Greatest Super Bowl in 42 Tries: Giants 17, Patriots 14
I'm old enough to have seen them all. Twelve in person, the rest on TV, ranging from a scratch black-and-white signal from a jury-rigged antenna for Super Bowl I (in blacked out Long Beach) ... to the one I saw last year on a cruise ship docked in Hawaii.
This was the best game AND the biggest upset. Both. Which I have written in my column for Monday's newspapers.
The level of play was very high. The tension ramped up as the game went on. Three lead changes in the fourth quarter after long touchdown drives.
Great plays. A winning touchdown with 35 seconds to play.
This was the best game. Some others have had one team play really well, and the other adequately. Some have been close but not well-played. (I think specifically of Super Bowl V, a 16-13 game the Colts won over the Cowboys despite about 10 turnovers collectively.)
It also was the biggest upset. We had an 18-0 team favored by 12 points, led by The Current Genius as its coach and God's Quarterback taking snaps. Playing against a 13-6 team led by a dorky dude named Eli, also known as The Wrong Manning.
Only nine penalties in the game. Only two turnovers. Lots of defense. Few missed tackles. It was crisp, it was dramatic. That's what you want.
And something huge was at stake. The Patriots had a chance to become the first NFL team to go 19-0. That's something we may never see in our lifetimes, in a league with so much balance and parity.
And the Patriots didn't do it.
Extremely entertaining. A superior Super Bowl. I'm glad I saw it. In person, that is.