Super Bowl XLII Afterthoughts

Alright, so as anyone who doesn’t live under a rock should know, the Super Bowl was Sunday. It was officially the most-watched Super Bowl ever with 97.5 million people tuned in. It was the second most-watched broadcast in American TV history, beaten only by the finale of M*A*S*H, which is a show I’ve never watched. I was going to write a game preview and get all of our predictions here, but was too preoccupied/lazy to get it in on time, so I’ll just give you some of my afterthoughts. Just for the record, however, I was rooting for the Giants to take it all, though I didn’t place any bets on it (I should have).The New York Giants(who actually play in New Jersey) managed to win their 11th straight game away from home. They should appeal to the NFL to be allowed to play all their games away from home. The team who started the year 0-2 and gave up over 40 points in those two contests managed to walk away with the Lombardi trophy. It just goes to show it’s not the best team that wins it, it’s the hottest team.

The Patriots’ vaunted offensive line was completely unable to protect their prize quarterback. The Giants managed 5 sacks, and Brady got smacked left and right all night. For the first time all season, Tom Brady was yelling at his teammates for their faillures. The Patriots loss was because the Giants dominated them defensively, not allowing them to get anything easy. The people in Vegas who set the spread at two touchdown should all lose their jobs and those who actually bet on the Patriots covering that ridiculous spread deserved to lose their money.

Randy Moss disappeared for most of the game. Other than his one touchdown catch, Moss was for the most part a nonfactor. Wes Welker, meanwhile, managed to dominate. He caught 11 passes from Brady, tying the record for catches in a Super Bowl. However, on the merits of his 23 TD catch record breaking season, New England will still sign Randy Moss to what might be the hugest WR contract ever. He’ll also probably want to return for another chance to play as Tom Brady.

Eli Manning officially made himself a star. He wasn’t great, but his efficiency in leading his team, particularly in the fourth quarter, gave them the win. He left no doubt as to which team had the better QB yesterday. He saved himself from the rabid NY fans; he saved Tom Coughlin’s job, and he bought himself a Peyton pass which basically means the media probably won’t be too hard on him for his mistakes anymore and he won’t be relegated to only supporting actor roles in commercials with his brother.

The player who stepped up most, other than maybe Manning, had to have been David Tyree. The special teams player (who apparently plays WR in his free time) finished the year with more tackles than receptions, but when the time came and it mattered most, he managed to pull it out. He caught his first TD of the season in the Super Bowl after pulling down a monster 4 grabs for 35 yards. And in the play of the game, Manning miraculously pulled away from seemingly the entire Patriots front 7 and heaved a desperation throw down the field. Tyree outjumped grizzled veteran (and just plain old guy) Rodney Harrison, and prevented Harrison from wrestling it away once he hit the ground, to give the Giants a much-needed first down with only 40 seconds left in the game. After that, who could deny the Giants were the team of destiny?

Plaxico Burress managed to eventually come through, catching the game winning touchdown with only 30 seconds left in the game. Ellis Hobbes who was covering him on the play and got juked out of his shoes, will probably be eternally chastised for that one play.

The commercials were pretty good. Some memorable ones were the E*Trade baby, the FedEx carrier pigeons, the incredible Audi R8 in a Godfather parody, and the sexy Adriana Lima essentially just sitting there… and looking sexy. Budweiser always does fairly decent commercials as well.

Lastly, I would like to say I hate Tom Brady, I hate Bill Belichik, I hate the Patriots, and I’m glad they lost in what was arguably the biggest upset of all time. People don’t understand my hatred for Tom Brady, so I’m going to explain for all of you so you don’t I’m just a hater. Several years ago, after Brady won one of his Super Bowl MVP awards, he elected to receive a free Cadillac Escalade ESV, a car which wasn’t actually available yet. So GM had to put one in production for him. Then he decided to switch his order to a Cadillac XLR, a car which had sold out, so once again they had to put another one into production, once again delaying its delivery, as one would expect. Then Tom Brady went crazy and decided he would go to the press to complain about it. He called the situation ridiculous and claimed he would never drive the car once he got it because he felt disrespected. This is insane for several reasons. First, he was getting an $80,000 car for free, which he probably could have easily bought as well. Second, he was bitching about it being late even though it was probably his fault. And third, I bet he ended up driving it anyway. Thus why I hate Tom Brady; don’t even say I hate him because of Gisele because personally I don’t think she’s that hot anyway.

OK, anyway, I hate Belichik and the Patriots for several other reasons, namely being that Belichik is a pompous, arrogant, ass and because everyone seems to forget that the Patriots were cheating!! When you have that stacked a team, and then resort to cheating, that’s a ridiculous level of dishonor. It’d be like if Michael Schumacher decided to siphon the gas out of a Honda Civic right before racing it in his Ferrari. It’s an absurd lack of honor on their part. Thus why I hate the Patriots, and so if you sensed a hint of bias in this article, then yeah it’s supposed to be.

So yeah, that’s basically what I took out of the super bowl. Also, just so no one gets its twisted, I’m not a Giants fan. I’m actually a huge Falcons fan, which didn’t really work out too well this year, but whatever. I’m glad the Patriots lost, I hope this marks the death of their “dynasty” and other than Randy Moss missing his opportunity for a super bowl, I could care less about the lack of history being made in this girl. Personally I prefer the history the Giants made in denying the Patriots a perfect season. I hope you all managed to read this whole thing; it’s a lot longer than I expected it to be, but whatever. There are pictures for you to enjoy.

Written on February 4, 2008 in Entertainment, Sports by Quan Vo. TrackBack URI.