The Super Bowl Hangover

The Super Bowl hangover has become the curse of a team from the Super Bowl coming back with a losing season the following year. This year, the debate is whether or not the Indianapolis Colts will be able to avoid the dreaded curse. To close the 2009 season, the Colts played the New Orleans Saints (both teams were 16-3) in the XLIV Super Bowl. Drew Brees led the Saints to a 31-17 victory over Peyton Manning and the Colts.

Thus far in the 2010 season, the Colts are 2-2; they can only lose one more game to be in the same position they were in last season and we are only four games into the season. However, they are currently tied for second in the AFC South division with the Jacksonville Jaguars and behind the Houston Texans. If you weigh these two sides of the matter, can the Colts pull through and not be affected by the curse to come back and make it back to the play-offs after losing the Super Bowl last year?

Head coach Jim Caldwell commented on the matter by sending the message that he was leading his team to not focus on the so-called curse. He sends the message that there is no need to look on the previous season which could cause a distraction.

According to Espn.go.com, when asked about his feelings and knowledge of the hangover, Caldwell stated, “I’m keenly aware of it because you guys keep bringing it up. That’s something that we don’t focus in on. Someone asks me the question probably every day and I’m going to answer it kind of the same way. We’ve been pretty good, I think, overall, just in terms of compartmentalizing things -- from week to week from game to game, oftentimes you’ll see that our team has the ability to adjust and not get caught up in what happened last week... And I think you’ll find the same thing holds true for the previous year. People want to put labels on you about your window is closed, all these kind of things. But the fact of the matter is, if you really focus on what you have to do in terms of getting better, our team is very mature in that regard and we don’t anticipate any lingering effects.”

Even though the Colts happened to lose today, that doesn't mean they are done for the season and are automatically going to have a losing season now. There is still plenty of hope, being that we are only four games in. I personally hope that they can disprove the theory of the Super Bowl hangover and come back to win Super Bowl XLIVI.