In 1999, ESPN.com compiled a list of the Top Ten Sports Teams from the Twentieth Century.

In the eras of Babe Ruth, Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Joe Namath, etc., which teams did ESPN choose as the best overall?

And, if a hockey team made the list, which team and season would it be?

ESPN selected the 1927 New York Yankees as the best team of the Twentieth Century.

They believed that the 1985 Chicago Bears were number 3, the 1995 Nebraska Cornhuskers number 4, the 1972 L.A. Lakers number 5, the 1996 Chicago Bulls number 9, and the 1972 Miami Dolphins number 10.

ESPN.com argued that the 1977 Montreal Canadiens were the second best sports team in the Twentieth Century:

"The second of four straight Stanley Cup champions from 1976-79, the '77 Canadiens went 60-8-12 to finish with a record 132 points. They went 12-2 in the playoffs, sweeping the Boston Bruins for the title. Montreal dominated both phases of the game as Guy Lafleur and Steve Shutt ranked first and third in points and Michel Larocque and Ken Dryden ranked first and second in goaltending. Dryden had 41 wins and 10 shutouts. Eight members of the team are in the Hockey Hall of Fame as is coach Scotty Bowman."

The readers didn't agree with the panel, however, voting the '77 Habs sixth out of the Top Ten. They agreed with ESPN'S 1st and 3rd choices, but thought that the 1996 Chicago Bulls should be 2nd.

Had ESPN done a Top 15, they would have included the 1956 Montreal Canadiens as well ("Won league by 24 points. So potent on offense, NHL changed power play rule.").

]]> http://sneakerboxx.wordpress.com/?p=935 Sat, 09 Feb 2008 16:32:05 +0000 lik dot http://sneakerboxx.wordpress.com/2008/02/09/if-the-pats-had-won/ You've probably already seen the Reebok commercial where the NY Giants win and preserve the 1972 Dolphins as the only team in Perfectville.  Here is the alternate ending, if the Pats hadn't choked.

Ugh...now we have to hear Mercury Morris talk until who knows when.

lik dot

Tom Petty's words never proved more prescient as he encompassed the very feeling that would hours later engulf all of New England.

It was a night for history, the media monster maintained. A pursuit of perfection. The champagne was on ice. The riot squad was out en force. The panegyric was written (in The Globe's case it was available for pre-order on Amazon). Even Dan Shaughnessy could not envision disaster. But it was not to be.

There were no smiles. There was no champagne. No guttural roar. And no celebratory kiss. There was only a blank stare at the floor, and a lecture from my girlfriend about how I was not a member of the team and that this had no tangible effect on my life. Nervous elation plunged straight into darkness. This must be what it is like to walk into a living room and find Chris Hansen.

I searched for logic in my explanation and found none. I blamed Belichick for having the audacity to change hoodies. I blamed Gisele for being a Brazilian Yoko Ono. I thought of Eli Manning's favorite show, and asked whether I had entered the Bizarro World. There was no rationalization that accounted for the best regular season team to play in a Super Bowl to be staved off by arguably the worst.

There were many accomplishments for the Patriots this year, some of them great. They are the only team to go 16-0 in the regular season. They had perhaps the best offense in NFL History. Tom Brady and Randy Moss set historic records. They were a profoundly lucky throw and an absurd catch away from perfection.

However, there is only one word that can describe the season, failure. The stated goal of every team at the beginning of NFL Training Camp is to win the Super Bowl. It is that simple. It is what the Patriots' dynasty was built upon. It is where legends are made. It was where Tom Brady became Tom Brady. You can have the finest beurre blanc sauce and thick succulent slabs of bacon, but if the scallops are off you're still going to get sick.

This season was not enjoyable. The beginning was fun. The blowouts were a blast. We saw perhaps the best football that has ever been played. But, the dynamic soon shifted. The Pats were no longer vintage Mike Tyson pummeling people with ease. We were Muhammad Ali fending off George Foreman week after week. Philadelphia, Baltimore, the Giants. Everyone threw the kitchen sink at us. We had to grind out playoff victories. It was no longer about winning. It was about surviving.

