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A perfect of a different variety
Super Bowl 42 is an instant classic. As I mentioned in an earlier, this is why you can't underestimate the importance of just MAKING the playoffs. The Giants have now won 11 games in a row away from home and yet probably can't wait to get back. Two of the last three Super Bowls have been won by a 5 seed or lower. In a game filled with little to no highlights in the first three quarters, the fourth quarter raised the heart rate at an increasingly rapid pace. Three lead changes in the final few minutes, capped off by two touchdowns, including clutch drive by Eli Manning in the final minute. The perfect season is still to be had, and this game proved just how hard it is to pull off. As much momentum and respect as the Giants brought into this game, given the (literal) road they had to travel to get to Arizona, it was still almost impossible to see them winning this game.
Under The Needle: Meet Vince Lombardi, Seahawks fan
Escaping family history can be tough. Ask a Kennedy, a Mob scion, a Shakespearean character: That accident of birth can define (or dog) a person from cradle to grave. One Seattle attorney knows this better than most. That man, a 41-year-old Seahawks fan, will be rooting for the home team Saturday against the Green Bay Packers. Nothing crazy about that. Except this. His name is Vince Lombardi. He is the grandson of a man more associated with Green Bay Packers than anyone else. More than Bart Starr. More than Brett Favre. There is a street in Green Bay named after his Hall of Fame grandfather. A statue of the fedora-capped man stands like a sentinel in front of the stadium, Lambeau Field. For chrissakes, the NFL championship trophy, the league's highest award, is named after Coach Lombardi, almost entirely for what he did as a Packers' coach and general manager.
PARRISH ALFORD: Rebels load up with runners
If you had any trouble identifying Houston Nutt's preferred style of offense while he was head coach at Arkansas, his first Ole Miss recruiting class can help you out.
Nutt expressed great excitement Wednesday over the running backs he signed and figures there might be another Darren McFadden or Felix Jones in the making.
The class has four running backs -and would have had five had South Panola's Darius "Tig" Barksdale chosen to sign.
On signing day, it became apparent that Barksdale didn't give himself a very good chance to qualify academically, but that news was offset in a big way when Nutt landed former Auburn signee Enrique Davis (6-1, 215).
Davis was a Parade All-American out of Lynn Haven, Fla., in 2006 but attended Hargrave Military Academy.
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