All Your Latest News

Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning walks off the field after throwing his lone, but critical interception in Super Bowl XLIV. (Chris O’Meara/Associated Press)

Peyton Manning spent the whole season building toward a Super Bowl crown, a win that certainly would place him among the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history.

And then he threw it all away.

Blocked to the ground, Manning could only watch as Tracy Porter returned an interception for a clinching, 74-yard touchdown in the final minutes Sunday that gave the New Orleans Saints a 31-17 victory over the Colts.

“It’s time for the Saints to celebrate. It’s their field and it’s their championship,” Manning said.

It was a startling end to a game that seemed destined to wind up in Manning’s strong right hand. It was the lone turnover of a back-and-forth thriller.

Saints defensive end Will Smith knocked Manning down as he tried to get in Porter’s way. Manning took a glance over his shoulder toward the end zone, unbuckled his chinstrap, stood up and simply walked toward the bench.

“We played well in the first playoff game, played well two weeks ago. We just didn’t make enough plays against the Saints,” Manning said.

All week, the tale line for the Super Bowl was this: Could Manning, the son of former Saints quarterback Archie and a New Orleans boy through and through, deny New Orleans in a game they desperately wanted to win for their city?

Turned out Manning did help his hometown team win its first Super Bowl — only not in the way he wanted.

Until Porter cut in front of wide receiver Reggie Wayne, Manning seemed to be in charge when he got on the field. The four-time MVP did his dance at the line of scrimmage, putting his teammates in position, and zipped pass completions all over the field.

The Colts set an NFL record with seven fourth-quarter comebacks this season, and surely most everyone at Sun Life Stadium thought Manning was at it again. Down 24-17, the Colts were driving toward a tying score until Porter sealed it with 3:12 left.

Even after Porter’s pick, Manning tried to rally the Colts. He went them near the Saints’ goal line, but a final pass to Wayne fell incomplete.

Manning’s receivers helped the Colts reach the Super Bowl but had crucial drops in the championship.

Pierre Garcon and Austin Collie couldn’t catch third-down passes to keep drives going. Hank Baskett made a mistake on special teams, failing to bring in New Orleans’ onside kick to open the second half.

Manning did what he could Sunday, repeatedly driving the Colts down the field and forcing the Saints to gamble. But unlike previous games this season, many in his supporting cast didn’t come through. It was the first time all season that the Colts’ starters finished a game and lost.

Garcon had an early TD reception, but he dropped a huge third-down pass in the second quarter when New Orleans was down 10-3 and struggling.

The Saints kept the ball for 26 of the next 32 plays.

Collie couldn’t haul in another third-down pass early in the fourth quarter. It forced the Colts to send 42-year-ancient kicker Matt Stover in to attempt a 51-yard field goal that went wide left. Stover’s miss set up New Orleans’ go-ahead TD drive.

But it wasn’t just the offensive role players who struggled for Indy.

Colts defenders missed several tackles, something they had not done frequently all season. On the first two New Orleans touchdown drives, the Saints never confronted a third-down situation.

The combination helped prevent Manning from working yet another fourth-quarter comeback.

New Orleans coach Sean Payton celebrates with the Lombardi Trophy after the Super Bowl win. (Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press)

Sean Payton place in an MVP-like performance from the sideline in Super Bowl XLIV.

The New Orleans coach made all the right calls in the Super Bowl — even one that didn’t look so excellent at first turned out just fine. Thanks in large part to Payton’s bravado, the Saints won the first Super Bowl title in their franchise’s largely dismal history, beating the Indianapolis Colts 31-17 Sunday night.

Tracy Porter clinched it for the Saints with a 74-yard interception return for a touchdown, and Payton was reticent about accepting any praise.

“It’s really a credit to everyone, these players here,” he said. “They carried out the plot.”

Payton will go down in Super Bowl lore for calling an onside kick at the start of the second half — the first time it had been attempted in the championship game before the fourth quarter.

The Saints recovered and drove down for a touchdown that place them ahead for the first time, 13-10.

“I just told our guys you’ve got to make me look excellent on this,” Payton said. “That really becomes like a turnover.”

There were a couple of other calls by the brash coach.

Near the end of the first half, with his team trailing 10-3, Payton chose to go for it on fourth-and-goal from just outside the Indianapolis one-yard line instead of kicking a chip-shot field goal. When Pierre Thomas was stuffed for no gain, it looked as though Payton might be remembered for a huge blunder.

But the Colts couldn’t do much, backed up against their own end zone, and were forced to punt it away. The Saints took over at their 48 with 35 seconds left, enough time to get back in position for Garrett Hartley’s second field goal of the game.

Payton chose at half to take an even larger gamble. Thomas Morstead went forward slowly, as if ready to swing his right foot into the ball like any other kickoff. Suddenly, the pigskin was dribbling along the ground, headed toward Hank Baskett.

The ball bounced off the chest of the Colts receiver, setting off a mad scramble that took more than a minute to sort out. Finally, the officials made their call, with Jonathan Casillas recovering for the Saints.

The next huge Payton choice was a no-brainer, with the team electing to go for a two-point conversion after Drew Brees found Jeremy Shockey for a touchdown and a 22-17 lead.

Brees threw a low pass toward Lance Moore, who bobbled the ball before regaining control right at the goal line. The official immediately ruled incomplete, but Payton wasn’t going to take that for an answer. No doubt aided by his assistants upstairs who had a look at the replay, the coach chose to challenge the call.

If the referee had ruled against New Orleans, it would have cost them a potentially crucial timeout in a tight game. But the replay showed that Moore did have control and got across the line for a 24-17 lead instead of 22-17.

At the end of the game Payton was doused with Gatorade, lifted into the air and hauled to the middle of the field above everyone else.

Costa Rica’s National Liberation Party presidential candidate Laura Chinchilla waves to supporters after voting at a polling station in Sunday’s election. (Esteban Felix/Associated Press)

Costa Rica’s ruling party candidate appeared headed for a clear victory Sunday as the central American nation’s first woman president.

Laura Chinchilla, who served as vice-president under current President Oscar Arias, was winning 47 per cent of the vote with 44 per cent of the ballots counted, Reuters reported.

Chinchilla, running for the National Liberation Party, was trailed by rivals Otton Solis of the Citizens Action Party and Otto Guevara of the Libertarian Movement Party.

Solis, who barely lost the presidential election to Arias in 2006, conceded defeat shortly after the results started coming in.

The winner of Sunday’s election needs to get at least 40 per cent of the vote to avoid a run-off in April.

Chinchilla, a 50-year-ancient social conservative who opposes abortion and gay marriage, has pledged to continue Arias’ moderate free-market policies.

She seemed to appeal both to Costa Ricans seeking a fresh face in politics and those reluctant to risk the unknown.

“All of this has been worth it. We are going to win, and in the first round,” Chinchilla said earlier in the day.

Chinchilla’s win would continue a recent trend in many Latin American countries: Nicaragua, Panama, Chile and Argentina have all elected women as presidents.

With files from The Associated Press