2008: The Greatest Sports Year Ever, Part 1 of 3

I don't normally like to say something is the best or something is the greatest ever. When I see something like that in the media, I view it as a ploy to make something bigger than it already is. That, and also there will always be something even better and greater in the future. I do have to take one exception in that there was no greater sports year than 2008.

There were so many great sports moments that I cannot mention them all in this entry. Some of the honorable great events would be the 50th running of the Daytona 500 that ended in a last lap pass. The NCAA Men's Basketball Championship that resulted in Kansas coming back from nine points down to defeat Memphis in overtime. The Boston Celtics, who were once prominent years ago and fell to obscurity relied on Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen to shine again and win the NBA Championship over their rivals, the Los Angeles Lakers. The United States defying the odds to defeat Europe in the Ryder Cup in Golf. And last, but not least, the Philadelphia Phillies winning the World Series and bringing a major championship to Philadelphia for the first time in 25 years.

Those sports events would be tremendous highlights for a sports fans year in any year but this one. There are four sports events (listed in chronological order) that transcended any normal sporting event and made 2008 the greatest sports year ever.

Super Bowl XLII, New England Patriots vs. New York Giants, February 3, 2008

Whether you like the New England Patriots or not, you must admit that the 2000's Patriots rank as one of the greatest teams in NFL history. They had an opportunity to cement that by being the second team to have a perfect season and the first team to go 19-0. The New York Giants were the kind of team that played well enough to win, but weren't an impressive team. They weren't really expected to make it to the Super Bowl and surprised most people when they did. Because of that, the Patriots were heavy favorites to achieve perfection.

The first three quarters were rather slow with the Patriots leading 7-3. The fourth quarter would be the "magic hour" as both teams traded the lead. After the Patriots scored with 2:42 left, Eli Manning and the Giants needed to move down the field to make history. With a little over a minute and on third down, Manning needed to make a play and after escaping from an almost impossible situation, slinged the ball deep to David Tyree, who was a backup Wide Receiver, caught the ball over his head and using his helmet to keep from dropping the ball.



After that, Mannning threw the ball to Plaxico Burress in the corner of the end zone for the Super Bowl winning touchdown. With the score 17-14, the New York Giants completed one of the biggest upsets in sports.

Because of length, I'll have part 2 available Saturday.