Super Bowl XLI Doused By Rain (Some Of It Purple) And Sloppy Play

Miami Becomes Peyton's Place As Manning Shines

By John Mooney

The game got off to a wild start as Chicago's Devin Hester returned the opening kickoff 92 yards for a touchdown, the first time that feat had been accomplished in the Super Bowl. The Colts then kept the ball away from Hester on subsequent kickoffs following his initial explosion.

When the Bears picked off a Manning pass on Indy's first possession, Colts fans had to fear a big game meltdown by their quarterback. However, the AFC champs battled back on their second possession when Manning avoided a sack by Tank Johnson and fired a long pass to Reggie Wayne for a 47-yard touchdown. The Indianapolis holder muffed the point-after snap, which kept the score at 7-6.

For the day, Manning was 25-for-38 for 247 yards with one TD pass and an interception. He was named MVP of the game, although the award could have gone to the entire team. It was the first championship for the Colts franchise since the team moved to Indianapolis from Baltimore before the 1984 season. (Led by the legendary Johnny Unitas, the team won Super Bowl V in 1971.)

The Colts' win also represented another milestone as Indianapolis head coach Tony Dungy became the first African American to guide his team to a Super Bowl victory. Dungy and his counterpart, Lovie Smith of the Bears, were the first two black head coaches in the NFL's championship game.

"I'm proud to be the first African American coach to win this," said Dungy, who rarely raises his voice to his players. "More than anything, Lovie Smith and I aren't just the first African American coaches, but Christian coaches showing you can win doing it the Lord's way. And we're more proud of that."

Since the Super Bowl is usually played in domed stadiums or in warm weather cities such as Miami, the game has rarely been impacted by bad weather. However, in a downpour on a water-soaked field, the play was sloppy, resulting in eight turnovers overall. Surprisingly, even Adam Vinatieri, normally automatic in the post-season, missed on a field goal attempt.

The much-maligned Bears quarterback Rex Grossman engineered a scoring drive culminating with a four-yard touchdown pass to Muhsin Muhammad to put the Bears ahead 14-6 in the first quarter. After that, he stalled for the rest of the day, which kept his tired defense out on the field. A first-year starter, Grossman had difficulty handling snaps and threw two late interceptions - one for the final score of the day - that put the game out of reach.

Meanwhile, the Colts had four unanswered scores following Grossman's one TD connection: three Vinatieri field goals and a one-yard touchdown run by Dominic Rhodes. Although the Colts dominated the game statistically, the outcome wasn't decided until almost midway through the fourth quarter, when defensive back Kelvin Hayden intercepted a Grossman pass and ran it back 56 yards into the end zone. "We put a lot of hard work and a lot of effort into this," said Manning, the game's MVP. "It's something we'll enjoy for quite some time."

The oldest son of former New Orleans Saints quarterback Archie Manning, who never made it to the Super Bowl as a player, Peyton seemed relieved after the win. One of football's top QBs for the past nine seasons, he was anxious to make his mark in the Super Bowl and avoid the stigma attached to other NFL greats, such as Dan Marino, Fran Tarkenton, and Jim Kelly, who "never won it all" despite exceptional careers.

"Peyton is a tremendous player, a great leader," Coach Dungy said. "He prepares, he works, does everything you can do to win games and lead your team. If people think he needed to win a Super Bowl, that is just wrong. This guy is a Hall of Fame player and one of the greatest ever to play."

The quarterback benefited from a strong offensive line that held the heralded Bears defense at bay and a ground game that complemented Manning's aerial attack well. Running backs Dominic Rhodes and Joseph Addai combined for 190 yards, which kept Chicago from focusing solely on the Indy passing game.

Best Ads of Super Bowl XLI

• Blockbuster Video's computer-generated rabbit and guinea pig tried to order DVDs by dragging an actual mouse in an amusing spot.
• A commercial for Nationwide Insurance featured Britney Spears' former husband Kevin "Fed-Ex" Federline.
• Anheuser Busch ran numerous ads, including an anticipated spot with rapper Jay Z and, of course, the famous Budweiser Clydesdales and other animal-themed commercials.
• A trend this year was the use of "user-generated" spots (commercials produced by non-advertising professionals). Frito-Lay's Doritos, Chevrolet and the NFL itself invited the folks at home to submit entries for contests in which the winning ideas would air during the game.
• Snickers had perhaps the oddest ad in which two mechanics accidentally kiss after being unable to resist chomping on opposite ends of a Snickers bar. To prove their heterosexuality, they resorted to doing "something manly" and both proceeded to rip out clumps of their own chest hair.
• In a surprise, a promo for CBS's "Late Show with David Letterman'' featured Oprah Winfrey scolding the comedian for eating potato chips on the couch.

Super Notes

• Prince headlined the halftime show, roaring through some of his biggest hits, including an appropriate finale: "Purple Rain." Billy Joel sang the national anthem earlier in the day.
• An estimated 140 million viewers watched the game at home and in bars across the nation. Many were just as interested in the commercials, which cost $2.5 million for a 30-second spot. The Super Bowl is often the TV program that achieves the highest ratings of the year, which explains the frenzy of creative advertising campaigns launched during the contest.