Congratulations to the New York Giants and Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning (WOW!)

by Fooch on Feb 3, 2008 10:48 PM PST in News Comment 24 comments

I'll be perfectly frank here: When Eli Manning was at Ole Miss I was pretty indifferent to him. When he pulled the stunt before the draft demanding a trade to New York he drew my ire. Since he entered the pros, I have not been an Eli Manning fan. He always seemed a wee bit overrated, as if he was riding Peyton's coattails more than anything else.

And yet, this playoff run, culminating in a wild upset of the Patriots has earned a little bit of my respect. I still have my issues with Eli, but he stepped up as any good quarterback is expected to do. In spite of a less than stellar regular season campaign, Eli made plays and was one of the big keys to the Giants doing what they did this postseason. The Giants are Super Bowl champions in no small part due to Eli Manning. I definitely did not picture myself stating that at the beginning of the season, or even at the beginning of the playoffs.

And of course, this little drama would not have been complete without the team you either loved or loved to hate, the New England Patriots. The Patriots will forever go down as the team that "choked" when history was in their grasp. However, they would not be remembered as chokers, if not for how great their run was up to that point. 18-1 is nothing to sneeze at, but they lost their chance to be amongst the immortals. And they also screwed up a chance to shut up those damn '72 Dolphins. I just turned on my tv and on ESPN their was a Reebok commercial that really just pissed me off. A bunch of old guys are playing a football game in the front yard and it's a bunch of the old '72 Dolphins. Eventually a truck pulls up that says, "Giant Couriers." A guy gives Mercury Morris a box that includes Giants Super Bowl Champs tshirts and also inside the box is a football with a note that says something like "Here's to enjoying it one more year" and is signed by Eli. That's some serious hubris and one more reason to not like the '72 Dolphins.

So on that, if you want to see a blog burn itself down, head on over to Big Blue View, our Giants blog.

EDITOR'S UPDATE 9:50am - YouTube has the footage of Eli escaping from the grasp of the entire Patriots defensive line. Head on over to jfainsf49's diary to help determine a name for this amazing play.

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The really obnoxious thing

And I mean the really, really obnoxious thing about the '72 Dolphins, is that the 2007 Patriots blew them way the fuck out of the water. Like, waaaaaaaaay out of there. '72 Dolphins went undefeated for 17 games. '07 Patriots did it for 18. '72 Dolphins had one of the easiest schedules in the league. '07 Patriots might have had the single most difficult schedule in the league.

That's pretty much my whole argument. I don't think there's any more to it. At all. Who cares they didn't win the damn Super Bowl. The Super Bowl is just one extra game on the schedule.

I guess to be fair, the first two games of 1973 the Dolphins did win the first (beat the Niners, ouch) and lose the second. So they kind of went 18-1. Still did it with the easiest schedule ever.

Anyway, the '72 Dolphins have easily become my least favorite team of all time not including rivalry hate. Completely obnoxious. A bunch of sad old men holding onto fraying strings as their various claims to fame fall. A re-enactment:

"We went 14-0 in the regular season, bitches! Oh crap, we can't play that card anymore. Well then... you know, we went 17-0, bitches! Oh, ummm... WTF? <sob> Fine, fine then, well even though you completely overmatched our accomplishment we still won the Super Bowl! Nanananananana!"

Ugh. History my ass.

I keep reliving the moment when Steve Young almost fell down. Over and over.

by howtheyscored on Feb 3, 2008 11:15 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Not so fast

I have to respectfully disagree. Escpecially with the comment "'07 Patriots might have had the single most difficult schedule in the league." I realize you qualified it by saying "might." But my problem is how can you argue that when they played the Dolphins twice?

As to the Dolphins, I would rather they continue to bask in the glory of an undefeated season than have to listen to 19-0 for infinty or until someone else comes along. I mean did you hear all this crap about books being written and patents being made for the phrase 19-0? I guess all the humble pie has been eaten.

by jfainsf49 on Feb 4, 2008 8:02 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

i have to agree

im a niners fan to the death, but i have always been a dolphins fan too after growing up watching marino. so boo to the patriots and congrats to dolphins still being the only undefeated team ever!

by J2daZ on Feb 4, 2008 1:47 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Actually

The Patriots DID have one of the toughest schedules in the entire league. Sure, they played the Dolphins twice, but they also played the Colts, Giants, Steelers, Chargers, and a few other teams that made the playoffs.

