Post-Super Bowl stuff

Update on my Super Bowl prediction rant: So sure enough, New York DID win, and now people think Dr. Z is some kind of genius. Those people have been tricked. As I said before, he didn’t know they’d win any more than you or I could predict the future. He just picked that way so that he would look smart if indeed it did happen, and everyone fell for it. But I stick by what I said. It was ridiculous of him. Having a “hunch” is not a football analysis. Sports Illustrated pays him to talk about football, and even when he made his prediction, he flat out admitted that he “can’t handicap this game using traditional methods…”, basically saying, I’m not going to actually look at the football teams and give an honest prediction, I’m just gonna throw something against the wall and see if it sticks. Like I said, taking that position was a no-lose situation. He’s right, he looks like a genius, he’s wrong, he can just blow it off and say that deep down we ALL knew who’d win but what’s the fun in that? So no, I don’t suddenly think Dr. Z is some genius and now I feel bad for being so wrong. I still think he just snookered a bunch of people.
 
So here’s something that’s always bothered me about how the media covers close games. Why, in a game that would have had a different outcome had the losing team made ONE play in the final minute, why does the media then go on and on about how team X won because… and then they list all these things like how they ran the ball, converted third downs, blah blah blah, they just WANTED IT MORE, when really, they won because the other team dropped an interception (or something) on what turned out to be the game winning drive? In other words, the game is clearly a dead heat for 59 minutes, and then whichever team happens to win, suddenly the analysts talk about how the winning team was just better and all this stuff, and there are articles about all the “goats” of the losing team, etc. Well, what if the Patriots (for instance) had intercepted one of those passes they dropped? Then the analysts would be saying a whole different bunch of stuff to explain the whole 60 minutes, when the first 59 minutes were the same either way. Why can’t we all be honest with sports and admit that sometimes, things just went one team’s way at the end? Because that’s really what happens in close games more often than not.
 
A&M’s basketball game against OU last Saturday was a perfect example. It was tied with a couple minutes to go, and then A&M just got an important loose ball that led to a 3-point play which iced the game. But did A&M really outplay OU? Maybe, maybe not. Certainly on some level, because good teams close out those games more often than bad teams, but I think almost as much of that stuff comes down to who got the breaks in the last minute. The Giants did, the Patriots didn’t. That simple. Patriots are still the best team in the NFL this year, but the Giants are the champs. The best team doesn’t always win. And I’m not at all saying that to complain about the Giants winning. That was a great game, great story. It just reminded me of how silly it sounds now when they talk about the teams, as if the Giants just played mistake-free football and a great game but the Patriots were choking all over the field. One website had a list of “10 Goats for the Patriots” that certainly would have been 10 goats for the Giants if Brady had hit Moss in stride on that second to last pass attempt (Moss was open- how crazy would that have been?). So how can all these people be goats when the game wasn’t even decided yet, and how can something in the 59th minute determine whether or not you were a goat in the 44th?
 
So, my next rant, and I was planning on writing this whether or not Eli got the victory, is on how fickle the fans and media are and how much I hate it.
 
2 months ago, EVERYONE in New York and in the media was hating Eli Manning. Wondering if he’d ever grow up and stuff like that. Um, the guy is in his FOURTH year! He’s AHEAD of schedule! Why is everyone so impatient???? And it’s not like he was sucking or anything. Yeah, he was less accurate than the top guys, but his teams were usually pretty good, yet the guy got crucified because he wasn’t winning Super Bowls fast enough, and he was only in his fourth year. Peyton didn’t even win one until last year, but people expected Eli to be where Peyton is and they forget how awful Peyton was at the beginning of his career. And now of course they worship Eli, saying he “came of age before our eyes” and “grew up” and all this stuff. Hogwash. He was already mature and good but was playing against an entire league of professional athletes who are also mature and good. Then, he played really well for 5 games and won a Super Bowl. That simple. People make way too much out of these players’ failures, and way too much out of their wins. He got on a hot streak and led them to a Super Bowl.
 
What this should teach all these idiotic, knee-jerk fans and media people is two things: First, chill out!! Be patient for once. If you have a quarterback who is halfway decent, stick with him. If Troy Aikman or Peyton Manning had started their careers during the internet age, they never would have lasted, because after they went 1-15 in the first year, they would have been benched and never given another fair chance. Why can’t people look at those examples and see the benefit of letting your quarterback suck so that he can grow and improve and become a winner? People are so darn impatient now, if a rookie quarterback hasn’t started winning by November of his rookie year, he’s a bust.
 
Secondly, well, chill out some more. Why can’t people see what the Giants did and realize that all it takes to win the Super Bowl is a hot streak, and any playoff team can do that? It’s proof that almost everyone has a chance, so why not just keep your guys together and develop chemistry instead of freaking out all the time and benching your quarterback and firing your coach? This business of firing coaches after one year has to stop. Again, the guys that won those 3 Super Bowls for Dallas in the ‘90s were all together in 1989 when they started 1-15. Nowdays when a team goes 1-15 (or even 14-2 like last year’s Chargers), you must fire the coach. People talked about firing Wade Phillips this year after he led Dallas to a 13 win season! Their best season since 1995, and people want the coach fired because he didn’t win the Super Bowl. The irony is, even the mighty New England Patriots didn’t win the Super Bowl! I guess we should blow that team up too?
 
That lack of patience and the “I must have it now” attitude of fans and owner is bar-none the biggest problem in sports today. Worse than steroids, worse than off-field crime, the thing that has ruined sports more than anything else is greedy culture that exploded in the ‘90s. Unfortunately, it will never get better either.
 
But back to football, the fact that the Giants won should shut up soooo many Dallas fans (and other teams’ fans). For one thing, clearly the Giants were good. Their pass rush, which bothered Romo, also happened to bother TOM BRADY. People criticized Dallas for only putting up 17 points on New York. Well, the best offense in the history of the game only managed 14! Maybe people should slow down on the criticism of Romo. For another thing, maybe people will shut up with the criticisms of Wade Phillips and realize that even if you’re one of the best teams in football, no team has exclusive rights to win the Super Bowl, not even the Patriots. So maybe people should realize that the Cowboys had a great year, and with the talent on board they should be in the playoffs for the foreseeable future, and as long as you can get in, you have a chance to win, but at the same time, if you don’t win, it’s not the end of the world. It’s just a competitive league.
 
So football is over now (although signing day is here… might comment on that later), so sad. I did want to see the Patriots win, because I love dominance and greatness and history (I don’t root for underdogs unless their jersey says Texas A&M), and now I don’t think that undefeated record will be challenged again any time soon. But it was such a good game… For the record, I obviously picked the Pats, but I do have several witnesses to vouch for me that in the fourth quarter, I knew it wasn’t their night, and even when they took the lead, I let everyone know that Eli was about to lead a touchdown drive to win it. And then when he hooked up with Tyree for the amazing play, that is really what ended the game. Once they made that play, there was no way they were losing that game. You don’t make a play like that and then lose. God wouldn’t have allowed it. Certain plays define things much larger than the play itself, and that was one of them, and you could tell immediately that it was. They made that catch, and destiny was on their side, no moving it back. Right when it happened, I told everyone I was with that you can book it, Giants are winning this game (and yes, I’m trying to toot my own horn a little… it makes me feel good). And I’m glad I saw it, because like someone on texags.com said, that was a play you tell your kids about. It really was. It was that great.