Monday February 4th 2008

10:25AM | 17-14

don't like the Giants, but I hate the Patriots. From Tom Brady's ankle and shoulder, the Bruschi hype of two years ago, Randy Moss, the pride of Boston sports, the cheating claims, the media hype, to recalcitrant head coach Bill Belichick's cut-off hooded sweatshirts, the Patriots have fallen beneath even the Cowboys on my most-despised football team list. You know a team must be low in my esteem when I root for the Cowboys or Giants over them.

Last night's Super Bowl felt like vindication for all that went wrong this NFL season. The mighty undefeated patriots fell to the giant-slayers, the Giants themselves, who won the Super Bowl as the lowest seeded NFC victor ever - overcoming such high-powered teams as Dallas and Green Bay. To add to the irony, the Giants' first touchdown and then the game's biggest catch were both made by the ultimate underdog David Tyree, who previously tallied only 4 catches all season long. Tyree's amazing leaping catch with one hand and his head after Manning improbably scrambled away from a sack deserves a name to enshrine it in NFL history, but sadly sports journalists I've read are of such poor worth that they admit being unable to come up with a fitting name. When the receiver is on a team with the name "Giants" and the play is made in the game's final minute, fitting names are ready-made: off the top of my head I can come up with The Giant Miracle, the Giant Leap, Goliath's Revenge, the New York Minute, et cetera.

Eli Manning's poise was impressive, both throughout the playoffs and in the Super Bowl. With two Mannings leading their teams to Super Bowl victories and earning game MVP's two years in a row, I hope they do not have a younger brother who will be really feeling the pressure to live up to that. Aside from Manning and Tyree, Usi Umenyiora deserved consideration for MVP after leading a stalwart defensive effort against the highest scoring offense in NFL history.

The Patriots leaving the field one second early was the perfect stamp to the end of this classless imperfect team's season.

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