Cowboys owner Jerry Jones made no secret last offseason that he thought his team had a good chance of becoming the first to play the Super Bowl on its home field, and he frequently talked up Cowboys Stadium as the perfect venue for the big game. So there’s some egg on Jones’s face after the Cowboys missed the playoffs and Dallas was plagued by problems as a Super Bowl host.
Colts owner Jim Irsay won’t make the same mistakes.
Next year’s Super Bowl is at Lucas Oil Stadium, but Irsay says he’s not thinking about his team getting to the Super Bowl any more now than he is heading into any other offseason.
“Honestly, I don’t even think about that,” Irsay told the Indianapolis Star. “I’m focused on doing whatever it takes that gives us the best shot to win this year. It’s not like all of a sudden we’re going to try harder this year because we have the Super Bowl. The intensity to win every year is the same and it doesn’t change simply because we have the Super Bowl.”
And Irsay is avoiding any grand statements about Indianapolis as a host, saying only that he’s excited about the Super Bowl coming to town, but avoiding comparisons with Dallas or any other host city.
“It’s an outstanding opportunity for our city and our state,” Irsay said. “It’s something we want to do right and will do right. . . . I’m not starting a mantra that didn’t work out well [for Dallas].”
Irsay’s comments are wise. After Dallas over-promised and under-delivered, Indianapolis just needs to quietly run a competent Super Bowl to look great by comparison.