The 1972 Dolphins had the 3rd easiest schedule EVER since the expansion. Frankly, the 1984, 1989, 1990 and 1994 49ers teams were ALL better than the 72 Dolphins, and so were a lot of other Super Bowl Champions. I forget which year, but in one of those 49ers seasons they went 14-2 with a really tough schedule and the two games they lost were by a total of 5 points.

by jaytierney on Feb 5, 2008 4:52 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Touche

That's what I get for doing no research.

by jfainsf49 on Feb 6, 2008 6:20 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Dolphin Fans > Patriot Fans

You hear from Dolphin fans about their undefeated season, but its mostly from those old players who were on the team that make the most noise about it. If this Patriots team went undefeated, we'd never hear the end of it from the most obnoxious fans in all of sports (Boston fans in general).

Lott's Prayer: Almost as many words as the Lord's Prayer, but the Lord wouldn't recognize any of them.

by Nosetackle Supreme on Feb 4, 2008 2:39 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Aw hell

I wrote a totally awesome personal recap that was fair to both teams and their players and, I assure you, met all the criteria for totally awesome standing.

But I got magically signed out while I was typing it. I mean, I was logged in when I went into the thread and started typing in the comment box. And when I hit post a few minutes later I was logged out. Weird.

I keep reliving the moment when Steve Young almost fell down. Over and over.

by howtheyscored on Feb 3, 2008 11:36 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

I hate when that happens

I don't know if that has happened to me on this site, but it has happened elsewhere. That's why I do a quick ctrl+c before I post any lengthy comments. I don't know about you but once the first comment fails to post I lose all interest in retyping the whole thing escpecially when you have it worded just how you want it.

by jfainsf49 on Feb 4, 2008 8:05 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I meant to say

I do a quick ctrl+a ctrl+c...not like that's anything new though...

by jfainsf49 on Feb 4, 2008 8:07 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I do lose all my interest

I try to make a habit of doing a "copy all" before I post big comments, but too often it just plain slips my mind. I was really glad to see you take Belicheck to task for not kicking the field goal in the first half on fourth down. I mean, it was the difference in the game! And I haven't heard anybody take him to task for it yet! It was one of my first and most passionate points.

I keep reliving the moment when Steve Young almost fell down. Over and over.

by howtheyscored on Feb 4, 2008 10:25 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Monday Coaching?

Who the hell has any ground to stand on when questioning Belichick's game calling? Who's more accomplished than he is? It sure is easy to second guess anything after you know the outcome and in hindsight it cost him the game but if the most prolific offense of all time does covert and goes on score a TD they might win the game. It's a gutsy call and he's got to live with it. But is there any other coach New England would rather have making those calls? No.

by methodrampage on Feb 4, 2008 10:35 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Not Monday coaching at least

No, I thought it was a bad call when he made it, at least.

And I'm not saying that it makes him a bad coach. There's no way I could possibly justify anything approaching that. He's gone to four Super Bowls, won three of them, been in the playoffs for 100 years in a row. And the list goes on. I'm just saying that it's a critical decision worth criticizing. If it had been Coughlin we wouldn't be hearing the end of it. He shouldn't get a free pass because we assume he's smarter than us. I think it was the fatal flaw in the story of 2007 for the Patriots ("fatal flaw" being a term used in tragedies to describe a quality the protagonist has that ultimately dooms him or her, such as Hamlet's indecision, though I would never go so far as to call this season a "tragedy" for the Patriots). It was the Patriot ego. We saw it all year. They went for it on fourth down against the Redskins when they had a huge lead and got a TD. They did similar things countless times all year long, letting their egos make football decisions for them. Like Hamlet (yes, I'm going there), it didn't kill them until the last page, but it was their undoing.

Quite literally, when I put it like this, Poetic Justice.

But no, Belicheck should not be remembered as a bad coach or an idiot, but as THIS season goes, that play should get his big fat ego absolutely raked over the coals.

