Open Court: All eyes on Arizona’s Super Bowl

Far too often, the oppressive hype surrounding the Super Bowl overwhelms the action on the field.

Simply put, the average football game can’t live up to the unrelenting build-up that is customary, thanks to the NFL’s unmatched popularity and our nation’s 24-hour news cycle.

However, Super Bowl XLII isn’t an average football game. In fact, it isn’t even a noteworthy football game. This time around, it transcends the action that will take place between the sidelines at the University of Phoenix stadium, 136 miles to the north.

No matter what happens, Super Bowl XLII will represent history, broadcast in real time to the largest viewing audience since Alan Alda and his “M.A.S.H.” crew bid farewell in 1982.

This Super Bowl, more so than any other, will become a part of our shared cultural heritage.

Either we will see the culmination of the first undefeated season in 26 years, or we will see the greatest upset in 29 years.

Both outcomes seem theoretically impossible.

In 1994, former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue instituted a hard salary cap, a system that would ensure a competitive balance between all teams. In Tagliabue’s perfect world, all teams would go 8-8 every year.

In order for one team to rise above the league-imposed mediocrity, it needs an overwhelming amount of skill, luck and good fortune.

It almost defies logic to see one team separate itself so far from the norm that it has a legitimate chance to win every single football game.

Now, the New England Patriots have a better-than-good chance to run the slate and earn a permanent spot in every “greatest teams ever” conversation for as long as people discuss sports.

Standing in their way, the upstart New York Giants — a team that didn’t enter the championship discussion until moments after its win in Green Bay two weeks ago.

Nobody symbolizes New York’s underdog mentality quite like Eli Manning.

After playing second fiddle to his much more accomplished older brother, Peyton, Eli has tackled the second half of this season like a hot poker player. Sure, he has busted on more than his share of hands in the past, but finally, the cards are cooperating.

He’s winning hands he never had the confidence to win before (in Dallas and Green Bay) and his teammates are starting to respond.

There isn’t a bigger driving force in sports than the “nobody believed in us” angle. With today’s point spread settling at 12, the Giants will once again be playing the familiar underdog role.

Honestly, they wouldn’t have it any other way.

No matter who hoists the Lombardi Trophy later this evening, it will represent something none of us have ever seen before.

For once, the Super Bowl will meet — and exceed — our expectations.

nprevenas@gvnews.com | 547-9747

Details/b>

What: Super Bowl XLII

Where: University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale

When: 4:17 p.m. kickoff today

Television: Fox Network