Colts' Super Run was foreseen after last season

	Peyton Manning in the final moments of the Colts' loss to the Steelers in last season's playoffs. Kevin C. Cox/WireImag
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Everywhere I go this week, people want to know how I knew, what I heard, who I talked to. They're all trying to figure out the same thing: What did I know and when did I know it? How exactly is it that way back in late May I foresaw the way the Colts 2006 season would unfold, and where it would all lead? To the big confetti shower that awaits them the night of Feb. 4 in Miami's Dolphins Stadium.

Actually, no one has asked, or even tangentially mentioned my display of prescience eight months ago, despite my repeated hints and reminders. It's annoying as all get out. So I'm forced to bring it up myself.

I nailed this one, folks. I had Indy's path to the Super Bowl laid out for all to see, making the case that the Colts would be the latest pro sports team to win it all precisely because of the way they lost the year before. Call it the "Unfinished Business'' theory, and let's just say I've lost count of how many radio show hosts scoffed at my thesis when I presented it on their airwaves last summer and fall.

Here's an excerpt of what I wrote -- and the case I repeatedly made -- more than three months before the start of the NFL's regular season:

It may only be late May, but long before the first spiral is snapped off, there's already a team that has put itself in prime position to win the championship next February in Miami, and it has as much to do with what that talented but ultimately heartbroken club didn't accomplish in 2005 as it will in 2006.

Write it down and underline it twice: The Indianapolis Colts will win it all this season, precisely because of the way they lost it all at the close of last season. Call it destiny, a reversal of fortune, or the reaping of triumph from the seeds of bitter disappointment and even tragedy. Whatever. All I know is that the Colts in 2006 will be the latest example of a recent pattern in professional sports, and it's already obvious how it will all play out.

Like the Boston Red Sox of 2003-2004, and the Pittsburgh Steelers of 2004-2005, the Colts had to lose, and lose excruciatingly, in the most painful fashion imaginable, before they could fight their way back to win in the most glorious. Falling shy in their playoff runs, the 2003 Red Sox and 2004 Steelers looked like they blew the best shot they would ever have to end their long and well chronicled title droughts.

But in both cases, bitter defeat was merely prologue to an even better story, to comebacks that already have taken their place in sports history.

Don Banks covers pro football for SI.com.