Hi Greg,

I have enjoyed your (and your site's) writing this entire fantasy football season. Now that you're onsite and will have an opportunity to witness the madness of Media Day in person, along with all of the other SB nuttiness, what would you peronally like to see asked or reported by the media this week, if we can get past all of the trite and obvious storylines that are guaranteed to be beaten to death? And what do you expect from the outcome? If you had to put all of your savings (or mortgage) on the line, what would you forsee as the final score?

From my experience of following football closely for the past 30 years, restassured that we will see stories about:
1. Media Day
a. Silliest Question
b. Players taking videos of the media filming their teammates and themselves
c. The throng of reporters, including representatives from distant countries, reality TV shows
d. Brunch served to the media
e. Player nicknames, player stories, e.g. Raised by grandmother, overcame numerous obstacles, live in the same tiny hometown as a player on the other team...

2. Player who has waited umpteen years to finally make it to the big Show

3. Belicheck
a. Spygate
b. History with Giants
c. Lack of willingness to discuss - injuries, perfect season, etc...

4. Burress playing hurt

5. Randy Moss
a. Whether he tanked while playing for the Raiders
b. How he is dealing with averaging one catch per game in the playoffs after a 23 TD season
c. Whether he will hit the free market next season to make $10M or more after taking a $7M pay cut to play for the Pats

6. Commercials
a. This year's cost ($2.7 M this year per 30 seconds)
b. The need for advertisers to use the SB forum given the writers strike
c. Best/Worst

7. Halftime Show (ugh)

8. Bets between
a. Mayors of NYC/Boston
b. Newspaper reporters
c. Governors of Mass./NY
d. any other politician who wants free airtime

9. The week 17 game where both teams broke with tradition and played their best players for the entire game, finishing 38-35. The confidence that the Giants took away from nearly defeating a 15-0 team drove them through three road playoff victories... and where the Pats had to give their all in order to complete the perfect regular season.

10. The Pats attempt to be the first team to go 19-0, and the second since the advent of the SuperBowl to complete a perfect season.

11. The impact on the city (Phoenix, Arizona)
a. Economic
b. Safety (extra police, overflight radius restrictions...)
c. Hotels
d. Prostitutes

12. Historical statistics that have practically zero meaning that is causative instead of simply correlative
a. AFC dominance on this swing of the pendulum (8 of last 10)
b. Teams that met in regular season
c. Advantages, Disadvantages of the two week break (to the Giants' momentum, too much time for Belicheck to gameplan, loss of momentum, time to heal injuries like Brady's sprain)

13. Betting on the game
a. Legal
b. Illegal
c. Estimates for how much is bet in office pools

14. Distractions
a. Teams that do (or do not) allow players to bring girlfriends/wives/family
b. Insane level of media coverage in the instant information age
c. Nightlife (in Arizona? Maybe not this year...)

15. Brady and Belicheck's dominance in the post-season

16. Length of the pre-game show - who knows, with the trend these past few years to add an hour every year, it probably starts at 9 am EST this year...

Let's face it, two weeks is too long between the Championship games and the SuperBowl. The overwhelming number of dispatches from the web, newspapers, radio and television, all quickly run out of news, unless someone pulls a "Eugene Robinson".

Next, after 41 years of SuperBowls, and the experience these two teams have over the past decade, there is practically zero chance that a player will say something controversial enough to make good bulletin board material for the other team.

Finally, while there will be plenty of pressure on the Pats (whereas the Giants' storyline will run "we have no pressure, everyone expects us to lose") they are so single-minded in their purpose, aligned perfectly with one of the top 4 coaches in NFL history (Lombardi, Noll, Walsh, Belicheck), there is almost no chance whatsoever that the Pats will lose this game. They have simply gotten used to intense scrutiny, and they have a significant amount of playoff experience as a team, including players from other teams with immense skill that have finally gotten a shot at the ring. There is practically nothing that could derail them, inspite of the inspired, excellent, confident play that the Giants have exhibited in the past 3 games.

The bottom line is that the Patriots, in spite of their Defense being weaker than their previous SB winning teams, have too much firepower to stay down, and can make up points in a hurry in spite of lacking a high powered running game.

Even if the Pats have 1-2 turnovers in the first quarter, while everyone is settling down to play a football game after all of the hype, insane pre-game intensity, crowd, media, etc... they are penultimate professionals with excellent coaching. The Giants can keep the game close for 1, 2, even 3.5 quarters. In the end, barring catastrophic injury (to Brady, probably the worst case scenario) they will pull out a victory by having more weapons, a superb offensive line, and the best ability to adjust at halftime that I have seen since Bill Walsh coached the 49ers.

I hope and expect that the Giants will give their best shot. However, the Patriots will go them one better - they will win the game, providing a final flourish on a perfect season, an extraordinary accomplishment due to the parity in the NFL, the salary cap, free agency, the strength of the AFC, against whom the Pats mettle was tested throughout most of the season, the close games that followed on each others' heels over the final 6 weeks of the regular season, each team trying their best to derail that perfect season. The historical season will end historically. As fans of the game, we will hopefully have a good match to enjoy. I really hope the Giants don't make their own series of blunders early, such as Eli throwing a few picks for TD's, Brandon Jacobs fumbles, or blocked FG kicks by the terrible Tynes, resulting in the 80's/90's typical SB styled blowout... another 55-10 or 49-21 game would be a major disappointment, but given the tenacity the Giants have shown, I am optimistic that we will see a closer game.

Anyway, that's my take on things. What storylines would you all like to see?

Enjoy,
Ogiers

I would definitely NOT like to see anything about Spygate, the dynasty, potentially being 19-0, Brady's foot, being the best team/coach/organization/dynasty evah. For the Giants I don't need to hear about how "ironic" it is that the other Manning is in the Super Bowl, ANY NY vs Boston hype and any rehasing of the week 17 game for the 500th time.

I'd like to hear some questions about special teams, they are vastly underrated. If the Giants think they were better off without Tiki Barber. If the Giants consider themselves like the 05 Steelers in any way. I'm not sure if there is any topic about the Pats that has not been covered at length. Maybe what they see on film that they need to improve on.

Great stuff guys.