That was my weekend. Fortunately everything was more or less straightened out by Sunday afternoon.
I didn't watch the Big Game yesterday, but at one point I heard my husband scream at the top of his lungs. Like, seriously. I was therefore not surprised to discover that (you'll need to sit through an ad) he had witnessed "one of the greatest plays in Super Bowl history."
This play was executed by...Giants?...yeah, Giants quarterback Eli Manning, who apparently made a once-in-a-lifetime throw to receiver David Tyree, who made a once-in-a-lifetime catch. (If I understand correctly, Tyree's brilliance was not so much in the catching but in the holding-on.)
A couple of weeks ago, Slate analyzed Eli Manning, and wondered, "Can A Meek, Befuddled Youngest Sibling Become A Great Quarterback?"
It would appear that the answer is "um...yeah."
Look, I mostly think sports is stupid. Even "girl" sports like gymnastics (which I used to watch). You've got judges distinguishing one vault from another by something like .001 point. What the hell is that? How is that real? How does that mean anything? Get them all some cheeseburgers and send them home. Figure skating too. After a certain point, you cannot ignore the inherently subjective nature of the judging, and the fact that so many of the contestants look numb and bored, and that you have seen every number fifty times before.
With football, I can't even pay enough attention to GET to that point. I don't understand it. I never will.
But I do understand this: Eli Manning--and David Tyree, who apparently hadn't even merited any condescending hand-wringing--pwned everybody yesterday. The idiotic live-and-die-on-each-play rules of football, the rules that had kicked Manning's ass enough times to make him the favorite whipping boy of all the armchair judges on earth...he took those rules and [UNPRINTABLE ON A SORT-OF FAMILY BLOG] out of them.
And that's nice to see.
Sports fans are cruel, but they honor their history. Manning will always have this victory. It can't and won't be taken away from him.
I'm glad.
