Super Bowl XLIV, women's curling, hockey -- my crappy day in sports

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Alright. It's already been a miserable day in sports for me.

My beloved Habs stunk out the Bell Centre -- effort? anyone? -- and lost to the hated Bruins 3-0, who broke a ten-game losing streak.

Meanwhile, at the Canadian Women's Curling Championship in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Team Prince Edward Island lost to Team Canada (the two-time defending champions, from Manitoba), 8-7 in an extra end. I may live in Ontario, and I may consider myself a Torontonian, but I'm an Islander at heart. I like the Team Canada rink, too, and I usually root for them (when P.E.I. isn't involved), but I really got into this P.E.I. rink this week, with two outstanding 21-year olds really shining, and they played extremely well until a few missed shots gave Canada the lead. P.E.I. was up 6-3 after six ends, but Canada scored four over the next three ends, including a devastating steal of two in the ninth. P.E.I. tied it up in the tenth, with a chance to win, but Canada pulled out the victory in the eleventh by a matter of inches. P.E.I. had never made it this far at the women's championships, the Scotties, and it's a shame they won't be able to defend their title at next year's tourament in Charlottetown (P.E.I.'s capital). Does this mean anything to most of you? No, probably not. I realize curling isn't exactly the most popular sport south of the border (or anywhere else). But it's huge here in Canada, and it meant a lot to me.

Okay, now... the Super Bowl. It's already almost the end of the first quarter and the Colts are up 3-0 and pressing for more in the Red Zone. I thought the Colts would win, but I talked myself into the Saints, whom I'm rooting for, the past two weeks, and my pre-game prediction was Saints 31, Colts 27.

But now... well, the Colts just scored, a Manning-to-Garcon TD, and now it's 10-0. Alas.

What a crappy day.

**********

Update: Alright, so it wasn't so crappy after all. The Saints pulled it out, 31-17. I was going to say "stunning," but it wasn't really all that stunning, was it?

Both teams have fantastic offences, but only one team -- one QB -- made a serious mistake, and that was Manning on the INT for a TD, and it wasn't even really a mistake, just a great play by an opportunistic CB, very much the story of the year for the Saints' D. (And there was also Garcon's missed catch in the second, when the Colts were driving and could have gone up for good.)

And I almost got the score right. Well, I got the Saints right at 31. But we all thought the Colts would put up more than 17, right?

And Brees for MVP? Well, sure, why not? Although I must say, I found much of the game uninteresting, and dull, and rather flat, and hardly memorable, and the guy who kept the Saints in it was not so much Brees as Hartley, the kicker. Where would the Saints have been without his two 40+-yarders in the second quarter?

And so a decade dominated by three AFC teams -- the Pats, Colts, and Steelers -- ends with a victory by one of the league's perennial losers from a city that was almost destroyed. There's only one team that really matters for me, Pittsburgh, but it's hard not to like the Saints, and I was pulling for them all year, and, in the end, they deserved it. Manning may have had one of the greatest seasons in history, and he's solidified his spot as one of the best QBs ever, but even he was no match for New Orleans, not on this day.

(How many more weeks are there until the 2010 season starts?)

(Photo: SI.com. Yes, that's Porter returning an INT for a TD in the fourth. And that's Manning on his ass.)