Simon Lewis, New York
The New Orleans Saints marched into their Superdome on Sunday night and stomped all over Brett Favre en route to Super Bowl XLIV and a meeting with the Indianapolis Colts in Miami on February 7.
Yet the sight of the 40-year-old Minnesota Vikings quarterback getting pummelled on play after play in the stadium where he achieved the crowning point of a record-laden career by winning Super Bowl XXXI in 1996 with the Green Bay Packers did not evoke pity, in this viewer at least.
This was not bullying by any stretch of the imagination and Favre was no victim, his success with the Vikings this season proving he was right to delay the retirement he so often considered at the end of each of the last few seasons.
That success in leading Minnesota, in his first season having left the Packers after the 2007 campaign and spent 2008 at the New York Jets, to the NFC Championship game, was another reason why Favre has remained as potent a threat as any quarterback in the NFL.
He is still a bull of a man, as evidenced by his return to the field after receiving treatment on an ankle injury sustained in a low, crunching hit by Bobby McCray.
But just as a boxer can suddenly grow old in one fight, so it appeared with Favre on Sunday night. That and the fact that 40-year-old multi-millionaire quarterbacks can get a little weary of the attentions of 300-pound linebackers.
And so it is left to New Orleans to enjoy the spoils of victory and a first trip to the Super Bowl in their 42-year history. Prepare for an onslaught of Hurricane Katrina articles in the coming fortnight but do not dismiss them as cheesy melodrama.
There is something truly uplifting about a city so recently devastated by natural disaster and official neglect that has found its self-respect once more through the deeds of its sports team.
The Saints will be the choice of armchair fans across the globe on February 7, particularly as they will be taking on a Colts team cold-blooded enough to opt out on a shot at history before Christmas. They had gone unbeaten for the first 14 games of the season and had a chance at emulating the 1972 Miami Dolphins by going the entire campaign without defeat. Yet just two games short of wrapping up the regular season with a 0 in the loss column, head coach Jim Caldwell rested key players with an eye on the play-offs and Indianapolis duly lost its final two games (Jets and Bills).
The Colts will argue the end justified the means having reached a second Super Bowl in four years at the expense of the Jets but here's hoping that lack of romance, that decision to forego the chance of a place in the sporting annals, comes back to bite them two weeks from now.
And what better team to deny them than the Saints of New Orleans.
