Newsday (N.Y.): Addai focused on wins, not his rushing stats

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

MIAMI -- He is the running back on a passing team. Joseph Addai doesn't get a lot of yards and gets even less respect, which is what happens when Peyton Manning is your teammate.

But as the Jets forlornly will concur, Addai helped get the Indianapolis Colts into Sunday's Super Bowl against the Saints.

There they are, at the bottom of the NFL stats in rushing. There they are, one victory from the trophy named for Vince Lombardi, who most likely would be appalled at the Colts' inability to pound the ball.

Except when, against the Jets in the AFC Championship Game, they pounded it when needed. Addai ran through seams that were unclosed because the Jets understandably had to be worried about Manning and his passing ability.

"The main focus,'' Addai said, "has been getting that 'W,' and that's what we've been doing. I think when we get the opportunity [to run], we make something happen.

"It's really how you look at it. If you just watch a game, you say, 'That's a nice run, that's a nice run,' but you look on paper and see something different. It's how you look at it, and what we have to work with. You have a great player in Peyton Manning, so you want him to make a lot of decisions, and he does a great job.''

The Colts averaged a paltry 80.9 yards a game on the ground in the regular season (and 282.2 passing). But Indianapolis did pick up 101 yards against the Jets, 80 of those by Addai at key times.

"It's an area we know needs improving,'' Colts coach Jim Caldwell said about his team's rushing attack. "But I do think there are certain times in certain ballgames, like the last one we played [against the Jets], where we have been effective.''

Nitpicking is a favorite activity in sports. It's not so much what you have but what you don't have that leads to discussions. So when the accolades about Manning ebb, the doubts about Addai begin. Perhaps unfairly.

Three years ago, when the Colts beat the Bears in Super Bowl XLI in Miami, Addai gained 143 yards rushing, the second-highest total for a rookie in Super Bowl history. He also had 10 receptions for 66 yards, the most catches by a running back in a Super Bowl game.

But this year he was bothered by a partially torn hamstring, so the Colts went to the infrequently used legs of rookie Donald Brown and the very frequently used arm of Manning.

Now Addai, who was a first-round pick out of LSU in 2006, is forced to defend himself to the media after the other team defends him on the turf.

"I always say I'm a human first,'' he said when asked if he's bothered when the Colts' running game is disparaged, "but when coaches call our number, we answer well. It comes down to being a team player and getting those 'Ws', and we've been doing that.''

Especially in the postseason, when it matters most.

Copyright © 2010 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Quiet Storm Colston makes most of opportunity

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

MIAMI -- The scene in the rearview mirror is less than appealing. "I don't have anything to go back to,'' Marques Colston said. But a few days before Super Bowl XLIV he is contemplating the future.

His university's football team no longer exists. Hofstra, where he developed the skills that elevated him into the pros and with the New Orleans Saints into the NFL's biggest game, gave up the ghost and the sport.

So Colston becomes the answer to a trivia question: Who was the last player from Hofstra taken in the NFL draft?

That was in 2006, the seventh round, as a supplemental compensatory pick, a position almost guaranteeing the wide receiver would not stick with the Saints. But he did, and started Week 1 of his first season.

"What I had to do,'' Colston said, "was take advantage of the opportunity I had by getting to camp. I took that approach and it worked out for me.''

Better than anyone might imagine. The Saints traded Donte Stallworth before the '06 season opener. Colston was named to replace him. Some replacement. Colston had 70 receptions for 1,038 yards and finished in a tie with Maurice Jones-Drew, behind Vince Young, as Offensive Rookie of the Year.

He is nicknamed The Quiet Storm for an unpretentious style that runs counter to that of many receivers. "That's just my nature,'' Colston said. "I just like to go out and handle my business, and do what I'm supposed to do. It just so happens that this is the biggest stage probably in the world that day. Hopefully, people will get the opportunity to see what I can do.''

The Jets trained for years at Hofstra, leaving for a new facility in Florham Park, N.J., before the 2009 season. Undergraduate football followed, the school deciding low attendance (4,260 average last season) and high costs were an unacceptable combination.

