Last night in front of 74,059 fans, the New Orleans Saints defeated the Indianapolis Colts, 31-17, to become Super Bowl XLIV Champions. This was the Saint’s first Super Bowl trip since the birth of their franchise 43 years ago.

The magnitude of the game for the New Orleans Saints, the state of Louisiana, and their “Who Dat Nation” following was represented by the overwhelming television ratings.  Last night’s game was the most watched program in television broadcast history. Super Bowl XLIV surpassed the 1983 M.A.S.H series finale for most viewers all time, with approximately 106 million people nationwide tuning in to watch the game.

Both teams were number one seeds coming into the playoffs and it was the first time since 1993 that two number one seeds faced one another on NFL’s biggest stage. The Saints led the NFC with a 13-3 record for the 2009 regular season and the Colts led the AFC with a 14-2 record on the year. Despite the close records, the New Orleans Saints came into the game as the underdogs. Many predicted that if the Colt’s star defensive end, Dwight Freeney, was going to play through his ankle injury than the Saint’s would have no chance to win.

The Saints did dig themselves into a hole  early on falling behind 10-0 in the first quarter, and it looked as if it was going to be the Colts’ night to win. Saints’ head coach, Sean Payton, refused to back down though and called a few gutsy plays to keep his team in the game. The most noticeable was the onside kick call coming out of halftime to regain possession of the football. It was a key possession that led to a Drew Brees touchdown and gave the Saints their first lead in the game, 13-10. The Saints never looked back.

Drew Brees connected for 32 out 39 passes for a total of 288 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions. He had an overall 114.5 passer rating on the night. His counterpart, Peyton Manning completed 31 of 45 passes for a total of 333 yards with one touchdown and one interception. Manning’s overall passer rating was 88.5, which was just not good enough for his Colts.

Manning ran off the field without congratulating Brees.

Drew Brees and Company will have enough people congratulating them this off-season though. The Saints’ will head back to New Orleans to meet the “Who Dat Nation” to celebrate their 2010 Super Bowl victory and of course, Marti Gras.

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The Boston Celtics have been hampered by injuries all season long. Their injury woes continued on Monday against the Washington Wizards when their Captain Paul Pierce went down with a strained left mid-foot in the first quarter.

Despite the most recent injury to Pierce though, the Celtics managed to pull out a win over the Miami Heat at the TD Bank Garden last night, 107-102. Rajon Rondo was the spark the Celtics needed to win the game and his logged minutes (44:11) show it.  He filled the offensive void left by Pierce, connecting for two 3-pointers and scoring 22 points on the night. Ray Allen dropped 23 points on 7 for 15 shooting and Eddie House chipped in with 16 off the bench.

The Celtics did miss Pierce on the defensive end. In fact, they really did not play defense for most of the game, letting the Heat shoot close to sixty percent from the field for the first three quarters. Yes, the defense did win the game. Tony Allen’s big steal on Dwayne Wade in the final seconds sealed the game, but that wasn’t the whole story.

There were three reasons why the Celtics won last night: they out-rebounded the Heat (41-31), they moved the ball around on offense (29 assists), and they have a great point guard in Rajon Rondo. The Celtics had 15 offensive boards as a team; Rajon Rondo collected four of them. He was also instrumental in the distribution of the basketball, dishing out 16 of the Celtics’ 29 assists. To say Rondo led the Celtics’ offensive is an understatement. He controlled the tempo and put the Celtics in position to win the game even without one of the Big Three in the lineup.

The Celtics play again tomorrow night at the Garden against the lowly New Jersey Nets. Paul Pierce is listed as day-to-day. If Pierce is scratched from the starting five, whose turn is it to fill the gap? Is it Rondo’s time again?

Happy Groundhog’s Day! Unfortunately the famous groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, saw his shadow this morning in Pennsylvania and as a result, it is predicted that there will be six more weeks of winter this year.

For the Red Sox though, spring is just a little bit closer.  Spring Training is less than three weeks away and players and fans, alike, are starting to come out of hibernation in anticipation of the 2010 baseball season. There is one person who never went into hybernation this off-season: Red Sox General Manager, Theo Epstein. Instead, he was too busy making big deals that brought John Lackey, Mike Cameron, Marco Scutaro, Adrian Beltre, and Joe Nelson to Boston. Epstein is also not fazed by Phil’s prediction that there will be six more weeks of winter. Epstein told a select group of Sox fans at a recent luncheon at Fenway Park, “The best way to get excited about Spring Training is to have a snow storm and have it freezing outside… Yeah, we’re definitely ready to get down there.” Like Theo Epstein, I too, have spring fever. However, I do not need anymore snow to get excited about Spring Training.

Pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report to Fort Myers, FL for Spring Training on February 19th and position players are scheduled to report down south on February 23rd.

 So until then, I am going back into hibernation. Just make sure to wake me up for Spring Training… http://www.chowdaheadz.com/slogan-of-the-day.html

A source confirmed to our own Adam Kilgore a few minutes ago that Patriots receiver Randy Moss did play parts of the 2009 season with a separated shoulder.

The source said that Moss originally sustained the injury against Denver in Week 5. Moss was listed on the injury report with a shoulder injury in October and early November.

The source was unclear on whether surgery would be necessary, although separated shoulders are generally healed through simple rest.

Moss pulled out of the Pro Bowl earlier in the month, and this provides an explanation why. Players are required to explain their injuries when opting out of the Pro Bowl.-Full Story