statuesqque said:

I started a thread about this...

You could tell something was wrong with Brady in the last game, but we still managed to pull it off...only San Diego was hurting more so that definitely helped. Giants will be tough, Tom has 2 weeks to heal and I'm sure they'll shoot him up with plenty of drugs. I can't believe Rivers was able to play in that last game...he must have got some good stuff to help him.

CarrieLee said:

I think it's just a precaution. He'll be good to go.

namepeace said:

I hope that's all it is, cause I need to know now if we need to start killin chickens, burning candles and shit. I reeeally want the Giants to beat they ass. But him being tight lipped about the brace doesn't help either, how good is the back up (god forbid) it's more serious?
[Edited 1/22/08 8:24am]

statuesqque said:

The backup sucks!!!! We'll be counting on Maroney and Welker to run it if Brady is out...but I really doubt he will be.

CarrieLee said:

aww hell... I do think Brady will be ready but seeing him the brace like that, it was a serious WTF moment.

statuesqque said:

You could tell something was wrong though. Even when he was holding up the Lombardi trophy he wasn't as happy as he usually is. He was either in pain or really upset about his performance. Or he's just so used to winning all the time it didn't phase him

KIDDING!

statuesqque said:

I think he was being overly cautious with a relatively minor injury. He'll rest it and be fine.

namepeace said:

that's what I'm starting to think...being on the safe side.

CarrieLee said:

I'd love 2 see the Patriots go 19-0. That team is a Machine.

Bills likely to get OK to play game in Toronto

The Buffalo Bills will likely get a regular-season game approved for Toronto.

Bills owner Ralph Wilson Jr. had petitioned the league to play one home game in Toronto
to strengthen its Canadian fan base and league owners are expected to approve the request.

4 teams under consideration by the NFL to play a regular-season game in the United Kingdom.

The teams are Seattle, Tampa Bay, Kansas City and New Orleans.

The NFL went to London this past season when the New York Giants and Miam Dolphins played in sold-out Wembley Stadium.

The game for the international series is to be played in the United Kingdom, probably in October.

The site of the game is undecided as the league is looking at two or three large stadium venuesin the UK, as well as London's Wembley Stadium.

Coach is coming back for one more year.



Mike Holmgren coming back to Seattle Seahawks, one more time.

This is the last year that Mike Holmgren will be coaching the Seattle Seahawks, he said at his press conference announcing that he is coming back.

Holmgren said he has promised his wife that he will take next year off, and then there is the possibility that he will get back into football in a non-coaching capacity. Holmgren wanted to coach one more year and his wife said he had done it long enough and wanted him to quit. They came to an understanding where both are happy.

He said he does not really view next season as a lame-duck season because that implies that it is the team's decision not to grant him a contract. This, he said, is his decision to make it his final year, so the same complications don't apply. In some aspects, he said, it might make it better because he doesn't have to feel like he is fighting for a new contract. He joked that he can call fake punts, double reverses, fake field goals, the whole thing. "It's my last go, I'm going," he laughed.

july said:

Super Bowl XLII will be overdone before kickoff

By Jerry Brewer
Seattle Times staff

By the time this fortnight ends, Super Bowl XLII won't even be considered a game. Hype will surely deflate this pigskin.

Between now and Feb. 3, we will need to study the Bible (David vs. Goliath, anyone?), the book "Art of War" (Bill

Belichick's guide to domination) and plenty of tabloid newspapers (just in case Tom Brady finds a new celebrity

girlfriend).

We will need to review the Manning family genealogy one more time. We will need to interview every member of the

1972 Miami Dolphins.

And by game time, we will need a break.

If New England lives up to its superiority, that's just what Super Bowl XLII will be: the most talk ever for the biggest

game of nothing, with a little history on the side.

Before the NFC and AFC championship games were decided, New York Giants linebacker Antonio Pierce was already

anticipating this story line.

"We'll probably be the biggest underdogs in Super Bowl history if we win," Pierce said in The New York Daily News the

day before the Giants beat Green Bay to advance to the mismatch of the year. "But that's OK. We've come to terms with

it. In the 2007 season, that's what we've dealt with. We've been called the underdog overachievers.

"Well, if that's what they want to call us, that's fine. But I've got a lot of calls on my phone congratulating me for moving

on, from people in the National Football League that are watching us now."

Pierce provided a nice, macho sound bite, but is anyone listening? One day into the hype, the Patriots are nearly a

two-touchdown favorite.

