Hardball Heaven

58 hours to go until kickoff, but who's counting? I've had quite enough of the analysis (did you know that the Giants need to get pressure on Brady), the stupid questions, the inane banter on sports radio. For the mother of God.

Fortunately, the NFL Network has filled the void nicely. Just this past week, I was able to catch the pulsating Pats-Rams Super Bowl, the Bills and Giants in the Scott Norwood game in 1990, and the Pats-Eagles last night. People keep talking about the parallels between the Pats-Rams game and this one, but I tellya, that Giants/Bills game had some striking similarities too. Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas and the K-Gun offense against the Parcells/Belichick Giants. I still can't believe they won with Jeff Hostetler piloting the ship. And Norwood's kick? Anything but a chip shot at 47 yards. Unfortunately, this year's Giants team doesn't have a Lawrence Taylor or a Carl Banks. And Belichick will be on the other sideline.
Anyway, here's a couple of cool items I caught on the web o' sphere this week: a story from Lee Jenkins on the improbable rise of Tom Brady, a good NY Times story on Belichick's Giant lineage, and a nice piece from Jackie MacMullan on Pats coach Dante Scarnecchia, who is a vastly underrated component of this soon-to-be dynasty. Good stuff all. And Parcells should have left the shorts in his locker.