As the nearly locked-out 2011 NFL season approaches its climactic work stoppage, two familiar opponents meet in the year’s grand finale, in what many embittered Cowboys fans and hard-knock Jets are calling a less exciting rematch of Super Bowl XLII. The New York Giants and New England Patriots converge in Phoenix for Super Bowl XLVI in a game that, unlike its counterpart from four years ago, boasts no potential perfect season (the Patriots 19-0 attempt, foiled), advertises no Hollywood-ready underdog story (David Tyree and his over-the-head catch, cut from the team), and, most disappointingly, offers no chance for washed-up rocker sightings at halftime (Tom Petty, heartbroken).
Which raises the question: why watch it? It’s doubtful Ryan Mallet will get to play, Arkansas fans. So why even bother?
The Super Bowl this year is in fact worth watching for that very reason: Ryan Mallet will not be playing.That’s because these two particular teams make for a quarterback matchup that is intriguing enough to tune your television sets to.
In the Giants huddle, Eli Manning has proven to be clutch in at least one of his eight seasons in New York, snatching a Super Bowl ring in 2008. He did it versus these same Patriots, on a game-winning Plaxico Burress touchdown grab.(Burress always did better out of the shotgun than he did with the concealed handgun sets.)
Although many have called Eli unreliable, the lesser Manning again is surging at the height of his football potential. But how long will it last?
Tom Brady, likewise, has no trouble putting rings on the fingers of his teammates and staff, or in the trophy case of Patriots owner Robert Kraft,-pretty much anywhere but on the finger of his supermodel girlfriends. He has won three Super Bowls in the past decade, enough to make him and the sweatshirted genius Bill Belichick worth spying on and scheming against.
Indeed, the quarterbacks in this tandem eek out just enough controversy to make this game interesting — certainly more interesting than another rematch that comes to mind from the early part of 2012.
Of course, no Super Bowl preview article would be complete without a prediction, and so naturally I will oblige.When the last shred of confetti has fallen leisurely to the turf, and the last note of triumph has rung from the E-Trade baby’s mouth, there will be enough room for only one champion, one winner of it all, and one Manning in the best quarterback debate (which will be Archie, of course).So get comfortable, Ryan Mallet.It’s a long wait in the shadow of the champ.