Even more so than in recent Super Bowls, the trimmings figure to be more intriguing than the actual event. The Patriots,

with Darth Belichick leading them, seemed destined to complete the second undefeated season in NFL history. Doing so

would also make them the most impressive team ever because a 19-0 Pats team trumps the 17-0 Dolphins.

Randy Moss, football royalty? How about that?

Where's Joe Namath when you need him?

In Super Bowl III, Namath orchestrated the Big Game's most famous upset. Lounging in Miami days before the show,

Namath guaranteed his Jets would beat the Baltimore Colts. Then he backed up his words, besting coach Don Shula's

mighty Colts. Thus began the legend of Broadway Joe.

Not sure if Off-Broadway Eli can pull off a similar feat, however. The Other Manning is a great talent, a former No. 1

pick, and he deserves much credit for eschewing criticism and leading the Giants this far. But he's not yet good enough to

outperform Brady, the Joe Montana of the 21st century.

So the Giants' hopes hinge on their pass rush, the best in the NFL. If they manage to pressure Brady, perhaps they can

junk up the game. If they can't, Brady and the Patriots receivers will punish New York's injury-burdened secondary.

The teams met in the regular-season finale, and the Giants only sacked Brady once. The result: 356 passing yards from

Brady and 38 New England points. Playing only for pride, New York was impressive on that day and kept the game

close before losing 38-35. It provides hope that this will be a decent game, but it's still hard to see the Patriots losing to

the NFC's No. 5 seed with history at stake.

Even ardent Patriots haters would have a difficult time arguing against their destiny. Only a disastrous distraction or some

unforeseen misfortune could stop this team.

With two weeks to hype this game, considerable time can be spent in "What could go wrong?" mode. Perhaps news

surfaces that Belichick ordered the hits that injured San Diego's star players. Or Moss could lose what's left of his mind

on the grandest stage of his career. Or Britney could announce that she's having Brady's baby.

Something. Anything.

Nothing, actually.

We're left to nitpick this game, hoping we see things that aren't there.

Eli could outdo his big brother, Peyton. Or not.

The Giants could call on the ghosts of their illustrious past and pull off a shocker. Or not.

Brady could be human. Or not.

Karma could finally discipline the Patriots for Spygate. Or not.

Armageddon could arrive before Super Bowl XLII begins. Well, after we endure two weeks of talk about perfection and

genius and underdogs, we'll probably be just fine with this possibility.

http://seattletimes.nwsou...wer22.html
[Edited 1/22/08 18:07pm]

I never pictured the Giants to be the NFC team to make it to the big game this year. I thought that the Packers were doing so well that they could have gone all the way.

I have nothing against the Giants, though. As a football fan of 11 years, I started to keep an eye on them since last season. Partially because my late uncle was a huge Giants fan (and like him, I hate the Cowboys). I was really impressed with game play during the playoffs.
They're also a local team. I grew up in PA and I go to college in NJ... so its gonna be a huge blow-out, haha.

And unlike the Eagles (my home team that seems to screw things up every year, but I like them all the same), I think the Giants will have a great chance of winning.

And I gotta go for the them for another reason. I hate the Patriots... have for years. Since they got so good that they kept killing all the other teams. They're trying to say that they're a dynasty... The Denver Broncos of the late 90's deserve that more, even though they didn't win three SuperBowls in a row.

Plain and simple, no team is THAT perfect for this long. It's just impossible.

UOP stadium is nuts right now, they got tents and shit and a huge fuckin' Ferris Wheel up its insane... i see this shit everyday.

IAintTheOne said:

I wish I was going!!! I was looking on Craigs List for jobs at the super bowl, my best friend lives in Phoenix so I could stay with her. I was planning on bringing a wig and hat so as soon as I got in I could run off and disguise myself and watch the game!

CarrieLee said:

i read in our local ny paper today, that the super bowl committee has hired 1000 women..to be pretty and hang around. that's all,..just be pretty and hang around

BlackAdder7 said:

Are you kidding me???!!!! I can do that!

CarrieLee said:

http://www.azcentral.com/...nline.html

Well as a new yorker, and a fan of the Mets/Jets/Rangers, the number one rule is you dont root for the other new york team because "they are in it" like when the Yankees get to the playoffs and the Mets dont, im not all of a sudden a yankee fan just to support nyc. With that in mind as a Jets fan its hard to want the Patriots win because they are a big enemy too, this would be like a world series of the Yankees and Braves, for a Met fan you cant even stomach either team, let alone want one to win. But just as a spectator for this superbowl i think its going to be a tight first half and not a very tight second half, reminding me of a few years back when the Jets were a game away from the superbowl and they were playing Denver and they were winning after the first half, and then Elway took the Jets to school, i think thats what going to happen here, 35-24 Patriots.

