Manning, Colts Beat Bears in a Rain-Soaked Super Bowl XLI in Miami

Peyton Manning won his first Super Bowl ring Sunday night at Dolphin Stadium, leading the Indianapolis Colts to a 29-17 victory over the Chicago Bears in a Super Bowl XLI played through steady rain from the opening kickoff to the final whistle. Manning was named the game's Most Valuable Player after completing 25 of 38 passes for 247 yards and a touchdown, with one interception.

The Bears took the lead 14 seconds into the game when Devin Hester returned the opening kickoff 92 yards for a touchdown, the first opening-kickoff return for a touchdown in Super Bowl history. The Colts answered with a touchdown drive of their own and never trailed again after taking the lead late in the first quarter on a Manning-to-Reggie Wayne 53-yard touchdown pass. Joseph Addai and Dominic Rhodes carried the running game for Indianapolis, with Rhodes adding a fourth-quarter touchdown.

The weather, almost as much as the score, defined the night. Sustained rain fell on Miami Gardens through the late afternoon and never let up. Both teams fumbled multiple times. Bears quarterback Rex Grossman threw two interceptions, including a Kelvin Hayden pickup-six in the fourth quarter that effectively closed the game. The CBS broadcast camera lenses fogged. The halftime stage built for the Prince performance had to be re-tarped between songs.

Colts head coach Tony Dungy and Bears head coach Lovie Smith — the first two African-American head coaches to reach the Super Bowl — embraced at midfield after the final whistle. Dungy, in his 11th season as a head coach in the NFL, lifted the Lombardi Trophy on the podium constructed under a clear plastic shell that mostly held off the rain. President George W. Bush phoned Dungy from the White House during the postgame.

For South Florida, hosting the game was a visible win. Dolphin Stadium, the renamed home field of the Miami Dolphins and the Florida Marlins, drew a sold-out crowd of more than 74,000. The Sun Life-area corridor was busy through the weekend with NFL Experience events, parties at the Fontainebleau and Mansion in Miami Beach, and out-of-town media filing from a temporary press village. Broward and Miami-Dade traffic patterns were disrupted from Friday through Monday morning. For Broward residents, the country's biggest sports night was, this year, less than a half-hour drive south on I-95.