Unbearable defeat for Bears, fans
MIAMI -- Purple rain at the Super Bowl. Golden memories for Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts.
In a sloppy, exciting, rainsoaked NFL title game Sunday, the Colts defeated the Bears 29-17 behind 247 yards passing from Manning, the star quarterback who finally won the big one after nine record-setting seasons that was missing very little besides a championship.
(Jeff Roberson/AP)
It was a surreal scene for the NFL's showcase game, played indoors or in perfect weather for almost all of the previous 40 years, but not this time.
In a good ol'-fashioned South Florida soaker -- the first Super Bowl to be played in the rain -- the football squirted loose and bounced all over the waterlogged field. It resulted in eight turnovers, including two late interceptions thrown by Chicago's Rex Grossman that sealed the game for Indy.
At halftime, Prince took to the stage and sang through the deluge -- the violet stage lights shining into the storm to make the perfect setting for his hit finale, ''Purple Rain.''
When the crazy evening was over, the Colts had brought the first NFL title back to Indianapolis since their late owner, Robert Irsay, relocated them there in 1984. Manning finally broke through. And the game and entire week served as proof that nice guys don't always finish last.
The sight of Manning, the solid citizen, and his soft-spoken coach, Tony Dungy, soaking in the rain -- along with the confetti and the hugs -- at the end was a moment to remember.
Thus ended a historic meeting between Dungy and Lovie Smith of the Bears, the first black head coaches to lead teams to the Super Bowl.
They also made it notable by the way they conducted themselves -- two quiet, churchgoing, kindhearted men who proved they could succeed and lead without shouting, intimidating, bullying or humiliating players to do it.
''I really wanted to show people that you can win all kinds of ways,'' Dungy said in the leadup to Sunday's game. ''It's a good thing to see guys have success when it maybe goes against the grain, against the culture.''
Very little about this game went by the book.
It started with a 92-yard kickoff return by Chicago's Devin Hester for a 7-0 lead 14 seconds into the game. As the evening went on and the rain picked up, the conditions made this look less like a meeting between the league's best teams and more like a survive-the-elements contest.
The Colts proved to be much better.
AP