A Vikings fan should have little to say about Super Sunday

That is ex-Minnesota Viking Mewelde Moore in the foreground as Santonio Holmes taps his toes to make the Super Bowl-winning touchdown official.

Talk about a symmetry. There was a replay review after Holmes' catch to see if he got both feet down in bounds before any of the three Arizona Cardinals defenders in the vicinity knocked him into the boundary. That was necessary since the NFL, a while back, changed the force-out role. That is the very same force-out rule which once conspired to deny the Vikings a playoff spot in a season finale against, wait for it, your older brother's Arizona Cardinals. ("Damn!")

None of you need any reminder it was an entertaining Super Bowl or that the Vikings, who will always have the distinction of being the Steelers' first Super victim ("No one denies this!"), will never know such joy, especially if there is anything to talk Brett Favre wants to come to Minnesota. There are some day after thoughts that just need to be shared.

(As an aside; For anyone wondering why CTV made that abrupt jump into its post-game programming, they were trying to get the drop on Global. It didn't work.)

• A gossip site is reporting that Patriots quarterback Matt Cassel was urinated upon during a Super Bowl party. You may take that as an omen of what awaits him in Kansas Cityor some other NFL backwater once Tom Brady retakes the job as New England's starting QB. That last sentence will self-destruct if he ends up with the Vikings.
• To err is... The real goofup the Cardinals committed before James Harrison's 100-yard pick-six at the end of the first half was using their final timeout with 18 seconds left, instead of spiking the ball to stop the clock. Not having a timeout meant the Steelers knew the next play would be a pass (a run risked having the clock run out). Harrison dropped into coverage and made the play of the game's first 52 minutes.
  
• Run-ning game? One nagging thought during Arizona's playoff run was that people still cling way too much to this idea a team needs a battering-ram running game in the playoffs, which is the Cardinals were counted out before every game. Stampede Blue blew that belief to bits:

  For all those who think a team simply MUST run the ball to win in the playoffs, you can kindly STFU now. The Steelers gained a stellar 58 yards rushing, averaging 2.2 a carry. The Cardinals gained 33 yards, averaging 2.8. In this league, you must throw to win. Running the football is important, but highly over-rated. And people who swear that running the ball is more important than great QB play know nothing about modern football.

• Another bit of outdated thinking is that there's a randomness to who wins the Super Bowl. The 2007 Giants upset New England, but that was about it.
  
  Counting back from Sunday, the Steelers, a historically solid team, have won twice. The Bill Belichick New England Patriots have won three times, the teams Tony Dungy assembled in Indianapolis and Tampa Bay each won once, the 2000 Ravens (one of the best defences ever) and 1999 Rams (one of the highest-scoring offences) each won.
  
  
• It was strange there was no replay review after the sack-fumble on Kurt Warner in the dying seconds. Good thing that fate didn't befall the New England Patriots (or, ahem, the Vikings), you would never hear the end of it. The Cardinals were just happy to be there.
• Irony: Holmes and Larry Fitzgerald, the best players on each team Sunday, have each had domestic violence arrests. Meantime, Michael Phelps is getting his peepee whacked by the media for being a midnight toker at a college party. No doubt, in newsrooms across North America, there were people pointing out this was not news, but they ran it anyways (guilty as charged). Why?
  
  It's even more ridiculous to hate on Phelps for a few bong hits on the biggest beer-drinking day on the sports calendar. Alcohol, to quote the late, great Bill Hicks, is only the No. 2 killer drug, while marijuana "kills no one, and let me put this in a historical timeframe, ever."
• Steelers coach Mike Tomlin is the third former Vikings coordinator to guide a team to a Super Bowl title since 2000. Damn.
• The Detroit Free Press noted that none of so-called analyst Matt Millen's patter made the quote sheet that NBC sent out after the game. No wonder a Detroit TV station ran a news scroll across the screen every time he was on: ""Matt Millen was president of the Lions for the worst eight-year run in the history of the NFL. Knowing his history with the team, is there a credibility issue as he now serves as an analyst for NBC Sports?"

Twenty-nine will be the Vikings' year. You betcha.

Related:
National Februuary League (Pacific Viking)
The QB Who Saved Pittsburgh (Slate)