Here are some additional thoughts on Super Bowl Sunday.

+ Many of us wondered if the Colts’ young and inexperienced group of wide receivers would hurt them on the ultimate stage. And that was indeed the case, with Pierre Garçon dropping a third-down pass from Peyton Manning in the second quarter. At that point, the Colts were driving to build on a 10-3 lead, and the drop was ugly. I’m not sure the Saints would’ve come back down 17-3.

+ Looking back on it with about 12 sleepless hours of hindsight, it’s obvious that the Saints’ onside kick to start the second half will go down as the most memorable play of this Super Bowl. And man, we’ve had some good ones lately. You could probably argue that four of the top 10 plays in Super Bowl history took place in the last three years.

1) 2008: David Tyree’s catch
2) 2009: Santonio Holmes’ catch
3) 2009: James Harrison’s 100-yard interception return
4) 2010: Sean Payton’s gutsy onside kick

And Larry Fitzgerald’s late score against the Steelers in Super Bowl XLIII was pretty fantastic, too.

+ One more note on the onside kick. Had the Colts recovered it, it still would have been a great choice, and I’d still be saying it. Teams should do this more against quarterbacks like Peyton Manning.

+ Sure, Reggie Wayne and Dwight Freeney played for the Colts, but their injuries appeared to make a difference. Freeney was only effective in the first half (his bad ankle stiffened up during the extended halftime), while Wayne was nonexistent until the second half. (Although he claimed today his knee didn’t bug him.)

+ Not Jim Caldwell’s best game. Could you let Manning go deep here or there? And what’s with the 51-yard field goal attempt from the 51-year-old Matt Stover?

+ It’ll be forgotten because of the eventual result, but did you see Manning’s throw to Dallas Clark, who had four defensive players surrounding him, in the third quarter? One of the best passes of Manning’s career.

+ It’ll be forgotten because of the eventual result, but did you see Joseph Addai break Darren Sharper’s  ankles? Amazing cut.

Drew Brees secured the Vince Lombardi Trophy ... literally.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — I spent a lot of time after the New Orleans Saints’ 31-17 Super Bowl victory over the Indianapolis Colts just cruising around the New Orleans locker room, trying to capture some raw celebration.

Some of the notable things I saw and heard:

+ The guys had a quasi-inside joke that I was loving. They’d be walking around, laughing and screaming, “IT’S THE CATALINA WINE MIXER!” This is why. (NSFW language.) Anyone who has played competitve sports knows that random inside jokes and punch lines bring players together — this was one of those for the Saints.

+ Not gonna lie. I expected some champagne and music. It was more subdued that I anticipated it would be, this being my first Super Bowl and all.

+ The guys kept teasing Drew Brees, who wouldn’t surrender the Lombardi trophy, mainly because he was locked in a corner with the media until an hour after the final whistle. “Drew, let go of the damn tropy,” said Paul Spicer. “I licked that thing, Drew, just so you know,” yelled another player.

+ I promise I’d reveal it if I knew who it was, but one of the players screamed, “&#$@ you, Tony Dungy!” Dungy, the former Colts head coach, picked Indy to win big. 

Here’s some raw footage of the guys letting loose after the game:

That’s it for me from South Florida. Boarding a flight early Monday morning and headed back to Toronto. But just because the season’s over doesn’t mean the Goal-Line Stand won’t keep pumping out content. Check back daily for commentary on the world of the NFL.

You can catch me personally in a few different places, too. This week, for example, I’ll be on Toronto’s Fan 590 Monday at 9:20 p.m., Sun TV’s “The Grill Room” Tuesday at 6:30 p.m., Rogers TV’s “First Local” Thursday at 6:00 p.m. and Rogers TV’s “High School Sportzone” Friday at 10:30 p.m. Football will be the primary topic of conversation in all or most of those cases.

Until next year...

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Don’t lie. Until Sunday night, you had never heard of Saints special teamer Chris Reis. In fact, you might still have no idea who he is.

