The match is set for Super Bowl XLVI (46) and attending the combative soiree are two familiar faces – The New York Giants vs. The New England Patriots, an excitable rematch from what was an electrifying Super Bowl XLII (42).
Super Bowl XLII was memorable for more than the game, the storyline of the Patriots’ undefeated season being contested and the championship debut for Eli Manning whom back then was still considered Peyton’s little brother. Four years later the tables have not only turned on Peyton, there’s a buzz saw slicing right through his career as Eli has a chance to surpass his older brother in Super Bowl victories, and he can do it in big brothers home field in a year where Peyton was sidelined due to a lingering neck injury and there are questions of whether the Colts will even keep him and whether he can ever play football ever again.
The Indianapolis Colts’ own Lucas Oil Stadium is hosting the big game, so to think that the Giants might not have just a hint of home field advantage would not be absurd considering the ups and downs that Tom Brady and the Patriots have instigated with their rivalry against the Colts, but you better believe that both Tom Brady and Patriots head coach Bill Belichick are seeking vindication for their failure to obtain the seemingly unobtainable perfect record, and you can best be sure they are out for blood.
I’m hesitant to dub this year’s Super Bowl as The Irony Bowl. Not only do both teams have close ties to Peyton Manning and the Colts with the game to be played in their backyard, once again we have a meeting of two former protégé’s of the great Bill Parcels – Tom Coughlin and Bill Belichick - with both teams entering the championship game in much the same fashion as they did four years ago. The Patriots were riding high, soaring over teams heads in points and outperforming them while the Giants, with Tom Coughlin’s job in jeopardy like it was then, buckling down, circling the wagons, and smashing teams in the mouth to get there.
The way the two teams reached the Super Bowl this year is also ironic. The Patriots won because the Baltimore Ravens, coached by Jim Harbaugh, had their kicker Billy Cunduf go wide left on a game-tying field goal attempt while the Giants’ kicker Lawrence Tynes sent the game winner against Jim's brother John Harbaugh's San Francisco 49ers through the uprights like he did four years ago on the road (again) against the Green Bay Packers to get his team to the title match.
Many more stories will unfold over these next two anticipatory weeks, but there is already something eclectic and magical circulating in the air, and hopefully Super Bowl XLVI can be just as intense as these stories and the game that preceded it.
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