[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 3]
[House]
[Pages 3163-3164]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      COLTS SUPER BOWL XLI VICTORY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I would like to respond to my 
colleagues who have just spoken here on the floor, but today I am here 
on some happy news, so I will confine my remarks to what I consider to 
be a real celebratory event.
  Sunday, the day before yesterday, I sat in the rain with 75,000 other 
Americans cheering the Indianapolis Colts to victory in the Super Bowl, 
and I want to tell you that it was one of the greatest football games 
that I have ever seen.
  We were very much in favor of the Colts, as you might imagine, and 
when the kickoff came to the Bears, and Devin Hester ran 92 years for a 
touchdown, everybody's heart went down to their feet because we thought 
it was going to be a real letdown for us.
  But Peyton Manning and the Colts came roaring back and won a very 
convincing victory in the Super Bowl. And after that they had a parade 
in downtown Indianapolis for the Colts in 8-degree weather. Can you 
imagine people going out in 8-degree weather to be in a parade? I 
can't. But the streets were filled by Hoosiers who were celebrating the 
victory and giving tremendous accolades to the Colts and the coach and 
Manning and everybody else that made this victory possible.
  I would like to just make a couple of comments on what happened. The 
Colts

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gained 430 yards in that game against the third strongest defense in 
the National Football League. Peyton Manning completed 25 of 38 passes 
for 247 yards and was named the Most Valuable Player. Running back 
Dominic Rhodes ran for 113 yards against that Bears defense, in driving 
rain, I might add. Running back Joseph Addai received 10 passes for 66 
yards and ran the ball for 77 more yards in that driving rain.
  And the Colts did a tremendous job on defense. Kelvin Hayden 
intercepted one of the Chicago quarterback's passes and ran it back 56 
yards for a Colts touchdown, and the Colts scored in every single 
quarter in all four playoff games for the first time in playoff 
history.
  So I would just like to congratulate Tony Dungy, the coach of the 
Colts, one of the most popular people in football and especially in 
Indianapolis; and we think he is one of the nicest guys you will ever 
meet. He is only the third person in football history to win a Super 
Bowl both as a coach and a player.
  I want to congratulate my friend Bill Polian, the president of the 
Indianapolis Colts, who put this team together over the past several 
years and did an outstanding job. Bill, we are very proud of you.
  And I want to congratulate the CEO and owner of the Colts, Jim Irsay, 
who took control of the team in 1997 and dedicated himself to making us 
a Super Bowl champion.
  It was a great day for Indianapolis. We are very, very proud of the 
Colts. On behalf of all Hoosiers, we want to say to the Indianapolis 
Colts, you are the world champions, and we are very proud of each and 
every one of you.
  One more thing I want to mention. The Colts defense was maligned 
throughout the season. Later in the season, they said the Colts defense 
was one of the worst in football. In the playoff games, they took on 
everybody and held them to very, very low yardage. So congratulations 
to the Colts defense as well as our offense. You did a great job.

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