Super Bowl Week Kicks-Off

            If you live in Indianapolis, you may have heard that Super Bowl Week kicked off last week. Since the official opening of the Super Bowl Village on Georgia Street last week, Indianapolis has been the epicenter of the football world. Tens of thousands of people have already been Downtown, and more than 150,000 are expected to arrive this week. For a comparison of just how many people are going to the capitol city, the record number of people attending the NFL Experience in nine days has already been broken, in just five days. If you haven’t been downtown at all, I seriously recommend you try finding anyway to get there and see the beauty that is my Super City.

            So how did I spend my opening weekend? I was downtown on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday freezing my butt off, but having a great time.

            On Friday I talked to Indianapolis Star writer Bob Kravitz but wasn’t able to talk to him too long because he was trying to find a bathroom. I also went to the Bret Michaels concert. He did some of his famous “Poison” songs and covers of Lynyrd Skynyrd and John Mellencamp. There were also plenty of drunken people causing mischief. Fortunately, I have heard no reports of any kind of fights or public intoxication since that night so somebody must have acted to make sure everybody was staying out of trouble.

            On Saturday I spent a couple of hours just walking around Super Bowl Village and taking in the sights and sounds. The huge Roman Numerals on Monument Circle are really awesome and I can’t think of a better picture opportunity anywhere in the city. It seems like every picture that’s coming out of Indy is the three-story tall “XLVI”.

            Also on Monument Circle was the 33 IndyCar’s that had been painted up in the color scheme of every NFL team (32 for each team and one in a Super Bowl scheme). Everybody I saw was dying to get a picture of the car with their favorite team painted on it. Those cars represent uniqueness that no other city in the world claim and it’s awesome that Indianapolis took advantage of that.  Not only do those raise interest in the Super Bowl, but also in IndyCar.

            
            Probably the biggest entertainment outside of the game itself is the ten-story tall zip line on Capitol St. Tickets for this are selling at an insanely high rate. Each day tickets become available at 11:00 a.m., but people are lining up at 6:00 a.m. to get them. I have yet to take a ride on the zip line, but I would sure love to. 
Sidenote here, but there may be a zip line installed at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.Stay tuned for more on that.

           Sunday, I went downtown to see country singer Dierks Bentley. Before he played, a folk band named “Railroad Earth” performed. They have a cheesy name, but they were really great and original. As for Bentley, he was great too. He played for more than an hour and every song he sang sounded just like what you hear on the radio.

            I read that 30,000 people were in downtown Indy Friday night. I haven’t seen the numbers about any other day, but I’d be willing to bet 30,000 were there Saturday and 40,000 on Sunday. I also know how cramped the Super Bowl Village and concert areas were when I was there on Friday and Sunday. I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like this Friday night when LMFAO performs.

Colts Hire New Coach and Manning News

A year ago the Indianapolis Colts were in preparation for the 2011 season and a possible chance of playing a Super Bowl in their own city. Peyton Manning had a neck injury but it was expected that he would ready for the 2011 season. Jim Caldwell, the Polians and the rest of the coaching staff were trying to figure out how to improve on a team that had been defeated in the first round of the playoffs.

The current Colts are almost unrecognizable from the organization they were a year ago. Jim Caldwell is gone. Bill and Chris Polian are gone. Nearly every coach is gone. Peyton Manning could be gone next. I’ll let that soak in.

The Colts officially announced that Chuck Pagano would be the new head coach earlier today. Pagano was the defensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens for a couple of years. He has never been a head coach, and has been with four teams in the past decade. Even though he has jumped from team to team, he has an impressive track record.

Pagano joined the Cleveland Browns in 2001 as a secondary coach. In his first season, his secondary unit accounted for 28 of the Browns’ 33 interceptions (the Browns led the league in interceptions that year). In 2003, his unit allowed just 13 passing touchdowns, tying a franchise record.

In 2004, Pagano became the secondary coach for the Oakland Raiders. In 2006, that defense allowed 151 yards per game, and 285 total yards. That ranked them first and third in the NFL, respectively.

