The Venue

The anticipation is driving everyone crazy as the arrival of February 3rd is now around the corner. Two teams will come face to face in suburban Phoenix for Super Bowl XLII. One team that will be there is no surprise to the world. After all, many were already speculating the Patriots would have a perfect season as early as October. Yes, Tom did it again. He beat all the teams and led the Patriots to the Super Bowl to attempt to add another ring to their Super Bowl collection, which would make it ring #4. Now the Patriots have one thing in mind before kicking off their celebration: Get one more win, and crush the Giants' hopes of getiing another surprising win.

Half the world was expecting to see Romo and the Cowboys fight the Patriots in the Bowl. The other half were waiting to see Favre lead his Packers to a Super Bowl win. Hardly anyone expected to see the late-blooming Eli Manning come this far. Eli remains calm and unfazed. After all, it was not luck that got the Giants this far this year. "Luck" would not have allowed Jeremy Shockey's season to come to an abrupt end in December. It was not a perfect roster that carried the Giants here. Their roster was short of a shining player after Tiki Barber, their leading rusher, retired last year. No, the Giants have defeated these teams and overcome difficult games because their determination and perseverance has risen and given them the momentum to finish each and every game, even though they may appear to barely be hanging on by a thread at times. Now the Giants must gather all that momentum and increase it dramatcially in order to slow down Randy Moss and Wes Welker, the two wide receivers that Brady always seems to find down in the field. They must bring that pressure to this game and see if defensive ends Osi Umenyiora and Michael Strahan can rough Brady up a bit and catch him off guard. The Giants need to pull out all the fancy tricks up their sleeves and rely on Burress to play like Burress: quick, flexible and powerful.