E-GIANTS
Dave Klein was the Giants' beat writer
for The Star-Ledger from 1961 to 1995.
He is the author of 26 books and he is one of
only four sportswriters to have covered all the Super Bowls.
Dave has allowed TEAM GIANTS to reprint some of his articles.

WOULD A GIANTS VICTORY OVER THE PATRIOTS BE THE BIGGEST SUPER BOWL UPSET?
YOU BET
By DAVE KLEIN

Well, let's see how to start this.

A bunch of guys were sitting around a bar . . . nah, doesn't work.

A few football fans were amusing themselves between face-painting sessions and one of them said . . . nope, not a chance.

How about the truth? Someone called and asked this question: "If the Giants manage to beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl, will that be the biggest upset in the history of that game?"

Now that, fellas, is a silly question. Of course it would be the biggest upset in Super Bowl history. Without doubt, without question, without hesitation -- the answer is yes, yes and yes.

Predictably, the guy countered with: "Well, what about Super Bowl III, when the Jets beat the Baltimore Colts?"

Close, I suppose. And I was there, too. But the Colts weren't undefeated and the Colts didn't even have their starting quarterback, fella named John Unitas, until the fourth quarter. The Jets had a nice little team and a quarterback who got into the Hall of Fame for all the wrong reasons, named Joe Namath.

The Colts weren't as good as the Patriots are today and the Giants are better than those old Jets, although with almost 40 years separating the two games, it is probably fair to say that most of the team in the today's NFL are better than the two teams that contested for the championship before they even called it the Super Bowl.

It was the AFL-NFL World Championship game, remember? It didn't get to be Super Bowl until the following year, when the late Lamar Hunt, who owned the Kansas City Chiefs, watched his kid playing with the toy of choice in those years, a ball that bounced about 90 feet in the air and was called the Super Ball.

It was just a short mental leap for such a smart guy as Hunt to change that to Super Bowl, and then spend six months convincing the other owners, most of whom couldn't take mental leaps (just little hops) that it would be a good idea.

Hunt, you might remember, was the son of a Texas multi-billionaire named H.L. Hunt, and shortly after his kid and bunch of other guys started the American Football League, one of H.L.'s friends came up to him at the country club and said: Hey, H.L.? You know that little football thing your boy is into? Well, from what I hear, he's gonna lose about a million dollars a year."

To which H.L. bless his heart, said: "Golly, you know that means he'll be flat broke in about 300 years."

End of conversation.

Anyway, I digress. If the Giants win on Feb. 3, yes indeed, it will be the biggest upset in the history of Super Bowls, and your friendly but aging correspondent has been to all XXLI of them. Me and three other much older guys, I might add. So about once a year we get asked the same questions. For instance, which was the most memorable Super Bowl? (The answer: It was the first, since there had never been one before.) Or here's one: "What play do you remember standing out from all the games? (The answer: Are you kidding me?")

Several underdogs have won the Super Bowl, including the Giants when they beat Buffalo in XXV and when they beat Denver in XXI. In fact, since they were underdogs (deservedly so) in XXXV against Baltimore, the Giants are probably the only multiple-Super Bowl participant to be underdogs in all three of their appearances and still have two trophies.

No team has ever finished its season -- regular and post -- with an 18-0 record. Oh, sure, the 1972 Miami Dolphins were 14-0 and then 17-0 but there were two fewer games in the regular season and that counts for a lot. Oh, by the way, using the same measuring stick that allowed me to say the Giants would have creamed the Jets of 1969, it is absolutely certain that today's Patriots would beat the '72 Dolphins by almost as many points as they wished.

Go ahead, write nasty e-mails.

Now, the big question. Will the Giants beat the Patriots?

That is a question for somewhat later in this huge gap between Green Bay and Arizona, but there is another question that can be answered now: CAN the Giants beat the Patriots? A resounding yes. There are people on the inside who are saying that the Patriots and their mysterious hooded head coach, Bill Belichick, were openly rooting for Green Bay last Sunday night. Why, because they had a soft spot in their hearts for the old Weekend Warrior, Brett Favre? No, because they knew that they could whip up on the Packers. They are not so sure about the Giants, nor should they be considering the struggle they had to mount to squeak by in the final game of the regular season, that 38-35 decision when the Giants had absolutely nothing to gain but played their hearts out anyway.

Check out Dave's website at E-GIANTS where you can subscribe to his newsletters which run much more frequently than what is available here.
- Team Giants

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