After that stint, he was signed by John Harbaugh to become the Baltimore Ravens’ secondary coach from 2008-2010. He then became the defensive coordinator before the 2011 season.

So we know that Pagano can dramatically change the quality of a defense, but how we hill manage an offense; and for that matter, an entire team? That is unknown.  The Colts still need to hire an offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator. Hopefully more time is spent on finding on offensive coordinator, because Pagano is a defensive genius.

If that wasn’t big enough news for Colts’ fans, Peyton Manning had an interesting chat with Indianapolis Star reporter Bob Kravitz on Wednesday.

When Peyton was asked about how the changes have affected his rehabbing, he said:

"I'm not in a very good place for healing, let's say that. It's not a real good environment down there right now, to say the least. Everybody's walking around on eggshells. I don't recognize our building right now. There's such complete and total change."

When asked about wanting to return to Indy:

"I don't want to get into some kind of fan campaign with the owner, but I think it's well-documented that I want to play in the same place my whole career. It's been a privilege to play here. I love the fans, the city, the transformation of the fans, how our place has become the toughest stadium to play in, the fact our fans wear more jerseys to games than anybody else. It's been fun to be a part of that. But I understand how it works. I understand tough decisions have to be made. There's personal and there's business, and that's where we've got to separate the two. I've seen other guys leave places and it was personal. I've invested too much into this city for that to happen. We live here, we've given lots of time and money to the community and our church, and that's never going to change. Nothing changes that."

On Thursday, Colts owner Jim Irsay basically told reporters that he didn’t appreciate Peyton telling Kravitz “inside” details on the Colts organization. Irsay went further to say: ““I don’t think it’s in a good interest to paint the horseshoe in a negative light, I really don’t. He’s such a big part of that and everything else, but the horseshoe always comes first. I think one thing that he’s always known, because he’s been around it so long, is you keep it in the family. If you’ve got a problem, you talk to each other.”

I have no idea how this whole thing is going to turn out, but most “experts” speculate the Colts will get rid of Manning before his contract bonus is due in March. I still believe that they should keep Manning and trade the number one draft pick for two first round picks.

Pacers Beat the Bulls!

 The Pacers beat the Bulls! Suck on that Chicago!

I’ll get to that later, but for now, let’s just do some recapping. The last time I wrote about the Pacers, they were 6-2 and in third place in the Eastern Conference. Sure it was early in the season but they looked like one of the Top 10 teams in the NBA. Now the Pacers are 12-5 and fifth in their conference. That may sound bad, but they are easily one of the Top 10 teams.

The three losses in that stretch came against the Miami Heat, Sacramento Kings, and Orlando Magic. The Heat game was brutal to watch. They decimated the Pacers and won by 35. The Kings’ game was the first matchup for the Pacers on the West Coast and only lost by four. The loss to the Magic was hard to swallow though. It was the first home game after the West Coast trip and the Pacers had a chance to really assert themselves as the third best team in the East. Dwight Howard and Ryan Anderson (who has ever heard of him?) of Orlando were too much for Indiana though, and they led the Magic to a 19-point win.

Enough of the bad though, how about some good news? The Pacers looked great against the Atlanta Hawks (7-4), L.A. Lakers (10-8), and Chicago Bulls (16-4). Offensively, we had six guys that had double digits in scoring against the Lakers and Bulls. Not only are the starting five getting baskets, but so are the bench players. Defensively, we were able to keep those teams below 41% in field goal percentage, which is no easy task when you’re going up against Kobe or Derrick Rose.

The team is really starting to play like a team. Danny Granger struggled in the beginning of the season, but he has really improved the past couple of weeks. That was evident last night when he had 22 against the Bulls. Center Roy Hibbert and guard Paul George are also playing spectacularly. Bench players Lance Stephenson, George Hill, Dahntay Jones and Tyler Hansbrough are bringing a ton of tenacity and energy every time they hit the floor. They may not put up a ton of points, but they keep us in the game.

