Fun NFL test...

This is fun at Yard Barker, although more a typing test than a naming test...

After a couple of tries, I made it with :02 left to spare, but kept getting stuck on 49ers and Buccaneers. MLB is much harder.

Perfect Shmerfect... Fermo de tutti Fermi

You wanna talk NFL catches? Okay, let's talk NFL catches. Forget Dwight Clark's "The Catch" in the '81 NFC championship. Forget Lynn Swann in SB X. Forget even the Giants/Niners replacement game during the '87 strike (where "Giants" wide receiver Lewis Bennett reached behind the defender, tipped the ball over him, and grabbed it for a touchdown).

Forget them all. There has never been a catch to equal David Tyree's last night in SB 42. That catch was the Ringling Bros. center ring of circus catches. A blindfolded guy on a high wire juggling Volkswagons.

Recap for the six Tibetan monks who were meditating on a Himalayan mountaintop when their cable when out...

A minute and small change left, Giants on New England's 44, third and five. Nanoseconds from being sacked, Eli Manning—his jersey still stretched by the beefy clutches of the Patriot defense—somehow squirts through the sausage grinder and chucks a benediction down field. Well-covered and airborne... actually INVERTED and airborne... Tyree leaps and grabs Manning's 32-yarder by PINNING THE BALL TO HIS HELMET. He literally holds it against his blue-clad skull while falling backwards and then landing on top of defender Rodney Harrison. There isn't a single person who saw it—Giants fan, Patriots fan, or the people just watching for the commercials—who expected that ball to stay in Tyree's hands, or should I say, on his head. It HAD to be an incompletion. It HAD to pop out of his hands. It HAD to be fourth down and a long-shot field goal attempt. There's no way he could... But he did. Three plays later Manning lofts a gimme into the corner and the GEEEEEEEE-MEN go up 17-14, thanks to a schoolyard head fake by Plaxico Burress on a routine out route.

Suddenly, it's Rocky IV and the invincible Drago is cut. Tony Burton is screaming at Rocky, "You see? You see? He's NOT a machine, he's a man, he's a man!" All game long the Big Blue Wrecking Crew treated Tom Brady like he was an over-stuffed six-foot-four pinata, squashing the heart of the greatest offense of all time. And yet, it still looked like the Giants offense wouldn't be able to get it done. Until the catch that kept the drive alive, and ended the Patriots' dream season in the most nerve-shredding, nail-chomping, cardiac-arresting Super Bowl ever.

As predicted by Sports Nuts News on Jan. 24, the Giants stun the world. And best of all, Tiki the Traitor can sit on the couch during the Today Show in his Armani suit, discussing the 2008 Vera Wang bridal collection with Anne Curry, but there won't be any Super Bowl ring on his treacherous finger. Those are reserved for the guys who sucked it up, stuck it out, kept their mouths shut, and played like champions.

Today's congratulatory Sports Nuts design...

Who's the Manning?

Okay, I officially rescind my previous post about Eli Manning. If you had told me last week that Eli would be playing in the conference championship that Peyton would be watching on TV, I might have had to hit you with something heavy and sharp. But Eli is finally starting to show some confidence; finally starting to get his play-makers to make plays, and finally starting to mature in his leadership role.

How will this bode on the frozen tundra Sunday night? Brett has the resume and the homefield but Eli's got nothing to lose but his toes. Stay tuned.

Check out today's Sports Nuts design.

Eli's coming... or is he?

Is there anyone else as baffled by the enigma that is Eli Manning? Through the 06 and 07 seasons I've been waiting... and waiting—like some guy without a raincoat standing in a driving downpour waiting for a crosstown bus; and just when a bus pulls up, it turns out to be the wrong one. One minute, Eli shows flashes of competence (no, not brilliance, just competence) and effective leadership. The next minute, he's thrown the ball 10 feet off the mark and is walking to the sidelines with that freshly kicked puppy look.

Fortunately for Giants fans, the right Eli showed up against Tampa Bay last Sunday. But will he show against Dallas next week?

Check out today's Sports Nuts design.