Keefe To The City

Jan 30, 2015

Super Bowl XLIX Pick

The Giants aren’t in the Super Bowl to stop the Patriots, but if the Giants can’t be there, it’s a good thing the Seahawks are.

Two hundred and sixty-two games. That’s how many games are in an NFL regular season and postseaons prior to the Super Bowl and that’s how many games I have once again picked this year. When you write it out it looks like a lot more and feels like a lot more and reminds you of the 20 weeks of predicting and checking and picking and writing about lines. Two hundred and sixty-two.

After the 262 games this season, the record sits at 129-129-4. A .500 record and even winning percentage across the board after five months of football. Now there is only one game to pick, and that game has many more implications than just deciding if my record ends one game over or under .500.

***

On Feb. 3, 2008, I was in college in Boston when the New York Football Giants avenged what had happened to the Yankees (and more importantly me) four Octobers earlier. I was at a Super Bowl party where the ratio of Patriots to Giants fans was about 30-to-5. At halftime, the four other Giants fans watching the game and I went into a separate room at the party to watch the game on a smaller TV, leaving the Patriots fans in the living room with the big screen. The only time we would come in contact with each other for the second half would be when we needed to visit the keg.

With 2:42 left in the game, Tom Brady found Randy Moss in the end zone for a six-yard touchdown pass, giving the Patriots a 14-10 lead and leaving them one defensive stop from finishing off a perfect 19-0 season with the franchise’s fourth championship in seven years. Tom Brady would be 4-0 in Super Bowls, the leader of the best team ever and the best quarterback in league history. All 30 or so of those Patriots fans came barreling into the room as if there was a fire in the living room and all 30 or so of them were laughing and screaming and yelling in our faces just two minutes and 42 seconds away from perfection.

Two minutes and seven seconds later it was our turn to break up their party. Plaxico Burress embarrassed Ellis Hobbs to get open in the back corner of the end zone and Eli Manning floated a pass to Burress that seemed to hang in the air for minutes. From the second I realized how open Plaxico had gotten through the ball’s entire flight in the University of Phoenix Stadium air, I started to envision everything that had been building to this game.

The Giants’ Super Bowl loss in 2000, the Patriots three championships in four years between 2001 and 2004, Eli Manning’s rollercoaster career, the legacy of Tom Coughlin, Tom Brady and Bill Belichick’s place in history, Michael Strahan coming back for one final year, my hatred for the Patriots and Boston sports and the New York-Boston rivalry. And that thing that happened in October 2004.

When Plaxico went down to one knee to celebrate the go-ahead touchdown with 35 seconds left, I went up to no feet to celebrate, jumping so high I probably could have dunked a basketball for the first time. The five of rushed into the other room where a dejected group of Patriots fans were slumped and slouched over looking like they had all been told their houses had been burned down and they had lost everything. Everything.

That night we headed to the bars in Faneuil Hall to celebrate a Giants victory on Patriots ground the way Red Sox fans had done in New York four Octobers earlier. I drank everything that was handed to me, sang along to every song that was played at the bar, screamed until I didn’t have a voice left to scream with, and all the while I kept watching the highlights over and over and over.

The next morning when I woke up it felt like it never happened. Were the Giants really Super Bowl champions? Did they really end the Patriots’ perfect season? I walked out of my apartment and on to Hanover Street in the North End and it looked like the beginning of I Am Legend. There was no one to be found and if you did find someone they looked like their whole life had been devastated. It was a great feeling.

Four years later, the Giants once again ruined the Patriots’ chance to win a fourth Super Bowl and for Tom Brady to join Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw as the only quarterbacks with four Super Bowl wins and for Bill Belichick to inch a little closer to Vince Lombardi even if he can never be caught. The Giants’ incredible finish to their regular season and their improbable postseason run and how they beat the Packers and how they won the NFC Championship Game and the two weeks between that win and the Super Bowl all felt the same way it had in 2007. And when Ahmad Bradshaw found the end zone with 57 seconds left I celebrated the way I had four years earlier when Eli found Plaxico.

