Who Dat the Reason the Saints are Celebrating? Sean Patyon

With the Super Bowl hangover still causing my head to pound and the Who Dat Nation preparing to celebrate the Saints victory in literal hours I find it just and necessary to afford Sean Payton the congratulations he deserves. This Super Bowl was the most grossly overmatched coaching battle I have ever seen. To say that Sean Payton took Jim Caldwell over his knee and spanked him might even be a tad bit of an understatement. To explain how important coaching decisions turned out to be in this game let's address Payton's first big decision: not kicking the field goal on 4th and goal before the half. The fact is it that there was 1:49 left in the half and the Colts (or more correctly stated, Payton Manning) still had all of their timeouts in tact. The Saints were having a mediocre half at best and the odds were definitely weighed as such. If Payton chooses to go for it, and the Saints score a touchdown, the game is tied at 10 EVEN THOUGH New Orleans has been completely out played. Now, if the Saints do not score, Payton has got to be thinking that 99 yards is a long way to go in less than two minutes, even for Payton Manning. And besides, the greatest trait a coach can have is knowing your oppostion's hand, and Sean Payton was willing to bet the house the good old Tony Dungy schooled Jim Caldwell would play conservative, which is exactly what he did, running three strait downs and allowing the Saints to get the ball back and a chance at a field goal before the half.

So what if the Saints had kicked the field goal instead of going for the touchdown? Worse case scenario, is now they give the Colts (Team Manning) the ball back with just as much time, a shorter field, and more incentive to get back up by two scores. Not to mention one more shot directly after half time. Now I'll be the first to admit that I was yelling at the TV screen telling Sean to kick the field goal and then griping that he got lucky when they finally did get one. This is why I am not an NFL coach, because the fact is, if the show is on the other foot, Caldwell would have kicked the field goal (without a doubt) and in that situation, Drew Brees could have been just as deadly as one Payton Manning.

Now obviously the next big decision was the onside kick coming out of the locker room in the second half...the turnaround for the New Orleans Saints. This decision came down to Payton's willingness to win or lose the biggest game of his life on one roll of the dice. It's not to say the Saints would have lost if they didn't recover that onside kick, but ... the Saints would have lost if they did not recover that onside kick. Seriously, we all know what happens when you give the greatest quarterback of all time (yeah I said it!) the ball basically in field goal range, he scores. And in that situation Peyton Manning would have put that ball in the end zone. But because Sean Payton was willing to put the entire season on that one play, the Saints win this game. They capture the momentum and they never really give it back.

The last coaching decision made by Sean Payton and/or Greg Williams (DC) that I want to touch on came on the play when Tracy Porter stepped in front of Reggie Wayne and virtually ended the Colts' hopes. Again I found myself screaming at the TV for the Saints to bring pressure and get somebody in Manning's face. He was systematically driving the ball down New Orleans' throat, was on their 31 yard line, and getting ready to tie the game up. Now, the Saints had not done a great job all game pressuring Manning, but there was definitely a presence felt and I hate when coaches turn to prevent style defenses when the game is on the line, (I used to have a coach tell me that the only thing a prevent defense does is prevent you from winning.) and to me the Saints were doing just that and were on their heels. But on 2nd and 5 the Saints blitz; they get in Manning's face and his quick release to Austin Collie over the middle is incomplete, and because Hargrove got hurt on that play, it allowed N.O. to draw something up and on third down, they again brought pressure, again got in Manning's face, and he again had to let the ball go quickly. The result was a perfectly read route by Tracy Porter who stepped in and took a terrible pass from Peyton Manning 74 yards to the house. There are not many coaching staffs who are blitzing with the lead, in the Super Bowl, with the opposing team driving the football, and I say kudos to Payton and his staff for again, rolling the dice, putting their destiny into their own hands, and not letting one player beat you while 106 million (what were the other 200 million doing?) people watched!

And now, let us talk about Jim Caldwell for a second. I do not want to crticize him too much, but the fact that he is a rookie coach showed in this football game. Amongst the many gripes I have with his decision making the only one I want to point out has to do with the running game. So coach, my questrion is why in the hell are you giving the ball to your third string runningback Mike Hart the on that third and one before the half instead of your star Joseph Addai who was slashing the Saints defense and averaging over 5 yards per carry? This is a guy who had just gained 5 and 4 yards on the previous two plays!! Was he hurt? Was he tired? And if so, why is hart getting the ball? Why are you not giving it to your stud rookie Donald Brown, who, by the way, was also getting over 4 yards a carry? The move simply made no sense to me, and for that Caldwell deserved to not get his first down and to allow the Saints right back in the game.

