As for most sports fans, my weekend was spent watching the great NFL playoff games. Among the excitement, however, was my New York Giants, the defending Super Bowl champions, being eliminated, with a loss to Philadelphia of all teams.
Normally I would be pretty mad and upset, maybe a couple days until it goes away. I don't deal well with losing. Especially after Carolina lost, the road back to the Super Bowl was looking good. They just had to take care of the Eagles, who despite their win streak, I had not been (nor am I yet) impressed with, and then host the Cardinals, who despite their turnaround in the playoffs, I still could not possibly see them coming to the Meadowlands and winning.
Unfortunately, the Giants came out and played one of their worst games of the season, and all it takes is one in the NFL playoffs to be done. Not only was Eli horrible, but the Giants coaches (mainly Coughlin and Gilbride) seemed to be doing their best to make it more difficult for them to win with bad decisions and worse playcalling. I hate to say something like I would have done a better job, but never can I remember a game where so many times I wanted the Giants to do something, watched them do the exact opposite, and fail seemingly every time.
But enough about that. I had to talk about the Giants, but it all circles back around to the Mets. About one year ago, in the offseason going into the most important and most desparate Mets season ever for me personally, my Giants claimed Super Bowl victory in an amazing defeat of the Patriots. I couldn't help but blog about my joy and excitement.
Well, we know how the story of the 2008 season finished for the Mets, and it was heartbreaking for me. I'm still struggling to embrace the Mets right now going into 2009. My point is, as I said before, normally I would be very mad and upset about the Giants losing, especially to Philadelphia. But strangely, I wasn't. Sure, I punched my desk a couple times and was pretty disappointed after the game ended, but I got over it pretty quickly.
There was only one thing I could attribute this contradiction to my typical reactions as a crazed sports fan, and that was that the Giants were still the Super Bowl XLII champions. That great feeling of a year ago is still there, and going through this entire season as the defending champions was amazing.
As I was going through my period of complete dismissal of the Mets this past October, I thought to myself that all this torment heartbreak cannot possibly be worth a hopefully eventual championship ring. But the Giants, in their playoff loss, proved to me just how sweet it is to hoist the trophy.
I feel like all I need is just one World Series run by the Mets. Just one championship that I can celebrate. From then on, no failures could ever hurt as much as they do now. I'm not going to beg for the Mets to go out and win this year; I did that last year, and that clearly didn't help any. I just have to wait patiently for that day to come. Until then, I just have to take the bad with the good, and hope that one day this will all be worth it.
Bring on the 2009 season.
Showing posts with label New York Giants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New York Giants. Show all posts
Monday, January 12, 2009
Monday, February 4, 2008
New York Giants: Super Bowl XLII Champions!
With all the excitement of Johan Santana finally becoming a Met, I'm going to have to step back for a second to celebrate some football happenings.
The New York Giants defeated the New England Patriots 17-14 yesterday to win Super Bowl XLII! And boy, what a game it was. Probably the greatest Super Bowl that I've ever seen, regardless of the fact that my favorite team ended up the winner. Plus, certainly the best single play in the Super Bowl I've ever seen. I still cannot believe that Eli got away from that sack, and then just an amazing play by David Tyree catching the long pass.
I've also liked the Patriots since I was a kid, and they're my second favorite team, so I'm not going to sit there and rip on them for missing out on perfection. I've been rooting for perfection since early in the season, not expecting it would be the Giants who would have the opportunity to stand in their way in the end.
This was such an improbable finish to the season. The Giants were really sloppy in the regular season; I didn't even think they deserved to make it, but they got into the playoffs thanks to there only being about five teams in the whole NFL who actually deserved the shot.
But what I could see through their struggles was great potential. I was saying all season they could beat any team in the league - including the Patriots - if they could play well for a full four quarters. Throughout the entire season though, all the way up through Week 17 where they nearly ended the Patriots run right then and there, they never showed that they were capable of playing the full four quarters.
But what was a loss on paper may have turned out to be the biggest turning point of their season. They still came out with a very bad first quarter against the Buccaneers, but then they went on to dominate that game. Then the Cowboys. Then the Packers. Each game the team improved, and Eli played as well as he's ever played in that stretch of games.
