TERRE HAUTE — You know what bugs me about Super Bowl XLIV?
Nothing … and that bugs me a lot.
When the Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints hook up in a week, there’s no obvious bad guy. The Colts quietly go about their excellence. The Saints are the feel-good story of the moment. No blowhards, no blustery windbag coaches need apply.
How annoying.
I’m the kind of sports fan who likes to take sides, who likes to make an emotional investment in a game. For me, games are infinitely more interesting when someone wears the black hat, when a player has a big mouth, when a city and its fan base won’t shut up about how great they think they are.
Where, pray tell, is the East Coast/big market bias? I (sniff) kind of miss it.
What the world needs now are drama queens, prima donnas and me-first yakkers who are better heard than seen. I want trash-talkers, chest-beaters, and hopefully, if karma works its wonderful magic, crow-eaters.
But, alas, none of that is going to happen. These two teams are (gulp) … too likable.
Now’s as good a time as any for this mostly Colts’ fan audience to reveal that I’m not a Colts fan myself — I’m a Wisconsin native and a Cheesehead to my summer sausage-and-cheese curd-eating core, which means the Green Bay Packers are the team that moves me.
If only I had a wayback machine to wipe out that weak overtime pass interference penalty against the (hated) Minnesota Vikings in the NFC Championship Game and I’d have my wish. Oh Brett Favre … if only I could turn my lonely eyes to another dopey interception.
But I’m not a Colts hater either. I simply cover the team on occasion with requisite emotional detachment. I wish the Colts well, if for no other reason than it will make a lot of folks around here happy.
But it’s just so much more fun to have a team or someone you love to hate. And I hate the fact that absolutely no one on either team fits the bill this time around. I’ve tried to find something, anything, to get my goose, but nothing works.
What on earth can anyone find remotely objectionable about the Colts? Jim Caldwell is too nice? Pat McAfee is a pro wrestler?
Peyton Manning does too many TV ads? Peyton Manning? Are you serious?
The man is currently cooking along at such an all-time level and goes about his job with such robotic excellence that you almost feel like you should attend a Colts game as you might a church service and only speak in hushed, respectful tones so as not to disturb his craft. In itself, that would normally qualify as annoying, but hating Manning is like hating “Citizen Kane.” You’ve taken leave of your senses if you can’t at least give a nod to the sheer greatness.
Even the Colts’ talkers are sedate. Reggie Wayne wore a construction hat in the post-AFC Championship game locker room because the Colts still have work to do. In your face, Saints! Somewhere, Chad OchoJohnCincoson is shaking his head disapprovingly and telling him to try harder.
You can’t even go off roster in the quest for rancor. Colts fans? They aren’t in any way annoying at all collectively and most of my best friends bleed blue-and-white. Indianapolis? Not my favorite city, but nothing to dislike about it either. I went to high school there, lived with my wife there. It’s just fine.
The Colts could, of course, be playing for a perfect record if they hadn’t shrugged their shoulders at immortality and pulled their starters with perfection on the line. Ah, now we’re getting somewhere. But as much as I hated that decision by the Colts, they did get to the Super Bowl, so I can’t conjure much more than tepid irritation. Pity that.
As for the Saints? New Orleans is one of America’s great cities, their fans are colorful and have suffered as much as any NFL fanbase and they similarly have a roster bereft of punks. You even have the added local connection of Saints head coach Sean Payton, who was once an assistant coach at Indiana State.
Hopefully, Colts fans won’t latch on to the silly meme that the Saints are going to try and hit Manning as much as possible. Call me crazy, but last I checked, that’s what the opposing team is supposed to do. Nothing to see here … move along.
So next Sunday, somewhere in the Great Plains where I will watch the Super Bowl as I travel on ISU’s men’s basketball road trip to Wichita State and Creighton, I will kick back and like what I see.
Sigh. Oh well. Hate ’til next year.
Todd Golden is sports editor of the Terre Haute Tribune-Star. He can be reached at (812) 231-4272 or todd.golden@tribstar.com.
From the Press Box
From the Press Box: Nothing to get riled about in this Super Bowl
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: Peyton’s place belongs to Eli
The good people of Indianapolis justifiably puffed out their chests throughout Super Bowl week as the city received deserved rave reviews for the job it did as hosts of Super Bowl XLVI.
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TODD GOLDEN: Teammates, colleagues express their loyalty to Weatherford
Sometimes you worry whether someone is stopping to smell the roses when they smell rosiest.
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: Does melted ice reveal Belichick's heart of gold?
If you’re into Youtube — and who isn’t these days? — there’s a vintage television profile of then-Cleveland Browns coach Bill Belichick posted on the popular site.
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TODD GOLDEN: Indiana State men caught between expectation, reality
The Missouri Valley Conference is hush-hush on how it puts together its matchups for the annual conference schedule.
