Giants vs. Patriots will make Super return in Miami

Giants vs. Patriots will make Super return in Miami
February 3
New York Daily News


"The Super Bowl packs up and moves 200 miles across the state of Florida next year to Miami and that will provide the next chapter in the great New York-Boston rivalry.

The Steelers were among the NFL elite this season and the Cardinals got red-hot in the playoffs after getting blown out four times in the regular season, but the biggest pregame buzz about Super Bowl XLIII was Bruce Springsteen's halftime show and the guessing game about the songs he would play.

That will change for Super Bowl XLIV, which will be Giants-Patriots II. It will be hard to match the anticipation of last year when the Patriots were going for a perfect season and the only fans rooting for them lived in New England. Just about everybody else was pulling for the Giants to topple the Belichick Empire after the SpyGate nonsense accentuated his arrogance.

I was looking for another Cinderella story or a team ready to make the next step to pick for next year's game. The Falcons are intriguing with Matt Ryan. The Vikings will be contenders if they can get a new quarterback (not Brett Favre), the Titans should be motivated after this seasson's huge disappointment, the Ravens still have a shutdown defense and Bill Parcells has worked magic in Miami.

But when the tournaments gets to Miami, it's going to be the Giants and Patriots. Here's the case I'm making for each team:

• Giants: They were the best team in football at 11-1 one week after Plaxico Burress sent a bullet into his thigh and took down the Giants' passing game with it. The Burress shooting blind-sided the Giants. He was having a bad season, but he still commanded the respect of defenses and the Giants had nobody to take the pressure off the other receivers and the running game. Even though GM Jerry Reese has left the door slightly open for Burress to return, I think there's almost no chance of that happening. If he's not in jail, then commissioner Roger Goodell could still hit him with a four-game suspension.

There's too much uncertainty and past history for the Giants to bring back Burress. Reese will find a new No. 1 receiver in the offseason, whether it's trading for Arizona's Anquan Boldin, trying to get Braylon Edwards out of Cleveland, moving way up in the draft to get Texas Tech's pass catching machine, Michael Crabtree, or sitting at No. 29 and hoping Rutgers' Kenny Britt falls to them.

There's not much else that Reese has to fix. The return of Osi Umenyiora will solve the other big problem: the disappearance of the pass rush down the stretch as Justin Tuck, who played hurt, and Mathias Kiwanuka were worn out and disappeared.

One other thing: Tom Coughlin should hire Phil Simms as a consultant and teach Eli Manning how to throw in the wind in the final year at Giants Stadium. And they need to do a study to find out what the wind patterns are going to be in the new stadium next door."
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