SuperBowl XLII: Pick Your Poison
R in CT kicks us off with his thoughts on the SuperBowl, which I will follow up later in the day with a similar post called “Death Is Not An Option.” Enjoy. -BB
This year’s Super Bowl is an interesting matchup for Jets fans — the bitter divisional rival versus the favored crosstown rival. Who to root for? It is a Jets fan’s Kobayashi Maru, a no-win scenario fraught with its own pitfalls (unless we can go back and rig Starfleet’s computer).
The Patriots Win
Ugh. As if we don’t hear enough about the Golden Boy Who Has Obviously Made a Deal with Satan and Lord Belimort, if the Patriots win, they’ll be forever branded as the greatest team EVER! A 19-0 juggernaut that — no matter how great the Jets play, even if they reach and win a Super Bowl of their own — everyone forever and ever will be compared to. The only way possible to knock them from the top of the pantheon of all-time NFL immortality would be if the league went to a 18-game season and a team went 21-0.
The Patriots Lose
If you thought the Hooded Claw got his team motivated to play angry this year after the ridiculous Spy-Gate incident, I have a sneaking suspicion that if they fell short of perfection, they’d be really pissed and take it out on everyone next season. And no offense, but I don’t want to see that offense motivated to try and outdo this year’s output.
The Giants Win
Yes, it would be nice because it comes at the expense of the Patriots, but by the same token, we would no doubt have to endure countless future comparisons from every sportswriter in New York — the Giants did this better, they did that better, their coach is better, their quarterback is better, their fans are better. At least we would have them on flag girls! Personally, I have no grudge against the Giants, and often do find myself rooting for them on Sundays, but I don’t know if I want to share a stadium with what would be recent Super Bowl champs. I suffer enough weak-sister envy already.
The Giants Lose
See “The Patriots Win.” I say again, UGH!
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Sophie’s choice, Scylla and Charybdis, Giants-Pats…
Meanwhile, after some Pats fans felt that the Jets struggles this year were bad karma for Mangini being a rat, now ESPN’s Jemele Hill believes that Randy Moss’ success this year after having mailed it in over the last few years in Oakland is good karma…seriously:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=hill/080130
I thought it was irony you Americans weren’t supposed to understand, not karma. Don’t any of you watch “My Name is Earl”? Nah, me either…
I can’t express it any better than this….”This game makes me want to vomit”.
The only way to look at is this way…19-0 will last forever. If the Giants win, the story will fade over time. I can get over the Giant’s winning faster than I can if the Patriot’s win.
Belichick’s face will be shown every year and anytime a team goes 5-0, 6-0, 7-0, etc… and we will have to hear about 19-0 over and over and over…the easier pill to swallow is if the Giants win!
i always want the afc teams to win except when it comes to our division…i hate the pats since forever just like i hate miami,buffalo and indy to this day…so yeah i want the giants to win it…i will at least smile everytime its mentioned that the giants beat the undeffeated pats in the superbowl…this will be a great feeling if they pull it off tommorow night…god i hope so…
I’m a bit conflicted about this as I was a Giant’s fan from 1958 to the Ray Handley era. Appreciated at the time that it was principally Bellichek’s defensive genius which won two Super Bowls for the Giants and ended almost 20 years of ineptitude.
And so, I regret that Woody didn’t appreciate that Leon wasn’t paying “Little Bill” that million dollar bonus money to stay around because of his satorical excellence, but because “Big Bill” only flashed his championship smiles when “Little Bill” was doing his magic act with the Jets defense.
According to at least one newspaper report, Belicheck asked if he could come back as the HCNYJ for a third time after he lost his lawsuit, but was told that negotiations were already well along to give the job to rah rah Al Groh.
Big mistake, as we know how that turned out.
(The first time the hooded one was officially the HCNYJ was for the period before Kraft extracted a king’s ransom from the Jets for letting Parcells out of the last year of his Patriot’s contract.
Before his resignation — after he became aware of the Patriot’s interest — Little Bill” had lobbied “Big Bill” unsuccessfully to have his contract reflect the then-current going wage if he became HC, not the number he signed on for three years ago. No dice, because of the numbers couldn’t be changed while the team was being sold.
Of course, there was also the element that “Big Bill” and his needle would still be Little Bill’s master.)
So, I have to give credit where credit is due and root for the Patriots because their scheme is what the Jets may turn out to emulate successfully, sooner or later.
I really don’t think that Tom Coughlin flapping his arms on the sidelines when things don’t go his way is an intelligent act. Indeed, his coordinators — particularly the defensive coordinator –are probably much more responsible for the Giant’s success than he is.
So, I pay respect to Billgenius, and hope that we will all be able to do the same when a Mangenius nails his own pelts on the wall.
YMMV
if you are a true jet fan, there’s only one thing to root for in this game. lots of career ending injuries.
amen jeff
I’m rooting for the Giants’ and Pats’ buses to collide with each other.
Me-te-or! Me-te-or!
Aren’t we looking at this the wrong way? I mean ordinarily a Pats undefeated season or the Jets cross town rivals peaking at the perfect time would be totally unbearable, but at least seeing one of these teams on the losing end would dampen the blow somewhat.