The only teams stupid enough to fire a coach who took them to two Super Bowls are Denver and Dallas.

McDumbass makes the rematch interesting because, while it was not technically illegal this time, the Pats have once again abused the rules to gain an unfair competitive advantage in reaching the Super Bowl, and once again the wild card Giants won the NFC Championship in OT can stop them. When NE re-hired the only remaining coach the Leagues second worst team had under contract, Houston was the only team in the playoffs with which he did not have first hand experience from coaching the Rams this season. He of course knew New Englands next opponent (Denver) QUITE well, but also coached against this years Packers, Saints, Niners (twice,) Giants and Ravens.

Remember, these are the same Patriots who raised so much Hell over the Jets hiring Parcells away from them after their Super Bowl loss they wound up with four draft picks over the next three years (including NYs 2nd in '98 and their 1st in '99.) Though TECHNICALLY, the Jets did not hire Parcells as their head coach; he was still under contract despite quitting, so they hired him as a "consultant" (McDumbass' title in NE) and named one of his New England ASSISTANTS head coach: Bill Belichick. If the Giants win I may be in the off position of really liking two teams in the same Division (every time the Cowboys choke away an easy win against the Giants I get mad at DALLAS. ) Plus it would be really funny if Eli Manning wound up with more Super Bowl Rings than his brother.

Once again, I find myself hoping the Giants inflict a little justice on them. I think they have a good chance, too; again, they peaked at the right time, and were one of the few teams in this years playoffs with both an offense AND defense. If the Super Bowl had been the worst versus the second worst defense I would have just thrown up my hands and accepted that we are watching flag arena football now. It is bad enough that ONE of them made it, but that was probably inevitable once Jacoby Jones gave away Houstons game against Baltimore. Watching the Ravens play the Pats I could not help thinking, They should just leave the Pats offense and Ravens defense out there all game; they are the only ones playing anyway.

Fact is, there just were not many teams playing this year who would be respectable Champions:

Denver, Cincinatti: Great turn around, but still not there yet.

Atlanta: Dutifully did their annual job of showing why the playoffs are very different from the regular season.

Green Bay, New England, New Orleans: The only thing harder than stopping them from scoring is NOT scoring ON them.

San Francisco, Baltimore, Pitt: The only thing harder than scoring on them is NOT stopping them from scoring.

That leaves two playoff team I could both like AND respect as Champions, but Houston losing the NFLs best receiver and (possibly) its best running back for the first half of the season, then losing its starting AND backup QB for the year as soon as they were back, made the chance of that slim to none. How many rookie QBs have started a Super Bowl? IF they 1) do not lose Wade to a head coaching job, 2) are not destroyed by injuries and 3) are not destroyed by free agency, Houston is "next years champion." THIS year the Giants were pretty much the only acceptable choice I had once Denver was done. I like the Saints OK but, man, their defense SUCKS. How can ANYONE give up a 30 yard game winning TD run to Alex Smith? That may be the longest TD play of his professional career.