Saints rejoice, Manning a poor sport?

Most sports fans can appreciate the elation that is felt by professional athletes when they reach the promised land, as it were, and capture the championship of their sport. Many of us decry the huge salaries and the lapses in judgment that we often see from athletes, but it is hard not to feel good for someone who has reached their true potential and earned the right to raise that championship trophy.

This is true in all sports, but this year’s Super Bowl offered a particularly meaningful opportunity for the New Orleans Saints and the people of New Orleans. Whatever your feelings may be about the Hurricane Katrina situation, it is clear that the city suffered a great deal, and the Saints themselves are a franchise that has struggled mightily over the years. They had never made it to a Super Bowl at all, so just getting there was huge for the team, and their appearance in the big game was cathartic for the city that they represent.

So on Sunday, the Saints went out onto a neutral field and they took the title by outplaying the favored Indianapolis Colts and their middle-America icon, Peyton Manning. Manning is marketed as being the kind of athlete that “plays the game the way it’s supposed to be played” because he is a “stand-up guy” who is a true “role model.” Well, he may be all of those things when everything is going right for him, but after the game, Manning stormed off the field without taking a moment to congratulate the victors, like youth sports teams are taught to do, like real stand-up guys do.

Manning has a Super Bowl ring, and he won his fourth MVP award this year. He was had the chance to enjoy the ultimate success. If average fans can relate to the way it must feel to win a championship and take their hats off to the winners, you’d think that a fellow player would have it in him to shake the hands of the victors and congratulate them respectfully. It’s your call, but many fans may reconsider their overall opinion of Manning as a standard bearer of what is good about sports.