Super Bowl Stuff

As usual when I write a sports thing, I realize that a lot of you, if you pay attention to sports at all, only do it in a peripheral part-of-our-culture kind of way. And I'm as much of a sports nerd as I am a politics nerd, so I try to keep my sports writing here to big-picture issues. I just wanted to let you know what's up with some of the Super Bowl stuff you've been hearing in the news, and of course offer some commentary and predictions.

First of all, it's on Fox this year, so Ryan Freaking Seacrest is going to be hosting some of the pre-game. No, that is not sarcasm. There is no (other) punchline. Fox is going to start disgracing our unofficial national sports holiday right from the get-go. To plunge us even farther into the depths of depravity and sacrelige, they're going to have a celebrity red carpet as well. Do I even need to make a further comment here? The jokes and horror stories pretty much write themselves.

Second, the Tom Brady ankle injury "boot" thing is not a big deal. You're only hearing about it because it's the Patriots' star quarterback and the press has nothing else to talk about that they haven't already said a thousand times.

OK, now to the game. It's New England Patriots vs. New York Giants. Some news people are trying to make a big deal about the New York-Boston rivalry, but that's not a big deal at all in football. That's a baseball thing.

Most of you probably know that the Patriots are going for an undefeated season. The significance of this is that this has only been done once before in NFL history, by the 1972 Miami Dolphins. Although, the Patriots' possible achievement is really greater, because they play more games today than they did in 1972. It's also tougher to win in today's NFL because of free-agency and league parity (too detailed and boring to go into here), so what the Patriots are on the verge of doing is truly historic in the sports world.

Oh yeah, by the way, I'm for the Patriots in the Super Bowl.

I've been a Pats fan (unfortunate nickname) since about 2000. First by proxy, because Mrs. K's dad is from New England, so she's been a lifetime Patriots and Red Sox fan. But then as I got to watch the team, learn the behind the scenes stuff about ownership and coaches, and see them win three Super Bowls in the last five years, I became an actual fan. Here's why.

THE NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS

1) Bill Belichick -- He's the head coach, and he's been there since 2000. One of the reasons he's been so villified in the press is one of the reasons I like him: he could care less about what the press wants. He never gives bombastic soundbites or podium-pounding tirades. He's the antithesis of the "go-get-'em rah-rah "motivational speaker-types" like Brain Billick or Jon Gruden. In his post-game press conferences, he gives terse, monosyllabic answers to reporters' questions. He allows the press very little access to his players. He's even tight-lipped about his injury report until the last possible second. As one writer put it, "If he needs love, he goes to his family." His reason for being this way is the other reason I'm a fan of his: the one and only thing he cares about is winning. He's so tight-lipped with the press because he doesn't want to even have the possibility of giving one iota of advantage to his opponents, both present and future. If they know how you think, they can take advantage of that. If they know who's injured, who's not, and how bad, they can take advantage of that too. Even your own players can accidentally give away hints (or outright details) of gameplans in press interviews. In no small reason because of the money there is to be made for all involved, opposing teams will take find a way to use any piece of information they can find to their advantage. So with Belichick, it's all about strategy, on the field and off. And when I guy like Bill Belichick, who is now one of the most successful coaches in history, relies on a strategy, you tend to believe that it's a good one.

Speaking of strategy, you've probably all hear the term "Spy-gate" or "Camera-gate" attached to Bill Belichick. To give you the short version: During a game against the Jets early this season, the Patriots had a guy on their sideline taping the opposing coach's signals, as compared with the time clock. This is against the rules in the NFL. Oddly enough, however, the Jets had been caught doing the something similar last year with no repercussions. The Patriots were caught last year as well, I think. At the beginning of this season, the NFL Commissioner sent out a memo to all teams saying that this practice will not be tolerated. Why? Because a lot of teams were doing it, not just one or two. But the Patriots did it anyway in week 1, the Jets tattle-taled on them, and they were fined a buttload of money and a first round draft pick in next year's draft (which is a much bigger deal than the money). So, they cheated, they got caught, they were penalized substantially. With the exception of outright Patriot-haters (of which there are many because they've been so dominant for so long), most sports analysts agree that it was a minor thing that was dealt with appropriately.

2) The "team" mentality -- When the Patriots won their first Super Bowl in 2001, they ran onto the field as a team. They forewent the whole player-by-player introduction hoopla and ran out as one unit, which hadn't been done at a Super Bowl in many years, and never in the modern ea. Since then, this ideal has been the cornerstone of the franchise. Their motto, their mantra, the thing that is painted over the doorway to the locker room, isn't "Fight" or any rah-rah stuff, it's this: DO YOUR JOB. There are virtually no superstars (Tom Brady is the closest). They don't renegotiate contracts, they don't deal with prima-donna players who try to "hold out" for more millions. They keep all internal problems in-house, and don't snark at each other through the media. They do very little trash-talking of other teams in the media, in part because they talk to the media very little to begin with. It's not a team that's about superstars, it's a team that's about winning football games. Period.

3) The players -- One of the biggest reasons that the "team mentality" has worked so well is that the Patriots only sign players who they know will uphold it. The only two "troublemakers" that they have signed since 2001 are Corey Dillon, who was a huge factor them winning the 2005 Super Bowl, and Randy Moss, who is an aging NFL veteran but is still a great player, and broke the NFL record this year for touchdown catches in a single season. After interviewing both of these players before hiring them, the Pats correctly believed that they were guys who could fit into their system, and both players became model citizens after joining the team. No trouble off the field, and great production on the field.