For the fans and indeed for the players, the goal became not losing, which is when it becomes trouble. Winning the Super Bowl for the Patriots was not going to be joy, but relief. Relief from the Brobdingnagian burden heaped upon them by the Mercury Morris-fueled media at every turn. Lions fans could innocently hope for mediocrity. Patriots fans had to claw tenaciously at the unattainable, only to lose grip at the peak and fall into a 72' Dolphins infested cavern.

The major issue being debated is whether this tarnishes the legacy. The answer is no. You are defined by your accomplishments, not your failure. No one will go back and ask Shakespeare why Measure for Measure sucked. Assuming Tom Brady's Super Bowl winning days are over, he will be in the Hall of Fame. Ditto for Belichick. Does anyone ask Elway about the three Super Bowls he lost? How often does Parcells' 1996 Super Bowl loss with the Patriots get brought up?

There is the "specter" (pun intended) of a certain Senator from Pennsylvania and his one man crusade to forfeit a Super Bowl victory to the Eagles. But. in the grand scheme of things, it will be about as important as the steroid scandals were to the 1970's Steelers. Translation, not at all.

In truth, my girlfriend was right. The Patriots' loss has no tangible effect on my life (Aside from the oncoming fusion of Peyton and Eli Manning's combined commercial power into an unchained behemoth known as Uber-Manning that will eventually throw off the chains of television's oppression and destroy us all).
I should be satiated on sweet victory wine, having not seen my football or baseball teams lose since Mid-October. So, just this once, I will be beneficent.

Congratulations, Giants Fans. Patience is a virtue, and one which you have displayed proudly this season with your unyielding support of Tom Coughlin and Eli Manning. Congratulations to you, sweat-browed stallion, with a heart (and many chains) of gold. Congratulations to you as well, lugubrious lass, who serenades us all with the dulcit tones of your Long Island accent. And, most of all, congratulations to you, New York-based media personality. No one would dare accuse you of bandwagon jumping or reading the players' names off a cue card.

To everyone in New York, a hearty congratulations, your humility and grace is an example for us all.

If yesterday’s Super Bowl football game were a movie, the critics would have walked out because of all the sports clichés. An underdog team that started the season with two losses goes up against the undefeated powerhouse team in the championship game and in the last minute scores the winning touchdown. They become the first NFC Wildcard team to win the Super Bowl.

Before we fade to black, the winning quarterback wins the Super Bowl MVP, the same award his older brother last year.  Their father who was an NFL quarterback but never had a winning season is redeemed by having two Super Bowl MVP sons.

An announcer called the New York Giants victory over the New England Patriots,  “One of the greatest upsets in Super Bowl History.”

The receiver who caught the winning touchdown cried on camera and the soft spoken quarterback said, “You can’t write a better script.”

What can screenwriters can learn from Super Bowl XLII?

DRAMA: Drama is defined as exciting, tense, and gripping events and actions. This game had plenty of drama. You had no idea what was going to happen next.

A GREAT OPENING: First the New York Giants took a 3-0 lead and the New England Patriots came back and took the lead 7-3.  The scoring then cooled down until the fourth quarter.

TWISTS & TURNS: There were fumbles and interceptions that changed the ebb and flow of the game. The lead changed hands several times. 

WHAT’S AT STAKE?: This wasn’t just another football game. The Patriots were vying to make history by becoming only the second team in NFL history to go undefeated, and having a better record than the 1972 Miami Dolphins they would have laid claim to being the greatest football team in history. As it turned out they weren't even the best team of the night.

SUBPLOTS: For the Super Bowl I would say that the subplots were all the commercials in between the game. Little dramas that offer a change of pace and something that some people look forward to more than the game.

STRONG VISUALS: Not only were there great plays on the field, but there were static visuals in the stands like the sign held up that simply read 18-1. That one shot was the game in a nutshell. Under a game ending photo of dejected New England coach Bill Belichick that caption could read, "The mighty have fallen."

BACKSTORY: There are too many to list here, but here are some:

-Before Eli Manning became the Super Bowl MVP he endured much criticism about his soft-spoken leadership.

