Think about your favorite movie, the one you can watch on any single day, at any given moment, and instantly be transported to a better place. Everyone has one.
Now, imagine that evil, money-grubbing movie producers have decided to remake your beloved motion picture. You have been told that the new version will have a similar backstory and roughly the same main characters as the first, but you know nothing more about it.
You don't know if the sequel will have the drama of its precursor, the same exhilaration, thrills and indelible moments. You aren't sure if it will possess the same inherent charm, or even if it will maintain the same delightful and agreeable temperament as the original. Worst of all, you have no idea how this new installment will end.
Welcome to my world.
My favorite movie of all time, Super Bowl XLII, will be remade in two weeks, and honestly, I have no idea how to deal with that news.
The Giants already faced the Patriots in the Super Bowl. It happened and it was magical.
I was 18 years old then, and I can confidently say now that the day changed my life. I realized that the perfect season does not, in fact, have to be the one that is technically perfect, but rather it can be improbable, miraculous and completely imperfect. I learned then that if you love a team for long enough and resolutely stand by it no matter what transpires, the payoff - if you are lucky enough to live to see it - will be indescribably satisfying and sustaining.
That's what Super Bowl XLII, and really the entire 2007 season, is to me. It is the pinnacle. It is the greatest sporting event I have ever witnessed in my life, and it still stands without close rival.
That game was flawless in every aspect, every storyline and every single bone-crunching hit on Tom Brady, all of it seemingly scripted with the flare and dramatics of a fairy tale. There was the underdog, nobody-believed-in-us team versus the unbeaten, everybody-is-terrified-of-us team. The unthinkable, twist ending. The unsurpassed emotion and the incomparable elation. It was going to be the game that I would one day tell my kids about watching.
It would stand alone in history. It would be without any equal.
But now, four years later, just when the memory had started to set permanent roots within my mind and ensconce its peerless place among all others, this unwelcomed sequel came along. No, I didn't want this. Why would I?
Yeah, sure, it might turn out to be "The Godfather: Part II."
But, it could also be "Dumb and Dumberer." It could make a mockery of Harry Dunne and Lloyd Christmas, and the thought of that downright terrifies me.
Why remake a classic? And if you do, if you must, why make it so remarkably similar to the original?
Again the Giants are the castoffs, the team which nobody believed in and which nearly fell apart amid a season which so very nearly never happened. Again we inconceivably banded together when things reached their most desperate state, again without any real impetus or rationale, and again we proceeded to do the unthinkable in the playoffs. Most of the miracles again occurred away from home, and Lawrence Tynes' unflappable right foot again rescued us from a nerve-wracking overtime, bringing us to the Promise Land where we, yes, again, will face the menacing Patriots.
And they are still the same Patriots of old, except not really at all. The stalwarts, Brady, Kraft and Belichick, remain, which means that it has stayed business as usual in Foxboro. Although their outward appearance may have changed slightly, they remain a tireless factory, churning out winning seasons and Super Bowl appearances like loaves of bread on an assembly line.
No, they are no longer perfect, no longer unbeaten, no longer trying to secure their own private room in Canton. But would you have been able to tell?
Their 2007 record-shattering offense is now long gone and replaced by two titans for tight-ends, two Herculean men who evoke more thoughts of Thor than memories of Ditka. Their quarterback has only gotten better, their coach only more dour. Together, now a full seven years removed from the last time they accomplished the ultimate team success, you can only imagine that they will be more focused and less compromising than ever.
This is exactly the scenario Patriots fans wanted. It's the sole reason they have been able to sleep since that fateful February night in Arizona. It's what they've clamored for ever since the Giants stood up to the neighborhood bully and triumphantly sent him home cowering with his tail firmly planted between his legs.
Obviously, I would have liked the Ravens to have won last weekend. Not because I am afraid of the Pats; far from it. We beat them already this year in Week 9, we're playing at a remarkably higher level now than we were then, and - just like in 2007 - we've seemed to come together as a team more and more as our incredible run has sustained and continued.
I simply didn't want this storyline to exist. I didn't want every schmuck with a sports column to beat it into the ground repeatedly in the weeks leading up to the game. I didn't want a redo, a redux or a retry. I didn't want a sequel.
Sure, it could very well end up being "Die Hard 2" or "Aliens." But what if it's "Caddyshack II," or, even worse, "Blues Brothers 2000"
Read More
No. 5 seed Virginia falls to No. 1 seed Notre Dame 18-9 in ACC Tournament semifinals
By Cole Huff | 4 hours agoThe massacre made last weekend's near dethroning of the Fighting Irish seem like a fantasy.
Virginia baseball boasts the best catcher in the country — a Division III transfer
By Xander Tilock | YesterdayFerence has replaced Teel admirably, and will look to lift Virginia back to the College World Series.
Lacrosse defenseman Cole Kastner announces transfer to Stanford basketball
By Michael Liebermann | 2 days agoKastner is reviving a hoops career that has lain dormant since he graduated high school.