Roy Hibbert is in his fourth year and seems to get better and better each season. He’s 7’ 2” and has long arms that make it easy for him to lay up just about any shot. He has also really improved his footwork, and he can get around just about anybody in the post.  

Paul George is only a second-year player, but he has the potential to be one of the best players in the NBA. He plays with a sense of cockiness and he’s not afraid of anybody. In the games against the Lakers and Bulls, if the guy he was guarding (usually Kobe Bryant or Derrick Rose) would make a three-pointer, George would bring the ball down the court and make a three-pointer of his own as sort of a “anything you can do, I can do better” move. That kind of brashness really reminds me of Reggie Miller.  

-Just a random side note here. Apparently the Pacers “celebrated” after their win against the Bulls. This provoked Derrick Rose to say “I will never forget how they celebrated just from winning this game”. Oh, those arrogant Pacers and their clapping and high-fiving after beating the best team in the NBA on their own court. Guess what Rose? We didn’t forget how you beat us 4-1 in the playoffs last year and never will. Bring it!

Here's us celebrating the win last night!!! It's a real party!!!

Indiana is a tremendous team, but is there any way they could improve? There are rumors and talks (talks being between my friend Earl and myself) that the Pacers could trade Danny Granger for shooting guard Eric Gordon. Gordon is from Indianapolis and has said he would love to play for the Pacers, and Larry Bird has said he would love to have Gordon. If Gordon came here, he would become the starting shooting guard, which would move Paul George back to his natural position of small forward. Granger has been a Pacer his entire career, and he really is the heart and leader of this team. I would hate to see him leave. If the Pacers are gonna make a move by trading or signing a free agent then they really need to get a big man. 

Here is who the Pacers currently have:

POINT GUARDS- Darren Collison, George Hill, A.J. Price (injured)

SHOOTING GUARDS- Paul George, Lance Stephenson

SMALL FORWARDS- Danny Granger, Dahntay Jones

POWER FORWARDS- David West, Tyler Hansbrough, Lou Admundson, Jeff Pendergraph (in

CENTERS- Roy Hibbert, Jeff Foster (injured)

Yeah, 8 of our 13 players are forwards or centers, but Admundson is awful, Pendergraph-for reasons I don’t know- never plays, and Foster has battled injury all year. We should drop Admundson and Pendergraph and sign a real forward.  It’s ironic how we drafted a forward in the NBA Draft but traded him for guard George Hill.

Next 8 games:

1/27- at Boston

1/29- at Orlando

1/31- vs. New Jersey

2/1- at Minnesota

2/3- at Dallas

2/4- vs. Orlando

2/7- vs. Utah

2/8- at Atlanta

            We’ve already beaten Boston twice and New Jersey and Atlanta once, so they shouldn’t be a problem. However, the Magic beat us decidedly so they will be a challenge. The blue and gold should get through this with at least five wins. That would give us a 17-8 record on the season.

Indy is a Super City

Four years ago, the city of Indianapolis presented their bid to the NFL to host the 2012 Super Bowl. It was believed that Indy hardly stood any chance to win the bid against the cities of Houston and Phoenix. However, on May 20^th, the NFL Owners voted that Indianapolis would in fact be the host city for Super Bowl XLVI.

            
In 2008, the city of Indianapolis was a far, far cry from what it is today. There was no Lucas Oil Stadium, expanded Convention Center, JW Marriott, and re-done Georgia and Washington Streets. There was no community center at Arsenal Technical High School or indoor training facility at the University of Indianapolis. In just four years, Indianapolis has completely reshaped the way downtown and the surrounding area look.

            
It was a long four years full of headaches, money woes, and hard work, but it’s all about to pay off. The eyes of the world will be on Indianapolis next weekend. The Super Bowl is expected to draw 150,000 visitors to the city that are looking to spend money and spend a weekend in a great city. Not to mention the 50 million people that will watch the game on television.