The Giants were nowhere to be found this postseason and the last time they played in the postseason was in Super Bowl XLVI three years ago. The Patriots, on the other hand, were back in the playoffs in 2012, losing to the Ravens in the AFC Championship, and again in 2013, losing to the Broncos in the AFC Championship. Now they’re back in the Super Bowl, which is something I didn’t have to worry about the last two seasons. Except this time Eli Manning and Tom Coughlin aren’t there to stop Tom Brady and Bill Belichick and tput another dent in their legacies.

But if the Giants can’t be there to do to the Patriots what no other team in the league has been consistently able to do during the Brady-Belichick era, then I’m glad the Seahawks are there to fill in.

(Home team in caps)

SEATTLE +1 over New England

This week I wrote about being a Giants fan for the Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX and about becoming an honorary 12th Man for Sunday and that’s exactly what I’m going to be.

Seahawks 24, Patriots 13

Last week: 1-1-0
Season: 129-129-4

NFL • Podcasts

Jan 30, 2015

Podcast: Danny Picard

Super Bowl XLIX is finally here and that means everyone can now focus on real football and an actual game rather than inflation regulations.

Super Bowl XLIX is finally here. Well, the weekend is finally here and the this weekend is centered around the game in Arizona. After two weeks of hearing about the football inflation regulations, there will actually be real football and an actual game to talk about.

Danny Picard, of DannyPicard.com and The Danny Picard Show on WEEI and Comcast SportsNet New England, joined me to talk about how Super Bowl XLIX will impact the legacy of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, why people hate the Patriots, how the Seahawks resemble the early-2000s Patriots and who will win in Arizona.

Podcasts • Rangers

Jan 29, 2015

Podcast: Mike Carver

Another Rangers-Islanders game and another loss for the Blueshirts to keep them winless against their rival this season.

Another Rangers-Islanders game and another loss for the Rangers to drop them to 0-3 on the season against their rival. In the three games, the Rangers have been outscored 13-4 with just one goal in the last 122:10 against the Islanders. If the two teams do end up meeting in the playoffs this spring, I hope the Islanders still haven’t lost to the Rangers at that point because that would be the only way I would feel confident about the series.

Mike Carver of The Butch Goring Show on Hockey This Week Radio Network and WFAN joined me to talk about why the Islanders have owned the Rangers so far this season, the changed perception of Jack Capuano for Islanders fans and how the reality of the Nassau Coliseum closing is starting to set in.

NFL • Podcasts

Jan 28, 2015

Podcast: Mike Hurley

A lot of people don’t like Bill Belichick and Tom Brady, but even as a Giants and New York sports fan, I have never understood it.

Super Bowl XLIX is almost here and that means we can actually watch and talk about actual football rather than have to hear about deflated footballs and speculate on what might or might not happen in the game. Sunday it set up to be a great day and a memorable one for Seahawks fans and those who consider themselves a 12th Man, like myself.

Mike Hurley of CBS Boston joined me talk about what Media Day is like, why people hate Bill Belichick and Tom Brady, how to balance being a fan and a media member, the idea of the 12th Man and why the Seahawks are going to win the Super Bowl.

Blogs • Giants • NFL

Jan 28, 2015

A Giants Fan for Seahawks

A trip to Seattle for the NFC Championship Game made me realize the 12th Man does exist and I’m becoming an honorary one for Super Bowl XLIX.

The loudest thing I had ever heard at a road stadium was when Game 5 of the 2004 ALCS went to extra innings. Curt Schilling, Derek Lowe and Tim Wakefield emerged from the Red Sox dugout and began to walk to the bullpen as “Lose Yourself” blared throughout Fenway Park and every Red Sox fan in attendance, still high off the Red Sox’ two-run rally to tie the game in the eighth inning, went absolutely wild. And at that moment, I knew the Yankees were going to lose the game. I didn’t think they would lose the series with Games 6 and 7 to be played in the Bronx, but I knew that eventually on that Monday night, they would lose. Five hours and 49 minutes after the game started, the Yankees lost.

