LCB NFL Picks: Super Bowl XLIV

New Orleans Saints vs. Indianapolis Colts @ 6:25 on CBS:
Langston: With every Super Bowl comes various sub-plots used to fill the time between the Conference Championships and the big game, this year is no different. If you have watched more than a minute of ESPN, you'll have heard the following far too often: Dwight Freeney has a bum ankle and if he doesn't play the Indianapolis defense will morph into the Cleveland Browns, Reggie Bush and Kim Kardashian may or may not get married, Drew Brees rebuilt New Orleans with touchdowns, Peyton Manning needs to win a second Super Bowl to become a great, Peyton Manning grew up in New Orleans and his dad is one of the few greats in Saints history (aka Who will Archie root for? ), Gregg Williams should be more careful about what he says, and numerous others.

Side Note: They were a couple of dickish stories on the big game, one by a writer not currently in Afghanistan questioning why a football player from the Naval Academy isn't in Afghanistan and another on how the Colts practiced reverse discrimination when hiring Jim Caldwell.

For the most part, these subplots and human interest pieces make for good print, however none of them will have that great of an effect on the actual game, well apart from the health of America's most important ankle. Reggie Bush won't play any harder because he wants to get married. The Saints won't play better because they have all of Louisiana behind them. Peyton won't be more focused because Gregg Williams doesn't know when to shut up or because the media thinks he needs to win another one to cement his place in history. (And of course Archie is rooting for Peyton and the Colts, family comes first.)

Why won't these have any effect? It's the Super Bowl. This is the game every NFL player has dreamed of playing in since Pop Warner. None of the players on either team will need any added inspiration to get them pumped for this game. So when Jim Nantz is asking Phil Simms about the effects of these events on the game, remember it's the Super Bowl and none of the players or coaches need anything else to focus on the biggest games of their lives. As for the game itself, Indy's starters still remain unbeaten when playing the entire game. And until they lose, I won't be betting against them. Colts 35, Saints 31.

Deckfight: In 1991 in Shreveport, LA kids wore "cha-ching" Saints shirts to school after the Saints went 5-0, then to 7-0. The phrase came from a Seth Green-Rally's commercial. For real. The 1991 Saints went 11-5 that year and that's my earliest memory of the Saints being any good, though they quickly went downhill in the years after. That the Saints now are considered "The Greatest Show on Turf" Part II with Drew Brees, Reggie Bush, Marques Colston et. al performing at such a high level is so odd.

The current Saints team is a weird bizarro world for most Saints fans not only because they're winning but because like the 1991 team, I always remember the Saints having a great defense. On the 1991 team, guys like Sam Mills, Pat Swilling and Rickey Jackson held everybody in check, and there were several Pro-Bowl defensive guys that year. That team had Bayou "Cajun Cannon" Bobby Hebert (AY-BARE) as its quarterback, who was kind of like a South Louisiana version of the Chicago Bears' Jim McMahon. He named one of his children "T-Bob." What isn't talked about is that while these 1991 Saints were playing, Peyton Manning was going to school in the city of New Orleans, soaking up his own cha-ching memories. He probably even wore one of the shirts. Parents of his classmates probably told him he was a better player then than Bobby Hebert would ever be, that they hoped he would lead the Saints out of their forlorn misery.

Now, those same people that praised Peyton probably visited some stereotypical voodoo witch doctor to put curses on him. The promised son may be the very one to keep the Saints from realizing Super Bowl stardom. That said, geaux Saints. Smash Manning's prep boy face into the ground. It may very well be the defense that gives the Saints a fighting chance.

Teach: This Super Bowl is a strange one because it has no villain. Ultimately, this game is a battle between super heroes. Wait. No. That would be cliche. No, this game is a battle between Bert and Ernie and the Lombardi Trophy is the Rubber Ducky. Wait. No. That would be slightly homoerotic. No, this game is a clash between titans that both started the season off 13-0. Wait. No. The Saints are Atlas with a hernia, having lost the last three games of the regular season. No, this game is not a cliche or some flashy allusion; this game is between two very good teams playing for a championship.

With a win, Peyton continues to build a legacy that will cast a very long shadow and to take over the place in American sports that Tiger vacated this winter. With a loss, Peyton becomes much more interesting. With a loss, Peyton leaves the case to his greatness slightly open. It sounds crazy, but think of how differently Favre and Warner would be viewed with one more win in the Super Bowl or how so many of us wrongly hold Kobe's one blemish in the Finals against him. We like perfection in our sports heroes, and we tend to fill in their imperfections with mountains, not molehills. How would history judge Peyton Manning with a 1-1 Super Bowl record?

Oh, then there's that other quarterback whose names gets mentioned in connection with this Super Bowl just about as much as Dan Fouts' does. Drew Brees has a lot to play for too, as do these Saints.



Colts win 28-20, and Drew Brees remains the Wal-Mart censored Dan Fouts.

Berndon: I've been so caught up watching basketball games that I really haven't given the Super Bowl too much thought until now. I agree with Langston with the fact that the game is way too over-hyped and I can't deal with all the storylines being crammed down our throats by ESPN and others for two weeks. I don't care about Freeney's ankle, nor Reggie Bush's nuptuals, I just care about the game and the commericials.This year I'll even add in that I'm excited to see The Who at halftime.

I want the Saints to win, if only for the selfish reason that I want retribution for what the Colts did to the Bears three seasons ago. In using my brain however, something I don't always do, I have to go with the Colts. Peyton is going to get this one, cementing his legacy as perhaps the greatest QB who's ever lived. The Colts D will give up their share of points, but the Saints D have a lot more holes for #18 to exploit. They may get a turnover or two, Darren Sharper might even pick off a pass, but when it's all said and done, I look for the Colts to win 35-27.