2/4/08: Reaction to Super Bowl

Eli Manning outplayed Tom Brady and Tom Coughlin out coached Bill Belicheck in the Super Bowl. This is the stunning reality of what happened last night in the Super Bowl. I don’t know that I could ever possibly express how absolutely dumbfounded at the reality of this statement. I wrote my last column about this and I feel the need to re-express the absolute fact that the Giants were quite simply not a very good football team before they played the Patriots during week seventeen at which point they transformed into one hell of a good football team despite the fact that they had the same players in the game. I find this to be quite confusing, but I won’t dwell on it since my entire last post did exactly that. I have to do a lot of reading about the various religions of the world but a couple of things stood out to me from last night’s game.
1. The completion from Manning to David Tyree on the Giants last drive will be an iconic, signature play for years to come. I don’t hesitate one bit making the assertion that it belongs in the same conversation as Dwight Clarks catch or the immaculate reception. It was, quite simply, a breathtaking play to watch. I still have no idea how on earth Eli Manning got away from the entire Patriots defensive line but he did. The throw he made was actually ludicrous, and how David Tyree made that catch will boggle my mind for years to come. Rodney Harrison was literally on top of him. I don’t even know how to describe the magnitude of that play except to say that it gave me the chills when I saw it live and I didn’t really care who won the game. That being said, the play never should have happened because on that same drive Eli Manning made an awful through that Assante Samuel should have intercepted easily. I don’t know if people have dwelled enough on the magnitude of Samuel not converting that interception. It cost New England the game. If he converts that extremely routine interception, the Patriots win. But of course he didn’t and then Tyree made his miracle catch, and then finally Plexico caught his pass, and that was all she wrote for New England.
2. Now we have to listen to the Dolphins say “I told you so.” Great.
3. This is all I have for now, but did anyone see that Jeremy Shockey had like five beers in front of him when they showed him in the Press Box. I loved that. On one hand you had the repeated zooming in on Peyton Manning, who was standing in a corner of the press box by himself looking like a crazed lunatic watching the game, and then they pan to Shockey, who is wearing a white t-shirt and is drinking a beer. I cannot describe to you how funny I find this.4. Contextually, I think this game very well may have been the biggest upset of all time. Think about it, the Patriots were poised to become they greatest team of all time. Tom Brady just had the greatest individual season by a quarterback ever. The Pats were a double digit favorite and the Giants beat them in the Super Bowl. I recognize that there may have been more unlikely upsets, but given the historical implications that the game had for the Patriots, I can’t imagine an upset that was more significant.