-Winning coach Tom Laughlin’s job was on the line last year after finishing 8-8.

-Kawika Mitchell became a free agent last year and some thought he’d sign a multi-year contract for up to $25 million. The phone was quiet for 27 days and he signed a relatively low one year deal with the Giants to prove himself. In New York he had to change positions to play. He started the Super Bowl game and had three tackles including one sack. (As a fun sidebar, the month and year Mitchell was born I was a high school football player at Lake Howell High School in Winter Park, Florida where he would become an All-Florida football player. I wore #42 because my hero was Paul Warfield of the undefeated Dolphins team. ) 

-Wes Welker was so short in high school he was passed up by most colleges for a scholarship, later cut by the San Diego Chargers, under used at Miami but there he was,  a 5'9" receiver playing in the land of giants and in the biggest game in pro football. (His eleven receptions in the game tied a Super Bowl record.) 

-Doug Williams handed off the winning trophy to the New York Giant owners after the game in honor of his winning the Super Bowl MVP 20 years ago. Williams endured many hard years with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before taking the Washington Redskins to the Super Bowl. He was also the first black quarterback to win a Super Bowl. (Fun side bar 2, when I was a 19-year-old sports reporter/photographer for the Sanford Evening Herald in Florida I interviewed Williams before a charity basketball game. I still remember his quote when I asked him how he dealt with fans booing him. “It’s not always important how the fans be when they be there, it’s that they be there.”)

FORESHADOWING: Overconfident New England quarterback Tom Brady laughed when told of a predictions that his team would lose 23-17. He said, "We're only going to score 17?" Little did Brady know that he would be limited to one touchdown pass or that he would be sacked five times...and only score 13 points.

REDEMPTION: From the underrated NY Giants team to the individual stories there was much redemption which is at the core of many a successful movie. Redemption is one of those primal needs that screenwriter Blake Snyder is always talking about. Something every audience understands. It’s what makes us keep going back to sports movies again and again even though we often know the ending, because deep down we are looking for various kinds of redemption in our own lives. It gives us hope. And “Hope is a dangerous thing,” said Morgan Freeman’s character in “The Shawshank Redemption.”

STRUCTURE: There is a traditional beginning-middle-end to all football games just because playing time is limited. The rules of the game as well as the width and  length of the field also offer structure. Creativity comes when you embrace the limitations. Most feature scripts fall between 90-120 pages so why fight that? 

THEME: This one is as basic as they get; sometimes little underrated guys win as hard work and perseverance pay off in the end. (Hoosiers, Breaking Away, The Natural, Seabiscuit, Remember the Titans, and most recently the baseball film shot in Iowa The Final Season. ) Even the Budweiser commercial featured during the Super Bowl reflected this common sports movie theme. After one of the horses doesn't make the team he trains hard for a year with a dalmatian and makes the cut the next year.    

A GREAT ENDING: Throughout the day today people will be talking about Manning's last touchdown drive. About David Tyree’s spectacular helmet catch that helped set up the winning touchdown.  About Plaxico Burress’ game winning catch with 35 seconds left in the game. Great ending are satisfying.  And this one was for the Giants and their fans. And those that root for the underdog. 

That would include the teammates of the 1972 Miami Dolphin team who probably stayed up later than the Giant players as they popped another bottle of champagne (or two) as they have been doing over the last 35 years, celebrating their place in history one more year as the only Super Bowl team to finish the year undefeated. 

© Copyright 2008 Scott W. Smith  

As we inch closer to kick-off for Super Bowl XLII, the game itself will be preceded on various networks by the annual ritual of Pregame Shows from Hell.  These programs really make you consider running out to the nearest Interstate and playing kickball at rush hour.  They'll serve up stories and interviews ranging from the ridiculous to the sublime.  The barber who cut Tom Brady's hair when he was four years old, Michael Strahan's third grade teacher saying he saw greatness in him even then, or Randy Moss's views on . . . Randy Moss.  The sum of all of it will possess about the same news value as Paris Hilton breaking down Super Tuesday. Somewhere in the mix, though, we'll get mention of the 1972 Miami Dolphins and their perfect season.  In fact, we'll get mention of it before, during and after the game regardless of the outcome.  Would it have been all that surprising if, during either of the California presidential debates, CNN's Anderson Cooper or Wolf Blitzer asked a candidate their thoughts on the 1972 Miami Dolphins? 

