OUT.FUCKING.STANDING.

[WilliamPitt]

Nothing else to say. The New York Football Giants kicked the ever-loving shit out of my Patriots, just manhandled them up one side and down the other.

The better team won, and frankly, it was a weirdly amazing thing to see. In 2004, the Boston Red Sox managed to do the unimaginable by rallying from a 3-0 game deficit to...well, you know the rest.

Now, that karma has been reversed.

Maybe I'll be bitter about it tomorrow (but not tonight, cuz I have tickets to see the Supersuckers in a club roughly the size of my boot)...but I was happy to buy rounds of shots last night for every Giants fan at my football bar. There were a bunch of them...and they all had this wide-eyed look on their faces after that last incompletion, like they'd just given birth to themselves or something and couldn't quite believe where they were.

And of course, some assbag Pats fans (note well: "Pats fans" does not yet mean "football fans," not by a long chalk, and any of you who deal regularly with the subspecies know full well what I mean, sadly) got chippy with some Giants fans, and the bouncers had to come wading in, and when it was all over it was me, Jay the bartender, and nine Giant-jerseyed newborns with Jameson shots in one hand and the other hand slapped to their foreheads.

I know the feeling. It was awesome to witness, and I mean that from my heart. I got those guys hooted but good, and sent them reeling off into a suddenly-deflated Pats-'07-season-only-a-good-trivia-question-now February evening....hopefully the shitheads in their Welker jerseys had already slouched home to watch their City of Champions DVD and grind their teeth.

See...and this is heresy...but we needed this one to go down the way it did. By "we," I mean the Boston sports scene. The time it took for far too many people around here to go from awestruck gratitide in '01 to mind-erasing joy in '04...to obnoxious expectation of certain triumph at all times...was a little gruesome. No, it was a lot gruesome.

I remember Bucky Dent, Buckner, more recently Boone, I remember Jose Canseco and Mo Vaughn going 0-20 against Cleveland in 95, losing 3 games to 1 against the Yankees in '99, but see, I also remember Desmond Howard in '97 and the Bears in '87, Denver in '05 and always before when He Who Shall Not Be Named was behind center (Ellllllllllllwayyyyyyyyyyyyyy, ooooooorrrggghhh...)

I remember Squish the Fish and the fucking Sullivans and Schafer fuckin-fa-chrissake Stadium that was made from aluminium cans and the bones of deceased never-were's who wore the red and white through 41 years of Miami-dominated infamy and ignominy. We had our fair share of greats - Tippet made the hall yesterday, and John Hannah is All-World on any list...but Kraft came, and Bledsoe got busted, and some nobody we picked 199th in the draft stepped up, and 2001 came, and then 2003 and then 2004, not just once with the Pats but twice with the Sox, followed by 2007...

This is not a football town by any stretch of the imagination, as most people around here didn't figure out there was a football team playing under the standard of their region until three years ago; ask someone in a Vrabel jersey what a 3-4 defense is, what Cover-2 means, or who our back-up safety is...durrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...

But it was a cocky-ass town...until last night.

Now the wheels and tumblers have clicked around again, and I mean this: it was a privilege to witness the whole thing coming and going. I've seen five championship parades roll right past my window since 2001, Pats-Pats-Pats-Sox-Sox, and I never actually expected to see even one, and no matter how tainted the Patriots coach and all he rest of that may be, it was also a privilege to watch this team play football this year. It was an exposition, an aeronautical display, and I saw every tick of the whole thing.

I have nothing to gripe about. The better team won, and it wasn't us...and if some assholes in Pats jerseys don't like how it tastes, well...it'll cull the dullards from the ranks and leave the rest of us football fans where last night found me: gape-mouthed, in awe, and really fucking psyched for my Giant-fan friends.

It's a stingah, as we say around here. But it wasn't the first, won't be the last, and there's gonna be some hard wisdom to deal with in between.

It was a privilege. Congratulations, Giants fans. That really, really, really was an awesome sight.

:toast:

(cross-posted from the Sports forum: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=215&topic_id=66120&mesg_id=66120

[malta blue]

1. Great post....

K&R

:toast: to fans like you

[Midlodemocrat]

2. Nice post. This Giants fan thanks you for your sportmanship.

:toast:

[LynneSin]

3. If it means anything - Giselle said she'd run naked thru midtown manhatten if Pats loss

So I suppose one could say that something good came out of this game

:shrug:

[WilliamPitt]

4. *sprinting for bus to NYC*

:)

[Deep13]

5. Does anyone here actually own stocks in either team?

If not, then what's the big deal?
:shrug:

[WilliamPitt]

6. Go read a book.

Preferably one of mine.

