Just a one word title seems perfectly appropriate. However, perfection is a word to avaoid today. Yesterday, I predicted the Pats would win to finish 19-0 and then be called 'The Greatest Team of All Time." Even before the game, I had planned to change that title to "The Greatest Season of All Time." Now, I'll change it a little more to "The Greatest Regular Season of All Time." Win or lose, they still had the best regular season ever, but will not be put on that perch with the Steelers of the 70's, 49ers of the 80's or Cowboys of the 90's - yet!
Remember, those teams won their Super Bowls within that decade. This decade still has at least one more Super Bowl left and if the Patriots somehow make it back to the big game and come out with a victory, you would still have to put them in that elite group of super teams. However, I guess we'll have to wait, huh?
The Giants did what I thought was possible, but didn't have the stones to predict. However, if the Pats final drive had stood up as victory, then my posting yesterday, other than the final score, would have been dead on. I wrote that the Giants would keep it close, perhaps even leading late in the fourth quarter before Tom Brady would calmly take them down the field,leading New England to the game winning score. Unfortunately, he just left too much time on the clock for Eli Manning and the Giants. Was the entire play with Manning escaping the Pats pass rush and throwing a 30 yard pass that David Tyree caught against his helmet one of the greatest catches in Super Bowl history!? What made it so incredible was that it was not just a sick catch, but the great escape plus the catch should put it up there with Lynn Swann's double tipped diving catch in 1978 Super Bowl (was it the '78 game?).
Congrats to the New York Giants and also to the New England Patriots for turning an average Super Bowl into a classic in the fourth quarter. Can't wait until free agency, the draft, training camp and the 2008 season.
Let the off season begin!