The Giants are in the Super Bowl?!!!!

Yesterday, as we (hopefully) all know, the Giants played the 49ers in the NFC Championship game. The last time these two teams faced off in the playoffs was coincidentally the game that propelled me into liking football and solidified my family responsibility of being a Big Blue fan. It was the 2003 wild card round, and the Giants blew a huge lead and botched a field-goal attempt in the final seconds to lose. But I was hooked. Flash forward nine years now: Giants-49ers, for the chance to go to the Super Bowl. Here I am, in London, watching the game online and finding out about the G-Men’s amazing win the next morning. This is a completely different team than that ’02-’03 team. And while we’re at it, this team isn’t the special 2007 team either. But this year’s group is special in its own right. The Giants face a tough task against the Patriots in the SB. It doesn’t matter that they beat them this season or during the ’08 Super Bowl. What matters is that the G-Men are ready for the Pats in two weeks. This is it. I’m hooked.

Losing is an option

Head-scratcher.

When I feel badly about the state of the New Jersey Nets and their futile record, I just look at the Washington Wizards. I have been in the DC area during many of the Wizards’ horrid seasons, and many there have been in the last decade. But I’m not sure they’ve been as bad as they are this season, even that year they lost and lost and lost to start the season and got Eddie Jordan fired. The Nets, as bad as they are, have two wins. The Wizards? One win. To 10 losses. Yikes. They basically have one good player (John Wall) whom people are already ragging on because of his slow start to the year. Well, it’s not his fault he doesn’t have LeBron or Dwight around. Still, what kind of team goes 1-10? A bad one. No shock there. But every other team (besides the Nets) has at least two more wins. There’s bad, and then there’s putridness. Go with the latter for the Wiz. The Nets aren’t much better, but they at least have one established player in Deron Williams. It’s going to be a long season for both the Nets and Wizards. Again. 

Take over control

WINNING

Consider this—a year ago today (although it was technically Jan. 2), I sat (and stood) at the Giants at Redskins game, freezing my hands off and watching the Giants beat the Skins in the team’s final game to improve to 10-6. Throughout the game, I was monitoring my phone for the score of the Bears-Packers game. The playoff-bound Bears had to top the Pack in order for the G-Men to make the playoffs. Instead, I found myself staring in disbelief at my phone as the Packers pulled out the win (and a lot more wins to become the Super Bowl winners). I thought, how can a 10-6 team make the playoffs when an average team like the Seahawks qualify? Granted, the Seahawks did end up beating those same Bears shortly thereafter. Regardless, the Giants missed out on the playoffs for the second straight year. Now, flash forward to this season—the usual 6-2 start, then the decline, then the re-emergence. And it was all capped by tonight’s win over the Cowboys in a winner-take-all game for the NFC East crown and a playoff spot—a No. 4 spot at that. All it took was a 9-7 record! Guess I should take accept those teams with so-so records that make the playoffs. But these Giants are not so-so. If, and only if they set aside games where they don’t show up, this is a dangerous team with dangerous players. Manning, Cruz, Pierre-Paul, Tuck, it doesn’t stop. Playoffs, glad to have you back. It’s been quite some time since any of my teams made them.

2011 in review– Thank you and Happy New Year!!

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 7,000 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 6 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.