The Patriots and the Giants. Things just work out sometimes.
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Two new teams, the England Patriots and the York Giants, will play for the NFL title in Super Bowl Forty-Six in two weeks. I can't wait.
The matchup comes too late, and after too imperfect of a season, to make up for the wounds inflicted by the Giants in early 2008. The Patriots' undefeated season, a 16-0 masterpiece in which they set the league's single-season scoring record, broke at the hands of the upstart Giants in that year's Super Bowl.
The way the Giants won made their win feel especially flukish...Eli Manning, known more for his entitled attitude than his athleticism (the only player to which his moves have ever been compared favorably is his brother Peyton), somehow scrambled free of a Patriot pass rush in the closing minutes, and lofted a pass down the middle of the field to David Tyree, who caught the key throw against the top of his helmet. Then a touchdown pass to Plexiglass provided the winning points.
New England's Tom Brady, quarterback of the team since taking over in 2001, is the best football player of this millenium, and it isn't particularly close. His accuracy is unparalleled, but he's best known for relentlessly spectacular play in the clutch. But in 42, the Patriots couldn't move the ball and finished with only 14 points. It's disrespectful to suggest the Giants didn't have a lot to do with that. But honestly, I'm still not sure how much the Giants had to do with that. The Patriots came into that game uncharacterstically arrogant, surprising for a team that, if not humble, was always hungry and well-prepared.
The real loss that game wasn't that the Patriots didn't win (still hard to find too much sympathy for them) or even that long-suffering San Diego fans had to watch Eli hoist the Lombardi Trophy. No, it was that the 1972 Dolphins got to stay in the record books as the only perfect regular and postseason team. Asterisk asterisk asterisk, they only played 14 games in the season back then, and those Dolphins had one of the easiest schedules of all time, particularly for a Super Bowl team, etc.; still it would have warmed the soul to see those champagne-swilling jerks finally fade off into their long-overdue sunset. You know why Joe Montana is so cool? Because he wasn't pumping his fist all over the news that night when the Giants kept Brady from matching him with a fourth Super Bowl ring. (Neither pumped Terry Bradshaw but he kind of takes the cool out of the argument, kind of like how rooting for John Elway keeps me from calling Eli spoiled as often as I'd like to.)
Anyway, the Giants ruined the party for everyone. Bunch of jerks. Here's hoping it won't happen again. As a big Brady fan I've wanted to see him play in one more Super Bowl for years. I would've loved to see the 49ers or, of course, Tim Tebow's Denver Broncos make it, though the Niners would've made rooting interests a little tougher. As someone who was disappointed to a surprising degree when the Broncos lost last week, I found it hard to pay too much attention today. I'm relieved to get a game with such a clear hero and villain (Josh McDaniels aside). So while it's not the Super Bowl I deserve, it just might be the one I need right now.
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The Super Bowl 'twixt these aforementioned teams will be played Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 4:25 p.m. Mountain time in Indianapolis. The game will be broadcast on NBC and, pleasingly, on NBC.com.