Have you ever had your dreams crushed?
It may be hard to believe, but in my somewhat short, inexperienced, 18-year life, I’ve had my dreams crushed more times than you would expect. Being obsessed with Sports can do that to a person, and the endless amount of times my sports teams (specifically one in general) have disappointed me would take hours to recap. So I’m just going to talk about one of those events, and it is without a doubt, the worst loss I’ve ever experienced as a fan.
A lot of people fondly remember Super Bowl XLII, you know what I say to them? Shut up.
Back in the fall of 2007, I was 11 years old and in the 6th grade. I had really been into football for a while now and had begun to watch Patriots games on a weekly basis the year prior. You could definitely say that I was a big fan going into the 2007 season. The Patriots merchandise had begun to take up space in my room and one of my most prized possessions was a Blue New England Patriots #12 Tom Brady Jersey, which I wore every Patriots Game Day (something that I still do to this day, different jersey however since I outgrew the other one) and if the Patriots won, I would also wear it to school the following day.
2007 was also a great year to be a New England Patriots fan. While it did start off with a scandal that cost them a 1st round draft pick and according to some, tarnished their legacy, it sparked something that nobody wanted. Giving a team which already tons of talent, even more motivation. The 2007 New England Patriots were a team on a mission: to completely and utterly destroy every franchise in the National Football League.
Tom Brady was a passing machine, throwing for 50 Touchdown Passes in a single season, an NFL record at the time. He would also win League MVP. Randy Moss resurrected his career and caught 23, a record which still stands today. The Patriots scored more points than any franchise in NFL history with 589. And of course, became the first team since the 1972 Miami Dolphins, to go undefeated in the regular season, 16-0.
You could not possibly understand how much of a thrill this season was for me. It was like I was playing as the Patriots in Madden, win every game no matter what, and most of the time it was by a ridiculous score. During that fall and winter, my friends and I would mostly play pick-up football at recess ( I don’t mean to brag or anything, but I was basically the Jerry Rice of the Miller’s Grove Public School Playground). A lot of my buddies started watching the NFL a lot more and it became a big topic of discussion (especially since the team that always had our attention, the Toronto Maple Leafs, stunk, and had so for a couple of years). So every Monday that fall, I walked into my classroom, wearing my #12 Brady New England Patriots jersey, and people began to notice. A lot of times I’d walk to school and hear something along the lines of,
“Hey! Pats won again! Brady’s unstoppable!” Later that year, we started to chant:
“13-0! Go Pats Go!”, and it would be updated after every win.
As the season progressed, and the Patriots continued to win, almost every single person in my grade 6 class became a New England Patriots fan.
The week leading up to Super Bowl XLII, I was pretty confident the Patriots were on their way to completing the perfect 19-0 season, and I had every right to be. This was the most dominant Offense in the history of the NFL at the time; obliterating teams by scores of 38-7, 52-7, and 56-10. While they hadn’t looked very hot against Jacksonville or the Chargers in the post-season, New England was going to face the New York Giants in the Super Bowl, which reassured my confidence. I wasn’t expecting the beat down which some analysts were predicting, since the Patriots had only beat the Giants by 3 points in the regular season, but I still reasonably believed that Patriots had it all locked up. Beat them once, they can beat them again right?
I don’t think I’ve ever been as edgy and paranoid as I was watching that game. The opening drive of the game got me infuriated right off the bat. New York marched down the field for 77 yards in 10 minutes and came away with a field goal, the longest opening drive in Super Bowl History. Just like that, the Patriots only had 50 minutes to put points on the board, not as much as it sounds. It was at that moment I figured out that the Giants had come up with a brilliant strategy that could get them the victory; keep the ball out of Brady’s hands. I discovered how they would do that shortly after.
The Patriots would score on their opening possession, a 1-yard TD rush from Laurence Maroney, but after that opening play of the 2nd quarter, both defenses began to take over. Each team was held scoreless for the remainder of the first half and the entire 3rd quarter. This was mostly highlighted by the Defensive Front Four of the New York Giants, led by long-time veteran and future Hall of Famer, Michael Strahan. The Giants were able to sack Brady 5 times for a loss of 37 yards and force a fumble in a key drive to close out the first half. Big performances from Pro-Bowler Osi Umenyiora and relative unknown at the time, Justin Tuck, helped to swing the momentum into the Giants favour.
