Relief, Not Joy

At the point where you feel more relief than joy when your team wins, you are taking things too seriously. Since becoming a fan of the Colts, upon moving to Indianapolis in 1995, I have been conditioned to expect the worst whenever the team took the field in a “big” game. Each season, you expect that any hopes of a championship will get squashed sometime between September and February.

Yesterday served more as a culmination of 12 years of angst than a cathartic breakthrough. Just seconds into the game, my fatalism crested just as Devin Hester turned right at the 20-yard-line with the opening kickoff. I started to get a little woozy, flashing back to an AFC Championship game in Pittsburgh 11 years ago.

I was woozy, that is, until Bear QB Rex Grossman pump-faked early in the 4th Quarter. When Rex loaded up and got ready to fire, I let out an instinctive yelp of joy, even before the camera panned to the intended target of the strike, revealing the perfect position of Colt defensive back Kelvin Hayden.

Since last July, even before the start of the preseason, I had taken every opportunity to explain why Rex was not the best choice for the Bears to friends and family. Oddly, this stems more from my appreciation of 3rd-string QB Kyle Orton than it does from really caring about the Bears.

In the instant that Rex drew back his bow, two prophesies were fulfilled, bringing peace to the NFL, or, at least, to me.

With 32 teams in the always-more-competitive league, it may be a generation or more before we see the gleam of another Lombardi trophy in the circle city, but for today, we can all be satisfied.