Plaxico’s Prediction

Before the Giants boarded their flight to Glendale on Monday, a reporter from the New York Post asked Plaxico Burress for his Super Bowl prediction.

“23-17,” he said. No hesitation, no explanation, just the numbers.

Naturally the comment generated a ton of media attention. Did Burress raise the bar too high for the Giants? Has he just given New England more motivation? Is he writing checks his team can’t cash?

Here’s the thing. Nobody would go into the biggest game of the year thinking or saying that his team didn’t stand a chance. Imagine if Burress said New England would make it a perfect 19-0 on Sunday. A comment like that wouldn’t inspire morale in the Giants’ locker room, nor would it give the Pats reason to play anything less than their best game. And it sure as hell wouldn’t make Giants fans happy.

The next day, Tom Brady and his teammates shrugged off the predication just as they should. This isn’t to say that they’ll win the game for certain—the Giants didn’t go to Arizona to hand over the Lombardi Trophy. But it would have been equally outrageous for Brady to agree with Burress as it would have been for Burress to forecast a Patriots victory.

Players have an obligation to their teammates and their fans to back their own team. When athletes stop doing this—leaving losing teams to play for better ones, talking trash about players and coaches—that’s when people think less of them. Would you get behind a team whose players said it couldn’t win?

Probably not.

NHL Playoffs: A Look Ahead

The NHL All Star break is over, which means we can start really thinking about the playoffs.

Right now, Detroit has the biggest advantage by far. The Red Wings are 22 points ahead in the Central Division and 17 points up in the Western Conference, giving them home ice advantage in the post season.

Seeing a team from the Original Six in such good playoff shape is refreshing. The Stanley Cup’s been passed around the Sun Belt since the Lightning won it in 2003-04. For hockey purists, there’s got to be something a little unsettling about the idea of powerhouse teams coming from the South and West. It’s nice to think that the Cup may return to a true hockey town, if only for a year.

Ottawa has a six-point edge in the Northeast, which is the only other real significant lead in the league. There’s only a one or two point difference between first and second place in the other four divisions. Teams who are at the top of their divisions now are only a few games up on the fifth-seeded club.

With each team having about 30 games left to play, every game is a must-win. NHL hockey worth watching before the playoffs even start? That could get interesting.

Super Bowl Coaches

For the next 10 days, we’ll hear all about what’s happening with the Patriots and the Giants. Will Tom Brady’s bum ankle keep him off the field (no), does Eli Manning deserve to be called a franchise quarterback (yes), can the Pats usurp the 1972 Miami Dolphins as the greatest team ever?

There’s plenty of time to get caught up in the hype before February 3. So just for now, let’s take a top-down look at the Super Bowl and talk about the two people who, over the next 10 days, will probably say the least about the big game.

From 1988 to 1990, Bill Belichick and Tom Coughlin were assistants with the Giants under head coach Bill Parcells. Belichick was the team’s defensive coordinator and secondary coach while Coughlin was a wide receivers coach. There was, for a time, a theory floating around that had these two staying with the Giants as successors to Parcells. But it wasn’t to be. Belichick went to Cleveland to coach the Browns and Coughlin was hired as head coach for Boston College.

Now, 18 years later, the two will face off again much in the way they did when Belichick’s defense scrimmaged against Coughlin’s offense during those old Giants workouts. So, which of these old school football guys has the edge in Arizona?

Belichick saw the Giants in December and he’s pretty good at beating teams he meets twice in one season—he’s got a 26-7 record with the Pats on that front. When opposing teams have shut down the one or two players considered the Pats’ biggest offensive threats, Belichick knows just who to give the ball and come up with big plays (and, more importantly, big wins).

Then there’s Coughlin, the coach who’s riding high on a three playoff wins, a much improved relationship with his team and a level of job security he couldn’t have imagined a year ago. He doesn’t have a roster of Pro Bowl players, but he does have a group of guys who play for each other more than any other team in the league. And if you don’t think that kind of team unity makes all that much difference, just think about this year’s Giants vs. their 2006 team.

Exactly.

Belichick’s team has the bigger names; Coughlin’s has the bigger heart. The coach who does more with their team’s strength will be the coach who goes home with the Lombardi Trophy this year.

A Giant Victory

If somebody told you back in September that the New England Patriots would play the New York Giants in the Super Bowl, you probably wouldn’t have believed them.

Well, you wouldn’t have believed the second half anyway. But it’s true—Big Blue’s heading to Glendale after beating the Packers in overtime last Sunday. And the best part, at least for Giants fans, is that nobody has given their team an ounce of credit.

New York had a lot of strikes against them this season. Coach Tom Coughlin was on the outs with team owners. Tiki Barber retired and told almost everyone how miserable he was playing for Coughlin. And quarterback Eli Manning still hadn’t proved why he was a first-round pick in 2004.

When they started the season 0-2, nobody was trying to give this team a reprieve. Then a funny thing happened. The Giants started winning and ended the season 10-6, which was just good enough to get them into the playoffs.

Nobody expected them to get past the first round. But they beat Tampa Bay 24-14 and went on to face the Cowboys, a team they’d lost to twice during the regular season. This time it was different though, and New York upset the Cowboys with a 21-17 win.

It was on to Green Bay to face Brett Favre and the Pack. It was destiny, the media said, that Favre win this game and play in one more Super Bowl. But when Lawrence Tynes kicked a 47-yard field goal in overtime, Green Bay’s magic season was over and Giants, while nobody was really looking, had made it to the Super Bowl.

Odds makers already have New York down as 14-point underdogs to Brady and co. But don’t forget, this is the same team that came within three points of the Pats only three weeks ago—only better. As a whole, the team has never been this confident. And Manning, who’s been picked apart by the press for messing up in little games, has played his best football ever in the post-season.

