Super Follow-Up

Pax Arcana

A few scattered thoughts to follow up:

• Mercury Morris can choke on it. He says the Patriots aren’t in his house yet. I think most would agree that the 2007 Patriots would not only move into the 1972 Dolphins’ house, but would also eat everything out of the fridge, clog the toilet, break the remote, and lock the dog in the basement.
• Emmit Smith just said the Pats lost because “the strength of the Patriots just got debacled.”
• I apologize in advance for the ridiculous comparisons to Aaron Boone’s home run that are sure to emanate from the major sports media machine.

17-14

Pax Arcana

Let’s start with what this was not: A miracle.

Miracles are more than just “unexpected occurrences.” Miracles are more than just “whoda thunk it” victories by teams with inferior talent and a history of blowing big games. Miracles are when the very laws of nature are bent or distorted to produce a specific result.

This was not a miracle.

Joe Andruzzi fighting cancer

Pax Arcana

Here’s something Giants fans and Pats fans can wish for together: A speedy recovery for former Patriot Joe Andruzzi, a native New Yorker with three brothers in the New York Fire Department.

SI’s Tim Layden reports that Andruzzi has an aggressive type of lymphoma that moves so quickly it can double in mass in just 24 hours. Andruzzi recently finished treatment for the cancer and is just hoping for the best:

He spent nearly the entire summer as an inpatient at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. The chemo took his hair, his weight (he lost more than 40 pounds) and his energy. He was known as one of the toughest people in the Patriots’ locker room, making the NFL as an undrafted free agent from Division II Southern Connecticut State and enduring multiple surgeries in addition to the relentless physical work performed by offensive linemen. Yet now he says, “I went to 10 training camps in the NFL. I’d rather go to any training camp than what I went through last summer.”

He’ll be at the Super Bowl.

Fight of his life [SI]

The real LT was a lot tougher

Man, those were some scary dudes back then. Angry, fast, and more chock full of cocaine than a seaplane out of Colombia.

Dear fellow Giants fans: Let’s not get carried away with all this

Pax

Look fellas,

We’re all happy about the Giants run, getting hot at the right time and so forth and etcetera. Pax Arcana is just as happy as the rest of you. My grandfather was a passionate Giants fan who died just months after the Giants’ last trip to the big game — a humiliating defeat to the detestable Baltimore Ravens in 2001. We want this game for him as much as anything else [Pours leftover Christmas Glug on the ground].

That said, this is a bad idea:

The last thing the Giants need in the Super Bowl is Eli Manning crapping his pants at the sight of 10,000 laser-beam-eyed death women. The guy practically soiled himself racing Peyton to eat a cookie. We’re not sure he wouldn’t run off the field covering his eyes and screaming if a critical mass of G-Men supporting mooks storm the Taco in these heart-attack inducing contraptions.

Please, Giants fans. Think of the children.

Moynahan Mask Meant To Bug Brady Like Romo [Sports By Brooks]

Why Mr. McQuarters, you saucy cat!

A reception by R.W. McQuarters Sunday sealed the fate of America’s Team with a fourth-quarter pick of Tony “We’ll Always Have Cabo” Romo.

It’s nice to see a Feline-American get ahead in this country, isn’t it?

You. Damn. Right.

Q: What’s Eli Manning doing when he’s not pulling crazy bitchez?

A: Makin’ crazy bitches cry.

Yaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!

Giants 21, Cowboys 17 [ESPN]

Respect

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyy!

The Giants went 10-6 this season. Their schedule included two games each against the Redskins, Cowboys, and Eagles, plus games against the Packers, Bears, Vikings, and Patriots.

And every blow-dried, fake-laughing mongoloid on the teevee yesterday picked them to lose to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a 9-7 team that spent the year playing the Falcons, Panthers, and Saints and barely broke .500.

We think they’ll probably lose to a strong Cowboys team next week, but can we at least start giving the G-men some damn respect around here?

As for Eli, one of Pax Arcana’s knowledgeable house guests pointed out yesterday that the Giants led the NFL in dropped passes (42) during a year when Eli finished with his highest completion percentage ever. He’s no Tom Brady, but it would be nice to see what he could do with Moss, Stallworth, Gaffney, and Welker.

That is all. Thank you.

- Pax Arcana 

Friday Random 10: Giant edition

Our brother-in-law seems convinced that the Giants are going to lose to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this weekend — despite the fact that the Bucs are only in the playoffs because they won the worst division in football (the Giants, for the record, played the Cowboys, Eagles, and Redskins twice each and went 10-6 on the season), and the Giants came within one dumb luck turnover of beating the mighty Patriots a week ago.

We are confident. We don’t think the Giants will go any further, but we do like them to beat a Tampa Bay team that will rely 100% on Jeff Garcia. Plus we’ve got Eli. What could go wrong?

Here’s what we’re listening to as we plan our Sunday menu (game starts at 1 p.m.)*:

Torn and Frayed, The Rolling Stones
Something of an End, My Brightest Diamond
Octopus’s Garden, The Beatles
Burning, Fugazi
How Could I Know, My Morning Jacket
City Song, Matt Pond PA
Australia, The Shins
You’ve Got Her In Your Pocket, The White Stripes
Upward Over The Mountain, Iron and Wine
Hurricane Jane, Black Kids

Bonus video: The Equestrian, Les Savy Fav (great song, hilarious fan video)

* The Rules: The Friday Random 10 is exactly that — random. We open up our iTunes, set the thing on shuffle, and listen to 10 songs. We are not permitted to skip any out of embarrassment or fear of redundancy. Commenters are welcome to post their own.