GLENDALE, Ariz. – There is no alternative.
Not for the Giants. Not now. Not anymore.
They cannot lose, because if they do this magical tale they have weaved like a suit of gold grows tattered and frayed. They were warned before ever arriving here that no one remembers the loser and the Giants above all else are determined to make this a moment to cherish forever.
After all they have been through, the grind of a good but not great season, a playoff express with layovers in sunny Tampa and haughty Dallas and arctic Green Bay, the Giants stop here and confront the most daunting challenge in this game’s storied history. Every championship must be earned but has any team ever dealt with what awaits the Giants tonight in Super Bowl XLII at the University of Phoenix Stadium?
It cannot matter to the Giants, owners of a gritty and unspectacular 13-6 record that standing before them are the unbeaten Patriots, 18-0 and on the precipice of a history-making achievement. Perfection is the goal and the Giants are the last obstacle.
“We are playing the best football team to ever play in the NFL,” defensive end Justin Tuck said. “When we say we believe in ourselves it is going to come off as cocky, but what do you expect us to say? Did we come down here just to enjoy the festival?”
This festival ends merrily for only one team and what awaits the other is wholly unacceptable.
“It’s such a huge gap, probably the biggest in sports,” said John Mara, the Giants co-owner, hearkening back on Super Bowl triumphs in 1986 and 1990 and recalling the numbing sensation of a Super Bowl loss in 2000. “You always feel great about getting here but there is no more depressing feeling than losing this game. There’s no lower feeling than losing it.
“I like our team, they played hard all year long, they believe they have a chance to win, so who knows?”
Who knows?
The Patriots if they emerge victorious claim yet another Lombardi Trophy (their fourth in the past seven years) and an unprecedented 19-0 record. That would stamp the franchise with the infinite historical designation as perhaps the greatest team the NFL has ever produced.
Guided by the arrival to stardom of Eli Manning and the more reasoned direction of Tom Coughlin, the comeback coach, the Giants can join an exclusive club of underdogs who trashed expectations and spit in the face of the cold, hard reality that they do not measure up.
No team ever lining up in a Super Bowl has ever had to contend with an 18-0 opponent that scored 589 points and 75 touchdowns, never had to deal with a quarterback in Tom Brady who threw 50 touchdown passes or a receiver (Randy Moss) who caught 23 of them.
“It’s hard for me to feel sorry for ourselves,” Mara said. “But in 2000 we played arguably the greatest defense [Ravens] in the history of football, this time there’s no arguably. We’re playing the greatest offensive team in the history of football. The numbers speak for themselves.”
There are no illusions here. Mr. Prediction Plaxico Burress – who, despite a sprained right ankle, participated in the Giants walkthrough yesterday and is expected to play – may anticipate the Giants limiting the Pats to 17 points. But his defensive teammates – usually the chattier of the two sides of the ball – certainly sound confident they can slow the Patriots but are under no delusion they can stop them.
The Giants waved off the notion that Brady’s high right ankle sprain will be an issue but did not wave off the threat posed by his lethal right arm. Brady, Bill Belichick and the Patriots embarked on this season embroiled in the Spygate controversy and seek to end it confounding Manning and denying Coughlin.
“The Patriots are 18-0 and everybody talks about them being a team of destiny and all those things,” said Michael Strahan, still chasing quarterbacks and the Super Bowl dream after 15 years, “but I also feel like we have our own destiny and history can be made for us, too. But anybody who says ‘The Giants are definitely going to win,’ you’re crazy,” Strahan said. “They’re 18-0.”
The Patriots this season scored 216 more points than the Giants, the greatest disparity in Super Bowl or NFL Championship game history. The Giants need to close that gap. Their history and legacy depends on it.