Super Bowl pre thoughts

(I apolgize in advance-- the spellcheck is not working and I am too late to care)

Predictions for all intents and purposes are meaningless. The only Super Bowl prediction ever remembered is Joe Namath's in Super Bowl III. While the bravado earned Broadway Joe the Hall of Fame, the truth is the Jets defense and the Colts mistakes is what won the game.

Today I will be half heartedly pulling for the Giants. It is tough to imagine getting excited for a New York team to win-- let alone considering anything from Gotham being an underdog but something has to stop this Boston sports juggernaut. History is important to me and I really don't want it to be written by a Coach who helped kill the Browns and a quarterback from Michigan.

I know Belichick is a genius. And I know his failure here helped shape his greatness. He had to be humbled first and he gave up a lot to be the best coach in the history of the NFL. He lost his family, he surrendered personal skills and it appears all sense of ethics in order to win. You have to begrudgingly tip your cap to someone who sacrifices almost everything to win. Not many people can do that.

The Super Bowl to me in my life has almost always been a disappointment. The Browns have never played in one. And although the odds every year are a coin-flip, I can't remember a year where the team I wanted to win actaully did. You would think the year the Steelers lost would have been a good year but the Cowboys were so hateable as well. I went into that game thinking I would cheer for the AFC team and put aside my differences. It took two plays and I couldn't do it. I turned it off.

I know there are Patroit apologists everywhere. That the whole cheating scandal was no big deal because everyone does it. And that is the same logic, steriod apologist use. Everyone was cheating. Well, I don't beleive that. I am sure more NFL teams than the Patroits cheated- just like more than the guys in the Mitchell Report cheated. But not everyone cheated. And while maybe you could argue that winning should come at all costs-- not everyone is willing to drop their beliefs to win. Some argue that the cheating infraction happened in the first half of the first game and has nothing to do with the perfect season. This season has been Belichick's tour of victory but his past has put a cloud over what should be the NFL's finest moment.

While I hope for the upset, a large part of me expects a cornation tonight. The Mount Rushmore of Coaches and Quarterbacks will have two faces firmly and forever etched. If life was just then the Giants would win tonight. History will be stalled if not stopped and Boston will learn some humilty. The local paper has already sold copies of a book about the Perfect season, the Patriots have trademarked 19-0 and plans to interuppt election day on Tuesday so Brady can be in the parade before heading to Hawaii. That arrogance should be punished.

But we all know life is not fair let alone just.