CarrieLee said:

That sounds like shit I'd try to pull.

A Week From Today. Right Now.

statuesqque said:

Oct. 26 game, at Wembley.

The San Diego Chargers will play the New Orleans Saints in London on Oct. 26, 2008.
The NFL's second regular-season contest to be played outside North America, will be at Wembley Stadium.

Super Bowl XLII Day One

It is absolutely dumping rain in Phoenix, something all the New England Patriots commented on, especially after they left their pep rally at Gillette Stadium this morning amid snow flurries and expected to arrive in warm weather in the desert. Their flight was delayed by about 45 minutes, which meant they were delayed to meet with the media.

After avoiding the media all week, quarterback Tom Brady was one of six Patriots players to be grilled on Sunday night. He said he will play in Sunday's game, no question. He said he hurt his ankle early in the third quarter of the game against the Chargers, when he was sacked, but that he knows enough to know that he will not be prevented from playing. His teammates already seem to be sick of the topic: "I don't know how many times we can say it: Tom is going to be there," Tedy Bruschi said. "To be commenting about how it feels for me to see him walking normally, it just doesn't make sense." Brady said he did not practice with his team last week but plans on trying to practice three days this week.

Everything else was pretty vanilla. The only controversial topic was the claim by the Giants that Matt Light is a dirty player. The Patriots basically said that football is a tough sport and sometimes you have to play tough.

Giants coach Tom Coughlin and six members of the Giants meet with the media tomorrow, after they arrive.

The rain is not suppose to abate until Tuesday.

It has rained for the for the first three days of the last four Super Bowls.

Iraqi war veteran who lost both legs inspires New York Giant's Super Bowl run




As the celebratory parade rushed through the New York locker room after the Giants had capped an improbable run to the Super Bowl with a victory over the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field, one stoic man sat quietly off to the side, soaking in the electric scene.

Army Lt. Col. Greg Gadson, in a wheelchair because he lost both his legs in Iraq, was the team’s honorary captain for the game, a source of inspiration, a reality check and a reminder of grace for young men at the peak of their lives both physically and professionally.

As players filed out of the locker room to the team buses, they invariably would stop and lean down to hug Gadson, shake his hand or congratulate him on the victory.

It was only natural; Gadson is a part of the team now.

“I am just trying to enjoy this moment,” Gadson said, glancing around to appreciate the festive atmosphere.

So many things go into an accomplishment of this magnitude, it is virtually impossible to identify one as the defining reason for the success of an entire organization.

But Gadson unquestionably is one thread of the web of prosperity currently appreciated by the Giants, the only NFC team in NFL history to win three road playoff games to advance to the Super Bowl, which will be played Sunday night at University of Phoenix Stadium.

From the speech he issued to the team in Week 3 to the insights he has provided to wide receiver Plaxico Burress to the sort of good luck charm he has become, Gadson almost certainly will receive a Super Bowl ring if the Giants hand the New England Patriots their first loss of the season.

Gadson was a college roommate of Giants wide receivers coach Mike Sullivan. Gadson, an outside linebacker at Army, and Sullivan, a defensive back, played together in the 1988 Sun Bowl, losing a 29-28 decision to heavily favored Alabama.

While Sullivan served the needs of Giants coach Tom Coughlin, Gadson served the needs of his country, fighting in Iraq

On May 7, Gadson was injured when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off on a street in Baghdad. Besides losing his legs, he suffered other injuries, including one to his elbow that prevented him from touching his nose or eating with his right hand for eight months.

Gadson was sent home from Iraq for rehabilitation at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. Sullivan visited his friend in June, tentatively scheduling Gadson to attend when the Giants visited the Redskins in September.

Sullivan was so moved by the determination and spirit Gadson has displayed in the wake of his catastrophic wounds that he asked Coughlin if he would allow Gadson to address the Giants.

Sullivan’s thought was that the Giants, after starting the season 0-2 with losses to Dallas and Green Bay and being vilified by the New York media, could use some direction and inspiration.

Sullivan took Gadson to the team hotel the night before the Washington game. He asked his old friend to give a short speech.

