Everyone in Indianapolis has noticed it. It's in the way everyone has a little more spring in their step, a little smile on their face, and a few more kind words for the people we pass on the street.
Indianapolis has caught Super Bowl fever! 
The entire city is decked out in blue and white. Colts jerseys are the most common style being worn. Even people who don't know a first down from a touchdown are wearing the horseshoe.
It's been a long time coming, and the sense of joy and relief is palpable. It's not that we made this sudden turnaround, like the New Orleans Saints. It's that we've been so close, so many times over the years.
It was frustration -- not just with the Colts, but also with the Pacers. Always very good. Great seasons. Often winning our division. But always falling short in the playoffs. Even all of Reggie Miller's heroics only got the Pacers to one NBA finals, and that was a short-lived series against the Lakers.
But now . . . Ding Dong the Witch is Dead! How more fitting than over the Patriots -- the team Reggie Miller said was Payton Manning's Lex Luther. And in a nail-biting-down-to-the-second-knuckle fashion. We even got a few classic Bob Lamey calls out of it. "He dropped the fricken football . . ." will go down in Colts history, along with his nearly choked-up voice announcing with finality: "We're going to the Super bowl."
Regardless of what happens next week, it's been a helluva ride.
Oh, my prediction: Colts 34 -- Bears 17
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