Tom Brady doesn’t lose often, but if there’s any secret to beating him or pattern in his defeats, it’s in the pass rush. Don’t get me wrong, Brady excels when he faces the blitz, but if you’re able to pressure him before he can get his feet set, you will throw him off his game. We’ve even seen it happen this year in New England’s blowout losses to Miami and Kansas City. Both those teams had top-tier NFL pass rushes and to say the New England O-Line was uncomfortable and inexperienced would be an understatement. Simply put, if the pocket collapses around him, Brady is not Brady. And he certainly wasn’t himself on the night of Super Bowl XLII, because after 3, the Patriots had only scored one touchdown. The lowest offensive output they had all season was 20 points. They currently had 7, with 15 minutes left.
Once again, the New York Giants knew exactly what they had to do in order to have a shot at defeating the “invincible” , 18-0, New England Patriots.
Then, with 11:05 left in the 4th quarter, New York broke the scoring deadlock with a touchdown caught by David Tyree. I didn’t really notice who the receiver was at that time, I just knew the Patriots were behind late. I’d sure know who he was not long after that TD though. 10-7 Giants.
Through all of this, I was staying calm. The Pats had faced adversity all season long, coming back in dramatic victories over the Colts, Eagles, and Ravens earlier in 2007. So despite the ominous signs, I was still pretty optimistic that New England was going to pull it out with just over 11 minutes left in the game.
And it very much looked as if I was going to be right. Tom Brady marched New England 80 yards downfield and threw a dart to Randy Moss in the back of the end zone with 2:42 remaining. 14-10 Patriots.
Just imagine, it would’ve the perfect ending to the perfect season. The dynamic duo of Brady and Moss, the greatest single-season QB-WR combo, who had absolutely annihilated opposing defenses all season long, would score the final touchdown to cap off the best season by any team in NFL History. Undefeated. 19-0. The ultimate team accomplishment.
As excited as I was that New England had retaken the lead, it was when they scored, that for the first time all season, I had some doubts about whether New England would be able to win the game or not. They left way too much time on the clock. 2:42 is an eternity in Football, and that’s what the ensuing drive would feel like for me.
The Patriots had 3 chances to close out the game, be crowned Super Bowl Champs for the 4th time in 7 years, and finish the season 19-0. They managed to blow it all 3 times.
The first was when they couldn’t prevent power back Brandon Jacobs from converting on 4th down. This one I totally expected. On that night, nobody was slowing down Jacobs on close-yardage situations, and unsurprisingly, he picked up the first down.
The second chance the Patriots had to finish the job was entirely on one guy, Asante Samuel. Samuel had an outstanding season, he led the league in interceptions and was named to the Pro Bowl and All-Pro teams. But on 2nd-and-5, two plays after Jacobs’ conversion, Eli Manning threw in Samuel’s direction. The pass bounced directly off Samuel’s hands; a gimme interception, dropped by the NFL’s leader in that category. At that moment, I was disappointed, but I sort of laughed it off. So far in the drive, the Giants hadn’t made a ton of progress, and it was now 3rd and 5 with only 1:15 left.
The next play… is something that has been implanted in my brain. It still pops up in my nightmares and sometimes wakes me up at night. I am dead serious when I say this. It’s “The Helmet Catch”.
When the play started to develop, I stood up and thought “We got ‘em”. Adalius Thomas came flying around the edge and looked to get Manning but he just missed as Manning moved up in the pocket. But Richard Seymour AND Jarvis Green were both there and got their hands on Manning, in fact Green starts to make a move to bring him down. But somehow, SOMEHOW, Manning escaped the grasp of both linemen and rolled to the right.
At this point, I’m just unable to comprehend how Manning was able to get out of a game-killing sack. And now he’s throwing up a bomb downfield, a hail mary, to god knows what he sees because no one watching the game on TV could tell.
