XLI: Some Lingering Questions.

First Barbaro, now the Colts. Finally, all beaten-into-the-ground equine-related stories that no one wanted to hear about anyways are finally over. (Although the Colts did fair a little better than Bobby.)

Congrats to the Colts are in order. So: congrats. Now that that's out of the way, there's a few lingering questions, I think.

First up: Does anyone really care that Peyton won? There have been some notable choke artists finally getting off the snide of late: the Red Sox broke the Curse, Mickelson won a major, Roy Williams got a national title an I' sure there are a few I'm forgetting. After the Sawx won, the nation went collectively ballistic and people were positively geeked for Mickelson, even if those two completely annoyed the hell out of everyone in the ensuing aftermath. People were even happy for ol' Roy, even though he basically left Kansas flapping in the wind.

But with Peyton - and consider me firmly entrenched in this camp - I think people are just glad it is over and done with. No one really cared one way or the other, they are just happy it has been eliminated as a point of conversation. Really, do you know anyone who was just thrilled for Manning? Were you? I'm happy for him, I guess, but if he would have lost, I wouldn't have gotten any less sleep.

You know who has to be the most distraught? A-Rod. Now it is just him, fair or not, chilling atop Choke Artist Mountain all by himself. He's got no one for company. Maybe when LeBron gets bounced from the conference finals for the next few seasons, he'll join him. But if you need a punchline for a choke job joke, A-Rod is your go-t0 go, and I can't really think of anyone else.

Next: What if Tony Dungy was an absolute asshole? What if he was more sarcastic and condescending that Bill Parcells, more of a liar than Nick Saban, more arrogant than Brian Billick, more of a winer and complainer than Tom Coughlin, more of an emotionless recluse than Bill Belichik?

Aside from the fact that a coach like that probably never would have gotten his team this far (and would be the worst human being outside of Rae Carruth) it would have set up a pretty interesting situation, I think. By all accounts, Dungy is nothing but class, but what if he wasn't? Large chunks of America (basically everyone outside of Indianapolis) would have been cheering against Tony Dungy becoming for the first black head coach ever to win a Super Bowl, and they would have been absolutely pissed this morning when he actually did become the first black coach ever to do so.

I really don't know what would happen (I'm sure Jay Mariotti's head would explode), but I think it would make for some epic arguments. Is America really still racist? Who knows, but eventually that older black guy with the white beard who appears every single time a race issue is raised would have set us all straight and told us what we should be thinking. Thank goodness we still have that guy. (If you said his name, I'd know it, but I am not Googling him to find out. Frankly, I don't even know what my search would be - "smart black guy white beard race issues"?) When he dies, it is going to be like when the Giver dies.

Finally: Should the Bears bring Grossman back? Well, I think they are going to have to. I mean, Jeff Garcia is the best free agent out there. Unless they make some trade for a veteran (a la Baltimore; but that didn't work out and Kyle Boller's confidence has to be shot) there really aren't any options. Garcia played under the greatest offensive coach in the NFL (seriously, do you know who the Eagles WRs are? And they are always, always in contention. Reid's a genius, I think).

The Bears should stick with Grossman. He got them to a Super Bowl in his first full season. Not too bad, eh? From what I can discern, his biggest weakness seems to be his decision-making; he decides where he is going to throw it before he snaps the ball (incidentally, I do this exact thing on NCAA and Madden, to about the same results). Well, that can be worked on, can't it? If I played more Madden, I would get better at that. If Grossman works more (just try to avoid any New Year's Eve film sessions), he should improve to. And it isn't like he has to be Manning or Brady, he just has to not throw dagger interceptions all game.

The Bears will be better next season. Their D will get two studs back - Tommie Harris, maybe the best at his position in the NFL and Mike Brown, who's really good and always seems to make those "I can't believe that just happened" type plays. Their running game will be better - Benson will improve, so will Thomas Jones. If Grossman just fights his inner-Favre off, there's no reason they can't be back in XLII next year, especially playing in the clearly inferior NFC.

At the very least, Grossman has to be treated like a hot girlfriend who is regularly driving you nuts. Hang on to her just because there are no better options out there, but of a better option does present itself, drop the old one in a hurry and get with little miss new thing ASAP.

And for everyone sayng how boring the Super Bowl was...well, the first quarter was awesome. So there was that.