It was the potential that I saw finally being reached. Three weeks earlier, I had very little confidence in this team being able to make some noise in the playoffs. Now, they were getting ready to play the Patriots in the Super Bowl, and I wasn't even intimidated by them.
The Giants had nearly beaten the Patriots in Week 17, even should have beat them. Now, Big Blue was as hot as could be, with a ton of momentum on their side. After interceptions and fumbles plagued the regular season, Eli had not turned the ball over once in the three playoff games. Their confidence couldn't be higher. And Tom Brady was coming off his worst playoff performance of his career.
All season I believed that the Giants could beat anyone. Not only did I think they could win, I thought that they would win.
One amazing game later, one unbelievable drive later, I was experiencing perhaps the happiest moment in this sports fan's life. My Giants had pulled off arguably the biggest upset in history to become the Super Bowl champions. And I never doubted them over the past three weeks.
I was four years old when the Giants last won the Super Bowl. I have nothing but faint memories of celebrating the victory. That's more than what I have for the last Mets' World Series though, which came when I was just six months old. Since then, both of my favorite teams had only reached that final stage once, following their 2000 seasons. And both of their performances were so horrid that I've tried my best to erase them from my memory.
The New York Giants have finally come through. I have truly celebrated and appreciated a Super Bowl victory by my team. That metaphorical bottle of champagne has been popped.
New York Mets: You know what you have to do now.
The New York Giants defeated the New England Patriots 17-14 yesterday to win Super Bowl XLII! And boy, what a game it was. Probably the greatest Super Bowl that I've ever seen, regardless of the fact that my favorite team ended up the winner. Plus, certainly the best single play in the Super Bowl I've ever seen. I still cannot believe that Eli got away from that sack, and then just an amazing play by David Tyree catching the long pass.
I've also liked the Patriots since I was a kid, and they're my second favorite team, so I'm not going to sit there and rip on them for missing out on perfection. I've been rooting for perfection since early in the season, not expecting it would be the Giants who would have the opportunity to stand in their way in the end.
This was such an improbable finish to the season. The Giants were really sloppy in the regular season; I didn't even think they deserved to make it, but they got into the playoffs thanks to there only being about five teams in the whole NFL who actually deserved the shot.
But what I could see through their struggles was great potential. I was saying all season they could beat any team in the league - including the Patriots - if they could play well for a full four quarters. Throughout the entire season though, all the way up through Week 17 where they nearly ended the Patriots run right then and there, they never showed that they were capable of playing the full four quarters.
But what was a loss on paper may have turned out to be the biggest turning point of their season. They still came out with a very bad first quarter against the Buccaneers, but then they went on to dominate that game. Then the Cowboys. Then the Packers. Each game the team improved, and Eli played as well as he's ever played in that stretch of games.
It was the potential that I saw finally being reached. Three weeks earlier, I had very little confidence in this team being able to make some noise in the playoffs. Now, they were getting ready to play the Patriots in the Super Bowl, and I wasn't even intimidated by them.
The Giants had nearly beaten the Patriots in Week 17, even should have beat them. Now, Big Blue was as hot as could be, with a ton of momentum on their side. After interceptions and fumbles plagued the regular season, Eli had not turned the ball over once in the three playoff games. Their confidence couldn't be higher. And Tom Brady was coming off his worst playoff performance of his career.
All season I believed that the Giants could beat anyone. Not only did I think they could win, I thought that they would win.
One amazing game later, one unbelievable drive later, I was experiencing perhaps the happiest moment in this sports fan's life. My Giants had pulled off arguably the biggest upset in history to become the Super Bowl champions. And I never doubted them over the past three weeks.
I was four years old when the Giants last won the Super Bowl. I have nothing but faint memories of celebrating the victory. That's more than what I have for the last Mets' World Series though, which came when I was just six months old. Since then, both of my favorite teams had only reached that final stage once, following their 2000 seasons. And both of their performances were so horrid that I've tried my best to erase them from my memory.
The New York Giants have finally come through. I have truly celebrated and appreciated a Super Bowl victory by my team. That metaphorical bottle of champagne has been popped.
New York Mets: You know what you have to do now.
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