tmcg | Go Giants :)

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Go Giants :)

We're a big Giants household here, so today is a day of celebration. Me, I still can't believe we got into the Super Bowl. It's going to take me a couple of days to believe we won. One of the biggest upsets in NFL history, and it was our team! Not to mention that it was a fantastic game. We reserved a table for dinner at our local sports bar and went kitted out in our Giants gear (well, with me kitted out in K's spare Giants gear, since I couldn't turn up my jersey, which given the power of sports paraphernalia voodoo may have been for the best, since IIRC the last time I wore it was for the Giants-Ravens game that it's best not to speak of) and watched with a crowd of enthusiastic fans. It's a pretty wild experience--the massive TV screens, the sensory overload, the voices chanting "DEfense!" in unison, the primal roar of the clapping and pounding hands and feet, the strange temporary community of strangers--and on the way home we had what K called Pavlov's car horn: beep at any corner and a cheer would go up from all the people out on the streets. We could still hear the horns and revelry from the strip when we got back to the house. It was as if all of New York had gotten married.

Yeah, ultimately it's just entertainment and just a game, but there's an awful lot of suckage going around these days, and when glee comes to revel in, I'm reveling in it. Go Giants!!! :) :)

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I dunno what the spread was but it doesn't seem like the biggest upset ever. That one has to go to Namath and the Jets. No one thought they belonged there. It was the equivalent of the Oklahoma vs. Boise State bowl game of the year before.

I thought the Giants had a good shot at it but then I'm a little crazy too. It wasn't like the Patsies were blowing people out in the process of getting to the Super Bowl.

The Giants did what they had to do. Put heat on Brady. Don't give up the big ones.

I was also pleased to see that the oh-so-smug Patriot team got their come-uppance. That and the "spygate" item didn't sit well with the "worlds most perfect footbal team" label.

Then again, I think things should be fair. Crazy again. :)

We in Huskerland are wintering over with a coach we all want (Bo Pelini) and a team that looks like it has prospects for a change (see coach for details). There's always next year. :)

There is always next year. :)

Yeah, I should amend that to "one of the biggest upsets." The Colts that season weren't unbeaten like these Pats, but they were the greatest team ever to wear cleats and all that, and the 18.5 spread was definitely more than the last spread I heard for this game, which was around 12. But this was the biggest (most exciting and happiest) upset to me. *g*

Heh. I remember when Oklahoma was the team we just couldn't beat back in the days of the Big Eight conference. When it happened, it was pretty wild.

Unfortunately, the bowl people decided it would be a great idea to have a repeat of that game and it kind of put a bitter taste on the season when the home team lost that one.

Then again, Nebraska has always felt the underdog in spite of the winning seasons. The recruiting ratings never got up to Notre Dame levels and lots of corn-fed locals got trained and coached up to a competitive level in lieu of that.

With the new coach, the tradition of walk-ons is back with a vengence. Also recruiting local guys that may not be the most highly rated. They make up for a lot of shortcomings in attitude.

Psychology can make up for a lot in football games. First hand experience of that from my high school days.

Looks like the NY Giants coach finally figured that out too. Just being a robot hardass typically doesn't get the maximum performance from a player.

I'm not sure who I'd pin as the "greatest team ever". The Dolphins that did go undefeated were quite a collection and would be up there.

Sometimes the best team doesn't always win on any given day either. I think one of the best Nebraska teams was the one that was beaten by Miami in the Orange bowl some years back by a kid named Bernie Kosar. They were unstoppable until that game.

Had Turner Gill (now coach at Buffalo Univ.) hit Irving Fryar for that two point conversion, they may have received that honor. As it turnes out, the Tommy Frazier led 1995 team that took apart Florida is often mentioned as the best college team ever. Frankly, I think Frazier should have got the Heisman that year.

My personal highlight of all the years (not counting Johnny Rodgers handling kick returns - simply amazing) was seeing Warren Sapp sucking wind in the fourth quarter of the Nebraska-Miami bowl game in 1994. Nothing like shutting up the big mouths. :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommie_Frazier

"Frazier led his team to back-to-back consensus national championships in 1994 and 1995, and he remains the only quarterback to have done so since the 1950s. The 1995 Nebraska team is considered to have been one of the most dominant in the history of American college football.[1][2] He wore the number 15 in his college days. In a 2006 ESPN.com poll, the results of which aired on Sportscenter, the 1995 Nebraska team was voted the best college team of all time."