I keep reliving the moment when Steve Young almost fell down. Over and over.

by howtheyscored on Feb 4, 2008 11:06 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Right on HTS

I was thinking of responding too. But I see you have said just about all that needs to be said about the situation. I would add though that after watching some horrible play calling all year(see Niners 2007, I know a bad play call when I see it. I mean the Pats could have went up by a touchdown with the field goal. And I know it wasn't uncharacteristic for the Pats to go for it on 4th down blah, blah, blah, but I believe there is a word for that, huberis I think it's called.

by jfainsf49 on Feb 4, 2008 11:18 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Hell Yea!!!!

This weekend brought me closer to God. I prayed more fervently than I had in years, and the Big Guy saw fit to grant me one moment of sunshine in a dark, dark season. The only thing that can take the smile off my face is if Barack doesn't win the primary here in CA. Barring that, the Niners could go 0-16, alex smith could decide he's had enough and strap himself to explosives in the locker room...

but the Patriots don't hold the most coveted record in the NFL. Tom Brady didn't tie TB and Joe Montana with SB rings. Soon enough, the only remaining people to have tasted perfection will be dead, and we'll all be back to hating the Patriots for pretty much no good reason. Seeing that a-hole who wore his Brady jersey to work on Friday look like he should be on suicide watch today For The Win.

49er 'til I die! (if they don't kill me first)

by LA49er on Feb 4, 2008 9:42 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Joe buck sucks

watch that play again. Could he have called it with less emotion?

Manning... still on his feet... throws it downfield... and it's caught.

Bring back the classic Uni's!

by wjackalope on Feb 4, 2008 10:26 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

The "Joe Buck" monotone is terrible

He's a perfectly sound, refreshingly professional national broadcaster, but as long as he is the fox go to guy, I will never hear a great call in a championship game. In baseball or football. Except the occasional Jon Miller.

I keep reliving the moment when Steve Young almost fell down. Over and over.

by howtheyscored on Feb 4, 2008 10:29 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Jon Miller

nobody better. if only ESPN had the world series instead of fox - although the competition for worst color guy is heated between Joe Morgan (who I don't really mind that much) and Tim McCarver.

But the real shame in my mind is that Mike Patrick isn't the lead play by play guy for ESPN/ABC anymore. I always thought he was really good when he did SNF, and I was disappointed that they went with Mike Tirico when MNF switched to ESPN.

Bring back the classic Uni's!

by wjackalope on Feb 4, 2008 12:35 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I think McCarver is by far the worst

Have I ever shown you my Tim McCarver impression? It's not quite as good as the Family Guy one (which I can't find on youtube now... was it removed???), but I still think it's pretty good. It goes like this:

"Hey guys, I played catcher. I know about baseball because I played catcher. Former catchers can tell you how hard that play was to make and I used to be a catcher. Now look at this, as a catcher I can tell you that's not easy to do. Seriously guys, I played catcher. I played catcher. I played catcher. I played catcher. I played..."

The only reason it stops is because Joe Buck punches him in the face.

I keep reliving the moment when Steve Young almost fell down. Over and over.

by howtheyscored on Feb 4, 2008 12:41 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

you're right

McCarver totally blows.

Bring back the classic Uni's!

by wjackalope on Feb 4, 2008 2:29 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I couldn't hear it

I was losing my voice screaming "Suck it Belli-cheat!" over and over.

49er 'til I die! (if they don't kill me first)

by LA49er on Feb 4, 2008 10:31 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

that reminds me

I think Joe could use another session in the tanning bed.

by jfainsf49 on Feb 4, 2008 10:35 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

fortunately, I didn't hear it

I was too busy screaming and swearing. That was the most ridiculous play in SB history.

Lott's Prayer: Almost as many words as the Lord's Prayer, but the Lord wouldn't recognize any of them.

by Nosetackle Supreme on Feb 4, 2008 2:41 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Morons

The highest scoring team EVAH was held to 14 points and Eli gets the MVP. Crazy stupid! I love Eli like a brother - like Peyton's brother at least - but one sack escape does make an MVP. Give it to Strahan or Tuck.

by GiantsBigFour on Feb 5, 2008 11:01 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

I agree wholeheartedly

That the MVP should have gone to a defensive player, but Eli played a hell of a game that only got better in the 4th quarter, and did some real magic in the pocket a few times.

I keep reliving the moment when Steve Young almost fell down. Over and over.

by howtheyscored on Feb 5, 2008 11:17 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs