One more run for Coughlin, and hope springs eternal

I hadn't officially gone on record with my thoughts on Tom Coughlin's future with the Giants in this space, and to the Mara/Tisch ownership's credit, I didn't even have the chance. They didn't let him twist, and gave him the vote of confidence a mere two days after the Giants' season ended. But, here's my (after) thought anyway.

I was on the fence about Coughlin returning, to the point that I wouldn't have minded either decision being made - his being extended, or fired. There were certainly arguments for both. My gut feeling was that Coughlin would be back, and he is. With a strike or lockout looming for 2011, it would basically be a lost season in trying to implement a new regime on short time. And this is a team built to win immediately, not rebuild.

Of course now the ideal scenario is, Coughlin proves the doubters wrong, and the Giants win the Super Bowl in 2011-12 - breaking the tie with Dallas, New England, and San Francisco for the most championships in the last 25 years in the process.

Coughlin then retires on top, and Bill Cowher, who has patiently waited one more year and not jumped at any awful coaching jobs open following the 2010 season (Cleveland, Denver, San Francisco, or any other irrelevant vacancies I'm forgetting right now), takes over as Giants coach in 2012, and ushers in a nice extended stay, winning a couple more titles over the next 10 years. Not getting ahead of myself at all, am I?

"Hi America, we've got nothing!"

The latest Dodge commercial is pretty sad. The founding fathers, scaring off the British with Dodges. "Our cars aren't very good, but...IF YOU DON'T LIKE THIS YOU MUST BE A SISSY OR HATE FREEDOM. 'MERCA!"

Meanwhile: Chevy, Chevy, Chevy.

For those who can't read the tiny print on this ad for their Cruze (curse you blogger, and your photo compression), it says, "Like a Civic, but with everything you want." HARF HARF HARF. Yeah, like the benchmark of dependability and value over the past 20 years, except our cars are nothing like that, so instead here are some gadgets like navigation systems to distract you from this industry fact. Besides, don't they know, you don't tug on Superman's cape?

These two ads are the new template for American car companies. They are well aware they can't compete with Honda, Nissan, and Toyota (even post-sudden acceleration scandal), so they appeal to all they have left: Patriotism, the past, and/or hoping the consumer doesn't know better.

What now?

It took over 72 hours, but I think I've found a positive spin to be put on the Giants' collapse Sunday against the Eagles. It's not that champions have come back from "rock bottom" losses. That's true, but...been there, done that. And this was more a gut-punching loss than a rock bottom loss.

It's simply: Wake-up call. They can learn from it, use it as a rallying point, and come back more determined. The closest comparison I can make to this game, is not the "Miracle at the Meadowlands" (that game decided nothing but draft status for a sub-.500 Giants team), but the 2002-03 Wild Card loss to San Francisco. In it, they led by 24 points late in the 3rd quarter only to let the 49ers come all the way back, and also lost that game on a special teams gaffe.

So, better to learn this lesson (if you have to learn it, I suppose) in the regular season, than in the postseason. As for whether they'll rise to the occasion and come out fighting in Green Bay, or let the collapse define them...we'll find out Sunday.

And while I'm here, I'd also like to put to rest any notion that the best case scenario for the Giants is to miss the playoffs, fire Coughlin, and hire Bill Cowher. I like Bill Cowher, but Coughlin is a proven winner too. Plus, this is a team built to win now. A new coaching staff means a change of schemes, likely on both sides of the ball. That usually takes years for a team to master - and that's for the players who are even kept around. What if Cowher wants to play a 3-4 defense like he had in Pittsburgh, and half the Giants' defensive personnel aren't a good fit for that? There is no reason to go down that rebuilding road any time soon. The best case scenario is to win with what they have, and I think they can still do it.

Mild annoyance

You know how in advertising, usually with testimonials, they'll do the thing where they use a real person, and give their first name and initial of their last name? Example:

"This product worked great for me"

-Mike P., from Toronto

Well, I think they're stupid. Specifically, including the last initial is stupid. It adds nothing, and just strikes me as really cheesy and hacky.

If you're not going to use the person's full last name, why bother with an initial at all? Does market testing indicate that if you aren't going to learn someone's complete last name, at least if you know the letter it starts with you'll trust them way more or something?

On being at peace with fandom

What a turnaround the Giants have had. It's hard to believe that less than two months ago, this same team suffered two consecutive "rock bottom" losses to the Colts and Titans. Since then, they've looked dominant and almost unstoppable.

I have no good transition here, so I'll just say this is where I shift the focus to my own fandom. I have a self-created problem that I've never had in any other sport. I've been a Yankees fan since I was a young child, when they were awful. I never strayed. I don't really have an NBA team or a hockey team. And I have not much more than a passing interest in college sports. However, when it comes to the NFL, after having dated three teams over the course of my life, I still didn't feel quite right about calling myself a Giants fan. I didn't feel like I had earned it. Until this weekend.

First, some background. You'll recall here over two years ago when I pledged my full allegiance to the Giants. Re-reading it now, I don't even like my tone there - too much negativity about the Jets, rather than what I liked about the Giants.

The team of my childhood was the Giants. In 1990 they captivated me at age 9 with what was, until January 2008 of course, the greatest Super Bowl ever. I vaguely recall awareness of the 49ers-Bengals Super Bowl being on TV two years earlier, but this was the first sporting event I vividly remember watching. But then Bill Parcells retired, the Giants had some down years, and I began to look elsewhere. I flirted with the team of my father and grandfather, the Steelers. And quite honestly I'll always have a soft spot for them, thanks mostly to that side of my family, and to watching NFL Films make the Steelers dynasty of the 70s appear magical and larger than life. I was genuinely happy for them when they won Super Bowls XL and XLIII. In 1997, I came over to the Jets with Parcells. I thought it was okay at the time. I didn't ask any fellow Giants fans about it - or maybe I didn't want to know - but that's what I did. I had great years with the Jets. Curtis Martin is still my favorite player of all time, and I don't regret the time I spent rooting for him. But when Curtis retired, and the joyless Eric Mangini era began, I knew my time was finished there. They weren't really my Jets anymore. The change didn't happen overnight, but when they jettisoned Chad Pennington for the ol' Dongslinger, that tipped the scale for good.

Anyway, back to my realization. It began on Friday, when I presented my lady friend with a series of complicated options on how we could juggle visits to both our parents' houses but not miss the Giants-Seahawks game. (This wasn't really so she wouldn't miss the game...this was so I wouldn't miss the game.) I then realized, if I care this much about not missing a single snap of this game, I truly deserve to believe I'm a fan without feeling unworthy. I'm living it.

Sure, you can go through photos of me over the years, and see me wearing apparel for three different teams. But I'm okay with it now. This is about the present. Don't be afraid to love again! (Okay, so maybe I couldn't help but gay it up just a little.)

And on another poorly transitioned note, I wouldn't be surprised if Super Bowl XLII - again, the greatest victory in the history of sports - creates an entire generation of Giants fans the way the mid to late 1970s created an entire generation of Steelers fans. Super Bowl XLII was that powerful for me, and I was 26. If that's your first strong memory of football as a lad of maybe 8 or 9 years, how can you not love that?

(Lack of) Cable update

You may recall I touched on this subject about a year ago. Today, the whole Fox vs. Cablevision thing in New York makes me want to revisit how awesome it is to be free from cable. To date, I'll estimate that I have now saved $680 since my decision last summer to not get cable when I moved into my house last June (17 months, times $40 a month...and that's a low estimate I think).

For the most part, I don't miss it. Though I'll tip my cap to Hulu, SouthParkStudios, and my workplace having cable, for making it a lot easier. Otherwise, all hail the $30 HD antenna you can get from Best Buy or any similar store, which allows reception of all network stations with crystal clarity. What an age we live in.

Taiwanese news service, you've done it again

From my friend Joe, yet another spectacular Taiwanese news animated reenactment. This time, the Charlie Sheen hotel incident. They've got to keep these coming.

Keep up the good work Taiwanese news service, whoever you are

You may recall they did an animated recreation of the Tiger Woods cover-up last year. You may recall how hilariously awesome it was. Now, they've given the Brett Favre saga the same treatment.
This begs the question, what scandal should they cover next?

Among eventual champions, "rock bottom" loss rare but not unprecedented

The Giants looked disgraceful at Indy last night. They were flat, uninspired, and gave up two of the easiest touchdowns you'll see in the NFL: A 1st quarter 7-yard Donald Brown TD run where no Giants' defender got within 5 yards of Brown - the kind of play where, if you were playing Madden and were purposely positioning all your defenders as far away from the play as possible, one of them still would have wandered closer to Brown than the Giants came during this play...then in the 2nd quarter, they let the Colts' most sure-handed yet slowest receiver, TE Dallas Clark, get behind everyone down the middle of the field for an easy 50 yard TD. The Giants allowed 410 yards in all, and lost 38-14.

So where is the positive spin on this blowout loss? In trying to put it into perspective, I thought about how some teams that would go on to win titles, have faced this kind of embarrassment before. The best example is probably the 1994 49ers. They lost in Week 5 to Philadelphia, 40-8, during which Steve Young was benched. Those Eagles weren't world beaters either - they would finish 7-9 in '94. The 49ers went on to win 10 of the final 11 regular season games, and rout the Chargers in the Super Bowl.

Other, less dramatic examples of eventual champions looking awful:

1974 Steelers: Shut out at home by Oakland, 17-0, in Week 3. Went on to stomp those same Raiders in the playoffs, on their way to a Super Bowl IX victory over Minnesota.

1979 Steelers: Lost 34-10 at Cincinnati in Week 7. The Bengals had come into that game 0-6, and would finish 4-12. Pitsburgh used the loss as a wake up call, went 12-4, and beat the Rams in Super Bowl XIV.

1992 Cowboys: Beaten 31-7 at Philadelphia in Week 5, following their bye. Finished 13-3 and blew out Buffalo in Super Bowl XXVII.

2006 Colts: Dropped a Week 14 matchup at (eventual) 8-8 Jacksonville, 44-17. It was their 2nd loss in a row, and they'd go on to lose at 6-10 Houston two weeks later. Won Super Bowl XLI over Chicago.

2007 Giants: Several ugly losses, including an 0-2 start in which they gave up a combined 80 points to Dallas and Green Bay, a 41-17 loss in Week 12 to Minnesota (eventually 8-8) at home, and, even when it appeared they had things figured out late in the year, a Week 15 home loss against Washington, 22-10. So several terrible defensive performances, by the unit that would go on to shut down the most prolific offense ever, in the greatest Super Bowl ever.

I'm not saying an embarassing loss means a team is going to win a championship...but it doesn't necessarily disqualify a team from one either.

(Photo courtesy of Kissing Suzy Kolber.)

What would Public Enemy say about Week 1?

If there was a theme in Week 1 in the NFL, it was "Don't believe the hype." Let's take a look at a few highly touted, trendy-pick teams and how they fared.

*New York Jets: The Super Bowl pick of many, 9-7 a year ago with a miracle run to the AFC Championship, they were shut down by Baltimore. 9 points, 5 first downs, 1 Braylon Edwards beard. Apparently you also need an offense to win consistently in the NFL.

*San Francisco 49ers: In spite of no reason to think they are improved, annointed as the new NFC West favorite (though that's not saying much). They got clobbered 31-6 by Seattle. Yes, Seattle. When will Mike Singletary learn that acting all tough and wearing a stopwatch around your neck, isn't really coaching or strategy?

*Oakland Raiders: Supposed to be vastly improved. I bought into this somewhat, picking them to go 6-10, and I still think they'll win their fair share of games at home. But other than adding Jason Campbell, they're still the Raiders. They were smacked in Tennessee, 38-13.

Week 1 just goes to show - when you're presented with a disagreement between seemingly undeserved hoopla, and common sense, trust your gut. And don't believe the hype.