:P

[TZ]

7. Very classy, Will

Too bad more people can't be more gracious in defeat. As someone who has been annoyed by SOME pats fans arrogance, I will keep your attitude in mind and not jeer.
:thumbsup:

[WilliamPitt]

8. Oh, jeer away

Well-deserved.

:)

[jonnyblitz]

9. I saw Supersuckers with Social Distortion at (what was) Avalon

on Lansdowne St. in 2006. I had never heard them before then. They were outstanding. :thumbsup:

[WilliamPitt]

11. We were at the same show.

The Suckers are at Harper's Ferry in Allston tonight. Go. :)

[jonnyblitz]

19. ha, i should go since I am closer to Boston than usual.

I am dog/house sitting in Nashua NH while my sister, brother-in-law and family went to the Superbowl and they don't return until late tomorrow night. Social D and the Suckers played two nights at Avalon that tour so it's possible we were there different nights.

[WilliamPitt]

20. I went to both

[Donk Yore]

10. I'll give you a nickel, and a high five

if you watch it again!

[WilliamPitt]

13. Oh, I will for sure.

The NFL Network'll have that one on permament replay for the next eight months.

:toast:

[Donk Yore]

16. You have gotten my respect

I don't know if I could have watched it again if the Giants had lost.

Hats off to you!

:toast:

[WilliamPitt]

17. It's. Football.

If it's on, I'm watching.

Besides, I want to see if Strahan could actually be spotted picking Brady's balls out of his teeth.

I think probably yeah.

[Donk Yore]

18. out of the spaces

between the teeth!

[DemoTex]

12. Like Olberman, you do sports well.

Often a sign of superior intellect.

[WilliamPitt]

14. Thank you, sir.

That was damned nice of you to say.

:toast:

It really is strange. I'm seriously not all that worked up. Oh...wait. There it is.

;)

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

15. THANKS WILL!!!!!!!!!

:toast:

[eyepaddle]

21. An intersting take,

Living here in the far midwest, well Pats fans are a rare sight indeed--in fact I don't know if I've ever met an actual one! Now that I think aout Giants fans are pretty damn rare too, I do however notice that I am dating one.

Having said that, as just a fan of the game, last night was awesome, hotly contested throughout and haning in the balance until the final seconds. The Eli to Tyree completion on the winning drive is going to rank up there with the all time great plays. Certainly not flawless, in fact its brutla imperfection is waht makes it so sublime, that play was completed by sheer willpower and desire. For that play alone the Giants would deserve it.

One helluva game. :toast:

[Beer Snob-50]

22. Great post

however, there are some fans from way back who have also been obnoxious during this period.

[Bake]

23. Very classy, Will

Although I seem to rmemeber you jumping on that whole "Boston Invincible" bandwagon a time or two yourself ...

:hi:

All in all, nice post.

Bake

[WilliamPitt]

24. 2001, 2003, 2004, 2004, 2007

Kinda hard not to...at the time.

;)

Still on the bandwagon...same old splinters from '00.

[CorpGovActivist]

25. Truly, a gentleman and a scholar.

:toast: <------ so few of us left toast

- Dave

P.S. I gave you a shoutout in GDP yesterday.

[Awsi Dooger]

26. Athletes on the line of scrimmage

That's where the Giants had the better of it. I watched my tape this morning and there's so much clarity, once the result is known and without the emotional rooting. New York's DL is so athletic and disruptive it destroyed or altered one NE design after another.

As a Canes fan that's what I always prioritized about our best teams. When we had beasts among the defensive front 7, particularly up the QB's face at DT, it cleansed the entire defense by shortening the play.

The mainstream media never pays enough attention, preferring to focus on the glamor boys.

New England doesn't have to worry often. Very, very few NFL teams have that type of athletic ability up front. I can think of my Dolphins, trying to compete with journeymen like Matt Roth at DE. What a farce.

There's still so much disparity in the league, only a handful of top QBs, that New England is well positioned to dominate again.

Admittedly, I could do without one of these 13-0 or 18-0 starts from Indy or NE. Why don't you guys make a pact to lose one apiece in September, then get on with it? As a '72 Dolphin season ticket holder when I was a kid, I literally can't relax until the final unbeaten has fallen. So this year my NFL season is limited to the Pro Bowl. And I'm going to enjoy the hell out of it.

Here's the weird part. Seemingly all year New England had benefited from a string of good fortune in the tight games. Particularly in the final drive against the Ravens, where 5 or 6 plays went their way, all wildly against the odds. Then yesterday I thought it was happening again, once Eli missed Plaxico on the 2nd down play when the Giants led 10-7. Heck, on the next play Toomer blew it by catching a 3rd down pass from Eli then running smack into Rodney Harrison, when a quick agile move to the left would have meant a vital first down. I was admittedly livid. "How can everything fall their way all season!"

