Road to The Big Game

Is the strike over? Did the screenwriters go back to work? I only ask because I’m not sure if I saw a football game or a made-for-TV movie last night. Then again, if that was a movie it was completely unrealistic. For a football game, it was simply unbelievable.

What the New York Giants did in knocking off the previously unbeaten New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII was nothing short of amazing. Not to mention the manner in which they pulled it off. That script – if there was one – would get any writer laughed right out of the studio pitch.

Seemingly mediocre football team, led by a supposedly out-of-touch coach, rallies around its high-profile yet unproven quarterback to gain the last playoff seed and begin a momentous post-season run culminating in a thrilling, come-from-behind-in-the-final-minutes championship victory over a team in pursuit of the first undefeated season in more than thirty years.  Yeah, right. Who wants to see that when you see the real deal?

It was the real deal alright - the most-watched Super Bowl ever averaging 97.4 million viewers. More people watched Sunday's game than all but one American television broadcast ever, the "M-A-S-H" finale in 1983, which was seen by 106 million viewers.

This is where people always ask, “Will that 106 million number ever be broken?” I usually tell them that if something is going to do it, it will be a Super Bowl. But if last night’s game couldn’t crack it, maybe nothing ever will.

Still, as a long-suffering Detroit Lions fan, I have to believe to that if an 18-0 Detroit team went up against an 18-0 New York Jets squad in the Big Game that just might be the game to do it.

What? Totally unrealistic you say? Not after last night.

by Tom Ziangas, Nielsen Sports