 |
Giants QB
Kerry Collins
|
Too damn bad!
That’s what I have to say to all the people who are unhappy that the
meat-and-potatoes New York Giants are representing the NFC in the Super Bowl.
TV doesn’t like how vanilla the Giants are? Too damn bad!
Columnists don’t like the fact that the Giants don’t excite like the Rams?
Too damn bad!
Football fans don’t like the fact that a retread like Kerry Collins will play in
the season’s biggest game? Too damn bad!
Everybody needs to quit whining about the Giants. Not enough style points, say the
critics.
Well, if you ask me, the Giants put up 41 style points in their 41-0 NFC title-game
victory over the Vikings. Remember the Vikings? If you’re looking for them,
they’re the purple stain that you can still see on the Giants Stadium field if you
care to check. My goodness, that game was as one-sided as a condemned man facing a firing
squad. The only difference was that the poor Vikings didn’t get a blindfold.
The complaining about the Giants may quiet down a bit after that execution. Make no
mistake, though, the moaning was reaching ear-splitting proportions about the prospects of
the Giants reaching the Super Bowl as they prepared to take on the Vikings.
Apparently, most people don’t realize what the playoffs are about. They are not
about weeding out the boring teams. They are not about creating the matchup that will earn
the greatest TV ratings.
You don’t wait by the mailbox to see if an invite to Super Sunday will arrive. If
you want to play in the Super Bowl, you go out and earn it — like a man. Last man
standing gets the ticket. You don’t ask for permission. You storm the walls. You are
barbarians at the gate. If people won’t give you respect, who cares? You go out and
take it.
The postseason is about determining a champion. Nothing else.
It’s not a popularity contest. It’s not voted on by the assistant sports
information director in charge of woman’s softball who fills out the ballot for the
head coach in college football. This isn’t figure skating, where the Russian judge
refuses to give high marks to the American pixie. This isn’t boxing, where judges
defy logic with their decisions.
This is the NFL, where the only totals that matter are on the scoreboard.
You earn a spot in the Super Bowl on merit. The Giants have done just that. And I
don’t just mean in their NFC title-game blowout win, which was as competitive as a
hammer against a nail.
The Giants were winning on merit well before that. They earned the No. 1 seed in the
NFC on merit. They got to the NFC title game on merit. They’ve now reached the Super
Bowl on merit. Anyone who doesn’t realize this deserves a demerit.
The Giants have earned everything, earned a chance to play for all the marbles because
they were the only balanced team in the NFC playoffs this season. The Rams and Vikings
didn’t play enough defense. The Buccaneers and Eagles didn’t play enough
offense. And the Saints didn’t play enough healthy bodies.
The Giants are the only NFC playoff team that has had everything going for it.
The defense is terrific. DT Keith Hamilton has been one of the most underrated players
of the season. DE Michael Strahan has been coming on like gangbusters. LB Jessie Armstead
is a play-making, emotional leader whom you want in your foxhole when the bullets are
flying.
The offense may not be space-age like the Rams’, but the Giants quietly get the
job done. They ranked 11th in the NFL in rushing yards per game and 13th in passing yards
per game during the regular season. While not dominating rankings, both are above average.
Everybody talks about Collins’ missteps earlier in his career, but while no one
was paying attention, he posted the NFC’s fifth-best passer rating this season. RBs
Ron Dayne and Tiki Barber, thunder and lightning, are a tag team that ran for a cumulative
1,776 yards, which is more than any featured back had this year. WRs Amani Toomer and Ike
Hilliard may not scare you, but they can beat you. The offensive line may not have huge
names, but it has been a consistent area of strength.
The biggest criticism of the Giants is that they are not the Rams. Well, that’s
just fine with the Giants because being the Rams meant getting knocked out in the first
round of the playoffs this season.
The road to a title is about winning by any means necessary. Scratch, claw, bite.
Don’t talk about how. Talk about by how much. As long as you have one more point than
the opposition — or 41 more points, as was the case against the Vikings —
that’s all that matters.
The Giants prove an old adage from the NCAA basketball tournament. Survive and advance.
They did that enough during the regular season to earn home-field advantage and then rode
that home cooking to the Super Bowl. Win or die. Momma can’t help you. The voters
can’t help you. Only you can help you. And the Giants have helped themselves to a
trip to the Super Bowl.
The rest of the world may not like it, but the Giants won’t apologize for their
presence during the Super Bowl buildup. As head coach Jim Fassel would say, I guarantee
it. |