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TODD GOLDEN: Accentuating the positive with ISU's Odum
There’s something to be said for being your own worst critic, especially when it comes to sports.
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TODD GOLDEN: Loss hurts, but national exposure is ... priceless
Trying to advance the philosophy that any publicity is good publicity is probably an effort wasted on a losing team less than 10 minutes removed from a disappointing defeat where victory had been oh so close to fruition.
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TODD GOLDEN: The great playoff race is on for Indiana State football
The great race is on.
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TODD GOLDEN: Fans owe ISU seniors 10,000
I have covered Indiana State football since the 2004 season.
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: Indiana State has used up its playoff mulligan
It’s been a glass half-full kind of season for the Indiana State football team, so it was easy — and exciting — to get caught up in looking ahead to scenarios that placed ISU in the FCS playoffs, even if ISU didn’t win out.
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: Not a coulda, shoulda for Sycamores
Indiana State's football team is getting tired of being graded on the curve of its own past futility.
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TODD GOLDEN: Supernatural Shakir was a sight to behold
I’ve often heard it said when a player has a big statistical day that he’s racking up “video game numbers.”
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TODD GOLDEN: Sycamore defense absorbs lesson
A win is a win, they say. And for Indiana State, none of the Sycamores are going to take back or put an asterisk next to their 48-34 victory over Butler on Saturday.
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TODD GOLDEN: And now on to the normal part of the schedule
The Steve Miller Band would’ve appreciated Indiana State’s trip to Penn State.
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TODD GOLDEN: Sabermetrics has changed love of baseball
I turned 40 this summer. No problem.
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: No debate about quality of Vigo baseball
It’s standard practice for losing high school coaches — especially coaches who led teams on a deep postseason run — to heap praise on their seniors one last time. It’s even more so when one of those seniors was the rock of a given team for a four-year period.
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: Season dies down, but ISU’s plate not empty
With coaching changes having mostly sorted themselves out and with recruiting having just entered its quiet period today, college basketball has settled into its more relaxed offseason mode.
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: Winning spring more important than winning the spring game
Indiana State football coach Trent Miles has been involved in collegiate coaching since 1987. He knows better than anyone that there’s no one-size-fits-all way to approach the annual spring football game.
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: Friday wait was worth it for Indiana State
Many have seen the famous Salvador Dali painting, “Persistence of Memory.” The most memorable images in the surreal painting are unquestionably the pocket watches that are drooped over a ledge, a tree branch, etc.
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Many Sycamores, past and present, to remember
The minute it became apparent Indiana State had punched its ticket to the NCAA Tournament with a 60-56 victory over Missouri State on Sunday, I reflected on all of the moments in the previous seven years of covering the Sycamores that led to this.
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: Sycamore AD Ron Prettyman explains Cal Poly interest
Editor’s note: Indiana State Director of Athletics Ron Prettyman interviewed and participated in a public open forum for the same position at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo last week.
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Paradigm shifts for Sycamores after UNI win
In many respects, it’s been an Indiana State men’s basketball season like no other in its recent history.
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Odum shouldn’t be overlooked as MVC’s Freshman of Year
The cliché would state that Creighton forward Doug McDermott has taken the Missouri Valley Conference by storm from day one. The truth is that McDermott had the attention of MVC observers long before day one.
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: Late turnover doesn’t define excellence from Jake Odum
You know what’s one of the best tests of how a player has gained respect? Listen to the way the road crowd reacts when that player has the ball in his hands.
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: Tempo changes for worse on both ends for Sycamores
When Indiana State was on its six-game early January winning streak that saw it rise to the top of the Missouri Valley Conference, team chemistry was seemingly the biggest reason for the success.
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: ‘Yeah, but’ … maybe ISU is for real
I had an eighth-grade reunion in Milwaukee last summer, the highlight of 2010 for me. Among the memories we re-lived, I had totally forgotten that my seventh-grade teacher nicknamed me “Yeah But.” As in, “Yeah, but …” I always seemed to have an argument for the answer he sought in class, whether my argument was right or not.
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: ISU’s place in pecking order hasn’t changed
The nonconference portion of the college basketball season serves several purposes.
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: Thompson’s latest honor stands apart from the rest
Anthony Thompson has won his share of trophies and awards.
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From The Press Box: Waltman reception highlights ISU reunion
It seems like every time I’m around Royce Waltman, I have to brace myself.
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From The Press Box: At its worst moment, Indiana State showed a lot
Everyone knows life is unfair … you just hate it when life proves it.
So it went for Indiana State’s football team on Saturday as it faced perennial power Northern Iowa. -
FROM THE PRESS BOX: Don’t get too worked up about preseason polls
The Indiana State men were picked where in the MVC Preseason poll? The Sycamores tied for fifth last year and have seven players back from a postseason team. Terre Haute is so excited about this team. They had to be picked in the top half of the league, right?
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