            
What will visiting football fans love most about Indianapolis? The fact that we have a downtown that is compact, but diverse and unique. There are museums, stadiums, stores, restaurants, bars, theaters, music halls, and clubs all within two square miles of Monument Circle.  So many cities have their stadiums in suburbs tens of miles from any major city, the complete opposite of Indianapolis. Visitors from across America and the world will be able to stay downtown all the time and never have to worry about missing any of the festivities. That will be what makes this Super Bowl one of the best ever.
      
Enjoy it Hoosiers, it has been a long, hard ride, but it's finally about to pay off.

Georgia St. last year (taken from Maryland & Georgia)

Georgia St. now (Taken from Illinois & Georgia)

The RCA Dome & Convention Center

Lucas Oil Stadium & New Convention Center

Community Building at Arsenal Tech

New practice facility at UIndy

NASCAR Off-Season

Even though there hasn’t been any racing going on, this offseason for NASCAR has been one of the most tumultuous in recent memory. There have been moves made all across the board from Sprint Cup Series to Camping World and from Hendricks Motorsports to Front Row Motorsports. To help you, and myself, I’ve made this list of how each race team will look for 2012.

Teams are in order of highest finishing driver in 2011. Parenthesis denotes where the driver finished in the final points standings.  

Updated 2/13/2012

Stewart/Haas Racing

2011: #14 Tony Stewart (1^st), #39 Ryan Newman (10^th)

2012: #14 Stewart, #39 Newman,

Two huge changes coming to 2011 champion Tony Stewart’s team. The first change came as bit of a shocker to everyone. Stewart fired his screw chief, Darien Grubb. When was the last time a crew chief won a championship and then got fired? The replacement for Grubb will be Kurt Busch’s former crew chief, Steve Addington. That other change is Danica Patrick joining the team for a part time schedule. However, to guarantee her a spot in the Dayton 500, a decision was made last week to have Patrick race the #10 under Tommy Baldwin Racing.

Roush/Fenway Racing

2011: #99 Carl Edwards (2^nd), #17 Matt Kenseth (4^th), #16 Greg Bifle (16^th), #6 David Ragan (23^rd)

2012: #99 Edwards, #17 Kenseth, #16 Bifle, #6 Ricky Stenhouse

Ragan was let go after the team was unable to acquire a sponsor for 2012. 2011 Nationwide Champion Stenhouse will drive the #6 car a few times, including the Daytona 500. Best Buy is a new sponsor to the team, and will be the primary sponsor for Edwards and Kenseth a few times during the season. Edwards’ fans will also be interested to know that he will not be racing in any Nationwide events in 2012.

Richard Childress Racing

2011: #29 Kevin Harvick (3^rd), #33 Clint Bowyer (13^th), #27 Paul Menard (17^th), #31 Jeff Burton (20^th)

2012: #29 Harvick, #27 Menard, #31 Burton

Obviously the biggest change here is the departure of Clint Bowyer. There are also new crew chiefs for Harvick and Burton; Shane Wilson for Harvick and Drew Blickensderfer for Burton. Richard Childress’s grandson Austin Dillon may do some part-time racing for the team.

Penske Racing

2011: #2 Brad Keselowski (5^th), #22 Kurt Busch (11^th)

2012: #2 Keselowski, #22 A.J. Allmendinger

When I began this article about a month ago I originally wrote “Look for Sam Hornish Jr. to take over for the recently fired Kurt Busch”. Never did I think that Allmendinger would driver for one of the most prestigious racing teams in the world.

Hendrick Motorsports

2011: #48 Jimmie Johnson (6^th), #88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. (7^th), #24 Jeff Gordon (8^th), #5 Mark Martin (22^nd)

2012: #48 Johnson, #88 Dale Jr., #24 Gordon, #5 Kasey Kahne

Replacing NASCAR’s oldest driver is NASCAR’s most eligible bachelor, Kasey Kahne. He will also bring over his long-time crew chief Kenny Francis.

Joe Gibbs Racing

2011: #11 Denny Hamlin (9^th), #18 Kyle Busch (12^th), #20 Joey Logano (24^th)

2012: #11 Hamlin, #18 Busch, #20 Logano

Only changes here are with the crew chiefs for Hamlin and Busch. Tony Stewart’s former head-man Darien Grubb takes over for Hamlin and Jason Ratcliff will lead Logano.

