The Hlog

It's Sanders' World

He was called Demond Sanders when he signed a national letter of intent to play football at the University of Iowa, but he was soon known as Bob Sanders once he started playing for the Hawkeyes.

It only seems right, in retrospect. This isn't some fancy Demond. That's too close to "Deion," as in another defensive back named Sanders. Deion Sanders was the greatest cornerback in history who seemingly never made contact with an opponent. But a Bob is straight-ahead, full force. Bob Sanders certainly is, anyhow.

The Chicago Bears' longest play from scrimmage in Sunday's Super Bowl came because Sanders had a bad angle on Bears running back Thomas Jones and crashed into teammate Kelvin Hayden. That freed Jones for a 52-yard first-quarter run that set up a short Rex Grossman touchdown pass and gave Chicago a 14-6 lead. If the Bears were counting on more help from Sanders, they were as wrong as anyone who picked the Bears to win this game.

You know the rest. Just about all the other big plays from then on were made by Colts, two by Sanders. He blasted into Bears running back Cedric Benson late in the first quarter, forcing a fumble that Indianapolis recovered. Benson was of no use to Chicago the rest of the day, and the rest of the Bears seemed shaken.

“It was a great tackle by him,” Benson said. “He pinpointed the ball, put his headgear right on it. It was a great professional tackle by him. I’ll learn from it, definitely.”

Sanders intercepted a long Grossman pass to Bernard Berrian late in the game to basically seal the Colts' 29-17 win. The pass was underthrown. Sanders got the pick by staying exactly where he was supposed to be on coverage. Not long after that, he was on the podium at the middle of the Dolphin Stadium field with teammate Peyton Manning and coach Tony Dungy, kissing the Vince Lombardi trophy.

Sunday night on ESPN, analyst Sean Salisbury called the 208-pound Sanders the best player in the NFL, pound for pound. Kevin Hench of Foxsports.com said "Bob Sanders looks like he might be the best free safety of his generation."

This was a guy who played as many postseason games this season (four) as regular-season games. The one question about Sanders' long-term potential is if he can stay healthy given the kamikaze way he plays. But he's a 3-year NFL veteran with a Super Bowl ring and the respect of all football. Sanders is under contract with the Colts through the 2009 season, adding to the good feeling Indianapolis has about its world championship team.

That three-year run of football glory the Hawkeyes enjoyed from 2002 to 2004 was keyed by a lot of terrific players. But it seems like things started to move forward once Sanders smashed his way into the starting lineup with three games left in the 2000 season. It was if everything changed. The Hawkeyes became the hunters.

The same was said of the Colts' defense once Sanders returned for this season's playoffs. Maybe Salisbury and Hench are right.
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