Super Bowl XLIV is coming on February 7, 2010. That much has been known for a while. For the longest time people thought Super Bowl tickets were being printed for LandShark Stadium, but in that all changed in January 2010 when Sun Life purchased the rights to rename the stadium. On January 24, 2010 the last piece of the puzzle was decided, the two teams playing this season’s Super Bowl at the Sun Life Stadium.

The Indianapolis Colts began the day’s games by defeating New York Jets in the AFC Championship. The Jets were leading 17-6 when the Colts finally woke and Peyton Manning decided to take over the game. He led the Colts down the field to cut the lead to four points with a drive that ended in a touchdown inside the final two minutes of the first half. Then he continued to pour on the offense, leading Indianapolis to score 17 more unanswered second half points. The Colts were Super Bowl band for the second time in the new century with a 30-17 victory over a Jets team that ran out of offense in the second half.

The New Orleans Saints played the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC Championship game. They started what appeared to be a barn burner, both scoring on their opening drives. Then, the defenses settled in and teams began to fumble the football with alarming regularity. The Vikings fumbled the ball six times, losing three of them. The Saints were no angels either, fumbling three times, though only losing one. Favre added to interceptions to the mix. The Vikings kept on stumbling with these turnovers, allowing the Saints to keep the game close. Regulation ended with a 28-28 tie. The Saints then took the opening drive and, along with help from a few flags, moved the ball down the field and set up Kicker Garrett Hartley for the game-winning 40-yard field goal that propelled this Saints franchise into its first Super Bowl.