Pats: 18-1™, and not the best ever

Rolling their moving truck toward Undefeated Avenue to take possession of their new mansion — right next door to that of Mercury Morris and the ‘72 Dolphins — Bill Belichick, Tom Brady and the Patriots somehow took a wrong turn onto Choke Lane.

Oops.

Guess that’s what they get for trademarking 19-0 before even playing the game. I didn’t even realize you could trademark numbers. Don’t numbers seem sort of beyond that kind of thing?

Whatever. I wonder if 18-1 is still available.

I am thrilled to death with the outcome of Sunday’s Super Bowl shocker — a 17-14 New York Giants’ win, which you undoubtedly already know unless you were locked away in solitary confinement the past two days.

Just as they were in the final week of the season, Eli Manning and the Giants were playing for more than just themselves.

Yes, they have the Lombardi Trophy now that all is said and done, but the Giants’ win not only created the legacy of Eli Manning but preserved the legacy of Don Shula and those 17-0 ‘72 Dolphins; of Joe Montana and his ‘81, ‘84, ‘88 and ‘89 49ers; of Ditka and the ‘85 Bears. And don’t forget Bradshaw and the ‘74, ‘75, ‘78 and ‘79 Steelers or the Packers of ‘66 and ‘67.

You can’t be considered the best unless you win it all, and the ‘07 Patriots didn’t win it all.

Thank you, Eli and that beastly Giants’ defensive line, for zipping the collective mouth of ESPN’s talking heads, of all those trumpeting this New England team as the best to have ever taken the field.

As a 49ers fan, I am heavily biased on this matter. I absolutely, 800-percent wanted the Patriots to lose. I couldn’t stomach the thought of more Brady-Montana comparisons, of the sports-talk morons posing the “Are the ‘07 Patriots the best team ever?” question.

Had the Pats beat the Giants and gone an unprecedented 19-0, it’d have been tough to argue answering that question with an emphatic and unequivocal, “Yes.”

Thankfully, the best-team debate can now live, at least until another team flirts perfection.

So thank you, Manning and David Tyree for combining on perhaps the most spectacular, breath-stealing play in Super Bowl history.

Thank you, Michael Strahan, Justin Tuck, Osi Umenyiora, for pressuring Brady like no one else dared all season.

Thank you, Bill Belichick, for acting like the checkerboard-flipping kid you are, running off to weep before the clock even struck zero. You may be a borderline genius as a coach, but you are absent grace and class.

Thank you, Giants, for taking a stand against the hubris-spewing Patriots.

I’m certain Shula, Ditka and Bill Walsh, wherever he may be, are also thanking you.

Contact Jeff Caspersen: 384-9123
jcaspersen@postindependent.com