If you subscribe to the idea of the "football gods," like Gregg Easterbrook and myself, then this Super Bowl is really a perfect set-up...for a victory by the New York Giants.
On one hand, you have the Patriots. On paper and on the field, they are probably the best team ever to play the game. They pounded most of their opponents into the dirt, and the close victories (like the one against Baltimore) still had an air of inevitability to them. However, the Patriots have one glaring weakness: sportsmanship. The Patriots regularly ran up the score in the fourth quarter on defeated opponents -- the kind of thing A-list college squads do against the roster of easy-win patsies in order to cover the monstrous spreads. And let's not forget Spygate, shall we? Belichick may be the best NFL coach right now, but he lacks a real sense of restraint. The football gods love excellence, but they abhor poor sportsmanship. Cheaters and bullies always get their come-uppance.
And then there are the Giants. They began the season where last season left off -- disjointed, wracked with ego conflict. They were a team at war with itself. Their early losses were like the first reel of every come-from-behind inspirational sports movie. And then, they came together. Coughlin learned how to be less of a micromanager and more of a coach. Egos subsided. The team focused on being a team. The (seemingly) untested and unready Manning came into his own. They started winning. They clinched a playoff berth. And then...the greatest thing happened.
It was the last game of the season. The Giants had nothing to play for. The Patriots had an undefeated season at stake. The Giants could have rolled over and let it happen, and indeed most teams in their position would. All the other playoff-bound teams with nothing on the line (Tampa Bay and Dallas, for example) chose to limp rather than steam into the playoffs, thinking that playing it conservatively would keep them strong for the playoffs. The Giants played for the win. They put it all out there, potentially risking injuries that could destroy their playoff hopes. And they almost beat those Patriots.
Surely, the football gods were pleased. And the Giants were obviously rewarded -- beating Tampa Bay, Dallas, and Green Bay on the road -- for their heroism. So, what could be a better reward than to let those Giants play for it all against the "Best Team Ever," the very team they came so close to beating in the last game of the regular season when they had nothing to play for but their own sense of character? Where they can now avenge the one loss that was probably most responsible for putting them in the Super Bowl? Isn't it obvious that no other opponent is even conceivable? It had to be the Patriots.
Surely, as well, must the football gods be displeased by the Patriots' lack of sportsmanship this season. But if they look now, they must see how they have also been set up for a fall. What could be the worst punishment levied to a cheater and a bully? Isn't it obvious? To know that you are the best, to have played the best, to have the perfect season all the way to the big game -- and then lose. Forevermore, your "perfect season" will have been instead the most bitter disappointment. You will be a Trivial Pursuit answer. A running joke. A season wasted. You could still try to claim that you were the best -- you just had one bad game -- but it would have all the class of a has-been muttering regrets over a warm beer. And the Patriots would look back and wish fervently that they could trade that Super Bowl loss with any regular season win. If only they had lost against the Ravens! Why did they have to tempt fate? Why did the football gods have to set them up so? Look into the mirror, Belichick: you see your answer.
If the Patriots win, they will surely deserve the mantle of "Greatest Football Team Ever." But if they lose, it will be Old Testament-style justice. The football gods will be chortling. And I, for one, have learned to never bet against the football gods.
