Top Five Super Bowl LV Storylines with a New York Giants Twist
The NFL truly is special.
While nearly every facet of society and business were shutting down at one point or another due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the NFL not only managed to get a full season in but lo and behold, here we are for Super Bowl week.
Granted, it will be a Super Bowl like none other, one that will be devoid of the usual pomp and circumstance for which the game has become known.
All that window dressing aside, there will be a game played between the Bucs and the Chiefs this Sunday in Tampa, Florida, with some fans allowed into the stands. And after there being grave doubts about there even being a Super Bowl week, we’re about to unfold what should be an exciting lead-up to the game with some of the following storylines set to take center stage.
Tom Terrific
The original “Tom Terrific” –the late Tom Seaver—left our imperfect world last year to be with some of the legendary baseball greats of yesteryear on a baseball diamond in the sky.
But since we’re talking a different sport, certainly Bucs quarterback Tom Brady is worthy of the moniker. Brady is about to play in his tenth Super Bowl, with five of those appearances coming at age 37 or older. He is a game in which he holds a 6-3 record, with two of those losses coming at the hands of offenses led by Giants great Eli Manning (XLII and XLVI).
The New Generation
Patrick Mahomes is only 25 years old, but the four-year veteran is already on his second Super Bowl in three postseasons. If Mahomes, who is 6-1 in the postseason, and the Chiefs emerge victorious this weekend, he would become the youngest starting quarterback to win multiple Super Bowl titles and would join Brady as the only starting quarterbacks to win the Super Bowl in two of their first four career seasons.
Mahomes, by the way, becomes the youngest quarterback in NFL history (25 years and 143 days old on the date of Super Bowl LV) to start two Super Bowls, surpassing Russell Wilson of the Seahawks, who was 26 years and 64 days old at the time of his second Super Bowl start (SB XLIX).
Mahomes, for those who don’t remember, personally worked out for then-Giants head coach Ben McAdoo, who stopped off at Texas Tech’s pro day on his way back from the NFL owners meetings in Arizona that year.
McAdoo was said to be very high on Mahomes as a draft prospect, but unfortunately for the Giants, who that year drafted no. 23 overall, they never came close to having a chance at drafting Mahomes, who went to the Chiefs at No. 10, a spot originally held by the Buffalo Bills, after Kansas City traded up from No. 27 to get their franchise quarterback of the future.
In addition to the No. 27 overall pick, the Chiefs sent a third-round pick and their 2018 first-round selection to the Buffalo Bills to land their franchise quarterback of the future.
New York (Giants) State of Mind
Those members of the Giants who make their home in the northeaster corridor are currently gutting out the monster nor’easter that is dumping a foot of snow on the tri-state area.
But that doesn’t mean that the Giants, whose mantra is, “Once a Giant, always a Giant,” won’t have some “representation” in this year’s Super Bowl.
For the Bucs, there is defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul, whom the Giants traded after the 2017 season. Since joining the Bucs, Pierre-Paul has recorded 30.5 sacks and 76 total pressures in three seasons.
He is joined by inside linebacker Deon Bucannon, who was with the Giants for nine games in 2019, and cornerback Ross Cockrell, who spent the 2017 season with the Giants after being acquired via trade from the Steelers.
The Chiefs have a few more players and coaches with ties to the Giants. Cornerback Antonio Hamilton (2018-19), offensive lineman Mike Remmers (2019), practice squad offensive lineman Patrick Omameh (2018), and cornerback DeAndre Baker (injured reserve) all had stints with the Giants.
Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo won a Super Bowl with the Giants as their defensive coordinator in 2007 (XLII) and was with the team for two separate stints, including 2007-08 and 2015-17; and cornerbacks coach Sam Madison, who was with the Giants in 2006-08.
Chiefs safeties coach David Merritt was also with the Giants for both of their Super Bowl runs (XLII in 2007 and XLVI in 2011). Merritt was an original member of Tom Coughlin’s staff, hired in 2004, and was retained by Ben McAdoo until leaving for a post with the Cardinals in 2018.
No Place Like Home
The Bucs are the first team in Super Bowl history to play in a Super Bowl on their home field. This is also just the fifth time a team will play a Super Bowl hosted in their home state. The other teams who played in a Super Bowl hosted in their home state include the Oakland Raiders (XXXVII-San Diego and XI, Pasadena), the Los Angeles Rams (XIV, Pasadena), and the San Francisco 49ers (XIX, Stanford).
Teams who have played in a Super Bowl in their home state are 2-1.
The Giants? They never played a Super Bowl in their home stadium, but who could ever forget Jerry Reese’s famous Super Bowl countdown clock that he had placed in the team’s locker room during the 2013 season, the year that Super Bowl XLVIII was played in MetLife Stadium?
The purpose of the clock was to motivate the team to make history by becoming the first NFL team to play in a Super Bowl in their home stadium. Sadly, the tactic didn’t work as the Giants finished 7-9 and in third place in the NFC East, never coming close to a playoff berth.
Meanwhile, the Seattle Seahawks toppled the Denver Broncos 43-8 on the Giants' home turf. Receiver Golden Tate, who signed with the Giants as a free agent in 2019, was a member of the Seahawk’s championship team. Meanwhile, the Broncos had quarterback Peyton Manning, older brother of then-Giants quarterback Eli Manning, and cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, who signed with the Giants as a free agent in 2014.
Ladies Night
Several trailblazing women will be a part of Super Bowl LV, starting with Sarah Thomas, the first female official who will be part of referee Carl Cheffers’ crew for this weekend’s game. Thomas became an NFL official in 2015.
Meanwhile, Bucs head coach Bruce Arians, who has always been one of the league’s leaders when it comes to diversity, will bring a coaching staff that includes two women, assistant defensive line coach Lori Locust and assistant strength and conditioning coach Maral Javadifar
The Giants, meanwhile, made their first known hire of a woman for a position previously held by a man when they named Hannah Burnett as the team’s first female full-time scout last year.
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