|
IN the
week prior to Super Bowl Sunday, all New England
Patriots coach Bill Belichick could talk about was the
New York Giants. Belichick served as an assistant to
former Giants maestro Bill Parcells along with current
Big Blue manager Tom Coughlin. It was there were
Belichick and Coughlin cut their eyeteeth in team
strategy as the team’s defensive coordinator and wide
receiver coach respectively for the 1986 and 1990
championships.
As much
as the coaching protagonists’ ties to New York made for
interesting stories, the Big Dance was draped by the
long shadow of former Green Bay Packers coach Vince
Lombardi who was born in
Brooklyn and went to school in
Fordham
University in the Bronx.
Check
out some of Lombardi’s famous quotes that describe the
unlikely championship season of New York. And as you sift through the coincidences you’ll no doubt be reminded of
those
Forest
Hills, Queens natives Simon and Garfunkel who once sang,
“And the words of the prophet are written on the subways
walls. And tenement halls.”
Now if
that isn’t coincidence then it’s destiny and perfect
symmetry. And the word “destiny” ends in “NY.”
“If you
can accept losing, you can’t win.”
In Week
16, the Giants risked everything to try and beat the
Patriots in the last game of the regular season. As a
result, they lost three starters to injury in a game
that never would have affected the playoff standings.
Yet, their strong showing in a 38-35 defeat energized
them for the postseason. “The playoffs,” said New York
linebacker Antonio Pierce, “are all about who is hot. We
knew we could beat them.” And that brings to mind
another Lombardi quote, “We didn’t lose. We just ran out
of time.”
“Confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence.”
In the
days leading to the game, Giants’ wide receiver Plaxico
Burress announced to the media that
New York
would win the Super Bowl by a score of 23-17. Tom
Coughlin chafed at Burress’s giving the Patriots ammo
for their fire, but the former Michigan State Spartan
merely verbalized what the team privately felt.
After
New York controlled the football for 19 minutes and 27
seconds of the first half and held the prolific Patriots
team to seven points, the Giants gained a lot more
confidence. Knowing that it wasn’t going to be a
shootout was more to their liking.
“Some
people try to find things in this game that don’t exist
but football is only two things—blocking and tackling.”
The
Giants’ Michael Strahan and Osi Umenyiora called out
Patriots’ left tackle Matt Light for being “a dirty
player.” Brady echoed Lombardi when he said, “Anytime
your left tackle has a Pro Bowl season, you as a
quarterback should owe him a lot. Football is a very
tough game. It’s about hitting, blocking and tackling.”
Good
defense for your teammate, Tom. Unfortunately for your
team, you couldn’t handle Big Blue’s pass rush and you
were sacked five times and hit by more than half of all
your pass attempts for the game.
The
two-time Super Bowl MVP was harassed all game long and
looked very uncomfortable inside the pocket as wave
after wave of Giants tried to intercept his pass and
knock him flat. “Said one reporter, he [Brady] spent
more time on the grass than the fertilizer.”
“Teamwork is what the Green Bay Packers were all about.
They didn’t do it for individual glory. They did it
because they loved one another.”
During
the halftime of the Giants’ September 16, 2007 home
opener in the Meadowlands against get this—the Green Bay
Packers that resulted in a 35-13 loss—the team and home
crowd gave an emotional sendoff for George Martin, the
captain of NY’s 1986 Super Bowl-winning team, who
embarked on a 1,600-kilometer journey on foot across the
continental United States to raise funds and call
attention to the plight of rescue and emergency workers
who were victims of 9/11.
He
arrived the Thursday before Super Bowl Sunday and gave
the team a massive inspirational lift.
“Some of
us will do our jobs well and some will not, but we will
be judged by only one thing—the result.”
Bill
Belichick—unless Spygate and US Republican Sen. Arlen
Specter knocks him down several pegs—will be enshrined
as a great football coach. He was clearly more than one
up on Coughlin whose competence was severely questioned
by players, fans and the media alike in the past couple
of seasons. But for some strange reason, Belichick made
several crucial mistakes. One was when he didn’t allow
Stephen Gostkowski to attempt a 49-yard field goal in
the third quarter that would have given the Patriots a
10-3 lead. The game was decided by three-points. So the
what-ifs abound. Second was when he opted to put the
5’9” cornerback Ellis Hobbs who bit on the 6’5” Burress’
slant fake.
And
third, the Patriots used a lot of empty backfield
formations that provided little help against the Giants’
defensive line.
“The
greatest accomplishment is not in never falling, but in
rising again after you fall.”
With the
game entering its final stages, Brady’s six yard pass to
Randy Moss put New England ahead 14-10 with 2:42 left in
the game.
Said
Indianapolis Colts’ QB Peyton Manning, the older brother
of New York’s Eli who was watching from one of the sky
boxes of the
University
of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, “There wasn’t
any panic in his [Eli’s] eyes. His mindset was, ‘Hey,
we’ve 2:45 left and we have some timeouts. We have the
ball last and we’ll make it happen.’”
“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase
perfection we can catch excellence.”
The
Giants started out the football campaign by losing three
of four preseason games and their first two regular
season matches. But they won a record 11 straight road
games including the playoffs en route to their third
Super Bowl title. The Patriots as everyone knows by now
were 18-0 and needed only one more win to cap of perhaps
the greatest season in NFL history. Instead the 1972
Miami Dolphins who went 16-0 that year heaved a sigh of
relief and popped the bubbly.
“If
winning isn’t everything why do they keep score.”
New York
after seeing the Boston Red Sox win two titles in the
new millennium to end the Curse now have a new chant to
replace the old “1918.” Who cares if it’s football? It’s
all about the rivalry.
“18-1.” |
