Commentary: Start Spreading The News, New York Is Back On Top

New York City is celebrating a championship for the ages.  Boston is reeling from another heartbreaking, came-so-close-to-championship-glory moment.  Alas, all is right with the world again.

For a century, Boston played second fiddle to New York in the sports world. Yes, the Celtics did parade out an unparalleled run of 11 championships in 12 years in the ‘50s and ‘60s (plus five more in the ‘70s and ‘80s) but the joy of their basketball bliss was overshadowed by baseball blunders.

During that time – and before and after – the Red Sox were in the midst of what seemed to be a never-ending tragedy where the Yankees always came out on top (26 World Series titles to be exact).  But the script improbably changed when the Sox ended the 86-year-old Curse of the Bambino in 2004 with a World Series title, toppling their arch nemesis, the Yankees, in historic fashion along the way.

The championship movement in Boston, however, started a few years earlier when the double-digit underdog New England Patriots defeated the Greatest Show on Turf – the St. Louis Rams – in Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002.

Fast-forward to the start of 2008 and Boston was shining in the championship splendor that previously eluded it while New York was going title-less.  The Patriots added two more Super Bowl championships in 2004 and 2005 and the Red Sox tacked on another World Series title in 2007.  Heck, even the Celtics seemed to be on their way to returning to their glory days.

That brings us to Super Bowl XLII.  It was to be the coronation of the 19-0 Patriots, the greatest team in NFL history.  Destiny would inevitably hand Golden Boy Tom Brady and Gruff Genius Bill Belichick their fourth Super Bowl win in seven years.  The New England dynasty would be punctuated with perfection.  Beating a New York team would just add to Beantown’s newly found bragging rights over the Big Apple.

But a funny thing happened as Don Shula, Mercury Morris and the rest of the ’72 Dolphins got ready to reluctantly welcome the Patriots to their new house in Perfectville.  The moving truck got a flat tire.  And the Giants made sure the Patriots couldn’t pull out a spare and continue an their way.

Michael Strahan, Osi Umenyiora, Justin Tuck and the rest of the Giants defensive line forcibly removed Brady from the driver’s seat he had been sitting comfortably in all season.  Eli Manning took the wheel and, with a little help from David Tyree and Plaxico Burress, re-routed the final destination of the Vince Lombardi trophy.

No, the Giants didn’t take the trophy to Perfectville.  But, they did send it down Broadway, through the Canyon of Heroes to City Hall Plaza in New York City.  That’s the route of the Giants championship parade.

Like so many times before, there won’t be a championship parade in Boston.  The New England Patriots could not deliver championship perfection to their fans.  Instead, all they got was an 18-1 postcard, postage paid courtesy of New York Giants’ fans.