The Home Stretch

"There goes Swifty" was probably the most common phrase uttered in my home growing up.(That and, "Mr. Greenfield! You promised!") Swifty was the robotic rabbit that the dogs chased at Wonderland Greyhound Park in Revere. And that phrase was pronounced over the PA at the start of every race.

Yes, my house like every other mixed-blooded American's was a gambling one. And, this race is in the home stretch.

The Giants came out of the gate fast attacking the Pats' linemen as cheaters and predicting, nay, guaranteeing victory. But all the while the Patsies stayed their course. Thom Brady waxed all week on what an honor it was to be compared to the great QBs of all time and Bruschi talked about this game as the most important of his career.

Then something happened. The Giants let up. Following Strahan's approbation of Brady earlier in the week, Plaxico backicoed off his sure thing prediction and Osi APOLOGIZED to Matt Light. Weird. The bettors weren't impressed. The line didn't move. Still 12 points.

So, if we can't get anything from the players what about the media? Do you think they'll have anything to say?

Predictably, this isn't a battle between teams in the media's eye; this is an epic battle between cities, again. Boston is that smallish nasty walled outpost somewhere off across the Aegean that has stolen Helen (In this butchered parable Helen would be sports pride.) from Gotham and it's associated city-states. For years this was a pitched battle, but no more. Now it will be fought hand-to-hand. In this tragedy, the role of the Greek armies will be played by the new York media.

These annual comparisons are getting so dull. Who's better looking Thom or Eli? Duh? Who has the better chowder (Also, here.)? Then Mike Celizic shows his chops by writing an error riddled piece on why New York is better than Boston. (Spoiler Alert: New York is bigger.) In it, he doesn't know how many World Series the Sox have won and he says that the city is so boring that the band Boston never sang a song about the city Boston. Hmmm (see below). And, the kicker, he calls the Pats "the Foxboro Patriots". The Giants play in New Jersey. That brought out the big guns.

First Ken Tremendous at FJM.com ripped him apart then Mark Starr took him to task in his blog.

Now, the NYPost is at it again. In today's paper they lament that NFL.com is already selling "19-0" merchandise for the Pats. Which is sure to jinx the team. What they failed to report is that NFL.com is also selling "NY Giants Superbowl XLII Champions" merch. Jinxes even.

So, we at Thom's got a bit tired of all of the comparisons. We decided to weigh in. Check out a bunch of Thom's regulars on SNY today at 5:00 and 11:00 pm and 1:30 am (Towards the end of the show) defending their team.

Well, we were just another band out of Boston

On the road to try to make ends meet

Playin all the bars, sleepin in our cars

And we practiced right on out in the street

-Boston

Playing with Fate

I had the bejeezus scared out of me this week when I opened The Globe (online) and saw this article: bejeezus scaring article link.

I had never seen such hubris in the home of humility (and humiliated). Had the days of the doormats finally been forgotten to the point where we count on victory? Should we all be punished with Bruins' season tickets? Then, I was forwarded this link: Amazon, which no longer works. But, if you read the web address (http://www.amazon.com/19-0-Historic-Championship-Englands-Unbeatable/dp/1600781500/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201620514&sr=1-1) you'll see a disturbing site (pun intended). The Globe was shilling a book commemorating the perfect season before the fact. Amazon had the foresight to take it down lest they tempt fate themselves.

Could "The Globe" be so naive as to doom the Patsies' chances or were there greater powers at work? Dig a bit deeper and you'll find that The Boston Globe is owned by The New York Times which just happens to be from New York. Coincidence? I think not. They tried to pull the old reverse evil eye. But, any fear-frozen New Englander knows very well that toying with black magic is wishing it on your self. The Giants are now cursed thanks to The Times and its minions at The Globe.

Of course, that is just a theory. But, there is proof that a reverse jinx is already afoot:

• Chief Osi calls out Matt Light for cheating. (He then retracts quicker than Castanza in cold water.)


• A "Giants fan" beats the hell out of a Pats fan in Brooklyn home of many ex-patriot New Englanders. The Giants fan's name was "Divine"-bad mojo, very bad mojo.


• Plexi-glass Burress guarentees a victory in the Superbowl!