The coaching in this superbowl, to me, was the biggest story line, and I feel as though the better coach won. Sean Payton was willing to make the tough decisions that put his team over the top, and because of that he will be cemented in Super Bowl history. It bothers me a little in the first place that the entire nation gave the Saints virtually no shot to win this game, but when there are 2 mediocre (at best) defenses going against two power house offenses, anything can happen. It also bothers me that no one was talking about how different this Colts team would have been with the likes of a Bob Sanders, but that is a story for a different day. For now, as always, I thank you for reading and until next time, I am Chicago's Sports Son, and I'm going to bed.

Mark McGwire

So the big news today all over the sports world is that Mark McGwire has finally admitted to using PED's. And the questions that have been tossed around are what does this mean for baseball? For McGwire? And what impact (if any) should this have on McGwire's potential entry into the hall of fame? The last question is what intrigues me the most. The media has labeled the era in which McGwire, Bonds, and Sosa played in as the steroids era and honestly I am ok with this, despite the fact that it is an obvious insult to those who did not take PED's. So does this mean that players who made their stamp on the game, who shattered records, should not be properly acknowledged? I understand the whole argument that they cheated, I really do, but I also feel that it is extremely naive for anybody to believe that those caught were the only ones. And that superstars would not have been superstars if they had not taken the drugs that they took. When watching McGwire's interview with Bob Costas last night, Mark brought up a good point. He said that he had been hitting home runs his entire life, and that those home runs were because of his talent, not his PED's. Now I agree with this to a certain extent and Tim Kurkjian touched on this morning that no one is saying that if a non baseball player took PED's it is not going to turn that person into a ball player. PED's are not going to teach hand-eye coordination. And so in that regard, Mr. McGwire, I say agreed. You always hit home runs, but on the flip side of that who knows if you would have hit as many as you did. And the answer to that will never be known.

So do I also agree with Tim Kurkjian that McGwire belongs in the hall of fame? And my answer to that is a thousands times yes. And I was completely flabbergasted to see a poll on Sportscenter this morning where 45% (which was the leading percentage of the choices) of those polled felt as though McGwire did not now nor would he ever deserve to be in the hall. This is completely asinine. The steroids era was something that happened in baseball and the sad fact is that a lot if not most of the players in the MLB at the time were taking PED's. They still had to hit the ball. They still had to throw it. Did the drugs give them an edge? Yes, but in an era where this use was running so popular in clubhouses, and it was the best known secret in major league baseball, how can the public really punish an entire era? You can't, and it is laughable to me to say that guys like McGwire, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, and Roger Clemens won't someday be in the hall of fame. This is, as Kurkjian said, a part of baseball. It is a story of an era and when these records are looked at and the history book is written about that game, it is a story that should be told along side everything else. The important aspect of learning from all this is just that, we need to learn. And i feel like baseball has done this. Proper testing is in place and the game has been cleaned up. We can't right the wrongs of the past but we can learn from them, and the general public, by saying that McGwire does not deserve the hall should take a long look in the mirror and ask themselves who the hell they think they are that they are better than to forgive an forget a man who so obviously was doing the same thing as most others.

Now, do not read this blog and say, "Oh well the Chicago's Sports Son is condoning the use of PED's," because I am not. I am simply saying, if McGwire is not put into the hall it is not only an injustice to the individual, but it would be an injustice the game. We should, as we always have, look at hall of fame voting on a case by case basis and consider everything surrounding a candidate rather than looking at one smudge on a man's career. There is no denying that McGwire used steroids, or, if you believe Jose Canseco, 75% of the league did during this era, but the superstars were still superstars, and the scrubs were still scrubs. No asterisk is needed nor does one belong not only to McGwire but to the era. It should simply be stated that circumstances were different, as they were for every day, week, month, or decade. Maris had an asterisk by his name for a short time because he played a longer season. This simply proves how great the Babe was; that he could accomplish what he did in fewer games. Athletes these days have many more advantages than they did in the glory days. Technology is responsible for that. The advancement of a society is responsible for that. Better bats, better knowledge, and a better understanding of the game and how it has and will evolve is why records get broken and people get remembered. It is sad that McGwire used PED's, but it is not the end of the world, and it is definitely the the sole reason he was a magnificent baseball player.