By the time you see this entry today, you will have already seen the Eli Manning to David Tyree catch 100 times. Manning will be getting ready to sign his 100th new endorsement contract...and New York will be getting set for what seems like its 100th parade. This, after nearly 100 percent of the population that eats, sleeps, and breathes football picked the Pats to march towards their fourth Super Bowl triumph.
However, there were a few people that believed in the power of Big Blue and no, I'm not talking about the 53 players who joined the 1963 Jets, the 1969 Mets, the 1994 Rangers, and the 1996 Yankees that turned the world's GREATEST city on its ear, while putting Tom Brady on his back.
I grew up in East Windsor, New Jersey, eight exits (Jersey thing) from Giants Stadium along with these friends who always bled blue and always believed. This is their day and this is their story.
On January 2, 2008 at 7:18 P.M. Andrew Goldberg, a friend, college basketball maven, and a lifelong Giants fan, e-mailed me regarding Big Blue:
"They might march right into the Super Bowl."
That was before they played the Tampa Bay Bucs in the wildcard round.
Not sure what to think when I saw that.
Carnac Goldberg? I guess.
Best prediction of the year, so far.
I need to consult him before I go buy lottery tickets or hit the horse track! Or both!
Goldberg (referring to him by last name like he's an athlete) traveled from his home in New York to the team's regular season opener in Dallas (now, that's a fan!) and saw New York give up 45 points in a loss to Cowboys. Next week, they yielded 35 to the Packers and seemed more dead than roadkill on the Garden State Parkway (another Jersey thing)--in Colorado-speak, that would be roadkill on Interstate 70.
In the end, they came full circle. After all, they got to the Super Bowl by defeating, who else? The Cowboys and the Packers.
Goldberg's buddy, Osama Abdelwahab, who could be a candidate to be the Rockies fifth starter, texted me about Goldberg:
"Yeah, he's been a believer for while."
Saturday night at 6:52 P.M., while I was heading out to report on the Bobcats-Nuggets game, my friend, Ryan Kohn, a manager at the Prudential in Newark, NJ told me he spent the night before at the Rangers-Devils hockey game at "The Rock" and, as if the NHL isn't already irrelevant enough, the crowd was shouting "Let's Go Giants."
On the eve of the game at 9:23 P.M., I got a text from Adam Gorner, another old friend whose allegiances lie with the 26-time World Series champion New York Yankees, yet nevertheless texted me (love technology!) Giants 31-Patriots 28. No doubt in his mind.
At 9:28 P.M. while sitting at the Nuggets game, my work collegaue, Jessica Rouch, also in attendance with her brother, Peter, texted, "Who do you want to win tomorrow?" I replied, The Giants, because we all grew up so close by, but I didn't have the guts of Goldberg, Choudary, and Gorner to actually make that pick. My heart said, New York...my head, the other team.
The Pepsi Center crowd seem to agree, when the Denver Nuggets mascot, "Rocky," who Rouch and I believe should be in the starting lineup, held up a "Patriots" sign, there were loud boos. When he held up a "Giants" sign, a big cheer. Then, in typical mascot fashion, he ripped up the "Patriots" sign and proceeded to...how can we say this gently?...use it as toilet paper. Who knew mascots even needed to use the bathroom?
The videoboard above the court at the game showed two Giants fans in the crowd. One of them was wearing a Number 56 jersey--no explanation needed if you are a football fan. Hey, as good as LaDanian Tomlinson is, before there was the current "L.T.," there was the original "L.T." I had to smile when I saw that jersey.
The Nuggets won that night 117-101. Little did I think the Giants would join them in the win column about 24 hours later.
The day of the game, a former work colleague of mine, Nathan Shambaugh, assignment manger at WOI-TV in West Des Moines, Iowa, where I used to work prior to joining News 2, said the exact same thing as Gorner: Giants 31-28.
I think that other than the 53 guys in the locker room (particularly Plaxico Burress), these may the only people that may have thought the seemingly impossible could become possible--which happens in sports with stunning regularity.
After the game, Kohn and I were on the phone, stunned.
Then, first thing Monday morning, at 12:05 A.M. to be exact, another friend, Naveen Choudary, an investor based in NYC and a lifetime card carrying member of Big Blue Nation, summed it all up in an e-mail that everyone agreed with:
"Unbelievable game. This is why people love sports. NYC is mayhem right now."
Oh, yeah, I just remembered, we're supposed to be scaling back text messaging on company phones...my bad. Oh, well, on the subject of texting limits, just like the Giants did to their many critics, it's time to just go out and turn a blind eye, it's time to believe in yourself. If you do, as one team showed us, you can accomplish GIANT things.
Translation: Texting will continue, though at a moderate pace :)
Have a great day, and to all the Jersey kids that I name-dropped here like I was reading out of a phone book, I miss you all, hope to see you soon...and enjoy the victory parade up through the Canyon of Heroes on Tuesday...And would you at least go to work for a half-a-day before going to the celebrations at City Hall Plaza and Battery Park City? What are the chances of that happening? I would guess about as much of a chance as the Giants had to win on Sunday.
Oh, wait a minute....
-"z"
