Apparently I don't hate the Giants?
Yeah, I'm as shocked as you are!
As soon as Lawrence Tynes' third game-winning field goal attempt went through the uprights, I immediately began wondering which team I would root for in Super Bowl XLII.
Let's go back a few weeks to the start of the playoffs. The only team in the NFC that I could really root for was Seattle. Obviously, I couldn't root for Dallas, Washington or the Giants. I couldn't cheer for Tampa Bay because of my hatred of Ronde Barber, stemming back to his pick-six of Donovan McNabb in the NFC Championship game in 2003. He single-hand-edly ruined the last football game at Veterans Stadium. After Seattle, the only other real option was the Packers, but if they won the Super Bowl, I would have gone insane listening to six months of "Will Brett Favre choose to go out on top or come back for one more year?"
Over in the AFC, I was really hoping for anyone but the Patriots. I wanted the Colts, Jaguars, Steelers, or Chargers to beat the smirks right off of Bill Belichek and Tom Brady's faces, but naturally, none of my wishes came true, so we now have a Giants/Pats Super Bowl and, worse, a pretty depressing two weeks ahead for us Eagles fans.
So, much to my surprise, I immediately said I was rooting for the Giants to beat the Patriots and ruin their undefeated season. (Sorry to all the Giants fans reading this, but I pretty much guaranteed that the Patriots will win with that last sentence.)
If it was Dallas or Washington squaring off against the Patriots, I would definitely be rooting for the Patriots, which leads me to an important question: Why don't I hate the Giants?
Well to figure this out (and I'll be honest, I really have no idea, so this should be enlightening for me as well!), I feel I must do a little soul searching.
Like any logical argument, I should start with what I know.
I know that I hate the Patriots (for a refresher course of why I hate New England, peruse the last few entries on my Blog at BucksLocalNews.com!), the Cowboys and the Redskins.
But why do I hate the Cowboys and Redskins?
I hate the Redskins because I lived in their territory for four years. Even though the Eagles won three division titles in those four years, every day I'd hear some reason why the Skins were suddenly better than the Birds. Whether it was the Ol' Ball Coach (Steve Spurrier) bringing in his deadly passing game from Florida, or Joe Gibbs (an actual old ball coach) bringing back his smash-mouth football, they always had a reason...and were wrong.
I hate the Cowboys more than any other team in all of sports. I may not have been alive for Lee Roy Jordan's hit on Timmy Brown or for Dennis Thurman's hit on Harold Carmichael, but I still have a full amount of hatred in my heart for them. I hate their big three - Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, and Michael Irvin - from the 1990s. I hate the fact that even after they all retired, I still have to see them talk about football, and none of them have an intelligent thing to say! Emmitt thinks "blowed out" is an elegant use of the English language. Irvin was too stupid to even listen to during his time on ESPN, and, somehow, Aikman makes Joe Buck sound like a brilliant football mind. And by the way, Emmitt Smith may be the all time NFL rushing leader, but that's only because Barry Sanders retired in the prime of his career. Smith played five more seasons than Sanders, and only ran for 2,149 more yards.
So why don't I hate the Giants?
I guess it's because I can't think of any real heartbreaking losses to the G-men. In fact, I can only think of reasons for them to hate us (Westbrook's 84-yard punt return that saved the Eagles' season in 2003, and Brian Dawkins' collar-breaking hit on Ike Hilliard in 2002). Now that Tiki Barber took his thesaurus to NBC, I can't even think of any players on the Giants that I really don't like.
Now, before I get stoned by Eagles fans, I'm not saying I like the Giants!
I'm just not ready to place them in the pantheon of hated teams alongside the Cowboys, Redskins, Mets, Braves, and Rangers.