Reflections on a “super” football game
Another Super Bowl is behind us now...the XLIInd such affair. And for once, it almost lived up to the annual hype.
Of course, no football game can live up to the annual billing the Super Bowl gets. For all the pomp and hoopla, it is still simply the championship game of the National Football League, nothing more...and nothing less.
And for most of its' 42 year history, the games have been so one-sided as to cause non-football fans(yes, even today in America, there are some)to scratch their heads and wonder what all the fuss is about. And that question can only be properly answered by a fairly comprehensive analysis of our society and what about it makes football so attractive to us.
This year's game, though, was a happy exception to the prevailing results of Super Bowl games.
For openers, it had a classic storyline. The New England Patriots, winners of each of their 18 games to this point, wanted to put a firm exclamation point on one of the finest seasons a football team ever had. A win would have made them only the second team in pro football history(after the 1972 Miami Dolphins)to win every game it played during a season, in short, achieving pro football perfection. Their fine quarterback, Tom Brady, had thrown over 50 touchdown passes this season, and was touted by otherwise sober observers as possibly the greatest quarterback to play the game. And their coach, the curmudgeonly but brilliant Bill Belichick, had steered the team through a suspected spying scandal and a host of other distractions to get his team ready and focused on playing and winning each game, in a manner not seen in many a year. But that gruff demeanor set him up to be everyone's arch-villain.
Their opponents, the New York Giants, did not even win the division they played in during the course of the year. They battled injuries, inconsistency, and erratic play from their highly touted and pedigreed quarterback, Eli Manning(kid brother of last year's championship quarterback, Peyton Manning, and son of one of the more famous legends in NFL history, ex-New Orleans Saints quarterback Archie Manning). As late as the seasons's 14th week, there was some doubt that the Giants would even make the playoffs at all. But as it turned out, they not only got in, they beat every team they faced in the playoffs on the road, including the top two seeds on the NFC side, Dallas and Green Bay.
Small wonder, then, that the oddsmakers established the seemingly invincible Patriots as 12-point favorites to put away the ragged but determined Giants, and reach perfection...and possibly prove that they were indeed the best team in the history of professional football.
You can already see what's coming, can't you? The little engine that could finds a way to conquer the biggest obstacle in its' path.
And indeed, the little engine that was the New York Giants found a way to knock off the allegedly perfect Patriots. They did it mainly by putting such pressure on Brady that they disrupted the timing of the league's most powerful offensive machine, frustrating the normally unflappable Brady to the point where he was reduced to yelling at his receivers after incomplete passes. And the Giants' offense held the ball for long stretches of time, not always scoring but keeping the Patriots powerful offense off the field altogether.
As a result, the outcome of the game was in doubt up to when only 39 seconds remained in the game. Brady had shaken off the shackles enough in the game''s final seven minutes to crisply lead his team to what seemed to be the winning touchdown. Enter Peyton's kid brother...with only 1:24 to play and down by four, he had to move his team 83 yards to the end zone...and redemption would finally be his.
Eli made the right plays...the key one being a spectacular play where he avoided a certain sack and hurled it to a seldom used receiver named David Tyree, who made an incredibly athletic one-handed catch in midair, clutching the ball against his helmet to assure possession of the ball as he was being tackled. This put the Giants squarely in position to pull out a victory...which Manning did shortly thereafter by hitting his top receiver, Plaxico Burress, with a touchdown pass to put the Giants ahead by three, 17-14, with only seconds remaining.
Brady's valiant last-ditch efforts were in vain, and with :01 left, the Patriots turned the ball back to the Giants on downs, and Belichick, in a bizarre gesture, ran off the field to congratulate his opposite number, Giants' coach Tom Coughlin, ignoring the fact that the game was not yet officially over...though for practical purposes, it was.
After restoring order, the Giants ran the clock out...and the Patriots' dreams of perfection turned into a cruel illusion....for they were beaten by a team that, on this particular day at least, was superior.
The game was the most watched Super Bowl in history, and it was indeed an exciting, intense struggle throughout.
There were many things the game was, and there were many things it wasn't.
What it wasn't....
1)THE BIGGEST UPSET IN FOOTBALL HISTORY: I saw a poll on Yahoo this morning, and it asked which of four Super Bowls was the biggest upset. Incredibly, 69% of respondents chose this game...showing that gospel music is not the only genre that can be woefully ignorant of its' history. Were any of those who chose this game over 30 years of age?
Well, I am...and I remember every Super Bowl ever played. And by far, the third Super Bowl was the biggest football upset of the series, and arguably of all time. That year, the New York Jets were 18-point underdogs to the Baltimore Colts, who were nearly as dominant in that year(1968)as the Patriots were in this one. And since at that time the merger of the AFL and the NFL had just been announced, it was incumbent on the Jets to prove that they even belonged on the same field with the Colts...since the first two Super Bowls were lopsided NFL wins. Almost NO ONE gave the Jets even a prayer in that game, except for their brilliant and flamboyant quarterback Joe Namath, who "guaranteed" a Jets win a week before the game(there were several experts this year who thought the Giants could beat the Patriots, by comparison).
I remember as a 10-year old football fan staring at the TV with mouth wide open in shock after the Jets' implausible 16-7 win over the Colts. Yesterday, I was surprised but not shocked by the Giants win. An objective analysis of the comparison will prove me to be correct on this, IMHO.
2)THE MOST EXCITING SUPER BOWL EVER: Granted, this game was close, hard-fought,and in doubt until the end. But the intensity of the game didn't always translate into action to me. Again, when it comes down to cliffhanger finishes, Super Bowl V could be chosen over this one, coming down as it did to Jim O'Brien's game winning FG with just :05 left in the Colts' 16-13 win over Dallas.
3)THE MOST WELL PLAYED SUPER BOWL EVER:: Many others featured much crisper play than this game...both teams struggled offensively for long stretches, And as I noted above, Brady seemed to be off the entire day.
What it was...
1)THE MOST POPULAR SUPER BOWL EVER: The ratings are enough to prove that. Plus, with a New York area team involved, there is a lot of passionate interest.
2)A GREAT GAME: Despite what the NFL wants to believe, the most exciting football games tend to occur when the defenses establish themselves, which both teams' did decidedly yesterday. Scoring doesn't always equal great competition. This was a game between two teams filled with valiant competitors...and for that reason, it for once was almost a "super" bowl.
3)FUN TO WATCH: There was something for everybody....from the hardcore football for the ardent fans, to Tom Petty's halftime concert set for those wanting some pop culture, and the inevitable commercials for those who like what some of America's more creative minds can produce when given a large budget to work with.
Posted on Feb 05, 2008 - 01:48 AM | [1]
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