For 15 minutes, Gadson talked about ignoring outside influences; about fighting and playing for one another; about appreciating the experience and the opportunities they had been given; about living in the moment because, as his body attested, circumstances can change quickly.

“He didn’t draw any clichés or parallels to combat,” Sullivan said. “He talked about what it would take to pull together as a team.”

When he finished, the soldier received a standing ovation from the millionaire athletes.

“His speech was so passionate, and from the heart, it was amazing,” Sullivan said. “You could hear a pin drop. Who he is and how he said it was very powerful.”

It seemed to have little initial effect the next day. The Giants fell behind 17-3, and the season, in only its third week, appeared to be slipping way. But New York rallied in the second half for a 24-17 victory.

When Burress scored a touchdown he gave the ball to Gadson, who was sitting on the sideline.

Whether it was the speech or just coincidence, it was a win that reversed New York’s fortunes.

The Giants earned a playoff berth while winning a record 10 consecutive road games. They enter the Super Bowl as the underdog and rooting interest for most of America outside of New England to derail the 18-0 Patriots.

“His message and the lessons that he spoke of in terms of team – the seriousness of his team and how he prepared his team and the thoughts that he had about the people that served under him in Iraq –were just tremendous lessons,” Coughlin told the New York media. “I told our players that it’s not often … that we meet an individual who can have a profound influence on our lives just simply by the value of the character of the man and what he stands for. This guy is something very special.”

The story could have ended there, of course. But it didn’t.

Burress, who had 11 catches for 154 yards in the NFC title game victory over the Packers, was so moved that he has developed a friendship with Gadson, who has helped guide the talented receiver.

“Greg is a very special guy to me,” said Burress, who, like Gadson, is a native of the Tidewater area of Virginia. “I don’t think I’ve ever met a finer individual, especially with some of the stuff that he has gone through. We sit down at dinner or at breakfast and talk about stuff outside of football … and he’ll say stuff and I’ll be like, ‘Wow, I’m 30 years old and nobody has ever said anything like that to me before in my life.’ ”

Sullivan and Coughlin surprised everybody by having Gadson greet the team at the hotel in Tampa Bay before the Giants’ playoff opener. Gadson had gotten prosthetics but was not yet accustomed to them. Still, he got up out of his wheelchair with tremendous effort to say hello.

“It was so great to see the players excited to see him,” Sullivan said.

Gadson could not make it to Dallas for the divisional playoff game because he had to have yet another surgery, but he was there in the arctic cold of Green Bay with his 13-year-old son, Jaelen, by his side.

When Corey Webster intercepted Brett Favre on the third play of overtime, the young cornerback without hesitation gave the ball to Gadson, who has won the affections of the Giants players.

“He’s kind of meant a lot to our team,” Webster said.

Team executives had already said that Gadson would accompany the Giants to Phoenix, and Gadson was making arrangements as soon as he left Green Bay.

He has mixed feelings about his inclusion, though. The sounds and smells of the locker room take him back to his playing days, to the bonds he formed and the relationships he established, to the very things that were the basis of his speech to the team in September.

But he also remembers that he is part of another team he holds dear, one that does far greater things with much less acclaim.

“About a year ago this time I was preparing to take my battalion to Iraq, and I got hurt three months later,” Gadson said. “They are still deployed. I am ready for them to come home.

“At the same time, I never thought I could be part of something like this. It is never something I dreamed of or thought of, and I thank God that I have a chance to be a part of this after May 7 of last year.”
[Edited 1/28/08 21:29pm]

Super Bowl XLII Day Two

The Giants flew in today and went to their hotel in Chandler. It's not as nice as where the Patriots are staying, New England's place is PLUSH. The Giants were all wearing black as a sign of team unity. A couple members of the team have gotten the flu and the trainers are trying to ward off it spreading through the team.

Giants Media Session.

Eli Manning's microphone was not working so it was very difficult to hear him, particularly since he is so soft-spoken as it is. Michael Strahan was pretty funny, saying he does not even remember the Super Bowl where the Giants lost to the Ravens because he was so wrapped up in playing the game. "I picked up the paper the next day and it said we lost to the Ravens, and I said, 'Did we play?'" Strahan said. Somebody asked him if he would have been angry if he retired before this season and the Giants made it to the Super Bowl. A perfect setup for, "If I retired the Giants wouldn't be in the Super Bowl."

Tomorrow is the Big Media Day, where the goofy questions are expected to get and do get asked.
It has toned down in recent years from the circus it has become, but it's still an entertaining day.