Finally, the NFL Season is Over.

I haven't really had much patience for the NFL over the past few years, mainly because the season tends to be long and boring.

John Lorenz wrote a beautiful, magnificently accurate counterpoint as to why the Colts would win, but I couldn't even get my 300 words on the screen.

For those of you wanted to know what I would have said to counter John, it would have looked something like this:

"Peyton Manning will make one completely asinine play that will lead to points for the Chicago Bears. I will now talk for a few paragraphs about Manning's ridiculous failures, including his inability to get the ball past Ty Law's steely hands and his completely ridiculous play in the playoffs up to that point. The Chicago Bears are a team with defensive backs, so they will intercept Manning at least once during a critical juncture in this game.

Additionally, Thomas Jones gets my pick for the "Desmond Howard award." This award goes to the player who has been the most enigmatically disappointing throughout his career, but somehow always comes through on the biggest stage. Past recipients: Desmond Howard (of course), Corey Dillon (he could have been soooo much better than he was), Trent Dilfer, and others.

Thomas Jones falls into the category of players who have been drafted highly but really haven't done enough to be considered "NFL stars." At some point in time, we all recognize that they were worth whatever ridiculously high pick was used on them for a moment, but over the course of their careers, they've either been more trouble than they're worth or disappointing. Ask Arizona how much they love Jones (or J.J. Arrington, or Mike Pittman, or Emmitt, or Edgerrin, or Garrison Hearst...) and you won't get the best response. Ask any team that had Desmond Howard (or last year's candidate, Peter Warrick) why they couldn't play WR.

Those teams never found out why their money guys couldn't perform- even though at times, they showed that they were money guys. We aren't talking about the outright busts of the world: at some point in time, every one of these players was a premium NFL player.

Why do these guys suck so much in the regular season, but perform well in the playoffs? It probably has something to do with lowered expectations. Peter Warrick, Thomas Jones, Desmond Howard, Trent Dilfer... none of those guys have backup talent; however, in the playoffs, they were all (or are all) expected to play like backups because of their prior NFL performance. Additionally, all of these guys have already had the crushing weight of expectations on their careers, so what do they care about more pressure?

No, Thomas Jones will be the X-Factor in this Super Bowl because he already knows the pressure and has the ability (football-wise and mentally) to deal with it in a sufficient manner.

We all talk about how Indianapolis has stopped the run, but if Trent Green had been worth a damn, the Chiefs would have ended the Colts' journey before it had even started. It's time to come represent.

I'm picking the Bears. I believe in Thomas Jones and future Howard recipient Cedric Benson. I believe that we've all forgotten how good Muhammad has been and that he will be the difference in this game at WR. I believe that Manning will stumble and that Grossman will keep it together. I believe in these Bears."

So, that's what I would have said. Unfortunately, I couldn't even get hyped for the game. That's on me.

I don't really know what I have to look forward to for next year: are the Bengals poised to make a run? Will McNabb win the Big Game, or will the Bears finally bring the NFC back to prominence? All of these reasons seem less than thrilling.

So, NFL, you're on the clock, as you have been for some time. You've come through with two reasonable results, but you've left me believing that maybe, just maybe, college football is better. At least it seems like the results matter.