Red Bull Racing

2011: #4 Kasey Kahne (14^th), #83 Brian Vickers (25^th)

There is no 2012 news because this team was shut down after the 2011 season. Apparently Red Bull was tired of spending money on a program that wasn’t meeting expectations. Maybe somebody should tell them that NASCAR isn’t a bunch of rednecks that don’t know how to race or operate businesses. I refuse to drink Red Bull because of their departure.

Richard Petty Motorsports

2011: #43 A.J. Allmendinger (15^th), #9 Marcos Ambrose (19^th)

2012: #43 Aric Almirola, #9 Ambrose
Almirola steps into the #43 after Allmendinger left for Penske. He is a Cuban-American that has raced in NASCAR since 2005, but has only raced in the Sprint Cup Series for four years.

           

Michael Waltrip Racing

2011: #56 Martin Truex Jr. (18^th), #00 David Reutimann (28^th), #55 Michael Waltrip (part-time)

2012: #56 Truex Jr., #55 Waltrip/Mark Martin, #15 Clint Bowyer

There are lots of changes happening at MWR. Reutimann was let go and his #00 cars and team become a full-time #55 split between Waltrip and Martin. Clint Bowyer is new to the team and will drive with sponsorship by 5-Hour Energy.

           

Earnhardt/Ganassi Racing

2011: #42 Juan Pablo Montoya (21^st), #1 Jamie McMurray (27^th)

2012: #42 Montoya, #1 McMurray

No changes except Chris Heroy is the new chew chief for JPM.

Furniture Row Racing

2011: #78 Regan Smith (26^th)

2012: #78 Regan Smith

No changes for the one-car operation

Front Row Racing

2011: #34 David Gilliland (30^th), #38 Travis Kvapil/J.J. Yeley

2012: #34 Gilliland/David Ragan, #38 Kvapil/ Yeley/David Ragan

The new addition to this team is former Roush driver, David Ragan. He will either take over the #34 or #38.

Tommy Baldwin Racing

2011: #35 Numerous drivers, #36 Dave Blaney (30^th)

2012: #36 Dave Blaney, *#10 (formerly #36) Danica Patrick/ David Reuttiman

Danica Patrick will drive the #10 car for 10 races and Reuttiman will race the other 26. Blaney will drive the #36 for the full season.

Phoenix Racing

2011: #51 Numerous drivers

2012: #51 Kurt Busch

Busch was fired from Penske Racing for verbal assaulting members of his team and the media numerous times in 2011. His landing spot is Phoenix Racing, which only fielded “start-and-park” cars last year.

Super Bowl Matchup

The matchup for the 46^th Super Bowl has been set. The two teams meeting in Indianapolis in 13 days will be the New England Patriots and New York Giants. The Patriots had to scrape and fight to beat the Baltimore Ravens, and the Giants had to do the same against the 49ers. The game will be a rematch of the epic Super Bowl game played in 2007 when the Giants won and ruined the Patriots’ perfect season.

            
Now that the fluff is out of the way, I can tell you that NOBODY in Indianapolis is excited to have the Patriots come here. Out of the 32 teams in the NFL, they are easily the least favorite in the Hoosier State. It makes me sick knowing that I will not only have to share my city with Bostonians, but share my whole Super Bowl experience. It’s even more disgusting that the Patriots will be practicing at the Colts’ facility just down the road from me, and they’ll be using the Colts’ locker room on game day.
  
It makes it a little easier to stomach since a Manning will be opposing those Patriots. Eli Manning will try and his lead his Giants to three straight wins over New England, and will be trying to win his second Super Bowl. Before the season started, Eli called himself an elite quarterback, and many people scoffed at this (including me). However, he has proven several times this year that he is truly one of the best in the NFL. If he wins Super Bowl XLVI he will be considered one of the best quarterbacks ever. 

I will have a more in-depth preview of the game posted next week.

