Posted on 02/04/2008 12:00:09 AM PST by Polybius
GLENDALE, Ariz. - There'll be no Hub parade on Super Tuesday. No commemorative books about "Path to Perfection." In New England, the church bells all are broken.
Two-touchdown favorites and touted as possibly the greatest football team of all-time, the Patriots were beaten by the New York Giants, 17-14, in Super Bowl XLII last night at University of Phoenix Stadium. Twenty-three hundred miles from Foxborough, an 18-0 season dissolved when New York's Eli Manning found Plaxico Burress in the end zone for a 13-yard touchdown pass with 35 seconds left.
The Patriots lost the Super Bowl. It is an alternate universe. It does not compute. It's like hearing Tony Bennett singing, "I Left My Heart in Ashtabula," or seeing a photo of Mitt Romney with his hair messed up.
Shocking. This was supposed to be the coronation for Bill Belichick's History Boys. They were the only 18-0 team in league history and they were poised to join the 1972 Miami Dolphins as the only NFL teams to finish undefeated.
Not quite. The '72 Dolphins are still safe. The Patriots blew a lead in the final minute. This time, the Patriots ran off the field while the confetti rained down on the heads of the other guys. For the first time in a long time it is the New England fans suffering agita.
"It's disappointing," acknowledged Belichick, who shook hands with Giants coach Tom Coughlin and left the field while there was still one second left. "They made some plays. In the end, they made a couple more than we did."
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Now the half-time air was sweet perfume
While the sergeants played a marching tune.
We all got up to dance,
Oh, but we never got the chance!
`cause the players tried to take the field;
The marching band refused to yield.
Do you recall what was revealed
The day the music died?
I sure didn’t expect the Giants to win, but it was a great game.
While the Giants had a lousy record for “wins at home”, They set a new standard for Consecutive Road Wins!
I was at the Superbowl in Los Angeles when Miami beat the Redskins and capped a perfect season. Only NFL game I’ve ever been to. My rich Florida Uncle couldn’t make it, so he sent us his four tickets. My late father and I, along with a fellow church member and his son attended. Very exciting, wish I still had the program.
Sorry, but paths to perfection don’t include cheating.
While NBC showed “The Biggest Loser”, FOX was showing “The Biggest Losers”.
The WORST 18-1 team in NFL history! Bwahahahahaha!
Didn’t Hutch predict this on the Rush Limbaugh show?
Yeah. Don’t forget to include the Jets in that cheater listing too. Their coach started this year’s bruhaha in a tit for tat for the previous season when the Pats security folk escorted their man out of the stadium while he was doing the exact same thing.
Also every other NFL team, current and past, since the invention of portable video cameras.
Espionage and counter espionage are as much a part of NFL strategy as the xs and os in designing plays.
Yes!
USA Today posted this photo of Burress below, with the caption "Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress pauses for a moment of reflection after catching what proved to be the game-winning touchdown pass."
Really, now? Is that what he's doing? "Reflecting"? And here I naively thought he was Pr**ing! (Word censored so as not to offend any MSMbots who might stumble across this thread).
I couldn’t believe it!! What a great game!
Maybe I could get him to pray for me. He must stand in good with the Lord.
I’m sure their were lots of prayers while that ball was in the air!
Sad to say, I did not see the game, but being from the south (Tennessee)I have been quite proud of the Manning family. Such a great football tradition.
I am very happy for them.
That is sad. Eli made the family proud!
Typical that the media calls it "reflecting"-no mention of giving credit to God.
I went to mass today, and the priest talked about the beatitude "Blessed are the poor in spirit". He explained its meaning as-Man being aware that he is nothing without God, that everything comes from God.
He said- while we are watching the SB, that we might have the tendency to think the perfection of the athlete's playing ability comes from themselves, but it doesn't. It's from God.
He baisically said that is how we get in trouble- when we start thinking everything comes from us and not from God.
Your post reminded me of this.
