presence of the Steelers would have increased the enjoyment tenfold).

I don't like the Colts and I really don't like the Bears. That's probably where my lack of interest starts. I can't stand Tank Johnson, and if it's possible, I dislike him even more after Media Day.

I keep reading story after story on Deadspin about various ESPN personalities chasing women around South Beach, and they haven't even gotten to Berman...yet. So it makes it harder than ever to take them seriously on TV when you hear what they were up to the night before. These guys make Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan look like amateurs.

Then I heard that the NFL Fed-Ex'd an overnight letter to an Indianapolis church, demanding they cancel their Super Bowl party for using the words "Super Bowl" in the title. We can't have a church commit copyright infringement. But if the NFL is so PR-conscious, why make such a move? Because it's a sign of how serious they are about those words. They'll even go after a church. That will make bar owners think twice when they name their event on Sunday.

We have the black coaches storyline, which has been thoroughly overdone as soon as Championship Sunday ended. We have the "Rex Grossman sucks" angle, which is almost to the point that I feel sorry for Grossman. Almost.

We have Jimmy Kimmel sending the two American Idol rejects to Media Day. Yawn.

These teams are doing absolutely NOTHING to even create any fictitious hoopla. There's been no Jerramy Stevens moment, and certainly no pitbull-owning loudmouth to call out the XLI version of Stevens. The coaches like each other; this isn't like Cowher and Billick. If Don King was promoting this game, you'd see Booger McFarland swing a chair at Brian Urlacher at Media Day. Instead we get cliche after cliche about how great the other team is, with teams ever-cautious of supplying bulletin board material. For the people who say sportsmanship is dead, they must've been at the beach this week. It's alive and well, at least for these teams. The Colts and Bears are what's known as a blogger's nightmare.

The game aside, we don't even have an interesting musical act to get quasi-excited about. And I don't care about the music angle, only about the wild-card tendencies of the personality performing. As weird as Prince is, I don't see him whipping it out. Nor would I want to see that. Ditto Billy Joel.

And the commercials? We've already seen the K-Fed spot. Well done, but memo to Nationwide: try to keep better tabs on who has your commercial in the future. Nothing like paying big bucks for a Super Bowl ad that millions of people have already seen on the internet. Yes, millions have seen it, and that's the name of the game. But people will watch anything on the net featuring K-Fed. Just pick out a YouTube video, slap a Nationwide logo on it, and voila! Millions saved.

Few, if any, are giving the Bears a shot to win. I find this hilarious, since "Peyton Manning is a choke artist" jokes were this nation's favorite pastime for the past nine years. I guess all it takes is a win over the storied Patriots to wipe that out. Just ignore the fact that Manning may or may not have an injured thumb and also ignore the fact that he is still Peyton Manning and could snap at any time. Everyone else is.

On the flip side, Rex Grossman inspires no one except for bartenders waiting on a good night of tips. He is exciting and nauseating in consecutive plays. Blitz him and he blindly throws the ball up for grabs. Give him time and he blindly throws the ball up for grabs. Yet he continues to win and win and win. Why not give the Bears a chance? They could absolutely win this game. In a league where the Raiders beat the defending Super Bowl champions, the Bears could beat the Colts. And they just might.