The New York Giants are the best football team on the planet… what? Well, sometimes the truth hurts, and sometimes it just doesn’t make any sense. In this case, the truth is definitely the latter. Not to say that these Giants didn’t deserve to win. They very much did. But in a year when many an ex-football player desk jockeys declared the Patriots to be the best football team EVER, a wild card team that couldn’t win on home field to save their season went 10-0 on the road on their way to an upset Super Bowl victory. What’s more, they did it in ways that the old guard of football should be proud of; hard-nosed running, pocket passing, big cumbersome receivers, a power pass-rush, and a gutsy secondary. The Patriots meanwhile, who had predicated their early twenty first century success on well-coached technique, veteran play, and team effort, were outplayed in virtually every facet of the game by a team that clearly wanted it more. And damn, but it was good football.
But there is the minor issue of deviousness to discuss. Bear in mind that I am not here to rail against devious, underhanded pseudo-cheating. Outright bias on the part of the league (cough, cough… tuck rule) should be unacceptable, but the clever bending of the rules (or even covert spying) is simply the end result of a level of competition that requires its participants to take any opportunity to gain a competitive edge. The Patriots got caught, they got slapped on the wrist. And tomorrow I hope that there will be a small outcry about Giants defensive players faking injuries twice in the red zone once it became clear that the Patriots were going to score, but you never know with those slow old boys behind the network desks. First a New York linemen and then a defensive back (holding first his wrist and then his shoulder) stayed down at the end of plays inside of the final three minutes in order to preserve clock for their offense’s hopeful answer to the Patriot’s would-be game winning drive.
So as I drive home I think to myself; what a story line! The Patriots got to the first Super Bowl of their modern dynasty on an invented technicality, video taped their Super Bowl opponents’ last practice before the Big Game, and came as underdogs and left as Champions. Those same Patriots frustrated some great teams in the Indianapolis Colts, Carolina Panthers, and Philadelphia Eagles. But when it came their turn to be the run away favorites they were beaten by a team that proved more cunning, and, ultimately, more ferocious and driven. And the old, grey fox Belichick was out-foxed in the crowning game of his career. The justice could not have been more poetic. It was devious, it was underhanded, and it was as American as apple pie and capitalism.
And this is why football is America’s favorite sport. It’s all about grit, determination, workmanlike combat, amazing barely human feats of athleticism, and a competitive battle of cunning and wits. Football is a living embodiment of American ideals with the additional benefit of being intensely entertaining for the sports layman and the sports fanatic alike. This Super Bowl was no different, and although I mourn the chance to have seen the perfect season in my lifetime, I will tip my (Broncos) hat to the New York Giants who, on this 3rd of February, 2008, proved that they were the best.
