By all accounts, events downtown are going swimmingly. The locals have shown up in force, setting attendance records for the official NFL events. The weather has been great. My fears, that the national press would be ripping the choice of Indy as a Super Bowl host, have so far not come to fruition. In fact, many national writers seem smitten with the city so far.
But, strangely, all that is secondary to the looming resolution of the thing on most local football fans’ minds. ESPN’s Elizabeth Merrill filed this excellent measure of the city’s mood.
When Indianapolis won the bid to host the Super Bowl four years ago, it never could have imagined this: That the big event would be played in the backdrop of a miserable 2-14 Colts season, with its seemingly unbreakable quarterback out with a neck injury and now presumably on his way out of town.
Is Peyton Manning done in Indianapolis? That — and not the merits of the two Super Bowl teams — was the big news last week.