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Colts, Dungy Starting to Think Ahead
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Otherwise, the night was a blur of memories. Manning received a congratulatory call from President Bush. And he told of going out on the field two hours before game time Sunday with wide receivers Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne for what they call their pre-pregame warmup. They do it before every game, but they'd always wondered, Manning said, how difficult it would be to do before a Super Bowl, when they perhaps would have to ask Tom Cruise or Prince to kindly step out of the way. But it wasn't that way, Manning said. There was, they found, a welcome serenity.
"We had the whole field to ourselves," Manning said.
Dungy's moment came with the clock winding down and victory in hand when he said a quiet prayer of thanks on the sideline for the group of players he was coaching, he said.
The game also was significant for him because he became the first black head coach to win a Super Bowl. Dungy said Monday he was floored when he was asked after the game to compare his achievement with what Jackie Robinson did in breaking the color barrier in baseball.
"I certainly don't feel I've done anything as difficult as Jackie Robinson did, but it is a proud moment," Dungy said.
It was a week and a game that was about Manning's place among the sport's greatest quarterbacks, and a week and a game that was about Dungy and his friend and Bears counterpart, Lovie Smith, gracefully handling their dual distinction of becoming the first black coaches to lead their teams to a Super Bowl. The coaches embraced after the game.
"We wanted to win it for us," Smith said late Sunday night. "If someone else has to win it, why not Tony? We made progress. We didn't get it done. Hopefully, next year will be our time."
The game also was memorable for the drenching rainstorm in which it was played.
"It was part of the game, part of the elements," Roger Goodell, who oversaw his first Super Bowl as NFL commissioner, said Monday. "It was fun for all of us."
Not everyone seemed to agree.
"After that monsoon we had last night, 20 degrees or 20 below sounds pretty good," Manning said of the return to Indianapolis, where at least the welcome will be warm.
