Mike's Take on Sports Archive

Home Baseball Facts The Power of the Dark Side All Hail New York Giants Finally a Bride If There Were no Red Sox Where Am I? Showing Up the MLB Tiger in the Tank My Letter to The Mick It's the Cardinals' Turn History Again My Pigrimage What Happened to Class? Ghosts? Curse? Oh, But That's Different Blame it on the Fame Greed is Good The Best There Ever Was Nineteen-Year-Old Professionals Shame Sports' First Millionaires A Rose By Any Other Name... Who Needs Soaps? Do You Believe in Miracles? Money Problems Our Farewell Trip Define Success (Frank DiPatri) SEC Football (Frank DiPatri) Boy Does It Feel Good (Frank DiPatri) What I Saw This Post Season And Why is That? In Again Rebel Forces Sense Weakness?! Episode 27 My Files



All Hail New York Giants! 
                                               Mike DiPatri                     02/07/08




Finally, a Super Bowl worth watching.  This year’s game last Sunday was not a blow-out as in years past.  So many years, the team that’s supposed to win walks in and walks away with the win.  This year was completely different.  Of course, there was a lot more at stake this year.  The New England Patriots were in pursuit of a perfect season.  What that really meant is that all the pressure was on them.  The Giants were not even supposed to be there.  What a game it was, though!



           The game started pretty much the way we expected.  The Giants got the ball first, but the Patriots held them to a field goal.  Next, the Patriots went on to score a touchdown.  It looked as if the Patriots were on their way to that perfect season.  The Giants defense took over, though, sacking Brady five times, forcing a fumble on one sack.  The Giants kept the game close exchanging leads.  The Giants did score, but so did the Patriots and they held that 14-10 lead very late into the game.  In the last minute, though, Eli Manning led a great drive and threw a touchdown pass to Plaxico Buress.  How appropriate that he throw the winning touchdown pass to him.  After all he got them there.



           After sliding through the regular season and play-offs with very little challenge, everybody just knew the Patriots would coast right through the Super Bowl as well.  There’s a reason a perfect season has only happened once in NFL history.  It’s hard!  It just so happened that the ‘72 Dolphins had everything in place to do it.  That perfect combination doesn’t happen just every year.  This year’s Giants really were the real deal.  After all, they won their last 11 road games in a row.



           This year was supposed to be the second perfect season.  The Giants had different thoughts about that, though.  They came into the Super Bowl as two touchdown underdogs.  The defense really kicked it up a notch keeping Brady and that record-setting offense off the field.  Then the Giants offense took advantage of that by mounting effective drives.  Eli Manning put all his former bad press behind him and is no longer Peyton’s little brother.  He directed a very good offensive game that established himself as a real NFL quarterback on his own.   Also, the Giants were the sentimental favorites.  A lot of folks, particularly those of us Floridians were pulling for the Giants just so there would not be a perfect season.  So, now the Red Sox alone are still kings of New England.