Indianapolis Colts Football

Hibernation

The happiest/saddest day of the year for us NFL Fans has come and gone!  And what an inspiring day it was.  Those school kids from the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut singing America the Beautiful displayed a bravery that is so entrenched in the American Spirit; I congratulate each and every one of them; that was a tough assignment and those kids shone through.  America really is the home of the brave.

And I got to say, two brave teams put on a wonderful exhibition, epitomizing what the NFL is all about.  Stamina, both physically and mentally. The 49ers never mentally chucking in the towel when so far behind in the first half then coming back to a whisker of taking the title.  The Ravens, coming in as underdogs knew what they had to do.  In the end it was Joe Flacco’s long game that gave the Ravens the lead they needed to hang on. Finally, John Harbaugh showed the pinnacle of how cerebral this game can be.  No one saw it coming and the safety play in those dying seconds took away the potential for a Hail-Mary from the 49ers. Now that was brilliant thinking.  At the end of the game we were only left with one question. Who forgot to pay the power bill? Thirty-six minutes of lights out in the second half saw a complete reversal in the flow of the game once someone paid the bill and got the lights back on. And now the season is over.

So what happens to an NFL Fan sitting in Australia during the off season? Mainly a state of decline and depression while waiting until August!  I will say, not so much decline in last year’s off season because the draft for the Colts was so exciting. We added Coach Pagano then acquired Andrew Luck in a brilliant year of off-season moves.  So, perhaps the draft will be of some interest this year because you never seem to know what Jim Irsay and our own NFL Executive of the Year, Ryan Grigson have planned.  Two things I now understand: they won’t disappoint and they never let their fans down. So I will have a lift in spirits during the oncoming draft.

So into hibernation I will go, on a fill of a very exciting year for this Colts fan.  A year when our team took on over ten rookies; a year when we were expected to be middle of the road but ended in the playoffs; a year that saw me make it to Lucas Oil Field and my first ever live NFL game; a year when I made so many football friends; and most of all, a year when our coach got better after suffering leukemia.  So I’ll keep in touch, I’ll even let you know about our football, the season starting in a few weeks, but I will long for what happens best on the gridiron.

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Rooting for the Colts a half a world away.  Our resident Aussie blogger, Rob Zammit, is a veterinarian and dedicated Colts fan.