"It definitely hurt a bit,'' Colston said of the termination. "But when I was there we kind of saw the writing on the wall. There wasn't a whole lot of support . . . My initial thoughts were to the players. I found out they could transfer and play right away or stay on scholarship. That kind of put me at ease.

"But I used to go back the past few summers and work out with some of the guys. That's over.''

It was Hofstra, said Colston, that allowed the personal development he might not have achieved at a larger program.

"I wasn't very big, 175 pounds or so, and not very polished,'' recalled Colston about graduating from Susquehanna Township High in Harrisburg, Pa. "Hofstra offered me the opportunity to grow at the rate I needed to grow. If I had gone to a larger school I might have gotten lost in the shuffle.''

Now 6-4, 225 pounds, Colston believes he will create favorable matchups in the Super Bowl. "I see myself,'' Colston said, "as a guy who can be open even when I'm not open.''

Copyright © 2010 Newsday. All rights reserved.

SF Examiner: Miami’s been a good city to the 49er faithful

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

MIAMI — The years disappear. The memories remain.

Another Super Bowl in South Florida, this one between the Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints. Thoughts, however, turn toward other days and another team, the 49ers.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2010 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Media Day Get a Sponsor, Loses Laughs

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

MIAMI -- This time there was a sponsor. For Media Day. It's bad enough every spare second of television, every halftime score, every interview is connected to some sort of commercial. But Super Bowl media day, when hundreds of journalists shove and push to hear quotes that don't mean anything?

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2010

Newsday (N.Y.): Saints' Vilma wanted to face pals on Jets

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

MIAMI -- The memories are good ones for Jonathan Vilma. He sat there with the "C" and four stars on his New Orleans Saints jersey, talking about the way it was not very long ago with the Jets.

This is home for Vilma, where he grew up, where he graduated from the University of Miami. And Sunday, this is where at age 27, he will face the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV.

He's made it. The Saints have made it. The only way it might have been better were if the Jets had made it, if the Jets had beaten the Colts, and not vice versa, and come in to play the Saints.

"I was hoping that," said Vilma, "but not for bad reasons. I still have a lot of friends with the Jets, being with those guys only two years ago. I felt like they were playing real good ball at the end, good defense especially. I would have been excited for them."

Vilma was the Jets' first pick in the 2004 draft, No. 12 overall, a linebacker of speed and agility who was NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year. But fate and philosophy conspired against him, not necessarily in that order.

Eric Mangini's arrival as coach in 2006 meant switching from a 4-3 defense, where Vilma's skills as middle linebacker were best utilized, to a 3-4, where they were not. Then in October 2007, Vilma tore up his knee. Four months later, he was sent to the Saints.

"I just felt it was part of the business," Vilma said about leaving the Jets. "It was a situation where I didn't fit the system, whatever anyone could speculate. It didn't really bother me because I knew I was coming [to New Orleans]. I was wanted down here, and I was coming to a situation that was good. But I had a real good time up in New York."

Vilma's parents emigrated from Haiti in the 1970s. He has been active in the post-earthquake relief effort, raising money with sales of a T-shirt on which is written: "Department of Domeland Security," linking the U.S. agency and the Saints' covered stadium.

"That was my idea," he said immodestly. "The saying, the logo, everything about the shirt . . . It was something I felt like we needed, and it really helped [the proceeds] going to the Haiti relief effort. I can't do anything else besides that at the moment."

Vilma and tight end Jeremy Shockey have had parallel experiences. They were teammates at Miami, went to NFL franchises in New York - Shockey, of course, with the Giants - were injured and then were sent to New Orleans.

"He got hurt," Vilma said. "I got hurt. He got traded. I got traded. And we've been making the most of it since. It felt like we were a little slighted. I know that he had more controversy coming from New York. We won a national championship at Miami, and when we said, 'We're back at it again.' But it's only special if you win."

Copyright © 2010 Newsday. All rights reserved.