But it was Reis who made the single biggest play of the Super Bowl Sunday night, recovering an onside kick to start the second half. Reis and I had already spent some time together earlier in the week, specifically on a fluffy segment called, “Name that Pierre.” I caught up with him after the game to talk about his big play:

The world through Drew Brees' eyes.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — New Orleans Saints fans kept telling me this week that they’d celebrate tonight and for weeks to come, win or lose Super Bowl XLIV. I’m guessing the party will be at least a tiny bit better now.

New Orleans outplayed the Indianapolis Colts for three quarters, outscoring Indy by a margin of 31-7 after falling behind early on. Sean Payton and his staff didn’t try to avoid losing — they did everything they could to win.

They mixed up defensive looks all day, even switching between 4-3 and 3-4 schemes. They attempted and recovered a game-changing onside kick to start the second half. They gambled on a first-half fourth-and-goal, didn’t succeed, but stopped the Colts on the next drive and kicked an important field goal to go into halftime with the momentum on their side.

They did the little things right.

And they had Drew Brees — the NFL’s best quarterback. (I said it.)

Brees was pretty much flawless in the second half, earning the game’s MVP award. He might never be as popular as Peyton Manning, and a small part of that will have to do with the fact that his numbers might never compare to those of Manning (although a much larger part will have to do with the fact that he’s smaller and quieter than Manning), but tonight, Brees was the better player.

He wouldn’t let go of the Vince Lombardi Trophy after the game, holding onto it for dear life as he talked to the media – a process that lasted nearly 45 minutes. Poor, poor Super Bowl MVP.

And the dude’s not superhuman. He talked after the game about the fact he struggled to sleep in the nights leading up to the game:

What's left of radio row at the NFL media center

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — All the hype for two consecutive weeks, and everyone sort of disappears only 24 hours before the game itself. Tumbleweed just rolled past my chair here in the media workroom.

Everyone hits the beach today, I suppose. But after recovering from a crazy Friday night on Miami Beach, I’m back to work, putting together a football blogger “roundtable” that I’ll be publishing to the blog at some point next week, while I return to hibernation in blustery Toronto.

At 5:00, this year’s Pro Football Hall of Fame class will be announced here. I’ll be at the press conference and will have the real-time results on my Twitter account. Tonight, I’ll be back on Miami Beach checking out some of the parties. I plan on doing a blog post Sunday afternoon recapping the atmosphere of the evening.

It’s been a big week for the Goal-Line Stand. Thanks for reading and keep coming back for more.

Oh, and here’s a list of the finalists for the Hall of Fame, with my picks in bold:

Tim Brown – Wide Receiver/Kick Returner – 1988-2003 Los Angeles/Oakland Raiders, 2004 Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Cris Carter – Wide Receiver – 1987-89 Philadelphia Eagles, 1990-2001 Minnesota Vikings, 2002 Miami Dolphins

Don Coryell – Coach – 1973-77 St. Louis Cardinals, 1978-1986 San Diego Chargers

Roger Craig – Running Back – 1983-1990 San Francisco 49ers, 1991 Los Angeles Raiders, 1992-93 Minnesota Vikings

Dermontti Dawson – Center – 1988-2000 Pittsburgh Steelers

Richard Dent – Defensive End – 1983-1993, 1995 Chicago Bears, 1994 San Francisco 49ers, 1996 Indianapolis Colts, 1997 Philadelphia Eagles

Russ Grimm – Guard – 1981-1991 Washington Redskins

Charles Haley – Defensive End/Linebacker – 1986-1991, 1999 San Francisco 49ers, 1992-96 Dallas Cowboys

Rickey Jackson – Linebacker – 1981-1993 New Orleans Saints, 1994-95 San Francisco 49ers

