Eating Crow

By Steven Lienert
The Phanatic Magazine

There's an old saying that goes something like 'you'd rather have someone think you're an idiot rather than open your mouth and prove them right.'

Well, I opened my mouth and once again proved what a complete idiot I can be.

Citing revisionist history, I feel the need to explain what I meant by what I wrote in my last post, "Prepare for the worst Super Bowl in 7 years."

If I didn't watch a lick of football all year and wrote that post, it still would have been better than what I put out there. There's no way I could have been wronger.

I seriously owe each and every one of you an apology.

When I wrote things like "February 3rd may just be the most anticlimactic day in sports since the public was force-fed a lousy Ravens-Giants contest in Super Bowl XXXV," what I meant to type was "February 3rd will go down in Super Bowl lore as being on par with Joe Willie Namath's guaranteed win over the Colts in Super Bowl III."

When a liquored-up idiot kicker, er, uh, sportswriter posts things like "The Patriots, however, will show the Giants' defense things that aren't on any film from this season whatsoever. Something tells me that Bill Belichick wants to end this season orchestrating one of the greatest offensive displays of power and precision possible. What makes bile shoot up my throat is the fact that he can. The Pats might break out the Wing-T or solely run plays out of the option. Brady goes 30-for-30, Randy Moss explodes for over 200 yards and three scores, the Patriots score on every drive except when they kneel down to run out the clock and win 56-17. It's 37-7 by halftime. And Boston can just float off into the Atlantic and sink already," he can really sound like he doesn't know what he's talking about.

Defensively, the Giants kept pounding the Previously Perfect Pats until they submitted. The Champs made New England abandon its running game, and Tom Brady suddenly looked mortal and one-dimensional. It was as if ghosts of Red Sox past came to life to Bill-Buckner the Pats.

On a side note, does a bother me to type Giants and Champs in back-to-back sentences? Of course. But it's much more preferable than the alternative.

Which brings us to this moronic statement: "This year, though, the Giants are once again the lambs being led to the slaughter. They looked totally beatable until the last game of the regular season and, granted, Eli has been decent for four consecutive games. But four consecutive hot games do not a Peyton make. Eli and the Giants will be exposed on the 3rd."

Apparently, it takes five hot games to make a Peyton. Eli is all growns up, growns up and he's growns up. And I'm clueless.

Perhaps the bad karma from Spygate has finally caught up with Bill Belichick and the Patriots, which would be fitting and just.

The Giants are the champions of the football universe.

Not for nothing, though -- the Eagles are still the last team to beat Eli and the Giants in the playoffs.