NY Giants vs NE Patriots Superbowl XLII

Monday, January 21st, 2008

I need to disclose a few things before I say anything.

1. I live in the middle of “Patriots country”
2. I’m not a fan of the New England Patriots
3. I’m not really a fan of football in general anymore

Patriots

Now that I have that out of the way even I have to acknowledge they hype surrounding the Patriots. Something I hadn’t really done until now for the simple fact that I wasn’t sure if the regions collective ego could contain itself much long. Well judging by the idiots I passed tonight they won’t have trouble with their ego outgrowing their capacity to handle. But like I said now I’m even going to acknowledge the hype. If you look up the word hype in the dictionary you’ll see that it basically means to create interest in something by flamboyant means. Most of the time when you hear the word hype you think of something being overhyped. Well after watching the Patriots vs the Charges yesterday afternoon the word overhyped seems pretty fitting. I’ll go on record as saying that the Chargers beat themselves because judging by what I was seeing the Patriots weren’t doing it.

Mind you I’m not trying to be an armchair quarterback, but some of Brady’s mistakes make one cringe. Most glaring is the fact that he gets intercepted 3 times. In one game. Moss was a complete non-factor the entire game. Remember the Dallas Cowboys and Michael Irvine? Randy Moss is the premier receiver in the league and not one game, but two in a row now he’s been shutdown. When Irvine was the premier receiver he wasn’t shutdown to the extent that Moss has been. Aikman, and Irvine would keep working at it until they were able to break him loose and he became a factor. I watch Moss and Brady and I’m astounded by the fact that they run a few plays and then go to something different. Nor that it matters Moss or not the Chargers beat themselves.

Giants

I listened to a portion of this game on radio but from what I heard the Packers beat themselves. From what I was hearing there was a lot of three and outs going on because Farve was making some pretty crappy play calls. Overall I’m disappointed as I was hoping to see the Packers vs the Pats for the superbowl, but in this matchup the better team certainly won.

I’m not really a giants fan but they certainly played the better ball and deserve the spot in the superbowl that they’ve secured for themselves. The game would have been totally different if Brett Farve hadn’t been trying to relive his passing glory days. As one commentator doing the play by play on radio said, “He’s no spring chicken”. 8 or 10 years ago he was a premier quarterback, but now he’s become an afterthought at best.

The game

Patriots by 2 touchdowns and a field goal. The Patriots simply have too many weapons to defend against and it is almost impossible to match them down for down and score for score.

How about your thoughts on the games?

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Perfection

Sunday, December 30th, 2007

When someone says the word perfection what comes to mind? Without flaw? Without defect? Unsurpassabe degree of excellence? Those are all good dictionary safe ways to define it, but another definition has finally, after many months (some might even say years) come to fruition. The newest definition of the word perfection is The 2007 New England Patriots.

It’s not too often that I take the time to write about a sports team and even more rare that I give accolades to one, but in this case I feel obligated to make an exception. Not because I reside in the middle of “Patriots country”, or because I lost a bet, or anything other than total respect for what that team accomplished this season.

I hear a lot of sports commentators talking about how it really doesn’t matter and that only the Superbowl matters. That’s bullshit. The Superbowl is huge, but it can’t even begin to compare to an undefeated season. The last team to do this was the 1972 Miami Dolphins. For 35 years they held that record. 35 years. That’s a long, long time for a record in competitive sports to stand. And the Patriots just knocked them off the pedestal. A Superbowl happens every year. Big deal. They get a ring and pretty little trophy, but in 5 years no one will remember if they won a Superbowl or not. Believe this though, everyone will remember the 2007 NE Patriots going 16 and 0.

I’ll mark myself out as the enemy in New England. “My team” is and always has been the Dallas Cowboys. And tonight as I tuned in with the Patriots down 16 to 23 (or something like that) and began to watch them dissect the Giants defense I couldn’t help but think back to an old Dallas team sporting the likes of Michael Irvin, Emmit Smith, and Troy Aikman. They used to be methodical and make the other teams defenses look like clowns. And for my money the way the Giants blew a 12 point lead they were made to look like clowns. In all fairness to the Giants they played a great game and thankfully didn’t come out like a bunch of jackasses and throw the game as some speculated they would do. Also to further clarify I’m not mocking the Giants play by calling them clowns, but it’s the best way I can describe how the Patriots performance in making their come back.

Again congratulations to the New England Patriots for their incredible season and to Tom Brady and Randy Moss for the personal records. Moss just overtook Jerry Rice for most touchdowns in the regular season (23) and Brady just beat out Peyton Manning for most touchdown passes in the regular season (50).

The next stop for the Patriots is the post season with an eye on the Superbowl. But at this point none of that matters. Even if a Japanese girls paraplegic choir won the Superbowl it wouldn’t matter. The Patriots went undefeated and that’s all that anyone will remember about this season.

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