Well, Peyton Manning finally got his Super Bowl victory.  Good for him.  Some would say he’s now been vindicated.  They might even believe that all is right with the world.  See, they would say, the superstar does always win out in the end.

Not so.  I can think of plenty of superstars who have never “won it all.”  I don’t think this game was about superstars.  Manning acquitted himself well.  One could argue, on either side, that he did or did not deserve the MVP.

What was more interesting to me was the storyline on Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith, coaches of the Colts and Bears respectively.  These are two very different coaches.  They don’t yell and curse and demand their way into their players’ lives.  They don’t take excessive measures to get their players to do what needs to get done.  Both coaches take a soft-spoken demeanour into the locker room and their players respond, out of respect, to play their best.  One story I heard said that Dungy walked into the locker room the first day, spoke in a normal voice, saying,”Hi, I’m Tony Dungy, your new coach.  You hear my voice now?  This is the loudest voice I will ever use to speak to you.”

I suspect that both Dungy and Smith coach this way because of their Christian faith.  I don’t believe for a moment that Dungy won because God wanted to orchestrate a win for one of his well-deserving servants.  I’m not sure God was interested in the score of the Super Bowl.  I do believe God was interested in the heart and mind and soul of the two coaches.  And from my perspective, they both shone brightly.  All week and even on Sunday I heard nothing but praise for their style of coaching and what a difference these coaches made because of it.

That’s high praise in anyone’s book.  That’s an MVP worthy performance.  Dungy in victory; Smith in defeat.  Perhaps the best takeaway for any of us after the Super Bowl was the chance to see two disciples of Christ in action on a big stage sporting event.  In a world of hype and glitz, arrogance and grandstanding, these two coaches demonstrated some of the character of Christ.