In the midst of all the primaries and other political events in the US at the moment comes a diversion – the spectacle that is the Superbowl. This year sees the undefeated New England Patriots take on the underdog New York Giants in Arizona’s University of Pheonix stadium. Of course there’s the pride of winning the Vince Lombardi trophy, but there’s more to it this year, even if you’re not a fan of either of the teams involved.
The Patriots are currently undefeated this season, having won all 16 regular season games and the 2 post-season games leading to the playoffs, although this hasn’t been without some controversy after they were caught making illegal tapes of the New York Jets in their opening game of the season. Since then though, they’ve beaten everyone that stood between them and their current position on the brink of becoming only the second undefeated team (and the first to go 19-0).
The Giants, on the other hand, have the chance to become only the fifth wild card team to win a Superbowl, and having almost stopped the Patriots in the last game of the regular season there’s no doubt that Eli Manning and co. will be out to win this time. On their way to the Superbowl the Giants have won 10 consecutive away games, including big upsets in the playoffs against the Dallas Cowboys and the Green Bay Packers. They’ve got it all to play for.
Taking all this into account has left the Vegas bookies offering a 13 point margin in favour of the Patriots. This seems quite large, considering that the Giants were ahead for a lot of the regular season finale, and held the Patriots to only a three point win (pretty good going considering the way that the Patriots obliterated a lot of teams; the most notable being the 52-7 victory over the other NFC wild card team – the Washington Redskins).
For most people, the Patriots are the team that they love to hate; they’re unbeaten, they’ve had the “Spygate” thing hanging over them and the way they walked over teams on their way to the Superbowl has left a lot of people who will be getting behind the Giants. The Giants of course are the underdogs, and everyone likes a good underdog story. Well, everyone apart from Patriots fans who will be hoping that the team manages to make history tonight.
Both teams are truly in with a chance, the Giants proved they could contain the Patriots during the that game at the end of the season, and with their upsets in Dallas and Wisconsin they’re certainly not to be written off too soon. The Patriots are still a force to be reckoned with, especially with both Tom Brady and Randy Moss setting new records for touchdowns this season, and with Donté Stallworth, Wes Welker, Lawrence Maroney and the rest of the offence being as dangerous as they are, there could well be fireworks during the game.
It might be after 11pm here by the time the game kicks off, but I full well plan on watching it in its entirety.