Here's a look at the numbers behind some of the biggest sports stories this past month. Send us suggestions for next month's edition by tweeting at @michaelkruse with the hashtag #GrantlandStats.
Estimated number of chicken wings eaten in America on Super Bowl Sunday: 1.25 billion.
Average current weight of an NFL player: 248 pounds.
Percentage by which that number has grown since 1985: 10.
Percentage of 513 former NFL players in one study done in 2011 by researchers at Loyola University of Chicago who scored poorly enough on a test for Alzheimer’s symptoms to indicate dementia: 35.
The amount of Gs experienced by a soccer player heading a ball: about 20.
I'm sure Tom Brady is going to take a ton of solace from the fact that the image of him sitting on the Lucas Oil turf, in a state of total dejection and disappointment, has become an Internet meme, which people in offices, outside of elevators, and pretty much everywhere else you can imagine (as well as a few spots you'd rather not) are replicating.
We couldn't let the NFL season pass without talking one last time to the NFL Network's Mike Lombardi. We discussed the Super Bowl, what the Patriots should do during the offseason, whether Bill Belichick will retire, where Peyton Manning is headed, how the NFL draft is shaping up, and which team might be our 2012 sleeper. After that (40-minute mark), I called my buddy J-Bug to find out the mood in Boston after the brutal Patriots loss. Could the fans turn on Tom Brady? Are the Bruins really threatening to become Boston's no. 1 team? Should Patriots fans be a little more grateful about everything? If you ever wanted to hear a semi-broken guy with a Boston accent somehow put everything in perspective while talking in a crowded office at work, this is the conversation for you. I really need to call the J-Bug more often.
I needed a good 60 hours to recover from the Super Bowl before bringing in our buddy Cousin Sal for his final football podcast of the NFL season. The good news: Sal hates the Giants about 10 times more than I do. We had a cathartic chat about what went wrong for the Patriots, what video game strategies could have helped them, whether they should have let the Giants score even sooner than they did, whether they'll ever trade up in a draft (instead of down), why there shouldn't be a scapegoat from that game, and why I made the grave mistake of calling him right after the game. Also, we discussed Jimmy Kimmel Live's "Unplugging the Super Bowl" YouTube clip (a must-watch), Super Bowl 47 odds, and whether there might already be a sleeper bet for our next NFL champion. That's right … the gambling season never ends!
1. Mario Manningham, Hands
At the risk of ostracizing myself from my employer and my hometown, I am giving this week's Rankonia scepter to Mario Manningham. I can't believe I am about to write these two words about a New York Football Giant: Nice. Catch.
On Tuesday, from 7 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. EST, I spent my time at someone else's parade.
I beg of you, never make the same mistake.
I'm not a Giants fan, but after the Super Bowl win over the Patriots, I thought it would be fun to watch tens of thousands of New Yorkers celebrate. It was easily one of the worst decisions I have ever made. When I wrote this, I was still a little shaken up by the day's proceedings, so crafting prose didn't really go too swimmingly, but I did manage to assemble a list of reasons one should never attend someone else's parade, based on what happened to me Tuesday morning. It was so bad.
All good things must come to an end. After a long season filled with twists and turns, our coverage of the 2011 NFL season finishes up today with the Super Bowl XLVI edition of "The Fabulous and the Flops." What's that? Are you crying? Oh, you're so sweet. Now we're starting to cry a little bit, too. Don't worry! We'll be back during the offseason with NFL stuff, and with no lockout on the horizon, we can safely say that Week 1 of the NFL season is less than … seven months away. Oh dear. How does this baseball thing work again?
As we have during previous playoff weeks, our goal here is to identify players whose successes and failures were not the obvious takeaways from the games everyone just saw. Yes, we know Eli Manning played great. We wrote about it yesterday. And instead of dwelling on the negatives, let's break format in this final column and recognize three members of the Giants who played fantastic football games, even if they haven't gotten a ton of recognition for it.
In case you were out living a life of leisure, here's what you missed in sports on Monday.
The New York Giants arrived home yesterday, and were greeted by 200 raucous fans at their practice facility. Oddly enough, one of the wildest fans was a heavily intoxicated Rob Gronkowski.
