The Giants Win the Pennant!

I know, I know. Wrong era. Wrong Giants. Wrong sport, for that matter. But I am no less ecstatic than Russ Hodges at the New York (football) Giants' unlikely victory yesterday.

I'm often put in a position of defending my rabid football fandom by people who don't know me very well.

I'm not the very model of a modern metrosexual. But I do love literature and music. I enjoy the occasional night out at theater (known as "theatre" by us cultured types) when I can afford it. I could have even told you what a pinot noir was before I saw Sideways. All of which leads acquaintances to be surprised when they discover I like me some pigskin. It also usually leads to the inevitable "but it's so brutal" discussion.

I now have only two responses. First, if you don't see ballet in David Tyree's catch last night, then you have no soul.



Second, if you can't appreciate the Bobby Fisher-like strategy of the game plan designed by Giants Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnulo—which, granted, boiled down to "hit Brady hard and often" but entailed so much more and still held a record-setting offense 21+ points under its per-game season average—then you're not as brainy as you think you are.