On Friday I met some members of the 1972 Miami Dolphins, the only undefeated, untied champions in NFL history. There's a part of me that finds it unseemly that the '72 Dolphins constantly seek attention, but there's also a part of me that thinks this Reebok "Perfectville" commercial is pretty funny:
The Perfectville campaign had two commercials ready, one in case the Giants won the Super Bowl and one in case the Patriots won. No word on what the commercial in which Mercury Morris welcomes the Patriots to the neighborhood looks like.
If you're in the mood to buy some merchandise celebrating the New England Patriots' undefeated regular season, the Phoenix airport is the place for you.
Miniature footballs, T-shirts and other paraphernalia related to the 16-0 regular season can be had for 25% off, but I've yet to see anyone actually purchase anything. I'm guessing most Patriots fans aren't really in the mood to buy a "16-0" souvenir commemorating the vacation that ended with their team losing the Super Bowl.
Of course, the NFL also made lots of products with "19-0" on it. Those will never be sold in the United States and will instead be given to charities that clothe people in Africa.
Sitting in the overcrowded Phoenix airport and waiting for my flight home, I've counted 21 people wearing Giants jerseys and zero wearing Patriots jerseys. Such is life for football fans on the day after the Super Bowl.
When I arrived in Phoenix I noted that there weren't many people who had the look of real fans, but that's not the case at the airport today. Plenty of Giants fans are here, and I've seen the jerseys of Eli Manning, Osi Umenyiora, Jeremy Shockey, Amani Toomer and Mark Bavarro.
But no jerseys of Tom Brady, Randy Moss or Tedy Bruschi. I'm sure there are plenty of Patriots fans heading home after the Super Bowl, they just weren't in the mood to put their jerseys on today. Can't say I blame them.
But I had an opportunity to speak with all four Man of the Year Award finalists last week, and Steelers receiver Hines Ward was the one who most impressed me, especially with his work in South Korea, where he was born.
Ward, who has a Korean mother and an African-American father and moved to the United States as a young child, says he's trying to raise awareness of the discrimination that often faces biracial children in South Korea. Ward started the Hines Ward Helping Hands Foundation, which helps ethnically mixed children who face discrimination in South Korea, and he says he'll travel to South Korea this year and meet President Roh Moo-hyun.
If Ward travels to South Korea next year, I hope it's to play an NFL game. I asked him if an NFL game in South Korea would work, and he said, "It would be kind of awesome to play a regular season game in South Korea, but I'm not the commissioner."
I'm not the commissioner either, but I think it would be awesome, and I think the league should do it next year, while Ward is still an active player. If Ward retires without having played in his native land, the NFL has missed a major opportunity to expose its product to a lucrative market.
One of the most striking things about Giants coach Tom Coughlin during Super Bowl week was that he actually seemed to be enjoying the experience. Joy is an emotion rarely associated with Coughlin, but he definitely showed it on the field after the game:
Said Coughlin, "The greatest feeling in the world is when all of a sudden you realize, you're the world champ." The man who for so much of his coaching career has been derided as a drill sergeant now seems a lot more likable.
In the second quarter of Super Bowl XLII, the Giants' offense had a three-and-out in its own territory, and it looked like the momentum was going to swing in the Patriots' direction.
But Giants punter Jeff Feagles unleashed a 55-yard punt, and the Giants regained the field-position advantage. There would be no more scoring by either team in the quarter.
Feagles punted four times, and all four punts were excellent. In addition to that 55-yarder, he booted a high one that Kevin Faulk fair caught at the 11-yard line, kicked one to the coffin corner that went out of bounds at the 10-yard line, and nailed one 42 yards that was fair caught at the 20.
No punter will ever be Super Bowl MVP. But the 41-year-old Feagles, who became the oldest player in Super Bowl history yesterday, was as valuable as a punter gets.
Super Bowl XLII was a close, hard-fought game that went down to the wire, the kind of game where one play can make all the difference.
That makes it the kind of game where one bad call by the officials can make all the difference. But unlike many big games of this NFL season, people aren't talking about the officials today. Referee Mike Carey and his crew had a good game, and they deserve a lot of credit today.
Yes, some will nitpick individual calls. Giants receiver Amani Toomer maybe should have been called for offensive pass interference on his 38-yard catch in the second quarter. The Patriots shouldn't have had to challenge the Giants' 12 men on the field penalty; that was a call that the official on the sideline should have seen. Carey seemed awfully quick on the draw to call a delay of game penalty against the Giants.
But mentioning those really is picking nits. Carey and his crew should be commended on a great game.
Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress has been one of the toughest players in the NFL this year, toughing it out on an injured ankle throughout the season. But even tough guys cry sometimes, and Burress broke down at the end of his post-game interview:
Burress only caught two passes, but one of them was the game winner. Looking over the totality of the Giants' 20-game season, Burress was their MVP.
The New England Patriots who took the field tonight at University of Phoenix Stadium were a good football team. But were they a great team? They were certainly great a few months ago, but somewhere along the line, that great 2007 Patriots team -- a team I thought was the greatest football team I ever saw -- became merely good.
It seems to have happened after the 10th game of the season. On Nov. 19, the Patriots were 10-0, and they had outscored their opponents by a total of 410-157.
Since then, the Patriots are 8-1, and they outscored their opponents by a total of 244-166. Now, don't get me wrong, an 8-1 team that outscores its opponents by a total of 244-166 is a very good football team. But these Patriots weren't supposed to be just good, they were supposed to be great.
What happened? My best guess is that age caught up with them. These Patriots had a number of old players -- I mentioned last week that Tedy Bruschi, Junior Seau and Rodney Harrison are on their last legs, and I also think Randy Moss appeared to be slowing down late in the year -- and they seemed to tire out just a bit, at just the wrong time.
I thought the turning point of Super Bowl XLII was going to be when Giants linebacker Chase Blackburn failed to get off the field on a New England punt, giving the Patriots the ball back with first-and-10 at the Giants' 39-yard line after an illegal substitution penalty.
But the Giants' defense stiffened, and eight plays later the Patriots faced fourth-and-13 from the 31-yard line.
And that's when Patriots coach Bill Belichick made the worst decision of the Super Bowl, eschewing a 49-yard field goal attempt and instead going for it on fourth-and-13. When Brady's fourth-down pass fell incomplete in the end zone, the Giants took over and gained a big field-position advantage.
And, of course, as it turned out, the three points the Patriots might have gotten with a field goal represented the Patriots' margin of defeat. It seemed like a bad decision by Belichick at the time; with 20-20 hindsight it seems like a Super Bowl-losing decision. Sorry, No Photos
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