Written By: unctarheel1209

As Tracy Porter celebrated his interception of Peyton Manning that sealed the Saints’ 31-17 victory of the Colts in Super Bowl XLIV, many thoughts began circulating the minds of millions of people across the globe. On Bourbon Street, fans began partying despite the final whistle being more than 2 minutes away as they began to realize that their beloved Saints were mere minutes away from the first Super Bowl victory in franchise history. In Indianapolis, fans were suffering yet another failure in the playoffs by the Colts, led by future Hall of Famer Peyton Manning.

Throughout the past two weeks, there have been two storylines that have been the talk of all media rooms leading up to this Super Bowl of two regular season titans that were on the quest for an undefeated season three quarters of the way through the season. Would the Saints finish a fantastic season with the championship that has been eluding the city for decades or would Peyton Manning solidify his place among the greats as the greatest quarterback to ever play the game? Manning, often considered as one of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game and a surefire Hall of Famer, is often criticized due to his lack of playoff success. He has led many great teams to the playoffs year in and year out, but has often disappointed when he should be at his best, leading to him being overlooked for quarterbacks who are clearly inferior as players, but considered better leaders due to their postseason success.

The Saints have been one of the more watched teams in the NFL since Hurricane Katrina occurred a few years ago, leading people to label them as the new “America’s Team”. The nickname doesn’t fit the team, but they’ve certainly gathered a large following with their explosive offensive play over the past few years. As they went neck and neck with the Colts through the first 13 weeks of the season this year in the quest for an undefeated season, we saw two of the best quarterbacks in the league lead their teams to victories one week at a time and began envisioning a Super Bowl matchup of the two best quarterbacks in the league. Media outlets were in heaven as storylines continued to develop throughout the postseason, while the matchup of the two best teams in the NFL appeared to be coming together.

Despite many people expecting a high scoring shootout in Super Bowl XLIV, we were entertained by a game that saw the Colts jump out to an early 10-0 lead on a touchdown pass from Peyton Manning to Pierre Garcon and people began to count the Saints out, while thinking that Peyton was on his way to solidifying his spot among the all-time greats. Drew Brees and the Saints thought otherwise as they went on a 31-7 run over the next three quarters after some gutsy calls by head coach Sean Payton (including an onside kick to begin the 2nd half). When the Saints took a 24-17 lead with just over 5 minutes left in the game, the stage was set for Manning to lead yet another 4th quarter comeback, but in the spotlight for the first time. As he led a magnificent drive down the field, it looked like the Colts would be tying the game and forcing overtime when Tracy Porter jumped a pass intended for Manning’s go-to guy, Reggie Wayne, and took it to the house for a game sealing pick six with just over two minutes left in the game.
The Saints had finished a miracle season with the long awaited Super Bowl victory while forcing Manning to have to wait another season to add another Super Bowl ring to his resume. After yet another great NFL season, we saw one of the most watched stories of the past few years finally receive a happy ending with Saints’ owner Tom Benson holding up the Lombardi Trophy after the Saints defeated the Colts in their first ever Super Bowl appearance. There’s only six more months left until we kickoff the 2010 season. Hopefully the draft and other offseason activities are able to keep us entertained as we wait for what I hope is another great NFL season to begin.