FUCK YEAH.

Just got back from watching the Patriots recover from their biggest point deficit in a game this year to beat the Giants, 38-35. It was an incredible game with tons of drama, great plays, and several huge records being broken. Of course, if you are aware of football in general, this is no news to you.

I love that this game was "meaningless," in terms of it not affecting either team's standings in the playoffs. The Pats had already secured their #1 position with home field advantagein the AFC, and the Giants had already secured their wild card spot in the NFC. The real meaning of tonight was just about two teams, playing the game we and they all love, at their very best. The Patriots were gunning for a perfect season and broken records, and the Giants were the ones that were fighting to stop 'em. There was never a dull moment, every play being full of intensity, pressure, and victory and loss. Yeah, I'm getting near-poetic about it all, but it really was the best game I've seen this year. While it was pure candy watching the Patriots demolish teams for the first half of the season, this unending, full-on struggle, with a truly great team that matched up well against our lads, was easily the most exciting.

Hell, I even watched all of the post-coverage and press interviews afterward. I love how Bill Belichick has no interest in doing these, and how he says - in an absent monotone - that he's happy with the team (and how they need to do better, of course). When asked about the game being "meaningless" in terms of their standing and position in the playoffs, Belichick gave a great quote from his former mentor, Bill Parcells, which again speaks of why football is a game, which is played, always intensely (or, it should be); which I can only paraphrase as: "for a player, any game you're playing in is meaningful."

It's always great listening to Tom Brady being interviewed, on account of him being one of the coolest guys on the planet. Watching Randy Moss be interviewed was interesting enough, but the intriguing part of his conference was when someone mentioned that the New England Patriots are "big in Japan." I love the Japanese. You never know what idea or icon or character they're suddenly going to adopt and go nuts over.

If you didn't see the game, you should download it via torrent (where you'll see it commercial-free), the best site being www.tenyardtorrents.com (although it will be on any major torrent site, it being the be-all end-all of this year's NFL games, thus far).