Super bowl double extra large.  I thought that was one of the better Superbowl games in recent years.  I was very happy to see the NY Giants just tear up the Patriots offense and man handle their defensive line like they did.  It was a great defensive battle like the Superbowl should be.  The mantra of football for so long, "defense wins Championships" finally woke up from its several years of slumber and roared.  Of course this still likely won't quiet down the announcers from lauding about how much better AFC teams are than NFC teams or stop them from pointing out that the Patriots had a perfect record in the regular season but from my point of view it validates the fact that the NFC is just as strong as the AFC now.  Certainly the Patriots had the advantage of having more talent on paper but the Giants definitely played the game in a more relaxed, focused, nothing to lose style with a bunch of rookies that just stepped up their game and left it all on the field.  That can often be the difference in any professional sport where the difference between good athletes and great ones is such a small margin.  Hopefully this is a sign that the talent in the NFL is finally starting to rise again and level off after all the expansions.

I do have to say the main reasons I wanted NY to win was that they were an NFC team and, more importantly, that NE didn't deserve to have the "perfect season" after they were caught cheating during the second game of this season.  Does anyone else remember that?  You can say that all the teams bend the rules and get away with what they can and I would be the first to agree with that but when you get caught there should be immediate consequences and there really wasn't.  The fine and the loss of the draft pick will hurt Ne England but not immediately.  It did nothing to take away the advantage they held over other teams for at least the 4th or 5th game of the season when defensive coordinators had time to not only change all their signals but also try and work in something new if possible.  It was nice to be able to turn to my kids and say "see this is what is means when they say cheaters never prosper".  Karma baby, Karma.

Yah, I do feel bad for Jeff.  I am a pretty big Bears fan when it comes right down to it and I know how crummy feeling it was to lose when I didn't really expect them to win. 

Don't get me wrong.  I think that New England is an excellent team and I like almost everything they represent as a team.  They had excellent work ethics and like you said they were willing to sacrafice to win games.  I guess a lot of my negative feelings rest solely with their coach, who, until this season, I thought was hands down one of the top three coaches in the NFL.  While I still think that he is one of the top coaches from a purely technical perspective I can't say I think too highly of him as a all around coach or even a very good sport.  Also, I don't particularly like Tom Brady all that much as he has a little bit too much swagger in my opinion.  I think he is one of the better quarterbacks in the NFL today but not in the NFLs history and I think he kind of buys into that too much.  When it comes down to it.  The last couple of games he has shown that a lot of his shining moments only come about because he has such good people in front of him giving him all the time he needs.  When he didn't get that time, he didn't perform well and I think the greatest quarterbacks in the history of the NFL all have more of a flair for being able to create opportunities and being more dynamic than I have seen him be.  Granted I haven't watched every one of their games either so I may be missing alot and that is why I can still just look objectively at his stats and how his team has performed and agree that he is one of the best QBs in the business today but not really like him at the same time. :)

John

Heh.