Mike O'Hara: Monday Countdown

No Super Bowl a permanent void in Barry Sanders' career

It would be great to proclaim with absolute certainty that if the New Orleans Saints can win a Super Bowl, so can the Lions.

Sorry, but you won't get that here.

Dreams are made of that kind of stuff, and that's all it is -- a dream. Sure, the Lions can win a Super Bowl. But so can all the other teams that haven't won a championship in the Super Bowl era. The Saints can win another one, too.

The Saints' 31-17 victory over the Indianapolis Colts Sunday night should provide inspiration for fans of the NFL's bottom-dwellers, but that's all.

The truth is, no franchise owner or general manager can go to his neighborhood hardware store and buy the "How to Build a Super Bowl Winner at Home" manual.

Saints quarterback Drew Brees, the MVP of the game, put it in perspective Monday morning.

"There are 32 teams out there who think it's their year," he said. "We know what it's like to build something from the ground up."

From a Detroit perspective, one short segment involving Barry Sanders stood out in the dozens of hours of television coverage leading up to Sunday's game. That segment on Sanders leads off this week's Monday Countdown.

There is also Saints coach Sean Payton's gutsy call on the onside kick to start the second half, the betting lines for Super Bowl XLV, a fresh rating of quarterbacks Drew Brees and Peyton Manning, former Lions coach Steve Mariucci's take on how he wanted Brees in Detroit, and a comment by former Lions QB Joey Harrington on his national radio show that revealed a severe flaw in his competitive makeup.

We start with Barry Sanders.

1. Barry's career void: The NFL Network's list of the top 10 players never to win a Super Bowl was loaded with all-time greats. From bottom to top, every name had a wow factor.

Fran Tarkenton, who played on three Super Bowl losers with the Vikings and seems to hate every good quarterback who ever played the game, was No. 10.

The names rolled on -- Jim Kelly, Eric Dickerson, Bruce Matthews, Dick Butkus, Bruce Smith, Deacon Jones, Merlin Olsen, Dan Marino.

What about Barry Sanders? Next to Jim Brown, he was the best runner in history.

Sanders was No. 1 -- the best player never to win a Super Bowl.

Dickerson, Butkus, Jones, Olsen and Sanders never made it to the championship game. The other five lost in at least one.

Barry's 10-year career in Detroit, from 1989-98, was not wasted. He did not attain the ultimate fulfillment of winning a championship, but he made his mark on the field and created a legacy as the most exciting, elusive runner in history.

He made a lot of money and made stadiums rock, and he was universally respected and revered by teammates and opponents.

But to be regarded as the best player never to win a Super Bowl leaves a permanent vacancy on his resume.

Many great players deserved to win championships, but none more than Barry Sanders.

2. Betting line: The odds opened Monday morning in Las Vegas with the Colts favored at 6-1 to win Super Bowl XLV. The Saints and Patriots are next at 12-1.

The Lions had the longest odds at 100-1, along with the Bills, Browns, Chiefs, Raiders, Rams and Buccaneers.

3. Saints vs. Lions: Stability in leadership is needed in the Lions' current building project under GM Martin Mayhew and coach Jim Schwartz.

In the last four seasons, the Saints have had one head coach (Sean Payton), one starting quarterback (Drew Brees), and two offensive coordinators. The change in coordinators came only because Doug Marrone left after three years to become head coach at Syracuse. Payton promoted quarterbacks coach Pete Carmichael to coordinator, maintaining continuity.

In Barry's first four years, he had three offensive coordinators (Mouse Davis, Dave Levy and Dan Henning). All ran different systems.

Bob Gagliano, Rodney Peete, Erik Kramer and Andre Ware took turns at quarterback.

The only constant was Wayne Fontes, the master shuffler as head coach.

Mayhew and Schwartz cannot stand pat in building the roster from the Lost Decade, but the key positions must be stable.

On one point, I agree with Barry Sanders: They have their quarterback in Matthew Stafford.

4. Payton's call: Ordering the onside kick to start the second half was a strategic gem. The Saints recovered and drove to a touchdown and a 13-10 lead.

After the game, Payton explained how he told the team at halftime that they would use the onside kick, and ended by saying: "Make me look right."

It was coaching at its best -- giving the players a chance to make a big play, then putting it on them to execute it. Brilliant.

5. Peyton's place: Manning is still the best quarterback of his era. One game, even as important as a Super Bowl, did not change what he has accomplished over 12 seasons.

But Brees was the better quarterback in the game. Brees solved Indy's defense in a way that reminded me of Manning at his best.

Brees was dynamic. Manning sort of plodded through the game. He didn't dominate and create plays the way Brees did. On one night, Manning was the second-best quarterback in the game -- something that seldom happens.

6. Mooch and Brees: Steve Mariucci was the Lions' head coach from 2003 through 11 games of 2005, when he was fired.

In his role a studio analyst for the NFL Network, Mariucci said Sunday he wanted Brees in Detroit, and that his former assistant, Greg Olson, coached Brees at Purdue.

There's something strange about Mariucci's recollection of the time line.

Brees first became eligible for free-agency in 2005, his fifth season with the Chargers. But the Chargers put the franchise tag on Brees, effectively taking him off the market because of the compensation involved in the form of draft picks.

Maybe Mariucci wanted to work a trade for Brees.

Also in 2005, Mariucci pushed to sign Jeff Garcia as a free agent, to put pressure on Joey Harrington, the quarterback Mariucci inherited in Detroit.

In 2006, Brees signed with New Orleans as a true free agent. By then, Mariucci was long gone from the Lions, and in the process of collecting the $11.5 million owed him for the last two years of a five-year, $25-million contract he earned for going 15-28 in Detroit.

7. Payton on repeating: On Monday, Sean Payton was asked the inevitable question about repeating as champion. He said he'd already thought ahead to Super Bowl XLV in Dallas.

"It's never enough," Payton said, referring to one championship. "When you have a quarterback like Drew Brees in his prime, it's not enough."

8. Winner's headline: A few minutes after the Super Bowl ended, the New Orleans Times-Picayune ran this headline on its website:

"Who dat? Nobody! New Orleans Saints Win Super Bowl XLIV."

9. Loser's headline: Meanwhile, the Indianapolis Star's site had this headline:

"Manning's Magic Ends."

10. Joey, Joey, Joey: Late in his four-year torture test with the Lions, Joey Harrington admitted that his team didn't believe in him. From covering him, there was always a nagging question about whether he had the burning passion to succeed, or if he was just a person thrust into the role of playing quarterback.

Harrington does a weekly radio show, and he's good -- thoughtful, with sharp insights.

In a discussion about the Hall of Fame Saturday, Harrington talked about the difficult of kickers making the Hall of Fame, and the hero-goat pressure they often face. He brought up Saints kicker Garrick Hartley, and the pressure he faced in kicking the field goal in overtime that beat the Vikings and put the Saints in the Super Bowl.

"No way!" you'd want to be the kicker in that situation, Harrington said.

No way? That's an amazing comment.

There's no way any competitor wouldn't want to be on the spot in that situation -- whether it's a kicker, quarterback, pitcher, goalie or a guy shooting a free throw to win the NBA championship.

Former Detroit News sports reporter Mike O'Hara can be reached at mike@mikeoharasports.com.