I am a Giants fan. Have been since 91 when a missed field goal won them a second Super Bowl. I am also a manning fan. Doesn't matter which one I like them both, the ones at least playing still in the NFL.
Eli seems so innocent to me. I imagine him being very much like Tebow. A good ole Christian boy from the south. A guy I meet recently suggested that wasn't the case. In high school, he told me, Manning was a hard core alcoholic and class clown, barely made into college and him being a two time Super Bowl champion is not the path anyone from his past would have ever thought he would have been walking.
Tebow on the other hand is doing what everyone from his past probably imagined he would be doing, playing in the NFL and making something from what everyone keeps saying is nothing. Dude he is an exciting athlete. He threw for ten more yards then the starting Quarterback with a much smaller fraction of completions. When he walked on the field at the start of the second half he caused a reaction in the stadium that, to me sitting just off the end zone, sounded like a hero had entered the fray, and this from Giants and Jets fans alike. The whole stadium cheered for the guy when he entered the game after the first half, derisive New York, the I love to hate you capitol of the world, all screaming for a little virgin boy from Florida.
There was a guy behind me who had an opportunity to yell a few words to Ahmad Bradshaw as he walked past. Based on most of what the guy said I thought he was a Jets fan. By the end of the game I wasn't sure what he was, annoying at first and funny as hell by the time he left, but when the big running back walked by he choose to tell him, “Bradshaw! Hey Bradshaw!” the big man looked up to the row right behind me and my wife, straight at the gruff voiced man and kind of smiled like he was giving the guy a treat, until the dude continued, “Steve Walker loves you and he is gay.” Bradshaw quickly averted his eyes and picked up his pace to the locker room, or wherever he was heading. He shook his head a little bit, a subtle movement as if to remind himself of where he was. Later on as he returned to the game the guy behind me who I began to think of as either a construction worker or fireman did the exact same thing, “Hey Bradshaw! Bradshaw! Steve Walker Loves you and he is gay!” this time he was ignored, but I knew Ahmad heard him. Everyone sitting within a hundred yards heard him, including Steve Walker who I imagined was the balding grey haired guy sitting next to the construction worker who could afford season tickets.
When I returned to The City I did a similar thing. After finding my uptown 6 train I sat down with my bags and tried very hard to ignore a man screaming, New York,” over and over again. As an excuse, I was tired, I hadn't slept in over 24 hours and as if by remote control I found myself staring at him by the 72nd street subway stop. I didn't even realize I was doing it until he made eye contact and I could sense a hate, which could easily result in murder, staring back at me, a mess of shit that made me remember you don't respond to crazy here.
Ahmad needed to be reminded also. It was probably a long off season back home to whatever normal place he was from, where the world still had two a day practices and homecomings. This construction worker talked shit about everyone. Jets, Giants, Bradshaw, Steve Walker, the cheerleaders, but when Tebow took the field he shut up. He didn't say one thing until the end of the game as if waiting for the Tebow miracle to happen. I felt the stir in the crowd as if younger version of Mike Tyson was walking towards the ring and the crowd started to feel bad for whoever was about to get his ass kicked.
The Tebows got their asses kicked though and I don't know how to feel about it. On one hand here a guy that without a helmet could be the spitting image of the comic book character Archie, whose legs, my wife claims are too short for his body, and got cut from the team he brought to the playoffs and was replaced with the quarterback he faced tonight's older brother.
He was sacked a few times and I saw him talk shit to the first guy who sacked him. I did not hear the words, but I saw the fat round number 72 grab his crotch and dance off the field laughing in response. On one of the next times he went down he got into the face of one his linemen.
I thought he was more poised than this. The better man. A both cheeks slapped type guy. It’s preseason though and maybe Tebow, like Bradshaw, just needs to get use to New York. It ain't missionary work, it ain't the swamps of Florida, its the concrete jungle where even fans turn by the end of the third quarter, but with two minutes to go in the game all the boos will stop with one right play. Maybe the Tebows will find that play, maybe come February they will have an opportunity to challenge the champs, but it's only preseason so I think I am kind of still hoping for another Giants championship.
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