"he tired Miami defense led by Warren Sapp and Ray Lewis could not keep up with the Nebraska option as the Huskers celebrated their first national title since 1971 and the first of Coach Osborne's career. Frazier was once again named MVP."

"Frazier teamed with Lawrence Phillips and Ahman Green to form one the most punishing rushing attacks in college football history, setting an NCAA record for averaging 7.0 yards per rushing attempt. The Huskers finished the season undefeated and were matched with the also undefeated Florida Gators in the Fiesta Bowl. Nebraska laid a 62-24 whipping on the Gators and Frazier garnered his third straight National Title Game MVP Award. "

Not much of a Giants fan (or any other), but the whole state was paying attention to the Superbowl because, naturally, Eli Manning was playing in it. That family is football royalty down here.

Ah, of course! Cause for celebration down there too. That's nice to hear. :)

One small but enjoyable vindication for me is that I've been defending poor Eli Manning's face for years, and we may finally hear the end of the complaints up here about how he looks stupid, or dazed, or diffident, etc. He had the same expression on his face when he won the Super Bowl as he had through all the ups and down preceding it. Dammit, Jim, he's a quarterback, not a dramatic actor, and not everybody looks the way you think they should look when they're concentrating, and faceomancy is futile. Petty of me, but: Hah. *g*

That's pretty hard when you have to defend a guy's face. Sheesh. Good thing Larry Bird never got drafted by the Knicks.

Frankly, it's a good thing that Eli's looking the same before or after the game. Like you note, it shows he's not getting too high or too low. He's in a balanced zone.

Personally, I think one of the defensive guys should have got MVP for that game. The "skill" players always get the glory when without the "unskilled" folks, they wouldn't have any. I'll take a team with a great line and mediocre backs over a team with great backs and a mediocre line.

Barry Sanders and the Detroit Lions comes to mind here.

And indeed the DEfense won that game.

There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth in our house. We're Pats fans (to the extent we're fans at all) and Rowen even got a Jersey to watch her first superbowl. Ah well, great game anyway!

Offense wins games, defense wins championships. The old saying proved true this time, anyway.

I have rooted hard for the Pats in the past, and I like them a lot. I'm still grieving Green Bay's loss to the Giants! So I do feel for you guys. I grew up getting my heart broken by Fran Tarkenton's Vikings, so my sympathies especially to Rowen. But definitely a great game, and here's to next year!

i can only imagine!

it's all college football where I live, which is kinda the same and kinda different.

so glad you got to be part of the floodtide of happy. congratulations.

my 10 year old was rooting for New England, but the husband was rooting for the Giants, so I think they had quite a clash down there in front of the big tv downstairs. :).

*cheers*

It can be a scary thing when the household loyalties are divided! We have Issues here when the Mets play the Yankees, and there've been some ugly scenes when we've visited K's Philadelphia-area family during Giants-Eagles games. Sounds like everybody escaped alive from the TV room, at least. *g*

For some reason I just never got hooked on college football, and I couldn't even get exercised about my own school's division rivalries, although I dutifully hissed whenever the Enemy's name was mentioned. (The saddest thing was that Princeton's rivalry was with Yale, but Yale's rivalry was with Harvard. They didn't even hate us back.) But as I understand it, college football makes pro-football fandom look friendly.

The tribalistic microcosm of nationalism disturbs me sometimes, but then I have too much fun rooting to really worry about it, and the floodtides of happy are awfully enjoyable...and hey, if only we could focus all of that feeling into sports (without rioting and wreaking havoc, of course)...

Missed the game, but I confess I really wanted the G-men to win because 1) not a Pats fan and 2) love a good upset. Enjoy the victory and good times! Nice way to kick off a week. :)

Thank you! We really needed some smiles around here, and my husband lives and dies with those G-men, so this is a really big smile. :)

It was quite an exciting, nail-biting upset, too!

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Go Giants :)

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