When the New York Giants won their second Super Bowl in five years, the NFL world appeared to have trouble digesting it. Twice they had defeated the far more fancied New England Patriots. Twice they had seemingly defied the odds. Twice they had gone from not even being the favourite of their division to being a world championship team.
So why is it that it feels like nobody is acknowledging what this team has achieved?
When I look back at the two recent title victories of this New York Giants team, it seems wrong to call them flukes or put it down to certain plays going one way or another. When I was growing up, there was a saying a tough old coach pounded into me every week – championships are not won in one game, they are earned over a season.
This is something I feel people fail to recognise when it comes to the victories these Giants teams had at the Super Bowl. In order to win a Super Bowl, they had to get to a Super Bowl.In order to get to a Super Bowl they had to play at least 18 other games that season and win enough of them to get to the dance. In this era of instant news, constant analysis and commentators galore, are we forgetting just how much it means to even make it to a Super Bowl?
If you need to know how much a Super Bowl appearance means, ask anyone who’s ever played for the Browns, Texans, Jaguars or Lions – they’ve never even made it before. Wanna know how much a Super Bowl victory means? After forty six Super Bowls, 18 of the 32 NFL franchises have won at least one. That means that 14 have not.
Is winning a Super Bowl hard? You bet.
When we look back on this time in NFL history, how will the New York Giants be remembered? Will they be viewed as they are outside New York – as something of a strange occurrence that no-one understands? Or could it be they will be remembered as true Super Bowl Champions who made their way the only way they could – one win at a time.
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