In case you haven't heard, the New York Giants have won SuperBowl XLII. Entering the game, the Giants were a 12 point underdog against the almighty New England Patriots and their undefeated season. Both teams didn't play well during the first three quarters of the game, but reality set in and both teams picked it up in the 4th. The game winning drive from Eli Manning and the New York Giants was incredible. This is the stuff legends are made out of.
After enduring almost 2 hours of pre-game shows, something started popping up in my head: Rose Bowl. Specifically, Rose Bowl 2006 between the USC Trojans and the Texas Longhorns. There are a lot of similarities between that Rose Bowl and the recent SuperBowl, with the Patriots playing the role of USC and the Giants playing the role of Texas.
USC were a juggernaut behemoth, rolling along on a huge undefeated streak of winning 34 straight games. USC had all the big name players in Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush, LenDale White, and Dwayne Jarrett. Texas had good players, but they lacked the star power of USC. This year's probowl will have eight players from the New England Patriots and just one from the New York Giants.
Being a heavy favorite, USC was getting all the media coverage while Texas was shown as a mere after-thought. During media week, the Patriots were given the majority of media coverage, while most of the Giants coverage was based on Plaxico Burress' guarantee of a win. Burress came through with his guarantee.
What most people tend to forget is that the Texas Longhorns were also on a huge roll entering the Rose Bowl game. Texas won the Rose Bowl the previous year, was undefeated the season entering the matchup against USC. Its not as if the Longhorns were some junior college squad. Take the New York Giants this year. The Giants were having a great season entering the playoffs and won three road playoff games to win the NFC championship for their bid in the SuperBowl.
The scoring in the Rose Bowl game was much higher, but the lead changed back and forth in the fourth quarter. Vince Young came through big to win it for his team, just like Eli Manning did for his Giants. The biggest similarity between the two games is the underdog team winning. That has got to make a lot of sports betting fans unhappy.
RE: Superbowl Upset Smells like Roses
Someone said this after the game...
The Giants were playing against the Patriots but the Patriots was playing against history. Nothing matters if they can't win the SuperBowl regardless of what their record WAS. Finishing the Superbowl is like putting the exclamation mark at the end of the sentence. Certainly the Patriots did rewrite history but not the way they wanted it to be.
The game itself was probably better than the commercials.
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