We Won

As we were sitting in the field section, confetti falling on our heads, Colin asked me how I was feeling. It's tough to describe the joy that comes with seeing your favorite team reach a goal that you've focused on for five months. I guess the easiest way to put it is that it hasn't hit me yet. You tune into the game every Sunday, just hoping for a win. No matter how far they get, you are still anticipating the next challenge. As long as the second half of Super Bowl XLVI was, the finish still snuck up on me. When Tom Brady was sacked by Justin Tuck on his last drive, the image of him calling for a timeout on his back was nearly identical to his reaction to the Jay Alford sack on the last drive of Super Bowl XLII. I felt the Patriot fans' pain at that point, but I also reflected on the times this year that this moment didn't seem possible. There were dozens of reasons why the 2011 Giants should not have been champions, but all that matters is that they had the opportunity to be in this situation and they took it. As the Patriots lined up for 4th and 16, I had tears in my eyes.

Of course, it wouldn't be that easy. It never was with the Giants this season. Of the New York's 19 games, 17 of them came down to the fourth quarter. This one would be no different. As the Patriots' hail mary fell into a crowd of players, my heart stopped. When I saw the ball roll out of the back of the end zone, I screamed. The rest of the night was a swarm of confetti and high fives and celebratory shots. I'll watch this game again and again over the next few weeks, and at some point it will all hit me. There's plenty of time to analyze how this game unfolded and what this means for each player's legacy and each franchise's future. For now, I'm just happy to be as lucky as I am. My team and I went to the Super Bowl, and we won.

We fucking won.