by Stop Mike Lupica on February 4 at 9:56AM
Most of the Super Bowl last night, I was rooting for the Giants. It was hard picking a side - as a Jets fan, you have your number one most hated rival (right now), the Patriots, putting up a perfect season against our number one most annoying team, "big brother" the Giants. Not exactly a Super Bowl with an angle I could feel, you know? I mean, even if the Giants win, do you think I'm going to enjoy seeing a third Super Bowl parade for the Giants, when I have yet to even see the Jets make it to the Super Bowl in my life?
But it was much easier to root for the Giants. The Patriots are absolutely unlikeable.
Something happened in the fourth, though. After the Giants went up 10-7, I noticed that I had the box for "Giants 0, Pats 4" in my company pool. Meaning if the Pats scored a touchdown, I was in the money.
Sure enough, they slowly drove down the field, and Brady tossed a touchdown to Moss with 2:40 left, making it Pats 14, Giants 10. I now had a strong rooting interest in this game - myself. With a chance to win a couple of bills in this game, I was rooting for the Pats. Or really, for the score to remain the same.
On a sidenote, this was undoubtably the best commercial of the night:
It was easy to follow, had a solid buildup,was cute, and a nice enduring ending. Charlie Brown wins for once. Very well done, Coke. I still prefer Pepsi, but I'll buy a Coke instead of a Bud Light next time I get a chance.
The Giants got the ball back with about 2:35 left, and three timeouts (plus the 2:00 warning). The thought process for me is this: "Okay, a few first downs for the Giants, just to get them to kill some clock, and to get the ball out of the Patriots' side of the field... I don't want the Pats getting the ball back on this side of the field, they might end up kicking a field goal".
And the Giants obliged, and I was happy for a bit.
Then came the second greatest play I've seen in a Super Bowl ("The Tackle" at the end of the Rams-Titan Super Bowl is still number one)... what DJM has coined "The Escape" or "The Great Escape":
That Eli Manning got out of there, when he was surrounded by four Patriots... and somehow slung it downfield, where Tyree caught the ball over his head, trapping it against his helmet. The Patriots took their best shot, and the Giants simply had the greater will. Period.
Good for Eli. F*ck the money, I'm rooting for the Giants.
And that's how the dynasty will end. That's how they always end. Like Mo Rivera giving up a single to Arizona in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series. Following a pair of amazing individual efforts from Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling. That's how true dynasties end. They end when one opposing team, one opposing player, steps up and exerts his will over them.
I've always like Eli Manning, oddly. Like Eddy Curry, he seems like a really nice guy who doesn't really want to do what he's doing, playing this particular sport, but this is what he was told to do. Eli would rather play handball, like Eddy would rather do gymnastics or whatever. Hell, if football was a two-way sport, I would bet anything that Eli would be a lazy defender, too. Both are otherwise nice guys who would be easy to root for in real life, if fans didn't care so much about, you know, performance. But since performance is all that matters... these guys are tough to root for.
That was a great Super Bowl, one that lived up the hype. My congrats to the Giants and their fans.
***********
On a sidenote, Vegas Watch has a recap of all the bizarre prop bets from yesterday's Super Bowl, including the shocking surprise that Tom Petty did not finish his set with Free Falling, but instead with Running Down a Dream (+150).
Leave a comment
But it was much easier to root for the Giants. The Patriots are absolutely unlikeable.
Something happened in the fourth, though. After the Giants went up 10-7, I noticed that I had the box for "Giants 0, Pats 4" in my company pool. Meaning if the Pats scored a touchdown, I was in the money.
Sure enough, they slowly drove down the field, and Brady tossed a touchdown to Moss with 2:40 left, making it Pats 14, Giants 10. I now had a strong rooting interest in this game - myself. With a chance to win a couple of bills in this game, I was rooting for the Pats. Or really, for the score to remain the same.
On a sidenote, this was undoubtably the best commercial of the night:
It was easy to follow, had a solid buildup,was cute, and a nice enduring ending. Charlie Brown wins for once. Very well done, Coke. I still prefer Pepsi, but I'll buy a Coke instead of a Bud Light next time I get a chance.
The Giants got the ball back with about 2:35 left, and three timeouts (plus the 2:00 warning). The thought process for me is this: "Okay, a few first downs for the Giants, just to get them to kill some clock, and to get the ball out of the Patriots' side of the field... I don't want the Pats getting the ball back on this side of the field, they might end up kicking a field goal".
And the Giants obliged, and I was happy for a bit.
Then came the second greatest play I've seen in a Super Bowl ("The Tackle" at the end of the Rams-Titan Super Bowl is still number one)... what DJM has coined "The Escape" or "The Great Escape":
That Eli Manning got out of there, when he was surrounded by four Patriots... and somehow slung it downfield, where Tyree caught the ball over his head, trapping it against his helmet. The Patriots took their best shot, and the Giants simply had the greater will. Period.
Good for Eli. F*ck the money, I'm rooting for the Giants.
And that's how the dynasty will end. That's how they always end. Like Mo Rivera giving up a single to Arizona in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series. Following a pair of amazing individual efforts from Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling. That's how true dynasties end. They end when one opposing team, one opposing player, steps up and exerts his will over them.
I've always like Eli Manning, oddly. Like Eddy Curry, he seems like a really nice guy who doesn't really want to do what he's doing, playing this particular sport, but this is what he was told to do. Eli would rather play handball, like Eddy would rather do gymnastics or whatever. Hell, if football was a two-way sport, I would bet anything that Eli would be a lazy defender, too. Both are otherwise nice guys who would be easy to root for in real life, if fans didn't care so much about, you know, performance. But since performance is all that matters... these guys are tough to root for.
That was a great Super Bowl, one that lived up the hype. My congrats to the Giants and their fans.
***********
On a sidenote, Vegas Watch has a recap of all the bizarre prop bets from yesterday's Super Bowl, including the shocking surprise that Tom Petty did not finish his set with Free Falling, but instead with Running Down a Dream (+150).
Leave a comment
|
SML, sorry about the money but you have seemed to get over it! I completely agree that symbolized by Manning-to-Tyree the Giants took it away from the Pats.
However, I don't know if the DiamondBacks took it away from Mariano. there was only one hard hit ball in the inning (Womack). It was Mariano's bad fielding that was ultimately the culprit. I think 'Zona hust got lucky...