Super Bowl XLII
This coming Sunday is the day every NFL football player dreams about. In this sport getting to play to be a world champion does not happen every season and for many athletes that situation may never even occur for them during their career.
But if you are the Patriots it has become commonplace. Since the 2001 season the New England Patriots have played in 3 Super Bowls and won every one of them.
This year’s one has even more meaning to it. In the modern day era of pro football only one team has gone an entire season without a loss. In 1972 the Miami Dolphins finished the season (17-0), and no team since has ever accomplished that feat.
Well, until this season. The Patriots have rolled to an (18-0) mark and are one win away from being the second team to do so in the modern records of pro football.
Right now the Patriots are the gold standard in which every other team is measured. Like them or not, they have been the modern day version of what we saw from the New York Yankees in baseball in the 1940’s and 1950’s.
For the Patriots, it is either you love them or you hate them, and there is very little in-between.
The Patriots are built around a record breaking pitch and catch combination in Tom Brady and Randy Moss.
Brady, who has thrown for 50 touchdown passes and the fleet-footed Moss, who has hauled down an NFL record 23 touchdown receptions.
But it has just not been Brady and Moss, because each week there is a new hero. If it is wide receiver Wes Welker or former New Orleans Saints end Donte’ Stallworth, tight end Ben Watson, halfback Laurence Maroney or former LSU standout running back Kevin Faulk, they are a team that plays with great confidence and they believe every time they hit the field, they are going to win.
The Patriots defense is solid and they do something better than just about anyone else in the league today. While the Patriots defense will give up a fairly high yardage total for a Super Bowl club, they force most teams to settle for field goals instead of touchdowns and when you score 589 points over a 16-game schedule kicking field goals will not beat them.
Their opponents, the New York Giants got here in a more conventional way. The Giants are a very stout defensive unit and to be honest they had the Patriots on the ropes a bit in late December, before Tom Brady started to light them up in the fourth quarter in a 38-35 win by the Patriots.
Give Giants quarterback Eli Manning full credit. He has played at a very high level over the past three weeks and led his team to Super Bowl Sunday. Wide receiver Plaxico Burress has also been a huge part of the passing success, along with some strong rushing efforts by the tandem of Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw.
But what has gotten the fifth wildcard team in the past 11 years to the Big Show has been their defense, and in particular their pressure-packed front four led by veteran Mike Strahan, All-Pro end Osi Umenyiora and former Notre Dame standout defensive tackle Justin Tuck.
While the Giants have had a host of injuries in the secondary, their constant pressure on the quarterback has shut down three of the NFC’s best over the last month in Jeff Garcia, Tony Romo and Brett Favre.
And better yet, they won all three games in the host’s backyard.
The Giants are a very good football team. If they weren’t they would not be playing this coming Sunday, but in my opinion the Patriots are playing for something special, perfection.
For an organization built on pride, talent and an overall goal to excel, they have written a new chapter in the modern day world of pro football.
This coming Sunday I feel as though they will write one more very important page to that superb novel.
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