Then on the final drive with immortality at stake, that dynamic reversed, almost to surreal proportion. New England required only 1 of about 8 variables to change, just level out at normalcy, and there's the 19-0. I loved it but I don't pretend to understand how things like that play out.

[Forkboy]

27. Giants deserved it, big time.

Before the game I was talking about how this town could use a shot of humility right about now...and we sure as hell got it.

I watch sports to see good games, and I like each sport more than any individual team. This year gave me a lot to cheer about on both counts. It was great for the NFL to have the Pats do what they did, and it culminated in a great game that NY fans will be loving for decades, and rightly so. I'm just glad I got to go along for the ride.

Now, onwards to hockey! Go Bruins, dammit!!! :)

[Kajsa]

28. Will this POST is outstanding!

You are one of those great DU Patriot fans I was raving
about last night!

You are a gentleman( yeah- deal, dude! ;) )
and a true fan!

I can't recommend this enough.

;) :yourock:

[puerco-bellies]

29. Nicely done WillPitt

K & R

[SteppingRazor]

30. As I sit in my cube at work, swaddled in my No. 56 Lawrence Taylor jersey...

I thank you for your kind words. :toast:

[Shakespeare]

31. Outstanding, indeed.

You, that is. :thumbsup:

And :hug: for your loss--I was really hoping you'd be meeting my Cowboys for the superbowl, so I feel your pain.

[FloridaJudy]

32. Okay, I'm putting my flame suit on...

It's only a game. Really.

It's great fun to follow sports, and to root for Your Guys (or Gals). I guess that it feels absolutely fantastic when they win. I wouldn't know because somehow I was born without a sports gene: chess was about as athletic as we got in my family. I also suspect that it's a great way to bond with others with whom one may have very little else in common: "How about them Gators!?" is a fairly safe conversational opening in this town. And it's awe inspiring to watch a finely honed athlete perform at his or her best, and even more amazing when one can see a whole group of athletes doing it together.

But from the aspect of one who somehow never caught the sports bug, the behavior of fans is - frankly - insane. I missed the whole nasty episode last night because I was sleeping off a cold, but when I woke up it was to discover that the Lounge had imploded. Terrible and hurtful things were said by the supporters of one team or another, a whole lot of people got put on ignore, and a whole lot of threads got locked or deleted by the mods (who simply aren't paid enough...what do you mean, they're volunteers??). I don't know who had the right or the wrong of it - as I said, by the time I logged on, most of the mess had been cleaned up - but apparently several people forgot they were adults, let alone professed Progressive ones, last night.

It saddened me, but didn't surprise me. I once saw an in-law, the gentlest and kindest of scholars, put his foot through a television set when his University football team lost. I used to live very close to the local stadium, and quickly learned to keep 911 on my speed dial whenever a Big Game was scheduled, because the behavior of fans was so out of control in the aftermath. I particularly remember the driver of a classic Mercedes and that of a new BMW trying to kill each other with broken beer bottles, proving vividly that wealth is no guarantee of good manners nor even of basic sanity.

Because what does it prove in the long run? If your team wins, does that make you a better person? Does it even mean that the city or institution that supports them is a better place: economically, educationally, culturally, morally? All it proves is that you're lucky enough or rich enough to hire the most gifted and dedicated athletes and the canniest coaches. For the people actually playing the game, I can see that winning proves something - but only stamina, training and determination. As we've sadly learned from recent scandals, that doesn't always equate to being a better, or even minimally acceptable, human being.

But that's okay. As a chess fan myself, I can testify that a whole lot of Grand Masters were lunatics and/or jerks. I just don't invest a whole lot of my self esteem into hearing my favorite say "Checkmate!", and I don't view his opponent's supporters as less than human.

I can admire those who are gracious in victory, and graceful in defeat. Will Pitt, you are a real gentleman in every sense of the word. I hope more fans will follow your example.

[Bombero1956]

35. it was because of the behavior you described

in your post that stopped being a fan of stick and ball sports. If there was more graciousness in defeat and victory sports would be what it was meant to be, fun.

[Westegg]

33. But this is Superb!...

...My man, your take is much appreciated, and worthy of a print-out. I've been reading all the Boston and NYC sports pages today, but none of those writers can touch what you've put down here. Wonderful.

Grantland Rice and Dr. Thompson are grinning down at you, from The Beyond.

[Arkham House]

34. Thank you...as a Pats fan, I've been trying to figure out exactly how I felt...

...and you summed up my feelings admirably...my sincerest congratulations to the Giants and their fans...