Dungy, Manning show they truly can win the Big One

	Colts 29, Bears 17 Not to be denied By Don Banks Peyton Manning and Indy refused to believe they couldn't win the big one. • 2007 lookahead | Snap Judgments Making the grade By Jeffri Chadiha Dungy, Manning and the Colts' RBs get high marks, while Grossman fails. • The 10 reasons why the Colts won A long night By Arash Markazi Despite a shaky performance in the Bears' loss, Grossman continues to take a grin-and-bear-it approach. Huddle Up By Andrew Perloff Why Manning deserved MVP and other notes, observations and analysis from throughout a soggy Super Bowl XLI. Passing grades By Richard Deitsch Grading out CBS Sports' coverage, from Jim Nantz to Prince and more. • WHITAKER: Ranking the best ads Other stories Manning's elusive ring comes with an MVP award Dungy gets the best of his friend, protégé Smith Grossman falters when the Bears need him most Colts fans hit blustery Indy streets to celebrate Rain falls on the Super Bowl for the first time ever Prince pours on the 'Purple Rain' in halftime show More from SI.com HOFSTETTER: Live commentary from my couch PHOTOS: SI's best shots | Celebrities | Headlines Complete Super Bowl play-by-play | Box Score SI's COLTS Championship Package FREE! Complete SI.com Super Bowl Coverage

MIAMI -- Maybe the rain was sent to serve as their final hurdle; that last unexpected curveball thrown at them by the football gods, to test their perseverance just once more before granting them their ultimate wish.

But when you've come from where the Indianapolis Colts have come, and you've endured through disappointment, defeat, and had a team that has been touched even more than its share by death, are you really going to let a little South Florida precipitation faze you?

Peyton Manning, Tony Dungy and the rest of the Colts are Super Bowl champions tonight because they refused to buy into the notion that they couldn't win the Big One.

And the way they won their biggest game ever was all too fitting, if you really think about it. Manning and the Colts were far from brilliant in beating Chicago 29-17 in Super Bowl XLI at Dolphin Stadium. They started slowly once again in these NFL playoffs, left a ton of points on the field in that 20-yard box they call the red zone, and didn't really put the pesky Bears away until early in the fourth quarter.

But why should it have been easy? That wouldn't have been following Indy's script of the past five years. The Colts have gone the hard way this season, and it made them better for it. They are the last team in the NFL still standing this year because they kept coming, kept getting up and going back to work, believing that that was the only way they would get where they wanted to go.

"The message of this team is about perseverance," said Dungy, who needed five years to deliver the championship to Indianapolis that everyone thought was just around the corner when he teamed up with Manning and the Colts in 2002. "You are going to be disappointed at times. You're not going to win every game. Every season is not going to end up the way you'd like it. But the real test of a man and the test of a champion is, can you continue to fight when things don't go your way? And that's what we've had."

After that crushing homefield loss to Pittsburgh in the AFC's divisional round last year, a defeat that seemed to typify Indy's penchant for not exhibiting mental toughness when it was needed most, Dungy talked all offseason of going back to work, and getting his team ready to fight the fight once more in 2006.

It sounded like a cliché, but the Colts turned it into so much more. It was their rallying cry this season, and even when the bottom looked like it was about to drop out once more, in December, Dungy and the Colts believed this year would be different.

"I even talked to some of the Pittsburgh guys and they said that in their 15-1 year that ended with a home loss (2004), after that they took the approach that they weren't going to let that happen again. And we said we can do the same thing. We can let that loss (to the Steelers) propel us, and we did. Our guys just said we're going to continue to fight and we're not going to be denied. And that heart can take you a long way."

This was Manning's game, of course, win or lose. He was the story. On a field where Joe Montana executed his most memorable Super Bowl drive to beat the Bengals, Steve Young threw that "900-pound Gorilla" off his back against the Chargers, and John Elway capped his Hall of Fame career with a Super Bowl title against the Falcons, it had to be the Colts' quarterback's turn to step up and change the way we view him.

And he did, winning MVP honors and erasing the stigma that had been attached to his football career. He wasn't his best on this night of stormy weather, but he was relentless in his determination to put points on the board, and when it was added up, for once he had enough.

Like Dungy, Manning made it all about the Colts' ability to put away the past and work toward the future in his post-game comments. That future finally arrived on this February night, against a Bears team that couldn't handle what the Colts threw at them.

"I'm certainly proud to be a part of this team and I'm proud that Coach Dungy is our head coach," Manning said. "He's been right there with us the whole time. He's had a lot of good speeches after some of those playoff losses when most guys can hardly say anything and it's hard to hold your head up and stay positive. He kept believing.

"I remember after all those losses, he said, 'We're going to go to work in March and we're going to be better for this.' And it's hard to believe a man when he says that, but you do believe him. It's just great to have him as our leader."

I'm glad Manning also went out of his way on this night to put the kibosh on the personal validation angle. He repeatedly said he doesn't play that card, and wouldn't give an inch to anyone who wanted him to admit he feels as if his career has now been made a success. The winning was enough for Manning, and he didn't fall into the easy trap of making it all about him when so many others in the Indianapolis organization have waited for this victory for just as long or longer.

"I wanted to be on a team that won the Super Bowl," he said. "To me, that's what it's been about. As disappointing as the playoff loss to Pittsburgh was last year, the veteran guys got together and learned from it and felt we were a better team this year and maybe stronger for it."

Dungy's Colts lost in the playoffs to the eventual Super Bowl champions three years running: 2003 and 2004 to New England, and 2005 to Pittsburgh. Watching the Patriots and Steelers hoist those Vince Lombardi trophies had to be exquisite agony for Manning and Co., but they have another memory now to put alongside those.

"We had very high expectations,'' Dungy said. "We felt we had a Super Bowl team the last four years. The fact that we didn't win last year didn't change our outlook, our approach at all. We just knew that we had to be a little more determined."

This time, there was no stopping the Colts. The rain didn't do it. And neither did the Bears. The Colts finally won the Big One. Because they never stopped believing they could.

Don Banks covers pro football for SI.com.