Super Bowl Sunday

It’s Super Bowl Sunday; the last game of perhaps the most dismal football season ever, at least from my own personal perspective. Cuse went 2-10, and finished 101 in the Division I-A power rankings, out of only 119 teams. Check back to the November 25 posting, “A Year to Remember”, for all the gory details – all the scary statistics. And although Cuse has had a few miserable years of late, including one where they only won a single game, this year’s fiasco was compounded by the collapse of the Dolphins. A comeback win over the Ravens saved the Phins from the ignominy of the only 0-16 season in NFL history. SI lists their power ranking as 31, but who could possibly have been worse? So anyway, I’ll be watching later today, but not with any real rooting interest. Just hoping for an exciting game.

I’ve never been a Pats fan. For some reason, my five years in Boston never ignited any interest in that franchise. Perhaps it was the Pat’s obscurity in those days, or the fact that the team didn’t play in town. Although honestly, I can’t recall where they played in the late sixties. On the other hand, I’ve never really hated on them either. They were an AFC East rival, but never a team to inspire hatred, like say, the Cowboys. I have pulled for the Colts these past few years, in their annual struggles with the Pats for AFC dominance, but not out of affection for the franchise, more that they have consistently played a high number of Cuse alumni. Marvin, Freeney, Mungro (for a while), Josh Thomas. And who didn’t want to see Peyton win his ring? It would be nice to see the Pats upset, because that would confirm how remarkable the achievement of the 72 Dolphins had been. They remain the most underrated team of all time, despite having gone to three consecutive Super Bowls, having won two of them, all the while winning 32 of 34 over the latter two seasons, one of those losses having been by default, when Shula sat all his offensive starters. So a Giants win enhances the recollection of that perfect season. On the other hand, I admire the Pats for their elevation of team over individual, for their ability to adapt to all conditions, defenses, personnel – no matter who they seem to put on the field, nor whom they oppose, the Pats figure out a way to win. I’d also like to see them win simply to shut up everyone in the media (and now Congress, hard as that is to believe), about spygate. How did that possibly make a difference, when everything the Pats were taping was patently obvious to anyone who chose to watch the opposition carefully on the sidelines? It’s not like anyone stole a playbook, or bugged a locker room. Really, it was already blown way out of proportion. But to keep dwelling on it, after they ran the table this year? What is the point? To quote DeNiro in Midnight Run: “I’ve got two words for you. Shut the fuck up!”

But at the same time, I’ve never been much of a Giants fan, and even less of a Tom Coughlin fan, despite his Orange ancestry. In the old old days, when I first watched the NFL, I became a Browns fan because of Jim Brown. And in those old old days, the Giants and Browns had a fierce rivalry, personified by the matchup between Brown and Sam Huff. I admired the Giants this year for their blue collar approach to the game, playing tough defense, running the ball, and learning to play without making mistakes. Also, as the season wore on, I found it remarkable how they managed to win each week on the road, often against very long odds. Coughlin too because less unlikable. Not more likable; he’s still a long ways from that. Just don’t feel the need to hate on him quite so much. Too bad for Tiki, who I always thought was a class guy, and who deserved a shot at the Super Bowl. He left a year early, to do the TV thing, and make Cadillac commercials.

I’m left wondering whether Belichick didn’t manipulate the whole spygate thing simply to motivate his players. After all, the veterans already had their three rings, and really didn’t have much of anything to prove to anyone. Even with the addition of the new receivers, would Brady and an aging defense find it in themselves to go the extra mile, to push themselves all season for one more championship? So Belichick somehow turned this spygate thing into a demonstration of how no one respects the Pats, or their three trophies. There was no dynasty if the team didn’t deserve to win those earlier Super Bowls. Then all year long, the Pats played with a chip on their shoulder. And it wasn't enough merely to run the table; they had to rewrite the record book at the same time. And why does Arlen Specter feel the need to revisit this old news just a week before the Super Bowl? Were the Pats getting complacent? We’ll find out in a few hours if it worked, but I’d like to think that the whole thing was just a Bill Belichick mind game, and that everyone else, the league, the commissioner, even Congress, got played, big time. Someone should make a movie.