So give the Giants a little respect. They knocked out the NFC’s two best teams and finished one of the all-time most unlikely runs to the Super Bowl. Pretty impressive stuff for a team that didn’t look like it could go 8-8.

Sparano Signs With Miami

Tony Sparano is coming to Miami. Yesterday, the former Dallas assistant coach signed a four-year contract worth about $2.5 million per year, ESPN.com reports.

Bill Parcells and Jeff Ireland—Miami’s new vice president of football operations and general manager, respectively—take all the credit here. Parcells hired Sparano as an assistant coach in Dallas and, though he wasn’t the team’s offensive coordinator, he was calling plays in 2006. Miami’s weakest area right now is their offense, making Sparano a good technical fit for the role.

Parcells has also been packing his staff with Dallas guys, so it makes sense that he’d bring in a head coach from that same organization. He also knows Sparano and trusts him. And though he said he’s not going to get involved with on the field business, it’s hard to believe Parcell’s won’t guide Sparano in Miami the way he did in Dallas.

This is going to be a huge boon for Sparano. No other head coach, especially one who is still wet behind the ears, could approach a 1-15 team with anything matching the comfort level Sparano will have. He’s got Parcells and Ireland to help him prepare for the draft and pick up free agents. He’ll have their input again when he makes cuts and puts together his starting line in August. All season long, Sparano will have at his disposal some of the best minds in football, all just a few doors down the hall.

What the Dolphins look like on the field remains to be seen. But their coaching staff and their front office look like they could be one of the league’s best lineups.

NFL Conference Championship

And then there were four.

Last week’s divisional playoffs cut in half the number of teams still vying for a trip to the Super Bowl. Indianapolis and Jacksonville have been eliminated from the AFC, leaving the Chargers to battle the Patriots in Foxboro. The Seahawks and Cowboys are out of the NFC race, which means the Giants will travel to Green Bay this Sunday.

San Diego pulled out a big win over Indy, but the game came at a pretty heavy price. LaDainian Tomlinson bruised his knee and sat out the second half, but he said he expects to play on Sunday. Quarterback Philip Rivers injured his right knee late in the third quarter and sat out the rest of the game. He’s questionable for this week, along with Antonio Gates, who’s been playing with a toe injury.

This could spell for the Bolts. They’re up against a healthy Patriots team—one with enough weapons to outplay any defense. Tom Brady threw 26 for 28 against the Jags last weekend. Jacksonville did a good job of limiting Randy Moss, but couldn’t stop running back Laurence Maroney, who dominated the ground game. Even with all their starters active, it’s tough to see how the Chargers could stop a Patriots team this close to perfection.

Green Bay had a slow start Saturday but came away with a 42-20 win over the Seahawks. Brett Favre engineered six consecutive scoring drives and Ryan Grant ran for three touchdowns. Then on Sunday, Eli Manning and the Giants upset the Cowboys in a 21-17 win. Amani Toomer had a big game with two touchdown catches, but R.W. McQauarters will be remembered as the game’s hero. With nine seconds left to play, McQauarters intercepted Tony Romo in the end zone and destroyed any hope a last-second Dallas victory.

The Giants head into this game as the underdog, which is just how they like it. They also play their best football on the road, losing only to the Cowboys in Week One. But Green Bay likes to play at home, and they’ve got elder statesman Brett Favre to lead the young, experienced Pack through this game. Green Bay and New York are two balanced teams each with momentum on their side, setting up a high-drama conference championship game.

Nineteen weeks of football, and it all comes down to this.

NFL Divisional Playoffs

Eight teams remain in the run for the Super Bowl. The four who survive the divisional playoffs this weekend will live to play another game. The four who don’t…well, there’s always next season.

Jacksonville visits New England Saturday night to kick off the AFC divisional playoffs. The Jags ended the regular season with an 11-5 record, with two of their losses handed to them by the 16-0 Pats. Jacksonville defensive end Paul Spicer had a lot to say about New England after the spy-gate story broke in September, so look for him to put the pressure on Tom Brady this Saturday in Foxboro.

On Sunday, the San Diego Chargers take on the Indianapolis Colts. Peyton Manning and his team know the Chargers well, but that hasn’t helped them much in the past. If Indy wants another shot at the big game, their defense, led by Bob Sanders, has to shut down LaDainian Tomlinson. Manning will have to outscore the Bolts with help from running back Joseph Addai and receiver Marvin Harrison.

The NFC race gets underway when the Seattle Seahawks play the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau. Brett Favre has led the Pack to a 13-3 season with arguably less offensive weapons than other teams like New England or Dallas. But with the group of younger guys—including running back Ryan Grant and wide receiver Greg Jennings—playing around him this Saturday, Favre could get another chance at the title. Matt Hasselbeck, who led his team to 10-6 this year, has some impressive playmakers on his offense including the team’s all-time touchdown leader Shaun Alexander.

The 10-6 New York Giants travel to Dallas on Sunday to battle the 13-3 Cowboys for the third time this season. The G-Men have lost both previous games, but could turn it around this week if quarterback Eli Manning can avoid turning the ball over at key moments, which has been a problem for him this season. Cowboys QB Tony Romo may be the team’s golden boy, but loyal Giants fans everywhere are hoping he’s not good enough to break Dallas’ 12-year streak of no post-season wins.

Everyone’s got their predications about who’ll go all the way this year, but don’t rule out any of the so-called underdogs. None of this week’s favorites should rest easy. If they do, they may find themselves flying back home this weekend instead of jetting to Arizona in February.