When Sunday finally rolls around, I fully expect the usual cast members to be trotted out for public consumption:  Don Shula, Larry Csonka and your leader in the Never Forget About Us clubhouse, The Maestro of Whine, Mercury Morris.   

Blog Harbor contacted Morris' people for an interview but phone calls were not returned.

You'll recall during the regular season, when it was clear the Patriots would make a serious run at becoming the second NFL team in history to become undefeated champions, those pesky '72 Dolphins began popping up everywhere.  And with every successive Patriots win, you saw those Dolphins more and more.  Newspapers, magazines, ESPN, national radio broadcasts . . . it's as if they were systematically carrying out their grand plan after huddling up in an abandoned warehouse somewhere in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.  I can almost hear Morris saying, "Ok, Coach Shula, you got the daily print media.  Get your ass in front of every notepad you can find and begin spreading the word . . . Csonka, magazines my friend.  Sports Illustrated, The Sporting News, ESPN The Magazine, whatever you can do to keep us fresh in everyone's minds, DO IT!  Me, I got TV covered.  ESPN loves me.  Even if those damn Patriots weren't undefeated, they'd still want to talk with me just to see how I'm doing.  Oh yeah, I'm still relevant."

And while it may seem Blog Harbor has been a bit too preoccupied with Mercury Morris, there really hasn't been any way to avoid the man and his fellow Dolphins.  The actual Patriots-Giants Super Bowl match-up is more than compelling for a variety of reasons.  And certainly, to be fair, one of those reasons is the chance for the Patriots to join the '72 Dolphins on pro football's immortality mountaintop.  But therein lies the problem: Rather than sit back and let the Patriots and Giants have their moment, they can't seem to help themselves from trying to be the story.  The game is New England vs. New York.  Not New England vs. New York featuring the 1972 Miami Dolphins.  If the national media would kick back their enabling of Mercury and his Marionettes by even 20%, we might be able to go 24 hours without hearing about them.

The other subplot in all of this is the constant banter from former '72 Dolphins, and certainly their fans, about how they're the greatest team in NFL history.  It's not enough to endure hearing about this team's undefeated season; fine, at least there's a reason to make a claim for their fame.  But the greatest team ever label?  Not a chance. 

Five teams that were superior, at least from this vantage point, come to mind immediately:  The '78 Steelers, the '84 and '89 49ers, the '85 Bears and the '96 Green Bay Packers.  Certainly there are others out there, notably the '92 Cowboys and even the '91 Redskins.

Rankings like that can be argued all day; that's what makes being a sports fan both fun and maddening.  But beyond one man's rankings, this much is clear: Having an undefeated season does not immediately qualify you as the greatest team of all time.  Certainly, if New England wins on Sunday, they will have the greatest season of all time.  But the greatest team?  I don't think so.  

Super Bowl Sunday approaches and the clock is ticking on dual histories:  One of those histories was engraved into the minds of football fans everywhere 35 years ago in Los Angeles.  The other one, its final chapter will be written in Glendale, Arizona.

As it's been noted here before, should New England finish off the Giants to cap a 19-0 championship season, it likely will spell the end of the media pursuing Mercury Morris and his Dolphins colleagues ever again.  Although they will always have the distinction of being the first to accomplish an undefeated championship season in the NFL, ours has become a society that increasingly puts more weight on sports accomplishments and records happening now.  Right or wrong, the vast majority of fans following the league these days view anything pre-1990 as ancient.  With that in mind, Team Arrogance Personified can do everyone a favor and simply drift away with the outgoing tide.

