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We should have known.

So many old books had been rewritten this year. It was all about the quarterbacks, not just the last two, but about ten guys who were all elevated to franchise passers this season. It was all about the death of defense, or rather the birth of about seventy rules to make playing defense damn near impossible. And the final four coaches this year were two rookies, Brad Childress and Sean Payton. Childress is maybe the scariest coaching situation in the league, at least as far as his own fans are concerned. That leaves Payton.

Coaching wins.

Super Bowl XLIV, which was another amazing game for the third straight season, was billed as Peyton Manning vs Drew Brees, the second coming of Joe Montana vs Dan Marino, but it was actually Payton vs Jim Caldwell.

Caldwell blinked maybe twice and opened his mouth fewer times than Alice does in the new Tim Burton trailer. Payton stunned Indianapolis with an onside kick to open the second half. And that was just his most visible stroke of absolute genius:

-After Dwight Freeney took down Brees with one hand, he was never heard from again. Payton erased him by doubling him, chipping him, and running right at him. For a number of big plays at the end of the game, he was on the sideline sucking wind.

-Along with defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, Payton executed the one kind of fourth quarter game plan that could possibly work against Manning: the one he hadn’t seen. After dropping six or seven guys into coverage for most of the game, the fourth quarter became a Rex Ryan free-for-all. Four guys were in coverage on the pick six, everyone else was rushing.

-Payton kept his team psychologically in the game. The fourth and goal from the two was exactly the right call, successful or not, because field goals don’t beat Manning. Know what happened? Indy went three and out and the Saints got a field goal anyway.

-The onside kick. No one is better, maybe ever, than Manning coming out of halftime. So why not keep the ball out of his hands? Unreal.

Brees was named Super Bowl MVP. Pierre Thomas was a force. Tracy Porter was the defensive hero. But Payton got carried off the field.

The NBA was built to be a star league. Baseball was designed to be about the owners and the bucks. NASCAR is about drinking, heavily, while outside. Football is and has always been about the coaches. Don Shula was carried off after the perfect season. Vince Lombardi, John Madden, Joe Gibbs, and Bill Parcells were all as well.

Quarterbacks win you games. Coaches win you Super Bowls.

Just ask Marino.