TDL’s Sports, Wrestling, & Otherwise

It’s finally started to sink in. Maybe it was going to the parade yesterday. Maybe it was watching the replay on the NFL Network last night. Maybe it was actually seeing the trophy going up Broadway. Whatever it was, it happened and I can’t believe it.

No chance. If you’d asked me at the end of Week 16 the Giants’ chance at winning everything, that’s the answer you would have gotten. The Giants looked like they were going to limp in to the post season like they’d done the previous two years. They were going to put up a token resistance to undefeated regular season and then limp into a game with the Bucs, and then they’d be bounced by the Cowboys or Packers in round 2. That was how it was scripted. That was the movie I’d seen the last two years.

Then something happened.

Someone plugged in the lights. In Buffalo, Eli’s passer rating was 32.2. In New England, it was 118.6. Somewhere in that week, the team changed. They apparently decided: “f*ck it, what do we have to lose.”

The year could not have happened better. When the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004, they got there through the Yankees. Who they beat in the Series was incidental. The Giants went through their most annoying division rival, one of their most annoying historic rivals (The Packers knocked the Giants out of the NFL Championship in ‘39, ‘44, ‘61 and ‘62… the Giants rock a stunning 6-12 record in NFL Title Games, Super Bowl or otherwise), and a team who, had they won, would have had a solid claim on Best Team In The History Of The NFL. The Giants beat them all.

And then the Super Bowl went exactly like I said it would. I found myself watching the NFL Network for the sixth time ever tonight because they aired the replay. The NFL Network re-airs the “four best games of the week” during the regular season. They trim useless plays out and key plays are enhanced with NFL Films replays and interviews with the guys involved. I rarely watch them. After the first drive, they cut to Junior Seau on the sideline, sweating and gasping. The Patriot defense wore out much quicker than the Giants’ defense… by the fourth quarter, they couldn’t tackle a quarterback who, as Shaun O’Hara said, hasn’t broken many tackles in his entire career. The Patriots’ pass rush got to Eli Manning in the fourth quarter and couldn’t bring him down.

Were the Giants the dominant team? Absolutely not. In fact, Eli did exactly what I expected him to do: just enough to win the game and not enough to lose it. The Giants have figured out how to use him… something the Jets have never been able to do with Chad Pennington (even though there exists an entire decade of game film out in San Francisco… but whatever). This is why the Giants have spent time collecting running backs, speedy, short route guys, and tall deep threats who can forgive some inaccuracy. That’s certainly not to say the Patriots weren’t presented with opportunities. In fact, the play before (The Grab In Glendale, The Miracle, The Escape, The Play, The Patriot Missile… whatever they end up naming it) Asante Samuel had a chance to end the game. He didn’t. On the following Patriot drive they came within Corey Webster’s ring finger of a Brady to Moss stake through the heart.

For a group of guys who were given no chance and entered the playoffs as a 40-1 dog, they proved everyone wrong. There’s no real way to describe how it feels to root for a team who were touchdown-or-more dogs in four straight games who figured out a way to come out on top every time. They crushed the soul of the Cowboys and their obnoxious fans. They crushed the soul of the Brett Favre media machine. They crushed the soul of the Patriots and their overconfident fans. They erased the awful taste of the Ravens game and added another crazy championship game to their list alongside The Greatest Game Ever Played and Wide Right.

As for The Play. Get used to seeing it, because it will become the Jordan Lay-Up Through Four Guys While Changing Hands or the Laetner Jump Shot of the Super Bowl. For a play that only took four seconds, the range of emotions I experienced shouldn’t fit into that time. From standard can-this-drive-really-be-happening fear, to oh-no-he’s-getting-sacked horror, to holy-crap-he-got-away elation, to ball-in-the-air nausea, to he’s-got-it freakout, to he’s-gonna-drop-it sadness, to there’s-no-way-he-just-caught-that-off-his-helmet delerium, to holy-crap-he-really-did-catch-that-off-his-helmet disbelief, to questionable-man-hug celebration. It shouldn’t have happened. On so many levels that play should not have happened. Eli should not have gotten away. David Tyree, who made 4 catches all season and, according to Amani Toomer, was dropping everything thrown to him in Friday’s practice, made the catch of his life. It proves the adage repeated constantly that to win a game you need to get unexpected contribution from the undercard. If you’d told me David Tyree was going to make a solid argument for MVP of the Super Bowl, I might have argued as to whether or not he was even still on the roster. If you’d told me that Jay Alford was going to make a game-breaking sack with 20 seconds left, I’d have wondered aloud if he played a down this season. If you’d told me that Justin Tuck was going to make a solid argument for a 60 million dollar contract and be ripped out of the Super Bowl MVP… well, I might have believed that.

For me, it made the last two years of Mets chokes a little easier to handle. It’s the first championship won by a one of my sports teams in my adult life. It reminded why nearly every analyst is pointless. 95% of them picked the Patriots. Of the remaining 5%, 4% chose the Giants to make a name for themselves in the off chance they were right. Analysts, however much they think they’re above it, are led by public opinion. Not many mentioned the age of the Patriots’ defense. Not many thought the Giants ridiculously good pass-rush would find their way through the Patriots line. Not many mentioned the fact that Steve Smith was just about as good as scrappy(tm) Wes Welker. They all laughed when Plaxico Burress dared to say that the Giants had a receiving corps nearly as good as the Patriots and who did a few things a little better. They gave them no credit.

Both defenses were exhausted by the end of the fourth quarter, but the Giants found enough for those last few plays. They found enough to sack Brady on 2nd down, get in Moss’s way on 3rd down, and knock the ball away on 4th down. It was great. Great tempered only by the fact I was watching the game with two Patriot fans who brought the mood down. It didn’t seem real.

And the absolute best part of all of it? The Giants are significantly under the cap. They have two more young running backs coming back from injury next season. Ernie Accorsi and his OCD-like need to draft defensive ends and linebackers has set the Giant defense up for the long term. Assuming Jerry Reese has been dyed in the wool by the organization the future is bright.

The Giants delivered finally broke the curse of Hilary Clinton. And for that, God bless ‘em.

And something happened out in Queens, too.