It's not so good to try to be great

When Eli Manning hit Plaxico Burress with the go-ahead touchdown pass with about a half-minute to go last night, it proved that you only have to be good to be great.

After a record-setting season by the Patriots -- most points scored, most games won, most touchdown passes by a quarterback, most touchdown catches by a receiver -- greatness wasn't good enough to take home the Lombardi Trophy. All thanks to a nifty scramble by Manning, a heave-ho prayer to a guy even most Giants fans hadn't heard of before last night's fourth quarter, and a helmet that prevented Patriots defender Rodney Harrison from knocking the ball to the ground before David Tyree secured it.

A good quarterback, a good receiver, a good throw; add them together and you get a great play and a great finish.

So why bother to strive for greatness? Why aim for an unbeaten season when 10-6 and slipping into the playoffs as the fifth seed in a six-seed field can get the job done? Why try for great when merely being good is good enough?

Eli Manning's great two-minute drive will live forever and be rightfully lauded as one of the best Super Bowl moments of all time. But really, it erased what would have gone down as true greatness. Just moments before, Tom Brady had led the Patriots 80 yards in 12 plays for the go-ahead touchdown with just 2:42 left. That would have given Brady his Joe Montana moment as he tied Montana and Terry Bradshaw for most Super Bowl rings won by a quarterback.

Brady still has his go-ahead drive. He still has his record-setting season, his 18 straight wins this year, his three previous Super Bowl trophies. He's still a great quarterback. But greatness? What good is it?

I'm disappointed the Pats lost. I wanted to see greatness. I wanted to see 19-0. I wanted to see Tom Brady join the ranks of Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana as four-time Super Bowl winners.

Instead, we're celebrating mediocrity. We're basically celebrating the Colorado Rockies. If the Rockies had won the World Series, it would have been the same as the Giants. The Giants were a middling team, that got hot at the right time, ran the table, and got the ring.

So why try to be great when you can settle for good and win it all?

 

It's easy for good to be good enough when the defensive back slips and is about 12 feet behind the receiver, too.

 

So you can go from knocking up Bridget Moynahan to nailing Gisele Bunchen?

 

Source? Or should I even ask.

 

So are you saying the NFL should adopt a BSC-type system or maybe college football's pre-BCS system and just take a vote at the end of the season?

 

BLOGS!!!

 

Huh? This isn't a blog, it's a message board post.

I'm clueless as to how you infer that I'm advocating a BCS system. The point is this -- why try to win 'em all when you can have a mediocre season and end up as champs? Rockies almost did it, Giants did do it. People are now talking about the Patriots season as a failure. If so, why bother trying to win 'em all if you get called a failure by losing the last one?

Giants outscored their foes by 22 points. They match the 1988 49ers as the worst record to win the Super Bowl. (Oh, and that game was decided by a TD pass with 34 seconds to go as well.) The only thing that separates them from the Cleveland Browns and Tennesee Titans is the playoff run. All three are mediocre teams who barely outscored their opponents during the season.

This result will encourage teams to try to emulate the Giants rather than the Patriots.

 

Let's lose one for the Gipper!

 

Patriots' version of greatness:
Cheat (by stealing opponent's signals).
Lie (persistently evading the NFL's injury reporting policy).
Show no class (The QB running 20 yards to rub a touchdown pass in a 2-bit safety's face vs. Pittsburgh, the coach refusing to stay on his sideline for the final second of SB XLII).
You can have all that "greatness" if you want, SP. It's all yours.

 

You're seriously suggesting teams shouldn't aspire to be the best they can be week in and week out?

I don't think you'll find any player or coach who'll buy into that.

 

Guys, let's not win this week. We don't want to be great. We want to be mediocre!

 

All you gotta be is good enough.