Some images endure. Joe Namath raising his finger, proclaiming the Jets #1 as he trotted into the locker room. Franco Harris finding a ball at his ankles and carrying it to the goal line. Dwight Clark leaping across the endzone and snagging Joe Montana's pass out of the air. Eli Manning fighting his way from the grasp of three Patriots, scrambling in the open field and hurling a ball to David Tyree, who catches the ball against his helmet and holds it until he reaches the ground. Some images endure. Super Bowl XLII may just be the best Super Bowl ever played. Hell, it might be the best football game ever played. And in the end, Eli Manning, the most unlikely of heroes, became the Super Bowl MVP, a world champion, and a legend. Some images endure. This is why we watch sports.
Super Bowl XLII had something for everyone. A team's quest for perfection, an underdog's heart, a scandal, an evil villain, a superstar vs. a farm boy, celebrities, super models, a brother's love, and in the end, an upset. What more can you want from a game?
Teams play football to win championships. To the men that suit up every Sunday, victory is the only measure of greatness. To that end, the Patriots' 2007-08 campaign was a failure and the team that everyone thought would go down as the greatest team of all time is now at best the 43rd most successful team in modern football history. They are undoubtedly the best team to never win a championship but this loss alone will keep them from the ranks of the greatest.
I do not want to take away from the Patriots' success this year. For 18 games, they were the best team I had ever seen. I have said for many years and still believe that Tom Brady is the one guy you want on the field in a big game. He is the most clutch player of our time (though we can no longer say of all time) and we will likely see him on Super Bowl Sunday again. But he is not perfect. And that is really the lesson of this weekend: the Patriots are not perfect. If the 2007 Patriots played the 1972 Dolphins, the Pats would blow them out of the water. The Fins only beat 5 teams with 10 or more wins during the regular season, while the Pats beat 9. The difference in my mind is not that the Dolphins went undefeated, but that they won the Super Bowl. Imperfection is not the Patriots' problem; 18-1 is still the second best record of all-time. The problem is that the one loss came in the Super Bowl, the one game any "great" team has to win. Shula's Dolphins, Ditka's Bears, Montana's 49ers all won championships. So, for that matter, have Belichick's Pats. But the 2007 Patriots, for all the hype, are the fourth most successful team Belichick has coached. They might be the best team of all time. But they failed when it mattered most. They couldn't bring it home. And in the end, isn't that what matters?
Eli Manning will wake today as a New York hero. There aren't many. New York is a city that prides itself on victory. It is unforgiving of failure, but it celebrates success. My dad brought up an interesting point this morning. Derek Jeter had two Super Bowl commercials last night. A-Rod had zero. You could be the greatest player of all time, but until you bring home a championship, you're just another schmo. Eli Manning brought home a championship last night. He brought glory to the mildewed marshes of the Meadowlands. He brought a title to the streets of Manhattan. He brought tears to the eyes of the Giants fans who booed him at home for four years. No matter what he does for the rest of his career, Eli Manning will be a New York hero in the vein of Joe Namath, Lawrence Taylor, Willis Reed, and Derek Jeter. Those are big names to throw around, I know. But, let's face it - and I can't believe I'm writing this - so is Eli Manning.
You could not have written a better script than the one performed in Arizona last night. A beleaguered young quarterback climbs out of his brother's shadow by leading a resolute, underdog team against a Hall of Fame quarterback and his undefeated team looking for perfection. The brother looks on, cheering and pacing from a booth above, while a supermodel sips Aquafina and wine and claps quietly for her superstar boyfriend. In the end, Brady was out-Brady'd by his rival's little brother. You can't write better stuff than that. You just can't.
Really, all this magic comes from the fact that no one gave the Giants a chance. They simply were not supposed to win. But that's why we watch sports, right? Because any team, on any given Sunday, can do the impossible. Some teams have that fire. You could see it in their eyes. They have no business winning, let alone competing with the best teams. But somehow, they do. Some teams are down, with their backs to the wall, facing defeat at the hands of a team universally believed to be better. But they win. They grit their teeth and clench their fists and simply refuse to lose. They just want it more. The 1996 Yankees, to me, are the essense of that kind of team. Down two-zip to the Braves and heading into Atlanta, the Yanks had their backs to the wall. No one thought they would win, but a week later they were parading down the streets of Manhattan. They refused to believe for a second that they could lose and they fought back until they won. The 2004 Red Sox were the same way. So were the 2001 Patriots. But perhaps no team fought harder, under harsher conditions, than the 2007 New York Giants. The G-Men came close to beating the 15-0 Pats in a game when most thought the starters shouldn't even start. They beat Tampa in Tampa and shut down Jeff Garcia. They beat Dallas in Dallas and silenced a team that had beaten them twice. They beat Green Bay at Lambeau in 24 below zero temperature. And then they beat the undefeated New England Patriots in the last minute of Super Bowl XLII. This is why we watch sports.
Watching Eli will himself out of the grasp of the Patriot defense and watching Tyree haul in his miracle catch, I felt like I was watching sports for the first time. Everything that came before that play wasn't nearly as sweet. I have never seen a better play or a better game in my 23 years of life or in my two decades of watching sports. My earliest memory of sports is of watching the Giants win Super Bowl XXV with my dad. My finest memory of sports may just be watching the Manning Miracle unfold. That's what I'm calling that play. History will find some name for it - maybe that one - but I'm saying it first here. The Manning Miracle. Eli Manning and David Tyree, with that play, carved themselves a place in history. For me, the lasting image of Super Bowl XLII will be of Eli Manning fighting free of the Pats defense and finding Tyree down the field. Some images endure. Eli Manning may resume the life of a mediocre quarterback or this may be his coming out party as one of the all time greats. Either way, the sight of number 10 emerging from that mess of blue jerseys and sinking the 18-0 Patriots will stick in our minds for as long as we watch football. Some images endure.
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3 comments:
The Giants were good, very good. What a defensive front. Unreal.
But, was the real MVP Eli Manning or Lady Luck? Manning has certainly grown as a player, but:
Manning throws the ball away and Toomer somehow catches the ball.
The rookie running back fumbles and then is able to muscle the ball away from a lineman who fell on the ball. All this before the referees can get everyone off the two of them.
Manning who is not fleet of foot and lets face it, a clutz, is able to get away from everyone and trow the ball to Tyree who somehow is able to jump high and catch the ball and hold it against his helmet while he falls to the ground. Did anyone check the helmet for stickum?
So why is Ladyluck not the MVP or at least the defensive front line?
The other thing that is absurb is the fuss the media is making that Belichek left the field before the game was finished. HE and Coughlin met at mid field when the clock originally showed zero time left. The game was over and they put 1 second back on the clock. He left, big deal. Give the guy a break, he is not PERFECT.
First--wow that Tyree catch was amazing. He was squeezing the ball against his f-ing head!! Exciting.
Second--This was really a David v Goliath game.
Third--Hey, cool, Super Bowl XXV was the first Super Bowl I watched, too. (The Redskins won the next year, which I remember more vividly.)
Fourth--Eli Manning will be booed as soon as he throws the second interception in a home game.
I realized before falling asleep Sunday night what the feeling was that I was having: supreme disillusionment. It was like the US had publicly come out and admitting to faking us going to the moon. I would be disappointed and confused, but after a while I would realize that I didn't care too much to begin with.
Also...Eli freaking Manning. I still can't stand him. Did anyone else notice that he stole a play out of Steve McNair's "Handbook on how to Avoid Sacks in the Super Bowl"? Maybe it's just me...
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