We're still 10 days away from the last game of the 2011 NFL season. The Patriots and Giants won't leave for Indianapolis until Sunday at the earliest, and many of this week's story lines have revolved around Super Bowl XLII, when the Giants upset the then undefeated Patriots, and the teams' matchup earlier this year, also a New York victory.
Unlike that matchup from four years ago, there is no clear favorite this time around. Vegas had the Patriots as 13.5-point favorites during their previous Super Bowl get-together but this time New England is favored by just three points.
In today's Boston Globe, Gary Dzen explains why "everyone else hates the Patriots (outside of New England)," although we're not sure that's the case. This isn't Red Sox-Yankees even though the teams hail from the same areas. And yes, the Pats have been eminently hatable for much of this century. The three Super Bowl wins from 2001-2004, the Spygate saga -- it all contributes to the "we're better than you" perception coming out of Foxboro.
But it's worth remembering this: New England hasn't won a Super Bowl in seven years. That's not a dynasty; in fact, by Patriots standards it's a drought. Which is why Super Bowl XLVI will share little in common with Super Bowl XLII save two very important things: the quarterbacks and head coaches remain. We'll dissect the Tom Brady-Eli Manning particulars later, but now we'll focus on Bill Belichick and Tom Coughlin, two old-school coaches responsible for four Lombardi Trophies since the 2001 season.
"I think they do have an awful lot in common, ESPN analyst and former NFL head coach (with both the Pats and Giants) Bill Parcells said on ESPN Radio Thursday. "I think their persona is just a little different on the part of each of them. Both of them were straight football guys, intense competitors, very thorough, quite intense in their preparations, and certainly both of them would get the information to the players very, very well.
"You know Bill Belichick was the son of a coach, I knew his father [Steve] very well. He came up [with] football all his life," Parcells continued. "Tom kind of took the same route I did as a coach, starting in a very, very small Division III school. He was mowing the grass and lining the fields, and doing all the tasks that a coach in one of those situations has to do. So he came up the hard way and people who do that learn the ropes. I think Bill was taught by his dad on what was necessary, and Tom, by his experience, starting off at a very low level as a coach -- I did the same things at Hastings College in Nebraska -- makes you appreciate it when things change for the better."
Both Belichick and Coughlin try to avoid the spotlight. (Unlike, say, Rex Ryan who we're surprised doesn't have a 24-hour UStream feed dedicated to documenting his every move, no matter how mundane.) And both are familiar with coaching in big games. If the Giants are successful next week, you could argue that their 2011 run through the playoffs was more impressive than what they accomplished during the 2007 season.
As for preparing for one of the biggest spectacle's in sports, Parcells thinks that "pulling out all the stops" because once the final whistle blows, that's it. There is no next time, not for another six months when all 32 teams have to start over again in training camp.
"What I tried to do was have something a little extra ready, whether it be a fake punt or a field goal," Parcells said. "I tried to tell the players … 'We're going to try anything.' Keeping in mind the risk/reward, you have to do that, of course. But I wanted to understand that we were going to try to do every single thing we could to win the game. ... In a couple big games I coached there, that did turn out to be true."