Gisele Bundchen, the wife of Patriots QB Tom Brady, was videotaped after the Super Bowl complaining to her friends about the team's receivers. "My husband cannot f------ throw the ball and catch the ball at the same time," she said. "I know exactly how you feel," said Julie Bartoli, wife of failed juggler Lazario "Butter Hands" Bartoli.
This was a very odd game — with a very dramatic finish.
Early in Sunday's Super Bowl, the New York Giants — aided by New England quarterback Tom Brady's safety — looked unstoppable. The Giants had a huge advantage in both momentum and yards, but despite all this, they only scored nine points. Then Tom Brady and the Patriots became, well, Tom Brady and the Patriots.
Brady went 16-for-16 with two touchdown passes sandwiched around the halftime show, and New England looked like it might simply run away with the game. And then … I'm not even sure.
The Giants kicked a couple field goals, Brady roughed his shoulder up on the turf, and then — with about four minutes left in the game — the Patriots had one of the most heartbreaking sequences in franchise history: Brady and Wes Welker, who know a thing about throwing and catching, failed to connect on a throw up the seam, where Welker was essentially uncovered. Then New York quarterback Eli Manning hit Mario Manningham on a nearly impossible throw down the sideline for a huge 38-yard gain. By now, you know the rest. The Giants scored the game-winning touchdown after Patriots coach Bill Belichick smartly let them, and Brady failed to make good on his desperation drive with a late Hail Mary. Giants win, 21-17.
Let's compare those two game-changing pass plays: the failed pass from Brady to Welker and the play of the game, Manning's fantastic throw to Manningham down the sideline.
In case you were out living a life of leisure, here's what you missed in sports over the weekend.
The New York Giants beat the New England Patriots 21-17 in Super Bowl XLVI. And that's after viewers were inundated with patriotic propaganda, from the national anthem to a crazy Clint Eastwood ad, without ever seeing one commercial featuring actual giants. Not one!
Eli Manning, who threw for 296 yards and led the game-winning drive, was named the game's MVP for the second time in his career. "GEE WHIZ AND JEEZUM CROW!" he shouted, waving his hat around in excitement. "GOLLLLLY, THAT'S SWELL!" He then stared at the Chevrolet Corvette he won, and wondered when Peyton would take him for a ride to the dairy for some iced cream.
Live from the Bud Light Hotel in Indy, it's more of the BS Report!
What, two hours of podcast content on Thursday was more than enough for you? How dare you? What about two more parts and two more hours of babbling? In Part 1, Patriots president Jonathan Kraft talked about Sunday's game, how to run an NFL organization, why the 18-game schedule isn't a bad idea, his mother's lasting legacy and how the Patriots might have handled that Peyton Manning-Indy situation if it had happened with Tom Brady. (Listen to Part 1 on the ESPN.com Podcenter or on iTunes.)
In Part 2, Kevin Wildes and Joe House went on a half-baked idea frenzy. You'll never think about Leap Year the same way again. (Listen to Part 2 on the ESPN.com Podcenter or on iTunes.)
Everybody has their faults. Some people are kleptomaniacs. Some people walk onto uncrowded subways and stop directly in front of the doors. There are even some who use nail-polish remover during cross-country flights. And some people (hi there) cheer for the Patriots despite having no good reason to do so. My name is Chris Ryan. This is my confession.
The focus for the Super Bowl has been, fairly rightly, on the quarterbacks — namely Tom Brady and Eli Manning. There's a good chance the game will be high scoring, especially given that both teams' defenses have had their share of lapses. But for either team to have the success they hope to have, their running games are going to need to be a big part of that. This is especially true for the Giants.
With two weeks of hype for Super Bowl XLVI nearly in the books, it's easy to forget the events that actually brought these teams here. Sure, everyone remembers the big plays at the end of the Conference Championships, but what about the narrow moments that served as key plays in the Giants' and Patriots' seasons long before they ever booked their flights to Indianapolis?
These plays must remain in light! The Giants and Patriots would have struggled to make the big game if it weren't for these big plays. We've identified three now-forgotten moments for each team as their game-changers from the 2011 season. In no particular order …
