My God. The New York Giants are in the Super Bowl.
That's all I could think after the G-Men somehow upset the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field in the NFC Championship Game. Being a Giants fan, this has been one of the greatest years of fandom that I have ever experienced in any sport. Their play has been so inconsistent this season that at no point did I ever imagine I would get to watch them play in the Super Bowl.
The New England Patriots are there, too, but I can guarantee that the experience of their fanbase has been nowhere near as exhilarating. When you win as much as they do, most of the suspense is taken out of the games. Don't get me wrong, I'd obviously rather the Giants were an 18-0 superpower. But when you're on top for so long, it gets a little boring. "Heavy lies the crown," goes the saying.
I grew up a Yankees fan, so I know what it's like to win a lot. The Yankees were the greatest sports dynasty of the 90s, just as the Pats are this decade (sorry, San Antonio Spurs and Dallas Cowboys). I was young at the time, but the more the Yankees won, the higher the expectations grew. Their first championships in '96 and '98 were unbelievable, but the later ones I took for granted. When the Yanks won in 2000, the last time any major sports team from New York won a championship, I wasn't amazed or relieved. My thoughts were more along the lines of "What number was that one, again? Twenty-six?" I had lost my passion for the sport because it was no longer an emotional rollercoaster.
The Giants have helped me to find that passion again. When the Giants lost their first two games of the season, I was pessimistic. My Giants-fan friends and I have a bit of a running joke, in which we always talk about how bad the Giants are - no matter how they're actually playing. Two weeks into the season, we were already talking about draft picks and how coach Tom Coughlin needed to be fired. We knew that they had talent, but we didn't trust them anymore. They had lost in the opening round of the playoffs the past two seasons, with Eli Manning throwing a combined four picks. How were we supposed to still believe in him?
The Giants managed to win their next six games against poor competition, bringing them to 6-2 at the midpoint of the season. Still, the joke continued:
"We've won some games, but we haven't beaten anybody good. Eli still looks like a dope out there. He needs an attitude. Maybe he should grow a beard."
Unfortunately, Eli grew no beard, and played unimpressively for most of the second half, notably throwing four interceptions - three returned for touchdowns - in Week 12 against the Minnesota Vikings. Nevertheless, the Giants finished 10-6 and made the playoffs.
Eli showed some chutzpah in a meaningless game versus the Patriots, but can one week make a quarterback? We didn't think so, especially when he had to face a strong Tampa Bay defense in the first round of the playoffs. The joke that week was a parody of the "Inside the Mind of Peyton Manning" commercials.
"Oh my God, I'm about to get sacked, where can I throw the ball?" Eli would think. "Plaxico? Covered. Toomer? Covered. Wait...Can it be? No...IT IS! Oh, Tiki, you've returned to me at long last!"
Eli was then supposed to throw several interceptions to Ronde Barber, Tiki's twin brother, who plays cornerback for the Bucs. After the first quarter in which the Giants had a total of -2 yards of offense, I was pretty sure our prediction would be accurate. To my surprise, however, Eli threw zero interceptions and led the Giants to their first playoff win since 2000.
The next week against Dallas, I was hopeful, but still skeptical. I just knew the Giants would find a way to lose. I was certain of this even late in the fourth quarter, when the Giants were up by 21-17 but were still keeping the Cowboys in the game. They had two chances to put together critical clock-crunching drives, but instead went three-and-out both times, giving the Cowboys ample opportunity to mount a comeback.
When the Cowboys had the ball inside of the two-minute warning, my pessimism was overwhelming. Each time Tony Romo threw a deep ball, I knew the ride was about to end. But the Giants defense held up, and finally, it was fourth down, with time left for one play and the Cowboys in need of a touchdown.
"This is just the type of game the Giants would lose," I thought. "We're going to choke on the very last play."
When Romo threw one to the end zone, I envisioned a Cowboys receiver leaping over four blue jerseys and coming down with the game-winning, heartbreaking, how-did-he-do-that catch. Someone did catch it: Giants cornerback R.W. McQuarters, to clinch the victory over our rivals.
"No words," I texted my pal, attempting to bring my heart rate back to normal.
Needless to say, when the Giants faced the Packers the next week, it was a little tense. I truly believed Eli had no chance in the below-freezing temperatures, but I'd been proven wrong the past two weeks about him. Eli managed the game well, and with just seconds left, the Giants had the opportunity to kick the game-winning field goal from inside the 40-yard line. Of course, kicker Lawrence Tynes missed.
The Packers proceeded to win the overtime coin toss, sealing the fate of the Giants. Or so I thought. Amazingly, cornerback Corey Webster intercepted Favre's first overtime pass, and Tynes redeemed himself with a 47-yard game-winning field goal.
Ecstasy. Disbelief. These sound cliché, but this is how we all really felt after the Giants won their 10th straight road game. One of my friends literally got on his knees, put his hand on the television, and, sobbing, proclaimed, "I can't believe the Giants are in the Super Bowl."
How many Patriots fans did that after they beat San Diego? Winning all the time takes away the fun. The Giants have had an up-and-down season; to quote the Foundations, they've built me up, they've let me down, they've messed me around. Sometimes they've looked great, and sometimes they've made me not want to watch. But the whole thing has been a blast. The Pats may have had a historic season, but to me, the Giants' season has been just as memorable.
Still, I fear the Pats will have the last laugh on Sunday. I'm sure Eli will find a way to blow the game somehow.
David Heck is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. He can be reached at David.Heck@tufts.edu.
