Giants 17 Patriots 14

Is this what it looks like when a New England Patriot lays an egg?


I was planning to write an article prior to the Super Bowl. Thank God I didn't. I had it all planned out including my prediction (New England 42 Giants 14). For years, I have been pretty cynical about the game-even though I am a football fan (Steelers). The truth is that if the Steelers aren't playing, I really don't care much about the game. I am defintely turned off by all the hoopla that has become a staple of the event-before during and after.

I had planned to pan all the pre-game nonsense-the interviews of players and coaches who all say the same things year after year:

"We just gotta go out and play 60 minutes of football."
"There's no tomorrow."
"We got a great bunch of guys on this team."

(One great exception this year was listening to Michael Strahan of the Giants, who is obviously destined to be an announcer after his career is over.)

I also was going to question why we have to have all this publicity in the week leading up to the game. I was going to complain about the two hour pre-game show breaking down every possible way that one or the other team would probably win. I was going to make some sarcastic comment about the jets flying overhead during the National Anthem. The half-time show was going to a special target of my biting sarcasm, with the usual 5,000 college kids running out on the field and playing grab-ass while Tom Petty and the Headachers (probably) lip-synced their way through 3 or 4tunes while smoke bombs went off leaving clouds of smoke to plague the players half-way into the 3rd quarter. (I have to admit that the guitarist was quite good.)

Finally, I was going to make my "expert" prediction (Patriots 42-Giants 14). I was also going to predict that, in spite of recent reports and studies, I was not going to beat my wife or have a heart attack on Super Bowl Sunday. If the Steelers haven't given me a heart attack in 52 years of living and dying with the black and gold, it wasn't going to happen this year. (Now the Cubs may yet give me a heart attack, but that's another story.)

Anyway, something unexpected happened; not only was it a great game, but a great upset. Personally, I was happy to see the Patriots lose the Super Bowl and their undefeated season. Now, no one is calling them the greatest dynasty ever. (That would be my Steelers, thank you.) It was gratifying to see their abrasive, cheating and mumbling coach lose. Hats off to the Giants, a team that played harder and deserved to win.

And just to clarify one point: I did not beat my wife.