A Steel Buzzsaw

Last night's Super Bowl was a fourth quarter for the ages, one of the great back and forth contests of all time. From the play of Kurt Warner and Larry Fitzgerald, to the coming of age of Ben Roethlisberger as one of football's great big game quarterbacks, to the stunning imagery of Santonio Holmes tip-toeing his way to a touchdown and James Harrison barreling 100 yards down the field for a pick-six, Super Bowl XLIII was a beauty to watch. The game was a classic, one of the greatest ever.

However, the inevitable and annoying consequence of such an excellent game and finish was that people feel compelled to call it not just one of the best Super Bowls ever, but the single greatest Super Bowl ever played. It's one of the worst things about sports. Everything new and fresh is immediately crowned the best of all time. Maybe it's the 24 hour news cycle, maybe it's the short term memories of the ADD generation, but saying that the latest and greatest is the best of all time is extremely short sighed.

That said, I'm about to defend LAST season's New York Giants-New England Patriots Super Bowl as the greatest of all time.

Other than the Harrison INT return, Super Bowl XLIII wasn't that great until the furious finish. People will conveniently forget this, but I won't. The Giants-Patriots Super Bowl was a relatively low-scoring game, but what made it dramatic was that Tom Brady was getting hit hard on every play, and despite playing from behind throughout, the Giants were controlling the clock and the game. The Patriots were a 16-0 juggernaut, the greatest offense of all time, and the Giants defense was pounding them into submission. Anyone who appreciates great defense could see in the second quarter that what was unfolding was special, even if the Patriots managed to pull it off.

Going into the fourth quarter, Steelers-Cardinals wasn't even a close game. The most exciting developments of Super Bowl XLIII was happening in my apartment. There was the high drama of Tarik, a Steelers fan, rooting for the Cardinals during the Harrison pick-six. He had entered a Super Bowl boxes pool at his job, and the pick-six at the end of the first half lost him $500. None of us realized what was happening until Harrison was approaching mid-field and Cardinals players were nowhere near him, and Tarik just started screaming "Tackle him! Tackle him!" even though his team was about to score on an unprecedented 100 yard interception return.

However, the most intriguing subplot of the night, was Manny saying that he was rooting for the Steelers, except that he cheered for everything that the Cardinals did. I first noticed this when Warner made a couple of bad passes, and he made an annoyed sigh. I asked him about this, but I let it go, maybe he just wanted both teams to score because he wanted a high scoring game.

But at one point, when Roethlisberger threw a pass that got tipped in the air, then got caught by Karlos Danby for an interception, and Manny clapped and yelled out "Awesome!" At that point, I had to call him out.

Me: You're for the Cardinals aren't you?
Manny: No I'm not.
Me: Why did you yell out awesome? How was that awesome?

He had no response. From then on, I was badgering him to admit that he was secretly rooting for the Cardinals, but he never budged. He kept relatively quiet from then on, but I would catch him shaking his head after the Cardinals made bad plays.

It would make sense that he was for the Cardinals, because most people without a rooting interest would root for the upset. And despite all the talk about how the Cardinals had a chance, I didn't think they could actually pull it off. Before the game, Chris, Tarik, and I had this exchange.

Me: This might be the last time I say this, but the New York Giants are still the Super Bowl champions.
Chris: That's right, they're still the champs.
Tarik: Whoa, hold on. The Steelers won the Super Bowl when they beat the Ravens.
Chris: No, they still have to play the game. Even if they are playing a high school team.
Me: It's like how Obama still had to go through the inauguration process even though he got elected.
Tarik (pondering for a moment): That's true. The Steelers are only Super Bowl champions-elect right now.

I admit, even though I had money on the Steelers, it would have been cool to see the Cards pull it off. When the underdog wins, it gives the big game an even more epic feel. It's soul crushing for losers and life affirming for the winners. And this is best evidenced by how the players themselves react. In the postgame, Kurt Warner gave a surprisingly upbeat interview on ESPN News, talking about how no one expected them to make it this far and that he's proud of his guys. Conversely, in the NBC pre-game show, Patriots CB Rodney Harrison bitterly predicted that "unlike last year, the best team is going to win." It's been a year and the douchebag is still bitter about what happened. It took about an hour for Warner to put a happy face on his team losing.

The Steelers were one of the best teams during the regular season, one of the greatest defensive teams of all time, and the favorite going into Super Bowl XLIII. And it's a good thing for the NFL that the Steelers won. It's great to have an upset, but when the underdog always wins the big game, then it means that there's something fundamentally wrong with the way the playoffs are seeded. The "better" team winning does put a sense of balance into the world, after the Giants knocked it off its axis last season.

Underdogs winning should be special and rare, which is what made Giants-Patriots the greatest of all time. The Boston Globe was already writing books about the undefeated Patriots, fans all over New England were planning for the victory parade, no one thought the Giants had a chance. Would Super Bowl XLII have been a great game if the Patriots managed to hold off the Giants rally in the final minutes? Of course. But the Giants won, and a big upset is always better than the favorite winning.