Giants 'stomp out' dignity with post-title gloating
Posted: Wednesday, February 06, 2008 4:28 PM
When you win a game, the animosity is supposed to stop. Afterwards, no matter what you think of your opponents, you congratulate them on their effort, tell the world what worthy foes they were, and act with the dignity befitting a champion.
I kind of wish the Giants would catch on. There’s no call for them to be kicking the Patriots now that they’re down. New England didn’t diss the Giants before Super Bowl XLII, and whatever talk there was on the field goes down as part of the game. Afterwards, I didn’t hear the Pats whining that the Giants were lucky or undeserving in any way, or that they still thought they were the better team.
The Giants, though, wouldn’t let it rest. They gloated after the game, and two days later, when they were collecting their keys to the City of New York (And that and $6 will get you across the George Washington Bridge.), Michael Strahan leaped high in the air, come down with a two-footed stomp on the dais, and told the cheering crowd that’s what his team did to the Pats – “We stomped you out.”
We’ve all seen the video, and if you want to see it again, it’s right here. There’s a certain childish impetuousness to the way Strahan did it the first time. But then he keeps right on with the demonstration, showing the world what he and his mates did to New England.
You can understand his glee. The Giants dethroned an 18-0 team that most people figured was on a journey to history. But Strahan’s version of events is gloating that’s hardly supported by the facts.
The Giants beat up Tom Brady pretty good and they controlled the line of scrimmage, but they didn’t actually stomp anybody out. They won a tight game on a last-minute touchdown that was set up by a catch so improbably that its author, David Tyree, insisted he had divine help in making it, and we’re not talking about the old “God-is-on-my-side” canard. Tyree insisted that Jesus himself physically put his hands on the ball to help Tyree hold it. If so, the Giants are more than lucky; they got away with having 12 men on the field. And if invisibility was the key here, then that’s a scandal bigger than Spygate, and commissioner Roger Goodell should get right on it.
But I digresss.
The Giants are worthy champions in every way, and we’ll be talking about their win for generations. There’s no need to rub it in. The Patriots’ record will hand like an albatross around the franchise’s neck forever: 18-1. There’s no need to gloat and no place for it. Not in the schoolyard and certainly not on the steps of New York City Hall.