***

I didn’t know what I was getting myself into when I went to Seattle for 36 hours for the NFC Championship Game. I had no idea when I boarded a packed plane from Newark headed to Seattle at 7 a.m. on a Saturday (32 hours before the game) that my girlfriend and I would be the only ones not completely decked out in Seahawks gear. We were surrounded by 12th Man and Russell Wilson and Marshawn Lynch jerseys. Surrounded by cheerful faces of people, who couldn’t be happier to be in the city of Newark at the crack of dawn on an Alaskan Airlines plane for the next six-plus hours. I had a feeling I was dealing with a different breed of fans when I walked down the aisle to find my seat and saw an elderly married couple sitting in first class, eating breakfast with matching 12th Man jerseys on with smiles on their faces as wide as Vince Wilfork.

I lived in Boston for five years and through two Red Sox (2004 and 2007), one Patriots (2004) and one Celtics championship (2007-08). The only thing that kept me from drinking my way through every day was Super Bowl XLII when I watched the Giants avenge what had happened to the Yankees and to me in October of 2004. But even during Boston’s historical run when every person in the city seemed to be wearing a David Ortiz or Manny Ramirez or Tom Brady or Tedy Bruschi or Paul Pierce of Kevin Garnett jersey, I had never seen people this nutty. And I think “nutty” is the perfect word for Seahawks fans. They aren’t crazy or insane, they are just nutty.

I never understood the “12th Man”. I mean I have always understood what the Seahawks and their fans were trying to do, but I never understood how or why everyone bought into the idea of it. I thought it was weird to see fans wearing a “12th Man” jersey instead of a real player’s jersey and found it awkward to hear fans refer to themselves as 12s, while Pete Carroll and his players referred to their fans as 12s. It was odd to see “12” flags around the city and “12” banners hanging from buildings and storefronts. I have no problem with any fans thinking or acting like they are part of the team by using “we” when talking about their team, but thinking of yourself as a person or player on the field because of the noise generated? That always seemed a little strange. Nothing could possibly be as loud as CenturyLink has been made out to be even with everyone in attendance consuming an exorbitant amount of alcohol.

***

Seattle on Seahawks game day (or at least on game day when that game happens to be the NFC Championship Game) looks like Dillon on Panthers game day in Friday Night Lights. Most places were closed and those that weren’t had handwritten signs hanging in the window to let you know they would be closing at noon, which was coincidentally when the Seahawks would eventually be kicking off to the Packers.

But it makes sense since Seattleites only really have the Seahawks. Their basketball team moved to Oklahoma City and when it comes to the Mariners, they haven’t reached the playoffs since 2001 when the Yankees ended what was a 116-win regular season for the Mariners, and 11 years later, the Yankees traded for the face of their franchise in Ichiro. The Seahawks are all they have. Well, the Seahawks, Felix Hernandez, Robinson Cano (eff you, Seattle) and fat jokes about Jesus Montero. And I guess we can throw in Starbucks, non-stop rain and being the home to Pearl Jam to beef up their resume. But that’s it.

On the morning of the NFC Championship Game, the non-stop rain was still there. I had seen rain from right before the plane was about to land through my first day in Seattle and now 24 hours later, it was still raining. It wasn’t raining hard, but it was raining. Not until we left the hotel and began our walk to the game did the sky open up and in seconds turn me from “Hey, I’m going to the NFC Championship Game!” to “I need to go back to the hotel, order a pizza and watch the game on TV.” I was soaked. My jeans were stuck to me, my coat had absorbed enough water that it felt like the lead vest they give you when you get an X-ray and my decision to wear sneakers rather than boots proved immediately costly as my socks had become useless and now detrimental to my day. Fortunately, as we hid in Pike Place Market for a few minutes, the sun emerged for the first and only time of the weekend and stayed out long enough for us to walk to CenturyLink Field.

