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Expect the Pats to roll
over the New York Gnats
of TheColumnists.com
The Super Bowl sure
has a Super Team. At 18-0, they deserve this tag: New England
Perfectos.
They'll stand Pat on Sunday, all right.
Tom Brady will fire. Randy Moss will catch.
Matt Light will block. Laurence Maroney will barge.
Richard Seymour will sack. Rodney Harrison will intercept.
And Bill Belichick will make the right moves.
Again.
The Patriots will win--and finish 19-0, the greatest record in
National Football League history.
Not that the competition is big. The Giants are more like gnats--a
wild-card team with six losses. Their Manning is Eli, not Peyton.
And yet New York lost by just three to these Patriots in the
last game of the regular season. And New England won its three
Super Bowls this decade the same way: by three over St. Louis,
three over Carolina, three over Philly.
So you see why bettors are sweating. Oddsmakers have the Pats
12-point favorites. If you put money on them, they better win
by two touchdowns--or you're out of cash.
My call: Perfectos 35, gnats 20.
As the countdown continues:
* Is Tom Brady the greatest?
He will be when he wins Sunday. My top 10 QBs of all time: Brady,
Joe Montana, Johnny Unitas, Terry Bradshaw, Bart Starr, Roger
Staubach, John Elway, Peyton
Manning, Troy Aikman, Joe Namath.
*
Drop the football.
You're hearing it all over: the New York football Giants. It's
a holdover from pre-1958, when the city housed the Giants of
both sports. Then the baseball team left for San Francisco. Still,
Chris Berman and other comics make the distinction. Guys, we
got it years ago. It's as clever as reciting the St. Louis baseball
Cardinals.
* Buzz cut:
Former Giant running back Tiki Barber thought
he was sharp when he cut down Tom Coughlin. The lines came in
Barber's 2007 book, which ripped the coach. Now look who's in
the Super Bowl: Coughlin, whose new back Brandon Jacobs is rushing
like crazy. The bald Barber fits better in his NBC "Today"
chair.
*
Roamin' Romeo:
Where were thou at nut-cuttin' time, Tony
Romeo? In Mexico with film babe Jessica Simpson. Certainly not
training for the playoffs against the Giants, who ousted his
Cowboys. There's the rub. That traipsing around with starlets
works if you win. Recall Namath's gal parties on his llama rug.
Broadway Joe drew awe because he won it all. All Tony Romeo won
were sneers for dropping the snap last year and missing targets
against New York.
* Leave LT for winners:
News for LaDainian Tomlinson: LT stands for Lawrence Taylor,
a Giant of a linebacker in the championship seasons of 1986 and
'90. Not for losing tailback, which Tomlinson is. The man runs
miles in the regular season, then inches in the playoffs. Shades
of Barry Sanders. Tomlinson set a standard for stoppage in San
Diego's playoff loss at New England. He sat out most of the game
with a bad knee and didn't budge from the bench. Not once did
he inspire his teammates. Put it this way: He'll never rush to
a championship.
* Georgia on our mind:
When Georgia Frontiere died two weeks
ago, Los Angeles fans filled talk radio with cheers. Sounds mean,
but that's what you get for shipping off the Rams to St. Louis.
I know she did it for money, and that's OK. What throws me is
how the NFL can stay away from the country's second biggest city.
The league fields teams in Nashville and New Orleans and not
L.A.? That would be like the Bundesliga kicking away in hamlets
and ignoring Hamburg. If "The NFL On Fox" feels fine
in L.A., so should a team.
©2008 by Bucky Fox. This column first posted Jan. 28, 2007.
You can visit Bucky Fox's
website at <http://www.BuckyFox.com>
You
can comment on this column online. Please address your message
to either "The Editors" or Bucky Fox. To send an email,
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