And if New York does the unthinkable and defeats the Patriots, Mercury and his Marionettes likely will sponsor and pay for the Giants victory parade . . . just as soon as they're finished making appearances on ESPN, CNN, Fox and the BBC. 

tom brady-michael strahan photo, courtesy al bello/getty images

For Blog Harbor and more cool stuff visit CGabriel.com

75.  Does the number mean anything to you?  Surely it does to some people.  For example, it's important to LEGO.  This past August 10th, they celebrated their 75th anniversary.  Esquire magazine will be celebrating their 75th anniversary this year.  And the 2007-08 sports calendar has the Southeastern Conference celebrating, yep you guessed it, their 75th anniversary.  If you dig deeply enough, you'll find a whole host of things where the number 75 is significant.  

It is also a benchmark number shared by the cities of Boston and New York.

When you combine the number of professional sports championships between the two cities, you get an astounding 75.  And if you count the Giants NFL championships prior to the Super Bowl and those of the New York Nets back in the ABA, tack on six more.  In two weeks, the number goes to 76 after either the New England Patriots or the New York Giants win the Super Bowl.

Consider their 75 banners for a moment.  When you add up the championships from Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Detroit, Baltimore, Atlanta and Dallas -- if you're scoring at home, that's more than 30 teams -- it still falls short of your Boston/New York combo platter.  And if you remove Los Angeles, go ahead and insert about 15 other cities; the total number of titles still sits below 75.  But this isn't about numbers or stats.  Rather, it's about Boston and New York and the upcoming Super Bowl.  More to the point, which city is the lesser of two evils that will receive your rooting interest?

I lived in New York for many years and have spent more time in Boston than I can remember.  I love both cities; if you've never been to either of them, what are you waiting for?  Go.  Culturally, there aren't many cities that offer more than New York or Boston.  I give New York the nod there, with so many museums, Broadway, Lincoln Center . . . the list is endless.  For sheer beauty, it's Boston in a runaway.  The Charles River, Cambridge, Boston Common, Back Bay . . . Boston has an almost Charles Dickens-like feel to it.  But sooner or later, when you're talking about these two cities, the discussion invariably goes to sports.

For those of us who aren't natives of either city, the whole Boston-New York thing has become just this side of nauseating.  At times, does it seem the only two teams in Major League Baseball are the Red Sox and the Yankees?  And if there's a third that anyone ever talks about, it's the Mets.  There was a time when every Celtics-Knicks game found its way onto national television even though there were years a Harvard-Columbia game might have been more interesting.  And for those fans who actually follow hockey, yours truly being one of them, the Bruins-Rangers rivalry goes back to the NHL's original six.  Many of their games in old Boston Garden and Madison Square Garden were legendary, if only for the fights both on and off the ice. 

When you consider the choices you now have on cable, can the Boston-New York Channel (BNY) be far off?

And now with Super Bowl XLII on the horizon, your Boston-New York Hyperbole Threshold is about to be tested like never before.

There just doesn't seem to be any getting away from Boston-New York.  Many in the national media will insist the whole nature of the rivalry, irrespective of the sport, captures the imagination of America.  If there's ever been a more ridiculous, shortsighted notion, that America lives for Boston-New York, I've not heard it.  The USA defeating the Soviet Union in Lake Placid captured the imagination of America; I wouldn't be so quick to attach the same phrase to Boston-New York.

Then again, maybe I'm mistaken.  Maybe I'm completely out of touch.  Why, I bet the good folks in Bozeman, Montana, and Joplin, Missouri live and die for Boston-New York sports match-ups.  I'm told places like Eureka, Nevada, Almena, Kansas and Chickasaw, Alabama flat-out shut down when Boston plays New York in anything.

Quite honestly, I can't imagine how life outside of Boston and New York ever manages to sustain itself unless we are feted with a sporting event involving teams from those two cities . . . playing against each other, of course.

Now don't misunderstand -- I'm not saying the Patriots-Giants game won't be worth watching.  Absolutely it will.  And the storylines are plentiful:  The Patriots  (my one-year adopted team to once-and-for-all put an end to hearing from Mercury Morris and the 1972 Dolphins) are going for 19-0 history, can the Giants continue their magical run as an underdog, wild card team and win the Super Bowl, Eli Manning trying to go back-to-back with brother Peyton, Tom Brady inching closer to the "greatest quarterback of all time" domain . . . it doesn't get much better than this.  And yet, there's still that damn Boston-New York thing.

