I’m very often wrong about most things. My Game Of the Day picks are always a good supporter of this theory. I pick a team. That team loses. Simple, really.
I didn’t think I was going to get this one wrong. The Giants really couldn’t beat the Patriots. Eli Manning couldn’t actually win the Super Bowl MVP. Tom Brady wasn’t going to look that bad.
I was wrong.
Eli Manning is really a once in a lifetime kind of athlete. Rarely do athletes in any sport have a brother who is the face of their sport. Can you think of any instance in history where someone really was the “little brother.” Dom Dimaggio had Joe. Billy Ripken had Cal. Gerald Wilkins had Dominique. And Eli Manning had Peyton. Dom, Billy, and Gerald were never going to be mistaken for top draft picks and faces of glamour franchises. Eli Manning was different. He came into the league, seemingly sewed to Peyton’s coattails. I mean, what did Eli Manning win in college. He never even played in an SEC title game. The best bowl he ever saw was the Egg Bowl, the annual rivalry game between Ole Miss and Mississippi State.
Yet, there we sat last night as the little brother, Peyton’s brother, finally got to play in a real bowl. The Bowl. And he played better than his brother had. He played better than his brother’s biggest rival did. Eli Manning outshined any other quarterback in the NFL, at least for one night and offseason. And I’m really confused as to which way up is and whether I should, if I’m leaving, really walk through the door with the “Exit” sign above it.
My estimation that Benjamin Watson was going to be the key “surprise” Super Bowl guy was more incorrect than my final score prediction. Had it not been for the pass interference call on Antonio Pierce in the first quarter, on the Patriot’s first drive, I would have thought that Watson was enjoying a beer with injured (and soon-to-be former) Giants Tight End Jeremy Shockey, way up in the luxury boxes of Univ. of Phoenix Stadium.
But really, no one showed up for the Patriots. Brady fell victim to Romo-itis, it seemed, as Gisele watched, possibly from the same box as Shockey and Watson. The Patriots offensive line, which was so solid this entire season, protected Brady as well as a loaded gun with no trigger. Maroney couldn’t get to the edge fast enough. The defensive secondary was overmatched by mostly mediocre (with the exception of Burress) receivers and tight ends. The defensive line couldn’t quite get to Manning and even when they did, they couldn’t bring down the athlete that Manning had somehow become.
However, the turning point in this game was not the 3rd down, Montana-like scramble and pass to David Tyree. It wasn’t the fade thrown to Plaxico Burress, who was only being defended by the spirit of Boise State running back Ian Johnson, that still resides in that endzone at U of Phoenix Stadium. No, the real turning point was when on 4th and 13 from the Giants 31, Bill Belichick thought it was a better decision to throw to a double-covered Jabar Gaffney in the endzone, rather than have Stephen Gostkowski attempt a 48 yard field goal, indoors, on a perfect piece of sod. Perhaps it was Gostkowski and not Brady with the injured ankle. Or perhaps Bill Belichick just let the talk about his genius get the best of him.
Whatever it was that happened last night, the New York Giants won the game and the New England Patriots lost it. It was not the greatest Super Bowl of all-time. It wasn’t the greatest Super Bowl of this decade (Patriots/Panthers or Patriots/Rams). It wasn’t the greatest upset of all-time (Jets over Colts was more historic; Patriots over Rams was more unexpected). It was just a victory by a team that wanted to win more than its opponent.
Next year, on February 4, 2009, we may be talking about how the New England Patriots, still seething over their Super Bowl loss from the year prior, ran the table and completed the undefeated season, for real and dismantled their NFC opponent. And that still won’t erase the fact that on February 3, 2008, the New York Giants just wanted it more.
And message to Mercury Morris: You can crawl back into the hole you previously lived in. On whatever block that is on.
Mid-Atlantic Bias 
this was the first entry that i fully understood. hope all is well! say hi to your smoochette for me (she is MIA).