Manning pick still a shocker

I grumbled as I shuffled along with a pack of strangers through the South Florida streets late Sunday night.

Zoned out, my head bounced from left to right, right to left, as I rhythmically followed the back of the person in front of me.

She was wearing a blue No. 18 jersey with "Manning" stuck to the back. So was the person beside her. So was the person in front of him. So were the two dudes in front of him.

Peyton Manning had, easily, the highest number of jerseys in the crowd Sunday at Super Bowl XLIV.

And I was in midst of them late into the night, dazed and confused that Manning was the one that had cost his team, and himself, another championship ring.

Of all people.

I'm partial to Peyton. There, I said it. I like the guy.

He's a likeable dude. He's surgical on the field. He makes me giggle on Saturday Night Live.

Add in the fact that my four years at Tennessee directly followed Manning's, and it's almost as if I had DNA built in Sunday to root for Peyton's Colts.

(Disclaimer: Don't get me wrong. I wasn't necessarily rooting against New Orleans, a city and team with enough Karma credit built up to win, really, whatever it would like in the foreseeable future.)

I'd said all week that it wouldn't bother me if the Saints won the game. I meant it, too.

But what I hadn't accounted for, not at all, was the possibility that Peyton might lose the game.

Since getting the Patriots off his back, Manning hadn't really shown many weaknesses, even as the teammates and coaches changed around him.

Manning had already won a Super Bowl in this stadium. Why not another?

New Orleans vowed to bring loads of pressure, and yet Peyton's jersey was as blue and crisp as those in the surrounding stands.

Pressure wasn't the issue. Well, at least not from the Saints.

Looking at a third-and-5 at the New Orleans 31, down a touchdown, Manning and the Colts used a timeout. They wanted to talk over the play (and, presumably, subsequent plays), recognizing it was a pivotal moment with about three minutes to go.

The play coming out was a familiar one. A little inside route to Reggie Wayne that would be enough to move the sticks.

Manning took his drop, but seemed to let the ball go just a tad too early. Wayne stutterstepped into the route, breaking a tad too late.

Those two ever-so-slight failures were enough to completely nuke a play that's gone right far more than it's ever gone wrong in their careers.

Young Saints corner Tracy Porter made an excellent read on the route, jumped it and took the slightly off throw 74 yards for the deciding score.

Manning did what? I was stunned. I turned around, and in the suite behind me, even Jennifer Lopez looked stunned.

By the way, the experience of going to a Super Bowl, my first, was everything I'd hoped for. Along with Lopez, we were surrounded by celebs on the club level.

The game played out before you as if you were watching great theater. Oh, but that one throw. It's been on replay in my mind the past 12 hours. It's all I could think about on that walk to the car.

I had to get home to make sure what I'd seen was true, as if the Internet, of all things, would somehow prove it all a mirage.

Nope. Still happened.

That was the only turnover of the game. That was the game.

Good for Porter. He's a Louisiana kid who dealt with Hurricane Katrina the way a lot of natives did.

The storm destroyed lives and property, but not spirits.

The Saints were medicine for the soul well before this Super Bowl. But this game was like closure to that dark, evil chapter in the Bayou.

New Orleans had done enough losing, on and off the football field. It was high time for it to win something.

So, while football's royal family didn't add another jewel to its crown, it was nice to see the long-suffering bask in the Florida glow.

New Orleans' fans came loud and proud, barking at anyone and everyone their "Who Dat" cheer.

You couldn't help but think about how it was nearly Minnesota in this game, if not for a Vikes fumble here or a Brett Favre ill-advised throw there.

But fate played out precisely how it was meant to be, with a player it's difficult to root against playing a city that's difficult to root against.

The city, and its Saints, won out.

Peyton will always want that throw back. But I'll bet there's a part of him, being the New Orleans native that he is, that can crack a smile knowing Mardi Gras has come a week early for his home state.

That was enough to stop grumbling and allow a smile to stretch its way across my face.

Travis Haney/Staff