super matchup
a week from today will be the super bowl. and it will pit the juggernaut patriots against the suprising giants. and i think this matchup will be significant for a number of reasons. i predict that a record number of households will tune into the game, because i believe that the matchup is a compelling one. the super bowl, after hitting it’s peak somewhere in the 90’s when it became the single most electric event of the year, has been on the decline ever since the turn of the century. halftime shows like michael jackson have given way to halftime shows like janet jackson. classic matchups like cowboys and bills have given way to forgettable matchups like buccaneers and raiders. and legendary commercials have given way to exploited chimps and hackneyed jokes. maybe the super bowl attained too lofty a perch in America’s culture to sustain. maybe people realized that todays athletes are selfish and unlikable. i think things lost their luster for me that one year i planned to watch the game with my dad only to have him delayed at work, leaving me to quietly watch the game alone, wondering who killed christmas. last year provided hope for a revival, at least for casual football observers, as the charismatic and self-deprecating peyton manning finally broke through, beating the evil patriots and easily dispatching the bears in the super bowl. although this may have not been a cultural revelation, it was one for the sports world. which is why i believe this year’s game to be so important; to continue this trend, to bring fans another great battle, and just maybe, to attract the interest of non-football watching super bowl fans. If the patriots win the super bowl, they will have completed the first 19-0 season in the history of football, perfection. they have been outright dominant, embarassing their competition week after week and surviving numerous close calls along the way. if they win, their accomplishment will have no precedent. because who else among us has been perfect at anything ever? did our current president receive every single vote when he was elected? no. in his first election he didn’t even win the popular vote. is our olympic basketball team perfect? no. we haven’t won the olympics in basketball for years, losing to countries that i’ve never even heard of. standing in the patriots’ way, courageously, are the new york giants. people are billing this as another chapter in the boston-new york rivalry, but i think new york views boston as its annoying little cousin. people in boston think that they are better because their sports teams have won the recent matchups with their new york counterparts. but seriously, if new york and boston had a war, it would be a massacre. new york has thousands of more people than boston. it would be like the battle about which the movie 300 is based. except the 300 bostonians would be killed in like 3 hours. seriously, how is this a rivalry? does the united states have a rivalry with the nation of cyprus? no. there are many reasons to like the giants in this game. they finished the regular season 10-6 and won three consecutive playoff games on the road, defeating the top-ranked nfc team, dallas, and the second-ranked packers in -24 wind chill in wisconsin. they have a quarterback that experts and reporters have criticized and crucified, a coach who until this year has been widely hated by his players, and exactly one player voted to the pro bowl, football’s all-star game. by comparison, the patriots are sending their entire team to the pro bowl, in addition to their trainer, their nutritionist, and the guy who paints their logo onto the field. the giants have beaten all odds to get to the super bowl and, in direct contrast to the record-breaking, model-dating, touchdown-dance dancing pretty boy patriots, have few superstars but many fundamental skills. maybe the patriots will win, maybe their will have their perfect season with their perfect coach, their perfect quarterback, their perfect team in their perfect city. but maybe not. maybe the giants will prove that they belong. maybe the giants will expose the patriots’ weaknesses and maybe the giants will pull off the upset. i think the reason to watch is not in witnessing good’s triumph over evil, which will indeed be on display, but to see what that war would be like.
