Ahmad Bradshaw's reluctant touchdown; Mario Manningham's catch and Gisele's support for Tom Brady
Ahmad Bradshaw's reluctant touchdown, Mario Manningham's catch and Gisele's support for Tom Brady are among the topics we discuss in our final Five Things We Learned In The NFL of the season:
To score or not to score?
With a minute of Super Bowl XLVI left, New York Giants running back Ahmad Bradshaw scored the game-winning touchdown. Except it may well be remembered as the most reluctant game-winner ever.
Bradshaw slowed as he approached the line, paused and then fell into the endzone backwards in rather comical fashion. Indeed, the New England Patriot defensive line had parted specifically to allow him to score.
Afterwards Bradshaw admitted: "I thought I heard Eli [Manning] yelling at me to fall down. I tried, but I couldn't do it."
Giants quarterback Manning added: "I had a feeling that under the circumstance they're going to let us score...I think you have to score a touchdown, that's the goal. The ultimate goal is to score a touchdown...I saw that their defensive line was just standing up and not rushing and I start yelling not to score. Maybe you can get down to the six-inch line, make them use their last time out and then try to score on third down, hopefully score a touchdown to give yourself a bigger lead ? a four-point lead. And take it from there."
The Patriots, who were winning at the time, decided that a New York score was inevitable but allowing the TD would give themselves the maximum amount of time to reply.
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Such actions are far from unheard of in the NFL: At Super Bowl XXXII the Green Bay Packers allowed Terrell Davis to score a touchdown for the Denver Broncos with 1:45 left for exactly the same reason.
On neither occasion did the team allowing the score benefit from their decision, with the Giants and the Broncos emerging as Super Bowl champions.
While time management and ball possession are absolutely crucial in the NFL, other sports have seen similarly counterintuitive play - and it is rarely rewarded.
Cricket teams have been known to spurn scoring opportunities for possible gains. In 1950 England had scored 68 for 7 on a Brisbane sticky wicket when they ended their innings in order to bowl at Australia rather than try to score more runs themselves. They still lost.
In a Shell Caribbean Cup soccer match between Barbados and Grenada in 1994, Barbados scored a deliberate last minute own-goal to force the game into extra time due to bizarre overtime rules. In a 1998 Tiger Cup game between Indonesia scored a deliberate own-goal to lose against Thailand and thus avoid playing the tournament favourites Vietnam in the next round. It did them little good: Indonesia were beaten by Singapore in the next round instead, they were fined $40,000 for "violating the spirit of the game" and captain-keeper Mursyid Effendi was banned for life.
But, for all the further examples we might find, none will probably be replayed as often or to such bewilderment, as the winning score in Super Bowl XLVI.
Possession wins matches
In an exceptionally tight game - which almost everyone predicted and then surprised us with its tautness - the Giants will have been kicking themselves at half-time for being behind. And when New York were 17-9 down shortly after Madonna, it looked as though Belichick and the Brady Bunch would assert what some had feared. This was the Patriots who the New York Times's Mike Tanier described before the game as a "mix of arrogant excellence and excellent arrogance". But the Patriots did not score again.
What was the difference between the teams? Was it those second-half catches that went to hand or didn't? (More of that in a moment) Was it luck? Or actually, was it really something much simpler and more central to winning football: possession.
This NYT graphic portrays the game starkly: the Giants had 37 minutes of possession to 23 for the Patriots. Tom Brady & Co can't score if they don't have the ball.
Catches win (and lose) matches
I could watch this Mario Manningham catch all day and still be marvelling at every aspect of it:
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Wes Welker was not so fortunate:
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Okay, I know I just said that possession wins matches, but if just those two catches had gone the other way, the result would almost certainly have been different. And, anyway, those catches lead me nicely into this...
Supermodel prayers go unanswered
Tom Brady's wife may want to schedule a soiree for her husband's teammates sometime during the offseason. Ahead of the game Gisele was all about the "positive chain" and praying for the team. But after tasting defeat it was a different story:
"I can't believe they dropped the ball so many times. My husband cannot fucking throw the ball and catch the ball at the same time."
Although, as my colleague Michael Solomon pointed out: "Why would Gisele defend her husband after his team lost the Super Bowl? That's crazy. What kind of wife is supportive like that?"
Followed by: "Victoria Beckham defends David: "My husband cannot fucking wear the underwear and shoot the commercial at the same time!""
Which leads me to...
More than just football
This talk of supermodels, combined with the hoopla surrounding Madonna, and the obsession with Super Bowl commercials, is questioned by some. What's that got to do with football? Well, that would be to miss half the point of Super Bowl. The half of America that cares not about the NFL for 51 weeks of the year do not suddenly become football fans one Sunday in February.
Madonna's not my thing (although Bruce was - Best. Knee. Slide. Ever) but it's the part of Super Bowl that resonates for many who find themselves watching a sporting event for four hours when they normally wouldn't do so.
And, while the whole advertising thing is the pinnacle of capitalism, give it its due, it is the creative height of capitalism. You've got to love at least some of these.
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Before we leave, here's a message from the man who made that magnificent catch:
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There will be a special end-of-season Talkboard on Friday.
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2012/feb/07/ahmad-bradshaw-touchdown-super-bowl-2012-gisele
Steve Zalewski Henrik Zetterberg Mike Zigomanis Dainius Zubrus
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