Cortez Kennedy – Defensive Tackle – 1990-2000 Seattle Seahawks

Dick LeBeau* – Cornerback – 1959-1972 Detroit Lions

Floyd Little* – Running Back – 1967-1975 Denver Broncos

John Randle – Defensive Tackle – 1990-2000 Minnesota Vikings, 2001-03 Seattle Seahawks

Andre Reed – Wide Receiver – 1985-1999 Buffalo Bills, 2000 Washington Redskins

Jerry Rice – Wide Receiver – 1985-2000 San Francisco 49ers, 2001-04 Oakland Raiders, 2004 Seattle Seahawks

Shannon Sharpe – Tight End – 1990-99, 2002-03 Denver Broncos, 2000-01 Baltimore Ravens

Emmitt Smith – Running Back – 1990-2002 Dallas Cowboys, 2003-04 Arizona Cardinals

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — I caught Adam Sandler, Kevin James and Rob Schneider on radio row today and randomly starting rolling the FlipCam while they did an interview. Happened to get their picks for the game:

I’ve previewed this game in every way possible. You’ve got the X’s and O’s courtesy of last week’s position-by-position previews, and you’ve got more fun fluff than you could get from a month’s worth of Entertainment Tonight.

It’s time to actually make a prediction.

I’m picking the Saints. And it’s not even something I struggled to arrive at.

Just look beyond the hype for Peyton Manning and it’s obvious to me: New Orleans is a better football team than the Colts.

The Saints have Drew Brees to counter Manning, a better running game, more stars on defence, fewer injury concerns.

After all, Dwight Freeney’s ankle injury is massive. Freeney, who didn’t practice all week and is being called questionable, is the most game-planned-for defensive player in football. I’ve been watching him limp gingerly to and from podiums all week. If he plays,  he’ll be extremely limited, which changes the entire game.

Robert Mathis is a great player, but he feeds off the attention opposing offensive lines give to Freeney. With Raheem Brock getting the majority of the snaps on the other side, Mathis will have a much tougher time chasing down Brees.

Manning may be the league’s MVP, but he did show this year that he’s susceptible to making more mistakes than the media would have you think. With guys like Darren Sharper and Jonathan Vilma lurking in coverage, and with Manning forced to rely on an inexperienced — good, but inexperienced — group of receivers, the Colts are more likely to make a big mistake or two.

Go through the rosters and the depth charts and the positions and look at the stats, then throw in the injury factor, and it’s clear as can be that the Saints are the better football team.

My pick: New Orleans 30, Indianapolis 20

Roger Goodell talks to the media Friday.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — At his annual state-of-the-league press conference Friday, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell took some time to discuss the city of Toronto and its status with the league.

“Toronto’s a great market,” the commissioner said. “I think we want to continue to service that market, we have great fans there and it’s a great city. I think we are going to be facing – and I talked to some of the ownership up there — a stadium issue that has to be addressed.

“Their current stadium is a multi-purpose stadium, has a relatively small capacity by NFL standards. And so I think there’s some issues that have to be addressed up there, but it’s a great market.”

And that was it. Los Angeles and Mexico City and London and even Tokyo were afforded more time by Goodell, who seems timid about commenting with depth on the Toronto situation, presumably because of the ties the city has to the Buffalo Bills.

The fact that he even touched on the stadium issues was surprising, which means that truly is a large concern the league has in the rare moments in which it looks into Toronto’s future with the NFL.

This is now obvious: until ground breaks on a new stadium somewhere in the Greater Toronto Area, the NFL will not allow a team to play in the city on a permanent basis. I think that’s already something potential purchasers like Rogers Communications and MLSE are aware of, and I expect the wheels to be in motion on that in the next three or four years.

Someone — I’m just speculating here, but probably MLSE’s Larry Tanenbaum — is reportedly making a big push to buy the St. Louis Rams and move them to Toronto. If that doesn’t pan out, you can expect the Jaguars, Bills and Chargers to come into play.

But before anything happens, that “stadium issue” should take precedence.