Notre Dame 2011 Season Review

            The 2011 college football season has been over for a couple of weeks, but I wanted to take some time to reflect and look back at what a season it was for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. The Irish began the season ranked #16 and expectations of playing in a BCS Bowl. Most writers and college football analysts predicted the Irish to go 10-2, 9-3, or 8-4. I had them finishing 10-2 or at worst 8-4. They had what many thought to be one of the best offenses in the country and a defense that had room for improvement.

            
            The first game of the season was one of the worst games I have ever seen in Notre Dame history. The Irish committed five turnovers and basically gave the game away to the visiting South Florida Bulls. Although the Irish made it close in the end, they weren't able to finish it out and lost 23-20. Right then I knew that the BCS dream went right down the drain. Great teams don't lose games like that. 
            Next up was a visit to Michigan to play the first night game in Michigan Stadium History. Notre Dame controlled the game until the 4^th quarter, when they suddenly forgot how to play defense and lost on a touchdown in the final seconds of the game. The Wolverines won 35-31 in a game that will live in Michigan Football History forever. (I don’t care what you believe in, but there was NO WAY that the football gods were going to let the Irish win that game)

            At 0-2, the 2011 campaign looked finished already, esp. with #15 Michigan State coming to South Bend. Surprisingly though, Notre Dame played like they cared and soundly beat the Spartans, 31-13. The next three games (against Pittsburgh, Purdue, and Air Force)  showed why the Irish were ranked so high before the season, as they won by an average margin of 19 points.

            With momentum building, the Irish were primed and ready for a showdown with rival USC. This was the first night game at Notre Dame Stadium in more than a decade, and with all the festivities and events happening before the game, you would have thought it was the National Championship game. However, the happiest time for the Irish faithful was all the pre-game crap, because USC won the game 31-17. Again, turnovers made it impossible for the Irish to ever get any momentum or keep the game close.

            Notre Dame was now 4-3, and all hopes of a BCS Bowl Game were ripped from our blue and gold hearts. Everybody knew that this team was most likely going to the Champs Sports Bowl, and nothing would change that. It showed a lot of maturity, loyalty, and determination for the players and coaches to play their final five games of the regular season so valiantly. N.D. won their next four games, and were 9-3 heading into their final game at Stanford. They kept that game close, but didn’t have the offensive firepower to score enough and lost 28-14.

            After finishing 8-4, Notre Dame was invited to the Champs Sports Bowl, as expected. There they faced the Florida State Seminoles who were also 8-4. The Seminoles had one of the best defenses in the country, and it was going to be a tough matchup for the Irish. However, Notre Dame took a 14-0 lead into halftime, but in the second half it all went downhill. Florida State scored 18 consecutive points while keeping the Irish offense in check and not allowing them to score anything. FSU won the game 18-14 and is considered one of the top teams for next season. Notre Dame finished 8-5 and heads into another long offseason.

            
             It’s incredible to me how different this season could have been for Notre Dame. The five losses came by 3, 4, 14, 14, and 4 points. In those losses, the Irish turned the ball over 18 times and only forced a turnover 6 times. A -12 turnover rate is not going to win any games, let alone games against some of the best teams in the country. If the Irish go through those games with one less turnover, they could have easily won three or maybe four of them. Then I’d be talking about how they met their goal of playing in a BCS game.

            
            Notre Dame was a fantastic football team in 2011. As fantastic as they were though, they should be better in 2012. Tight end Tyler Eifert, one of the best in the country, will be back for his senior year. Joining him is linebacker Manti Te’o, and he is one of the best at his position too. Those two will be pre-season All-Americans and vital to Notre Dame having success in 2012.

The only obstacle blocking this team currently is again a question at the quarterback position. There are three quarterbacks on roster; junior Tommy Rees, sophomore Andrew Hendrix, and freshman Everett Golson (class is based on their 2012 season status). I feel like Rees has reached his ceiling and will never get any better. However, what he is isn’t bad; it’s just not national championship-caliber. Hendrix played the whole second half against Stanford and put up two touchdowns. He is my front-runner for the role of starting quarterback.