Not since Menelaus and Agamemnon tore down the walls of Troy has there been such hubris. You too, Giants, will be cursed:

Peace to that braggart’s vaunting vain,

Who, having heard the chieftain’s tale,

Yet boasts of bliss untouched by bale!

-Aeschylus

'omoi peplegmai kairian plegen eso'

Apeneck Sweeney spreads his knees

Letting his arms hang down to laugh,

The zebra stripes along his jaw

Swelling to maculate giraffe.

-Thomas Stearns

To The Carriage House

Bad news, bad news,
Come to me where I sleep,
Turn, turn, turn again.
Sayin' one of your friends
Is in trouble deep,
Turn, turn to the rain
And the wind.
-Bobby Zimmerman

NYPD DAILY BLOTTER
January 29, 2008 -- BROOKLYN

A Park Slope bar patron was arrested after he brutally beat a man for saying the New England Patriots were going to win the Super Bowl, police said yesterday. Michael Divine, 25, struck up a conversation with the victim in the Carriage House Bar last Monday. Divine asked the man whether he thought the Giants or Patriots would win the Super Bowl. When the man picked the Pats, Divine punched him in the face, leaving him unconscious, then repeatedly kicked him in the head, police said. A witness blocked Divine and helped the victim off the floor. The injured man, who was treated at Methodist Hospital, later identified Divine from a photo array. Divine was caught in his grandmother's home last Saturday and charged with assault, menacing and harassment, police said.

No Longer a Team of Old Doormats...

I thought I'd pass this along. It came from a friend. I haven't checked it for accuracy; bias forbids. Are the Pats and their fans getting too confident? Look what the Globe wrote today: "Parade for Pats is issue in vote".

The Giants played the Patriots tough in Week 17:

The banged up Patriots, on the road against a fired up Giants team, took a 10 point lead with 4:36 to go and won by 3 as they took a knee at the end of the game. Their last 4 possessions ended TD, TD, TD, kneel down.

The Giants pressured Tom Brady all night:

Playing without RG Stephen Neal, RT Nick Kaczur and TE Kyle Brady, the Pats gave up exactly one sack. And Brady was 32-42 for 356 yds and 2TDs.

Eli Manning has found himself in the playoffs while Brady has looked bad:

Fredo's passer rating for the playoffs is 99.1. Brady's is 105.7.

Brady's nursing a bad ankle:

The last time Brady hurt his leg in an AFCCG, a game in which he was pulled and never returned, he went on to win the Super Bowl MVP. And there was no two week break between the games.

The Giants will be wearing their road whites. They haven't lost in them all season:

The Pats will be wearing their home blues. They haven't lost in them either. Or white. Or silver. Or red throwbacks. Or...

The Patriots offense has tailed off lately:

In their first nine games, the Pats scored 355 points, tops in the league. Over their last nine, playoffs included, they scored 286 points, tops in the league. And every single one of those games was played outdoors, at night, in the Northeast.

The Gints are playing inspired football since that Week 17 game:

Tampa Bay sucks, objectively. Dallas beat them in every statistical category including 100 more total yards and 13 more time of possession minutes, but a tequila-hungover Tony Romo coughed the ball up in the end zone at the end of the game. Then in the NFCCG, Brett Favre handed the game over to them so efficiently it should've come in a Domino's box with dipping sauce and cinnamon sticks.

The Giants will play "physical" against the Patriots:

We've been hearing this all year. Coming into the Divisional Game, Jacksonville was a threat because they were so "physical." Brady was 26/28 against them and Maroney ran through them for 122 yards.

"Physical II": Randy Moss "doesn't like to get hit":

In the last game, Gibril Wilson decked Moss with a good clean hit to the face. Moss sat out one play as the rules dictate, then on the next play caught a TD pass in triple coverage.

You can run on the Pats:

Jacksonville, No. 2 rushing team in NFL: 80 yards. San Diego, No. 7 rushing: 104 yards.

The Giants are on a roll:

They outscored their opponents by 1.4 points per game. The Patriots outscored theirs by 19.7 PPG. And as ESPN points out, the G-Men could be possibly be the worst team to ever reach the Super Bowl. Oh, and how's 18 straight wins for a roll? Pretty good?