The player you hear the most about is their quarterback, Tom Brady. To put his career into one sentence: he was a nobody, 6th-round draft pick in 2000, and now he has three Super Bowl rings and he's dating a supermodel. He's been one of the most efficient and productive QB's in the league for years now, and this year he broke the record for touchdowns thrown in a single season. The reason for his success is simple, but not easy -- he always finds the guy who's open, and throws him a hard, accurate pass. That's a brutal oversimplification of a quarterback's job, but he's been as good or better at it than anybody in the league for seven years now, and he's one of the most successful playoff QB's in the history of the NFL. He's also the consummate team leader: always the first one there and the last one to leave, he works out harder than anybody, and is more prepared in his research and gameplanning than anybody else. And last but not least, he accepted a contract two years ago that was worth millions less than what he could have gotten, just so his team would have more room under the salary cap to sign good players. Decent guy, whoop-ass QB.

Otherwise, they've filled their roster with guys that are smart, veteran players who run a self-policing locker room. Basically, this team doesn't put up with any bullshit like laziness or prima-donna attitudes, and their veteran players make sure it stays that way. Tough guys like linebacker Tedy Bruschi (who came back from a STROKE after the 2005 Pro Bowl to play this year and the end of last year), safety Rodney Harrison (known as one of the roughest, if not dirtiest, players in the game), linebacker Junior Seau (future Hall Of Famer who came out of retirement to play for the Patiots), and defensive end Richard Seymore keep everybody in line. Then there's "utility guys" like Kevin Faulk and Troy Brown, who have been with the team from the very beginning, and will do anything that's asked of them or fill any role on the field. Those guys are examples in their work ethic and attitude, and Bill Belichick has shown he has complete trust in them as players. They embody the whole "team first" focus of the Patriots.

4) Robert Kraft -- He's the owner of the Patriots franchise, and yes, he's part of THE Kraft family, whose mac 'n cheese has brought great delight and comfort to us all. The reason I mention him here is that he's done everything an owner is supposed to do. He built them a new stadium. He keeps out of everybody business, including the coaches and players - unlike guys like Al Davis and Jerry Jones (Raiders and Cowboys), who stick their big rich noses into every aspect of their team, even to the extent of going down to the sidelines during games. He allows everybody from the General Manager and Coach Belichick in picking players, to the players themselves, room to do their job, and the money with which to do it efficiently and properly. You can't say that of very many franchise owners, from any sport.

THE NEW YORK GIANTS

I don't have near as much to say about them, because I just generally don't like them. My dislike of the Giants goes back to the fact that they are a rival of the Cowboys, who are my first love in the NFL. So, even if they weren't playing the Patriots, I would be against them in this Super Bowl.

Their quarterback is Eli Manning, younger brother of Peyton. When he was drafted as the first pick in 2004 by the San Diego Chargers (who sucked at the time), he made a big stink about not wanting to play there and made them trade him to the Giants. Since then he's been inconsistent, showing flashes of being really good and flashes of being really bad. In the last few games, however, he's been playing really well and the sports pundits keep saying he's "turned the corner" into actually being a good player.

The Giants' other (and most important) weapon is their defensive line. They led the league in sacks this year, and they have great weapons at both defensive end positions in future Hall Of Famer Michael Strahan (he's the big dude with the Letterman-esque gap front teeth you may be seeing talking all the time) and young badass Osi Umenyora. The one way that teams have found to come close to beating the Patriots this year is to put a lot of pressure on Tom Brady, and not give him any time to throw the ball to his receivers. The Giants have as good a chance as anybody all season at doing this, so that's really the main thing to watch for as far as "X's and O's" in this Super Bowl.

Otherwise, there's not tons to talk about with the Giants. They have a good young running back in Brandon Jacobs, who is a physical giant for an RB and plays hard, physicall ball, running over defenders rather than around them. They have a really good wide receiver in Plaxico Burress, who is about 8 feet tall and has good (but not great) hands, and a veteran above-average wide receiver in Amani Toomer. Both guys can really hurt you if you don't have a good defensive scheme to stop them. They have other fairly solid guys on both offense and defense, but no other real "game changers" other than the ones I already mentioned.

Their head coach is Tom Coughlin, who is a hard-nosed old-schooler (he pretty much let himself get frostbite on his big red face in the sub-zero Packers game two weeks ago) but has been seen as only an above-average coach up until the end of this year. He's not really seen as much of a factor either way in this game. He just sort of is who he is.

So there's the New York Giants in a nutshell. If they can 1) disrupt Tom Brady and force two or three turnovers, 2) run the ball well with Brandon Jacobs, and 3) find a way to get Plaxico Burress open downfield, they may have a chance to beat the Patriots.

But all the aforementioned stuff is why the Patriots are still favored in this game. They're just a juggernaut of a team, and the Giants are not. But the Giants are no pushovers, and if they're able to do the right things, they have a decent chance at winning. They almost beat the Patiots in week 17, and they have a lot of momentum coming into this game. There's also the fact that the odds are against any team going 19-0 in a season, so the Pats have that going against them.

It's one of those that's tough to predict -- it could be a nail-biter that gets won by a field goal in the final seconds, or it could be a blowout for the Patriots. Pretty much nobody is predicting that the Giants can beat the Patriots by more than a touchdown. Everybody from the sports show "experts" to the Vegas odds-makers are predicting the Patriots to win this game, but anything can happen. It should be a fun one.

Roger