IMHW: It couldn't have happened to a worthier team

By Gregory Moore

SAN ANTONIO -- Hooray for the New York Giants. Finally somebody got a chance to knock off the New England Patriots.

Somebody became David, grabbed the smoothest pebble in the creek bed, loaded up his sling and thumped Goliath right between the eyes.

The mighty giant known as the Patriots fell and it was as sweet as sweet can get.

It simply could not have happened to a worthier team.

If the gloating is a bit much for Patriots' fans then maybe that should be the lesson learned here. Only one team in NFL history is a perfect team. They weren't a dynasty. They didn't go out and get hired assassins. They did what they had to by grit, determination and a belief that they can get it done from last year's disappointment. That team is the 1972 Miami Dolphins. You know the founding citizenry of Perfectville, USA? They were the team that made it happen and they didn't have to use smoke and mirrors in getting it done.

But this past NFL season, far too many pundits and ratings seekers wanted a 19-0 team. They wanted the Patriots to win it all because they just figured they were the better team. And for the most part they were right. Throughout the season, the Pats were putting points on the board and setting records galore. Bu they were doing it in a style that just wasn't becoming of a true champion; something they had already been adorned with. Too many people were crowning them before they got to Glendale, AZ.

Yet look at what the Giants were able to do. Down by so many, there were good story lines coming out of the woodwork. Here we have the Giants, a team that everyone had left for the football graveyard and look what they accomplished. Nobody talked about how they had won ten games on the road straight. Nobody talked about how they knocked off the top seeds in the NFC East to get to this point in history. Everyone doubted that other Manning kid. They questioned the heart of Plax. They piled on the secondary. They said that Tom Coughlin was a lame duck who deserved to be fire. All of that may have been true and much of it may still be true but what happened on Sunday was nothing short of spectacular. When the Giants defeated the Patriots, it was as if everything right was in the world at least for this day. It gave Jeff Feagles and Michael Strahan a Superbowl ring apiece. It allowed us to see a rookie like Steve Smith and a no-name like David Tyree become a household name in mere minutes. It gave New Yorkers something to cheer about in grand fashion.

That is why this couldn't have happened to a more deserving team because the Patriots were a franchise that was just a little too smug, a little to in love with itself and just way too arrogant even for its own tastes. Don't call this an upset. Call it poetic justice for the thousands of fans who wanted the Patriots to be knocked down twenty pegs or so. Greatness isn't bestowed upon you just because everyone thinks you are a dynasty; it's earned through hard work. And really, when was the last time a Bill Bellicheck team worked hard at winning a title?

A Boston writer said that this time New England fans were suffering agita. Agita? What the heck is that, acid indigestion? Heck call it what it is.

But whatever it is or was, it was just darn sweet to see it happen. Congrats to the lucky sonofaguns who bet the farm on the Giants and the point spread. Congratulations to the New Yorkers who still believed in the team when they were at their lowest point.

For sports fans this was history in the making.

For the Pats and their contingent, think of it this way; there is always next year.

Oh and as for trying to get into Perfectville, that perfect suburb that is legendary? Well as Mercury Morris so eloquently read the gift card, they get to enjoy it just one more year.

Gregory Moore is the webmaster/managing editor of the San Antonio Informer, an African American newspaper found exclusively online and is a contributor to many local and national talk shows and sports television entities.