A truly miraculous day

It was apparent that Sunday, Feb. 7, 2010 was to be a day of miracles Yes, there was that Super Bowl ad that featured David Letterman, Oprah Winfrey and Jay Leno, with Letterman intoning, “Worst Super Bowl Party ever!” Oprah was between these two seemingly implacable enemies, but if these two could exist in the same room together on the same couch, heck, that makes World Peace seems like an attainable goal.

And there was the stunning news the day after that Super Bowl XLIV had passed the final episode of MASH to become the most watched show in television history.

But the first real sign of a miracle was that the Saints made it there at all, and the best sign that they might win was that Indianapolis was their opponent. Yes, the Colts, who had the league MVP in Peyton Manning, but who had given the team MVP award to Patriot coach Bill Belichick. Bill, you will recall, went for it fourth and one deep in the Pat's own territory and turned it over to the Colts, thus allowing for the first of several “miracle” come-backs. This also gave the illusion that the Colts were the favorites in this game.

Perhaps the most amazing miracle, though, took place in 2005. This was when Drew Brees, then the QB for the San Diego Chargers, fumbled the ball in that season’s last game against Denver and dislocated his shoulder trying to recover it. In a report on ESPN, Brees’s doctor said that not one in one hundred athletes could have come back from this.

Because of this injury, Brees was forced out at San Diego, and there weren’t a lot of other NFL teams willing to take a chance on him. It was the Saints who eventually signed him, and the rest, as they say, is history. Oh, and the stupidity of that decision by the Chargers to pass on Brees makes even the one by Belichick to pass on a punt against the Colts look sort of smart, by comparison.

Then there were the on-field miracles. Down 10-3, and with time running out in the first half, and on a fourth and goal to go, the Saints seemed to reprise the Belichick fiasco by going for it. They didn’t make it. But in their first show of determination, they forced the Colts to punt and drove close enough for a 40-plus yard field goal, the second of three from that distance, and so went to the locker room down 10-6.

Then there was the onside kick to start the second half. If that doesn’t show determination, what does? I mean, failure here could have put the Colts up 17-6. But the Saints prevailed and scored a TD that put them up 13-10.

And there was that pass for the two-point conversion after their second TD of the half. A completed pass would put the Saints up by 7, but it was ruled incomplete. Here the miracle came courtesy of instant replay that showed the pass was good, and that put the Saints up 24-17.

Finally there was the errant pass by Peyton that was intercepted by Tracy Porter and returned 74 years that sealed the Colts fate and set the final score: Saints 31, Colts 17.