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PHOENIX, Arizona: The New York Giants are looking to inflict an epic
upset on the unbeaten New England Patriots on Sunday, hoping to join
the select list of Super Bowl underdogs who proved their bite.
With the kickoff of Super Bowl 42 still on the
desert horizon, debate was already raging on where such an
upset—should the Giants pull it off—would rank in Super Bowl
lore.
Not only are the Giants bidding to bring the
National Football League title home for the first time in 17 years,
they are trying to thwart the Patriots’ bid to become just the
second team in history to complete a perfect title run.
Giants coach Tom Coughlin says the underdog
designation has motivated his team throughout the playoffs and
Sunday is no different.
“We have something to prove every time that we
play because if there are 100 of you out there, 70 of you don’t
think we can win,” Coughlin said. “If you’re a competitor,
that strikes you.”
While the Giants could go down in history as
supreme spoilers, an upset by New York couldn’t top the victory of
Joe Namath’s 1968 New York Jets over the mighty Baltimore Colts in
Super Bowl 3.
Remembered largely for Namath’s brash
guarantee of victory, that triumph also marked the arrival of the
upstart American Football League with a win over the entrenched
National Football League ahead of a merger of the leagues.
Ten of the 41 previous Super Bowl results have
been upsets based on the point spread offered bettors.
But with the Patriots favored to win Sunday by
12 points, the Giants are trying to become just the fifth
double-digit underdog to win the NFL’s championship extravaganza.
The Kansas City Chiefs were 12-point underdogs
when they beat the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl 4. John Elway’s
Denver Broncos were 12-point underdogs when they beat the Green Bay
Packers in Super Bowl 32.
Perhaps poetically, the last big Super Bowl
upset was authored by the 2001 Patriots on February 3, 2002.
New England’s superstar signal-caller Tom
Brady was then a little known quarterback who had inherited his
starting spot from the injured Drew Bledsoe.
-- AFP
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