So who do you root for?  Well, let's consider all the variables from the other sports, before we get to the Pats and Giants, that weigh into your Super Bowl selection:

• Most baseball fans always hated New York because the Yankees have won enough championships to retire the trophy.  And the Mets . . . well, Gary Carter once played for them.  Enough said.  But now with the Red Sox becoming a dominant franchise, you're torn, aren't you?  There's no clear option here to tip the scales.
• It was easy to hate the Celtics of Bird, Parrish and McHale.  They were arrogant and they won championships.  Thankfully, they retired and so did the franchise's winning ways . . . until this year.  Now they're great again so you give the nod to New York, right?  Well, hold on a minute junior . . . two words for you: Isiah Thomas.  He alone is reason enough to still be sitting on the fence. 
• Surely hockey will tip the scales.  The Bruins and the Rangers . . . honestly, does anybody care? 

Lest you think I've forgotten about the Islanders, Devils and Nets, I haven't.  But in the annals of the whole Boston-New York thing, they're simply not relevant.  And the days of Bill Parcells and the Patriots-Jets . . . outside of either team's fans and ESPN's Chris Berman, nobody really gave a damn.

So as you total up your Boston-New York scorecard desperate to figure out who to root for in Super Bowl XLII, consider the following:  On February 3, 1938, Abbott and Costello broke into radio becoming regulars on The Kate Smith Hour.  Bud Abbott was from Asbury Park, NJ.  Lou Costello was from Paterson, NJ.   Asbury Park and Paterson are longstanding Giants towns . . . there can be no argument that Abbott and Costello were Giants fans.    On February 3, 1690, Massachusetts authorized the first official paper currency to be used in the Western Hemisphere.  Hundreds of years later, paper currency is used at concession and souvenir stands at every NFL stadium to buy hot dogs and popcorn for your kids, beers for yourself and giant #1 foam fingers to annoy the crap out of the people sitting behind you.

Abbott and Costello have entertained us for years.  They would be a fine reason to root for the Giants.  However . . . to actually watch Abbott and Costello either on cable, satellite or DVD's, you need to have money to pay for said cable, satellite or DVD's.  Paper money, whenever possible, is the most practical way to make a purchase.  All things considered . . .

Go with the Patriots.

tom brady photo, courtesy al bello/getty images; eli manning photo, courtesy jonathan ferrey/getty images

For Blog Harbor and more cool stuff visit CGabriel.com

The New England Patriots defeated the New York Giants 38-35 in one of the most exciting and competitive games of the season from East Rutherford, N.J. as they achieved a perfect 16-0 regular season record.

Give the Giants and fourth-year quarterback Eli Manning (who completed 22 of 32 passes for 251 yards and four touchdown receptions) credit because they fought tooth and nail and pushed the Patriots defence and offensive weapons Tom Brady, Randy Moss and Laurence Maroney to make big plays and key points in the game, which Bill Belichick's squad did and that is why they went undefeated all season.

New England is also the first team since the 1972 Miami Dolphins to enjoy a perfect season, which is a feat in itself.  That being said, the most impressive quality about the 2007 New England Patriots is just how they went about being a perfect team.

Individually, the Patriots were dominant and all four of the new NFL single-season records walk hand-in-hand with the individual performances of Moss, Brady, Maroney and the diminutive, yet explosive Wes Welker who caught 112 passes for 1,175 yards on the season.  

On a night when the main focus was on achieving a perfect regular season record, Brady broke the NFL record for most touchdown passes in one season by connecting 49 times with his receivers in the end-zone.  Moss broke the NFL single-season record for most touchdown receptions with 23, surpassing Jerry Rice's 22 touchdowns.  As a team, the Patriots set the single-season record for points scored in a season with 589, surpassing the 1998 Minnesota Vikings who recorded 556 points that year.

Not only did the Pats set four single-season records to solidify their perfect season, but they led the league in total yards per game with 411.2 and passing yards per game with 295.7. 

If there is one question mark with this team going into the playoffs, it will be their defence.  Defence wins championships, but it may just be said that Belichick's theory of defence is that the best defence is a great offence.  It is hard for opposing teams to score points when their offence is kept off the field by Brady and the various offensive weapons he has to choose from.

