Super Bowl XLII Recap

It's 4th and 1 on the Giants side of the field with just over two minutes left in their season. New York is down by 4 points. Their objective was to score a touchdown and win the championship or fail and lose.

Brandon Jacobs grabs the ball and is brought down to the ground before he even gets going. His hand hits the grass and he lunges ever so slightly forward. First down. The clock's running.

Time is evaporating and with it leaves the dreams of the Giants. Eli Manning is grabbed by New England defenders. He wrestles free and runs to his right and flings a pass well over the head of his intended receiver. Plucking the ball out of the clouds, David Tyree pins his prize against his helmet and falls to the ground comforting it as if it were a newborn baby. First down.

It's third down and eleven with under a minute to play. Manning drops back and sees an open man. It's rookie receiver Steve Smith, the goat of the game to this point. Manning trusts his young teammate with the fearlessness of a true leader. Smith grabs the ball, gets the first down, and runs out of bounds to stop the clock.

An injured and ineffective Plaxico Burress fakes a slant, freezes the defender and heads towards the side of the end zone. He turns to look back at his quarterback and floating into his arms like a feather is the winning touchdown. Eli Manning has carved a place for himself in NFL history, taking his team down the field on an 83-yard drive to win the Super Bowl. He lived every little boy's fantasy. Tom Coughlin will forever be known as a championship coach.

The New York Giants pulled one of the greatest upsets in sports history. They faced a team that had reached heights never before attained, and won. It is a victory for all of the underdogs in the world. The great aspect of sports is that the score always begins in a zero-zero tie and what transpires is not limited by anyone's imagination. We may have all wished the Giants would win, but did any of us really believe it would happen?

The Patriots were the only 18-0 team the NFL has ever seen. They scored the most points ever. Tom Brady set the record for touchdown passes thrown in a season. Randy Moss set the record for touchdown receptions in a season. None of that mattered. The Giants were able to keep the Pats attack off the field with several sustained drives. More impressively, they were the first team all season to pressure Brady in the pocket. The Giants defensive performance was the stuff of legend. A scrappy, low-rated bunch may have played the best game of any defense ever, considering the opposition.

While Eli Manning's pass to Steve Smith, which Smith knocked up into the hands of New England's Ellis Hobbs, seemed to seep the juice out of the Giants offense until the fourth quarter, New York was able to force Brady into many mistakes. In the fourth, the Giants were up 10-7 with the ball, but failed to move it down the field. It seemed like they might be doomed to come up short. Sure enough Brady led his team into the end zone, as he had done so many times in crucial situations. Moss caught the pass and the Patriots seemed well on their way to further cement their dynasty. But no. Eli Manning, in a drive reminiscent of Tom Brady six years ago, or Joe Montana thirteen years before, took his team to the top. Manning won the MVP and the respect of everyone who watched.

Commercial: I liked the Rocky horse and the Barkley-Wade one. The Carville-Frist one was good too. I guess Coke is trying to be the new Obama. But it's further proof of something I've always said, Bill Frist is more qualified to act in a Coke commercial than to be President of the United States.