SEA … HAWKS! SEA … HAWKS! SEA … HAWKS! SEA … HAWKS! SEA … HAWKS!

That was the chant that filled 1st Avenue from Pike Place to CenturyLink and it grew louder with each passing block as the stadium grew closer. The scene on the blocks leading up to CenturyLink reminded me of walking through the parking lots of a tailgate at the Meadows in Hartford for a concert. The only things missing were stoners with three-foot long dreads trying to sell veggie burritos (there were stoners with three-foot long dreads trying to sell other things), people buying nitrous balloons and “Let’s Go Whalers!” chants breaking out.

SEA … HAWKS! SEA … HAWKS! SEA … HAWKS! SEA … HAWKS! SEA … HAWKS!

***

From the moment I got to my seat just before kickoff until the Seahawks rushed the field following Jermaine Kearse’s game-winning touchdown in overtime, it felt like that “Lose Yourself” moment at Fenway multiplied by about 29,536,758 for three-plus straight hours. I had become a believer in the 12th Man. It’s a real thing.

I have never heard noise like that. At least not generated solely by people. The construction going on outside my apartment on the Upper East Side (which starts at 7:30 a.m. sharp every morning) mixed with being inside a firehouse garage while the sirens go off, mixed with standing next to an amp during Guns N’ Roses’ “Use Your Illusion Tour” might equal the magnitude of noise at CenturyLink Field I experienced. And that noise came from people’s vocal chords.

No one sat down and no one stopped yelling. Unfortunately, the woman (a Packers fan) two rows behind me, who thought it was a good idea to yell “DE-FENSE!” over and over when the Packers’ defense was on the field didn’t stop either. I’m not sure if she thought that Dom Capers or Clay Matthews or Sam Shields could hear her from the upper deck over the voices of 65,000 Seahawks fans, but I hope she lost her voice the next day and still hasn’t gotten it back.

I didn’t care who won the NFC Championship as long as that team was prepared to beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl because even before the Patriots’ demolition of the Colts a few hours later, everyone knew the Patriots were going to the Super Bowl when they beat the Broncos in Week 9 and locked up the 1-seed. I felt like the Seahawks would have a better chance against the Patriots because they have the best defense in the league and because the Patriots haven’t seen a quarterback like Russell Wilson all season. Actually, they haven’t seen a quarterback like Wilson since the last time they met, when the Seahawks beat them 24-23 in 2012. I know that the Packers did beat the Patriots already this season, but the Packers beating a team 26-21 in Green Bay is virtually a win for the opponent, since a five-point win in Lambeau for the Packers is equivalent to a loss on a neutral field.

I wanted a good game and wanted the winner to come out of the game healthy in order to best represent the NFC in Arizona and have the best chance to continue the Patriots’ championship drought. In return, I got possibly the best non-Super Bowl postseason game of all time, the best fourth-quarter comeback in postseason history and a Seahawks team without any serious injuries ready to defend their title in Super Bowl XLIX.

Because I attended the game with Packers fans, I wasn’t going to root outright for the Seahawks and when every Seahawks fans offered their condolences to my girlfriend’s family after the game and tried to offer it to me, I let them know I was a Giants fan. And I wanted them to know that I needed their team to do what the Giants had done in Super Bowl XLII and Super Bowl XLVI and beat the Patriots.

Before the postseason began, I wrote My Super Bowl XLIX Dilemma and ranked the 12 playoff teams in order from which team I would most like to see win Super Bowl XLIX to which team I don’t want to see win at all. The Seahawks were 3. The Patriots? Last, of course. So this decision is easy for me. On Sunday, I will be an honorary 12th Man.