One point worth making as the NFL regular season comes to a close and the real football begins, is that not a whole lot of people wanted the Patriots to achieve a 16-0 record.  At The Point in Port Moody, B.C. last night, the majority of football fans there wanted to see the Giants pull off the upset, which they almost did anyways. 

It seems like a bit of a sad commentary on the sporting world when the fans that go to the games, the pubs and watch the NFL from their living room television want to see a team not achieve perfection.  Some of that has to do with the spygate controversy from earlier in the season, but once Belichick was disciplined for his deception, his team simply went on a tear and systematically picked apart their opposition.

Whether you like the Patriots or not, you have to give them every ounce of respect you can for this team.  They went 16-0 and did it in such a dominating fashion that the exclamation point may not be able to fit Gillette Stadium.

Now that the Pats have achieved their perfect season, they turn their attention to the Super Bowl.  As impressive as their season was, it would be even more impressive if they went on to the win the prize that really matters. 

Now, the new season begins and the Patriots, like the the other 11 teams that will compete for the Super Bowl, are one loss away from elimination.

No matter what happens in the playoffs the play of often maligned Giants quarterback Eli Manning against the Patriots will be remembered -- too bad for Eli his ending was very similar to Eagles backup signal caller AJ Feely's effort against the Pats in week 12 loss.  The former Ole Miss quarterback finally looked like the player he was expected to be back in 2004 when he was the first overall pick, throwing for numbers of 22-32, 251 yards, and four touchdowns with one interception.  The interception to Patriots defensive back Ellis Hobbs proved to be costly as the Patriots immediately converted the pick into seven points on a Laurence Maloney 5-yard touchdown run.  The Giants kept fighting throughout the loss contributing everywhere even on special teams where little used player Domenik Hixon in his first game as New York's primary kick returner went 74 yards for a score. 

But it was the Patriots night as NFL "Golden Boy" Pats quarterback Tom Brady was pinpoint throwing for 32-42, 356 yards, 2 touchdowns and no interceptions.  Brady found his favorite target Randy Moss twice with the last one being a historic 65-yard touchdown play for both players.  The throw was Brady's 50^th touchdown pass of the year breaking Peyton Manning's 2004 record of 49 and for Moss it was his 23^rd touchdown catch breaking Jerry Rice's record of 22 set in 1987. The record touchdown also had huge consequences on the game as the 65-yard bomb after Moss had drop a pass on the earlier play busted open the game for the Patriots and sapped the will out of the "game" Giants.  The Patriots also smashed the 1998 Vikings scoring record of 556 by posting an amazing 589 points for the season and passed the 1984 Dolphins' regular season touchdown record (70) by putting up 75 touchdowns.

The Patriots finished with numbers of Total Net Yards 390 (only 44 rushing yards), 5 penalties for 42 yards, Time of Possession of 36:18, and no turnovers.  America's "new" Team can now savor the victory this week as they have a bye while the Giants must now find a way to heal up in time to face the Jon Gruden led Buccaneers in Tampa Bay.  However I caution the Patriots that 16-0 is good, but a Super Bowl win and a 19-0 record is truly colossal (Both the 1934 and 1942 Bears teams finished undefeated only to lose in the post season).  Now the real "work" for Patriots is at hand as have to navigate the tough playoff waters against the Jaguars, Chargers, and Colts then get ready for the NFC's cupcake in the Super Bowl.  If they can finish the job of going unblemished (19-0) only then they can finally mark their place in history next to my buddy Marlin Briscoe (receiver on Shula's undefeated team) and the rest of the 1972 Dolphins by getting the ring to go along with their undefeated season.

Then there is this smack he ran on the set with Berman about Don Shula and the team's perspective on their perfect season.

I'll update it when it comes and no, I did not post that horrible freestyle he tried to lace up on ESPN. LOL. All I know is that this dude needs a regular seat over at ESPN. He's simple entertaining and that's what it's all about. Certainly better than that clown Skip Bayless or that botox filled part tanner Mike Greenberg...

- Lake