The "performance" I noticed was how little Peyton Manning and Marc Bulger were praised by John Madden and Al Michaels. Madden at one point criticized Manning for not throwing more to Marvin Harrison and kind of snickered when Manning ran a couple of times. These announcers and all others ooh and aah over every nice play by Vick, McNabb, Leftwich, Brooksand Culpepper and point out various of their positive attributes as quarterbacks, but very little was said about the quarterback who had a season for the ages last year and whose team is unbeaten this year so far.
Madden at another point said that the Colts defense had figured out the Rams offense, which started the game red hot. Michaels had to politely point out that the Rams offense sputtered when Bulger was knocked out of the game. Apparently all white quarterbacks look alike to Madden.
Another "performance" I noticed was that Marvin Harrison seemed to be angry most of the game. After Peyton underthrew him in the endzone he picked up the ball and hurled it in anger. On another play near the endzone he didn't even attempt to run a pattern. Seemed to me like he's mad that Manning nowoften looks at the many other excellent options he has in the passing game.
When Harrison caught the record breaking pass from Manning to make them the top QB-WR tandem ever in TDs, Harrison made no attempt to congratulate his quarterback. Everyone made a big deal over Marvin, but Marvin wasn't interested in reciprocating.
In the post-game interview Manning went out of his way to say how honored he was to have Harrison as a teammate; Harrison's praise of Manning was more reserved. Harrison is always portrayed as an unselfish player, but I think this is yet another case of the media creating an image that's different from reality. Harrison was also always portrayed as a model citizen, but that civil suit accusing him of choking a young fan who asked for his autograph would seem to belie that.
