With so many things going on in the sporting world right now, there is no end to what sportswriters have to talk about. The Heat’s horrible season, Roger Federer actually losing before the finals in a Grand Slam, Tiger Woods’ impressive eight-stroke victory at the Buick Invitational, the NHL All-Star game-and I am only mentioning a few things.
If you are like most Americans, however, all of this is irrelevant, because on Sunday the Super Bowl is going down in Arizona, and the New England Patriots have a chance to make sports history (again).
This is a big deal, not the way every other Super Bowl is a big deal, but so big that millions (myself included) have watched a video of Tom Brady kind of limping with a bouquet of flowers more times than that damn Star Wars kid video from a couple years back.
One cannot help but think that people are exaggerating this ankle business, but this is Tom Brady we are talking here-I think he’d play with a concussion and a broken wrist if he had to. If people are stupid enough to think that this sort of thing will affect the Patriots come Sunday, they have not been watching the rest of the season. A team doesn’t go 18-0 by chance; that’s all there is to it.
As for the people who either want the Patriots to lose, or, better yet, think the New York Giants can win, stop kidding yourselves. Let me say this again: The Patriots are 18-0. This means they have won 18 times in a span of one season. It takes the Detroit Lions five, maybe six seasons to get 18 wins, yet the Patriots have managed to do it in one.
Sure, the Giants came close to beating them in week 17, but the Patriots did not really expect the Giants to play so well. The Patriots went in thinking they were going to win with little or no effort, especially since the game meant nothing to the Giants. I will give the Giants credit: They did well and have been playing superbly ever since. That being said, don’t expect Belichick’s squad to make the same mistake twice.
The fact that so many people think the Giants are legitimately going to win is simply amazing to me. They have two big advantages: they aren’t playing at home and Jeremy Shockey, a star players, is injured, meaning little Eli Manning will not be bullied around in the huddle.
This statement alone shows that the Giants have no chance. Any team that benefits from a star player being out and not playing at home is not a championship squad. The Giants are good, and they’ve had a surprisingly impressive run, but, come Sunday, they won’t be there when the Big Game is over.
I am not really sure where all this anti-Patriot sentiment has come from anyway. I am a Rams fan, meaning that my team was the first to yield to the New England squad in a Super Bowl back in 2002, and I was upset about it.
I have gotten past this, however, and would love to see the Patriots go undefeated (which they will do on Sunday).
Am I the only one who is sick of the 1972 Dolphins shooting their mouths off every year claiming no one is as good as they are and badmouthing any team who comes close to their record? It may be senility, but they must not realize that the Patriots have already won more games than they did in 1972, but who knows?
Eli Manning is not the lovable redneck face of America like big brother Peyton, so I am really confused as to why everyone is on the Giants bandwagon. It must be Michael Strahan’s smile; hell, even I can’t resist that. The only thing bigger than that gap will be the gap in points scored by the Patriots against the Giants.
