Column: A Giant win

By Brad Minkow
Feb. 5, 2008

The New England Patriots are no longer perfect, not by their record nor by their ability. And more importantly, the Patriots did not lose Super Bowl XLII; the New York Giants won it. Led by an unpredictable and unreliable quarterback in Eli Manning and fading superstars, the match-up with Goliath appeared to be too daunting a task for this year’s David. But, with critics at every corner, the Giants restored football and professional sports supremacy to a city that desperately needed it.

Entering the 2007 season, professional sports in New York entered an age of mediocrity that had not plagued the city in quite some time. The Yankees, despite an infusion of money, had not won a championship in more than a half-decade. While few fans outside city limits lost sleep or wept over this, New York baseball fans had become accustomed and self-entitled to victory, at any cost.

Following the Yankees, the Mets, the Rangers and the Islands demonstrated glimpses of promise, but as usual, never delivered wins. And at the bottom of the spectrum, there were the Jets and the Knicks, two teams with storied pasts but bleak futures. Add all this to a failed bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics, and in a nutshell the most important city in the world had lost the athletic superiority that the world needed.

Then there were the Giants. More conflicted and hopelessly average than any other New York team, the Giants appeared the least likely to bring a championship home to the Big Apple. While the team managed to reach the playoffs in 2006 with a meager 8-8 record, a newly rejuvenated National Football Conference East division posed an incredibly difficult obstacle for the Giants.

Additionally, the team found uncertainty as Michael Strahan, their best player, threatened retirement, Tom Coughlin, its head coach, had little job security, and its once-hyped quarterback slowly relented that his pedigree had no bearing on his talent.

Enter stage right, the undefeated New England Patriots, who proved all season long that it was a giant among little people, the best competitors barely denting its impenetrable armor. The game featured the NFL’s best quarterback and Most Valuable Player, Tom Brady, against Eli Manning, whose passer rating ranked No. 25 in the league behind many starters and several backups. The Patriots had already beaten the Giants in route to an 18-0 record and the rematch appeared to have a similar outcome.

But from the opening kickoff, New England looked as sluggish as New York looked determined. The Giants managed hold the Patriots to 7 points through three quarters, a victory within itself. But, with two minutes left and another New England touchdown, making the score 14-10 Patriots, all seemed hopeless for the Giants. How could an unpolished, conflicted team march down the field against the League’s best, especially with Manning at the helm?

Well, in front of a full University of Phoenix Stadium and billions of viewers around the world, Eli and his team did the unthinkable. They beat the best against the odds. And with this victory, New York found redemption from its least-expected source.

World take notice: The Giants are National Football League champions and New York City is back on the sports map.

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Column: A Giant win

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