Super Star

For me, the most memorable Super Bowl moment was not Tracy Porter’s interception of Peyton Manning, any of the million dollar commercials, The Who’s halftime performance, or Drew Brees cradling the Lombardi trophy in his arms. The most memorable moment of Super Bowl XLIV came on Matt Stover’s missed field goal in the fourth quarter. The forty two year-old kicker missed a 51-yard kick with the Colts up 17-16. The Saints took over and scored two more touchdowns to win the game.

Some consider the missed FG to be the turning point of the game. It’s possible. Though that is not what makes it memorable. After the miss, with Peyton Manning obviously frustrated on the sidelines and all the Colts fans very disappointed, Stover lifted his head to the sky and pointed to the heavens.

When I saw that replay I thought “they must be showing his reaction to the field goal that he made in the first quarter,” but the announcers assured me that it was not. “Stover, a very spiritual man, points to the sky after every kick. Make or miss.”

It took a while for that to sink in. I had never seen that before, but it had such power. Stover, though he won a Super Bowl with the Baltimore Ravens, was not a member of the 2007 champion Colts team. He must have wanted to prove himself to the rest of the team, but he realized there was something more important. He acknowledged that there is something bigger than that kick, bigger than the game (even the biggest of all games). Stover acknowledged that, win or lose, God still reigns. It’s great that players are so passionate about what they do and work so hard to foster their gifts, but at the end of the day there are bigger things in this world. To see that on display, on the biggest of stages, was the brightest spectacle of the night.