I’ll admit it. I sucked on a few sour grapes watching yesterday’s Super Bowl Duper pre-game coverage. Listening to the commentary, anyone would think New Orleans is the best host city for the Super Bowl Game ever.

Pardon my personal bias, but I thought Indianapolis did a super fine job last year. The city put on a brilliant display of hospitality, and the festivities wowed visitors and residents alike. It was a terrific celebration. In fact, all the commentators said so. Just the way they said…so…this…year… Oh. I get it.

Besides the fact that it’s the commentators’ job to talk up the host city on national TV, Indy was last year. It’s over, and the world has moved on. And you know what? That’s exactly what it should have done.

Years ago, I knew a CEO who gathered his company’s employees together to report results after the close of each fiscal year. Year after year, the company broke records for both revenue and profit. You’d think the meeting would be one of celebration, but after giving hearty congratulations and expressing his gratitude, the CEO developed amnesia. That was yesterday, he’d say. What are you going to do for us today? Tomorrow?

We can’t bask in the glow of the past for too long, or we won’t move forward. Instead of looking behind, we need to look ahead. What goals are in front of us? What do we need to do to accomplish them? How can we do it (even) better next time?

Kudos to NOLA for putting on a super party this year, game time power outage notwithstanding. (Okay, that prompted a little Schadenfreude on my part.) There really is no other city that screams Party on! like the Big Easy. But twelve months from now the Big Apple will be the greatest city to host the Big Game.

Until the next one.