“Please be incomplete. Please be incomplete. Please be incomplete.”
And at the end of Manning’s reception, is David. Freaking. Tyree. A guy who had 4 receptions all season long. The same guy who caught the Touchdown earlier in the game. Out-jumping Rodney Harrison and pinning the ball to his helmet at the New England 25-yard line. For his final career NFL reception.
“No… No way there’s gotta be… No. You’re kidding me. How? No…”
Disbelief. The best word to describe how I felt following Tyree’s helmet catch.
So many different things happened on that play. The Patriots could’ve sacked Manning 3 separate times on that play. Manning may have seen Tyree, but if you watch the play again, Manning kind of floats one up for grabs and hopes for the best. And then even after all that, Tyree’s waiting downfield for Manning’s heave and has to make an absolutely spectacular catch in order to haul the pass in. It’s a miraculous sequence. You could run that play 100 times, only one time would Tyree make that catch.
But the Giants knew that if they played the perfect game, they’d have a chance at pulling off the upset. They had to be perfect, to beat the team that was trying to be perfect.
The next drive was pretty much a blur for me. When Tyree made that catch, you just knew the Giants were going to score, and they did. Plaxico Burress ran a Sluggo route and caught Manning’s fade to the corner of the end zone. 17-14 New York Giants. 35 seconds left.
Game Over. Season Over. The New York Giants had done the unthinkable, they had defeated the undefeated. They were the Super Bowl Champions.
And the Patriots, my beloved New England Patriots, the team I had pretty much followed on a religious basis that season, finished 18-1. They tripped at the finish line. All those wins, suddenly, they meant nothing. The Perfect Season was gone. They wouldn’t be known as the greatest team EVER, they’d be known as the greatest team to NEVER win the Super Bowl.
I sat there in front of the TV, in silence, for a solid 5 minutes after the game had ended. Then, after finally taking in everything I had just witnessed, I went to my room.
And while almost everyone was celebrating the fact that they had just witnessed David beat Goliath in one of the most incredible football games of all time, I sat down on my bed, alone, and I bawled my freaking eyes out.
The next day, I went to school. I did not wear my #12 Brady New England Patriots Jersey. There were no “19-0! Go Pats Go!” chants. In fact, there were no more Patriots fans at my school except for pretty much myself. I guess before the game most of my friends decided that they would become Giants fans because I got absolutely torn to shreds.
“Let’s Go Giants!”,
“Patriots Suck! 18-1! HAHAHA”
“CHOKERS” followed by a choking sign. Then I’d usually respond
“Weren’t you a Pats fan on Friday?”, and the reply would be something like
“Pfft, NO, Why Would I cheer for those Losers?” Such is the life of a 6th grader; kids have got a new favourite team every week. I was unable to pull myself to watch TSN or Sportsnet for two weeks, because the only thing they kept showing was the stupid David Tyree catch. It made me sick every time I saw it. It was basically torture for me to re-watch the game-winning drive from Super Bowl XLII for this article. I still hate watching it. I always will.
Looking back on the game today, I’m not as bitter or as devastated as I was on February 3rd, 2008. The Giants really deserved to win that game, they were the better team on that day. New England only scored 14 points; that’s not going to win you the Super Bowl.
I also kind of wish that the Patriots had lost one game during the regular season. If they had, I don’t think there would have been as much pressure on their shoulders as their was going into Super Bowl XLII, to tell you the truth, they likely would’ve dominated. 16-0 is a cool feat, but it’s nothing compared to winning another Super Bowl.
Super Bowl XLVI in 2012 would go on to give me a bit of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The rematch of XLII would feature Wes Welker’s Drop and Mario Manningham’s sideline catch, two events that are eerily similar to what happened in 4 years earlier.
But with New England returning to the Super Bowl for the 6th time since the turn of the century this upcoming week (against a new opponent, THANK GOD), the excitement that I had back in 2007 has returned. The Patriots have a chance to re-establish themselves as the best in the NFL once again, and hopefully help me get over the traumatizing night that was Super Bowl XLII.
nolancattell 