Belichek is going to have a long off-season to think about why he decided to go for it on 4th and l7 instead of kicking that 48-yard field goal to go seven points up. Three points was the margin, after all.
Plaxico Burress has to be the happiest man in New York today. After he caught so much flak for predicting the Giants Defense would hold the Patriots to 17, they did him better by holding them to 14.
History derailed. Giants ruin Patriots’ quest for perfection with 17-14 stunner ...
where are all the FR haters today????
congrats to the NY Giants ~ great game!!!!
....and just wait for the Yankees as pitches & catchers report in a few weeks!!!!!
I thought that Hutch picked the Giants!
The Giants played like they wanted to win the SB. The Patriots played like they thought they were destined for glory. In any event, one of the best SBs I’ve ever seen, and heartiest congratulations to the Giants - and Plaxico Burress, a graduate of Green Run High School in Virginia Beach. Also Eli - what an incredible talent.
What a difference a championship makes. As a Giants fan I didn’t see this coming, a win or their defensive domination. Now I believe based on the fact that the Giants are a faster team, that they would beat the pats at least 6 out of ten times if they played. And with all the young talent on the G-Men they’ll be a contender to win it all for several more years.
It was low-class of Belichick to leave the field before the game was over, albiet just one second.
What a fun game to watch!
Well there goes those 19-0 t-shirts.
Great game Giants. As much as I hated to see the Packers lose, this was sweet.
Did anyone see the Fox video of Eli Manning and his brother Payton in the locker room after the game? That alone was worth my team losing! That was soooo cool! Congratulations to the Giants and the Manning Family! Well done!
He said that, if Brady was sacked three times, the Giants would win.
The Patriots were far from the greatest NFL team of all time, even if they had won yesterday.
That alone would have been enough to have me rooting against them even if I had no interest in who actually won the game.
I've read that slam several places on the net. It is a low-class, undeserved attack on the New England coach. He ran out onto the playing field to congratulate Giants coach Tom Coughlin (something also wrongly denied by others) and headed for the locker room thinking time had expired.
Would you run out onto the field to congratulate your opponent if you didn't think the game had ended? Even some of the New England players who were supposed to play defense for the final second had gone to the locker room thinking the game had ended.
Thank God the Tom Brady love fest is over.
Correction. You mean attempting a 48-yard field. That's not an automatic thing even in good weather conditions.
I can’t help to think of that decision either. Anyway, my hat is off to the Giants, they were the better team on the field last night, and won.
“Well there goes those 19-0 t-shirts.”
A lot of generic “Dallas Cowboy - World Champions” items showing up in Texas stores as of 3 weeks ago.
Noticed they didn’t have a year.
I'd also like to congratulate the Pats for the level of excellence they displayed all season, and for fighting until the end, week in and week out, there's no doubt that they're a classy group of guys.
I'll note in closing that the Globe article you posted had very little to say about the extraordinary effort put forth by the Giants, nor did Belichek at the end of the game; there's always room for growth.
A lot of people on that board are saying the Patriots choked. They didn’t choke. The Giants played a great game. There’s a big difference, and it’s what makes a classic game.
I was rooting for the Giants, though I didn’t think they would win. Once again proves the old saying that offense scores points, defense wins championships. The Giants front seven harassed the Patriots o-line and Brady all night.
“Thank God the Tom Brady love fest is over”
My friend kept saying that Giselle would be Brady’s ruination!
That's not the old saying. The old saying is: "Offense Sells Tickets, Defense Wins Championships."
Good game.
Now...time to get ready for NASCAR!!!!
A most interesting game.
“Offense Sells Tickets, Defense Wins Championships.”
I thought it was: Offense wins games, defense wins championships.
No doubt the Giants defense won the game yesterday. Five times they sacked Brady, five times. Amazing!
Do a google search and see whatcha come up with.
Burris should be the season MVP for the Giants. He played hurt game after game and played well.
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