A New Movie

Along with 100 million others, I watched the Super Bowl last night. I hadn’t settled on who I was rooting for until right before the game. I was sick of hearing about the New England Patriots. I think Tom Brady was even sick of hearing about the New England Patriots. But on the other hand, I was sick of hearing former Miami Dolphin running back Mercury Morris blab on and on about their perfect season in ’72. Truth be told, I think most of the ’72 Dolphin team was sick of him, even if they echoed his sentiments about wanting to remain the only undefeated team in NFL history. Then there’s Eli Manning. I watched him play in college without much excitement. I remember thinking that if his last name wasn’t Manning he wouldn’t have been as hyped. Suffice to say I was wrong in my assessment.

So I cheered on the New York Giants.

But as they were leading 10-7 and the Patriots were driving with under three minutes to go, I had that thought. “I’ve seen this movie before and it ALWAYS turns out the same – with the Patriots winning”. I mean, if my wife hadn’t stayed up to watch it, I would have turned it off. I was THAT sure that New England would score and then shut down the Giants’ offense. As we all know, that’s not what happened. Michael Strahan and the Giant defense got tired of watching the same movie over and over, and decided to write a new ending (thank you striking writers!). And with the make up of the team, this same Giants team could be around for awhile, producing another New York dynasty, much like the Yankees.

God help us all.