No one should be surprised by the media coverage leading up to the Super Bowl. It's the biggest game of the year in the most popular sport in the America. This year's Super Bowl will be the highest rated television broadcast of the year, and, considering the markets and fan bases involved, could attract the highest rated Super Bowl of all time. You don't need to be a lover of football to know this, as even non-fans tune in to the game to catch the ads that they will eventually feel let down by. It's a big event, and big events are something people talk about.
Every Super Bowl is unique and comes with it's own story lines, and this one has no shortage of sub-plots: What a win or loss does to Tom Brady's legacy among all-time great quarterbacks. What a win does for the legacy of Eli Manning, particularly when compared to big brother Peyton. The comparisons to the-Super-Bowl-that-shall-not-be-named. The question of whether Bill Belichick still deserves the label of "genius" (possibly the most collectively blocked out thought among die-hard Pats fans). Will Tom Coughlin or Bill Belichick handle defeat by screaming at children until they cry? Will Tom Coughlin or Bill Belichick celebrate a victory by screaming at children until they cry? Will anyone be a bigger loser than all the fans who sit through Madonna's half-time show? All of this without getting into Rob Gronkowski's footwear options or Tom Jackson's impact on the game.
I've tried to avoid thinking about this game as much as possible. I don't like the way the Giants defense gets after the quarterback (absolutely the best way to stop Tom Brady), but this Patriots offense runs quicker plays than the '07 team, and should be better suited to deal with the pass rush. A banged-up Gronkowski will surely hurt them, but if he can give them even 75 percent, along with Aaron Hernandez and Wes Welker, the "dink and dunk" offense they use could be able to get the ball off before pressure can disrupt the play. The Patriots defense still scares me, but they have been much better in the playoffs, and have at times been more aggressive in their play-calling.
(Anyone reading this who remembers my week 3 freak-out, I stand by the points I made then, and would like to call attention to the fact that, at the time, New England was 28th in the league in sack rate, and have since moved to 13th, including the postseason. Some of this can be attributed to playing some not so stellar teams down the stretch, but it's also been due to a more aggressive approach on defense, particularly in the season finale against Buffalo, the divisional round game against the Broncos, and for parts of the AFC Championship against Baltimore. Do I think New England's defense is good enough to be part of a Super Bowl winning team? Yes. Do they make me want to throw up when I think about watching them for 60 minutes this Sunday? Yes.)
Let's forget about all of this for a minute. All of the side-stories, subplots, injury reports, bulletin board material, and breakdowns. First and foremost, I am a fan. A lot of the space I've used here has been on the teams and sports I love, and spend enough time with me and I'm bound to find a way to get onto that topic, even if you don't want me to. This Sunday, my love of football and the New England Patriots is going to dictate my following week. Forty-five grown men are going to try to break the bodies and minds of forty-five other grown men, and depending on which of those two groups achieves that goal, Sunday night will be one of the best, or one of the most soul-crushing, nights of my life, and there is no middle ground. There are no "ugly wins" in a Super Bowl, and no "encouraging loses", only a champion and an also-ran. Fans live and die in these games.
This is ridiculous.
It is also unavoidable.
That's why the build up has been so stressful for myself and every other loyal fan of these two franchises. There is one thought, however, that seems to put this all in perspective without sounding completely hollow the way "it's only a game" sounds when someone who doesn't understand tries to point out how foolish we all behave in these situations. As a Patriots fan, I remember watching the team go 1-15 and being the laughingstock of the NFL. I remember watching them go 6-10 under Dick MacPherson and thinking that things were getting better, only to have them follow that up with a 2-14 season as we went through another head coach. I remember crying as I watched Brett Favre and Reggie White beat up on a team whose head coach had quit on them and was planning for his next job in Super Bowl XXXI. As a New England sports fan in 1997, that game seemed like it was as close as I would ever get to witnessing a professional championship. No one knew how much things would change in a few years, when the Brady/Belichick Era began.
I'm not going to get into everything that happened in those years, but if Brady and Belichick both choose to retire after the game on Sunday (DEAR GOD NO!!!), they will have brought fans of this team more joy than any of them thought possible, at least in terms of being a sports fan. They will have played in 5 Super Bowls, winning at least 3 of them, 6 Conference Championships, winning 5 of them, will be the greatest coach this area has ever seen, the greatest quarterback this area has ever seen, the greatest coach/QB combo the NFL has ever seen, and will both be first-ballot entrants into the Fall of Fame. Clearly, it's been a good run.
There is no question that Boston sports fans have been spoiled. Eleven years, four teams, seven titles. We have a team playing for a championship, and one that looks poised for another run. It's an embarrassment of riches. I say this not to brag, or rub it in to fans of other teams, but rather as someone deeply aware of how lucky we are to be a part of it. Years from now, nothing will stick out to me like the Brady/Belichick Era. I will never see anything like it, no matter how long I live and follow this team. The chances of another coach AND quarterback coming together and operating at this level are astronomical. Even if it did somehow happen, it wouldn't be like it is now. Nothing is ever as good as the original.
Whatever happens on Sunday, this has been, and always be, the greatest period in my life as a Patriots fan. I will tell my children and their children about watching Tom Brady carve up defenses and break records, and how before that, he was simply someone who managed games but got the absolute best out of everyone around him. I will tell them about Bill Belichick winning a Super Bowl before he even had a chance to install the defense he wanted, and how he beat other teams in the film room long before they ever took the field. It's been great to be a part of all of this, even if only as a fan.
Just don't try to throw that in my face on Monday.
