TDL’s Sports, Wrestling, & Otherwise

As I may have mentioned, I called the 10-win Giant season way back in August. However, in my wildest dreams, I didn’t figure them for any better than one and done in the playoffs. Then, the Giants went and played one of the best losses I’ve ever seen by bringing the entire roster into a meaningless game in Week 17. They were playing with house money. No one expected them to win. They had nothing to gain. The five-seed was locked up. Then they jumped out to a lead and were playing well. The starters voted to stay in the game for the 2nd half. For the first time in the last few years, the Giants weren’t trying to coast through a game. They weren’t acting like someone owed them something. And, regardless of how dismissive smug, national Boston guys can be, I challenge anyone to tell me that they were absolutely certain the Patriots were going to come out on top that game.

Then, the Giants go down to Tampa, riding a 7-1 road record on the season. They go into Tampa as the underdogs and grab a victory. This sets up a football game that made me both terrified and giddy. A divisional match-up against a team that always kills the Giants in big spots. When they told me that the Giants and Cowboys had never played each other in a playoff game, I felt like that was impossible. It always seemed like the Cowboys killed us when it mattered. Now, we had a chance to make all those other games meaningless. Much like Kenny Rogers showing up for Detroit in 2006, the Giants had a chance to erase 20 years of Dallas domination. They had a chance to knock off America’s team.

Not only did they have a chance. They had a pretty goddam good chance.

The Giants were playing a team that had been dealing with a host of press problems in the last few weeks. They were dealing with a quarterback who was coming off one of the biggest chokes possible. They were dealing with a coach who has never won a playoff game. Most of all, they were dealing with a team who hasn’t shown up for the playoffs in over a decade and an owner, for all his marketing genius, isn’t really that smart.

Jerry Jones put two NFC Championship game tickets in each of his players lockers before the game. On top of all the other stuff we previously mentioned, Jerry Jones planned the parade before the team won.

I went into the game excited. I spent the first three quarters incredibly happy, and the fourth quarter feeling like I was about to vomit up most of the Chinese food I had for dinner. The Giants, as is their habit, showed their chronic inability to put teams away. Tom Coughlin gets frighteningly conservative at the end of the game. In fact, the Giants had 2 complete drives in the fourth quarter. The first was run-run-run-punt. The second was run-run-sack-punt. They didn’t eat any time and gave Dallas a final shot at the end zone.

I watched the final two plays of the game feeling like I was going to puke and pass out at the same time. With awful, terrible, heart-wrenching Game 7 memories trying to fight their way up, I nearly couldn’t watch them. I’ve seen this movie before. Dallas is down by 4 at the end of the game and throws a 3rd down pass for a touchdown and leaves the Giants 10 seconds to throw a hail mary. Romo throws a perfect pass into the corner of the end zone. The game is over.

But Crayton didn’t run his route out.

….

The Cowboys made a mistake? It worked for the Giants? What? This doesn’t happen. Someone rewrote the script!!!

I waited for fourth down, head spinning. I’ve only passed out one time (after giving blood) and this is kind of what it felt like. My head was swimming, my breathing was shallow… my ears may have been bleeding… I’m not really sure. I was watching the game with a friend and we discussed not watching the last play… just letting Joe Buck tell me what happened. Then decided that we couldn’t listen to filthy Troy Aikman’s voice talk about it in celebratory glee. If the catch was made, we’d just snap off the TV and do a shot. It was decided.

Fourth down. Romo throws into triple coverage. Intercepted!!! Ball Game Over!!! I live in a rather large apartment building in New York City and there were cheers coming from out in my hallway. Hi-fives! Shots anyway!

I now have some inkling of how the Red Sox fans felt after knocking off the Yankees. They beat their most hated rivals on the biggest stage possible. I’ve never felt better. It’s one of those moments where you can almost admit that you invest just a little too much stock in sports. Sports shouldn’t have the ability to make one physically ill.

But on the other hand… goddam it’s fun.

See you in Green Bay, bitches.