Sports Event   NY Giants-Super Bowl XLII by Dorothy Doremus             I am one of the biggest Giants fans you have probably ever seen.  During football season, it is not unusual to see me parading around in my Lawrence Taylor or Rodney Hampton jerseys for all the world to admire.  It is also not unusual to hear me screaming foul at some bad call a referee made - as we all know, the refs sometimes really just stink at making the wrong call on your team at the most inopportune times.  If I had a dollar for every time my friends and relatives told me to calm down I would be a millionaire. They just don’t understand that a particular play or call can end my glorious season.  How could a novice to football understand Giants loyalty?  That’s right folks, I bleed Big Blue.  I love this team and have dedicated my life to it from training camp to the Super Bowl every year since I was first bitten by the football bug in 1984.            I am really excited that the team is going to its first Super Bowl since 2000, where they suffered a humiliating loss to the Baltimore Ravens.  That January winter game still haunts me to this day as well as many of the players who hung their heads low after the thrashing.  So when the Giants beat three playoff-worthy teams on their opponents’ home turf and were underdogs in each game it was really exciting to see that sometimes the underdog can put a good team to shame.  No one gave my Big Blue a chance to win any of those games played in hostile territories.  They proved us all wrong and now they get a chance at redemption, as Super Bowl XLII awaits them in Arizona.           Michael Strahan and Amani Toomer are the only two current players from the 2000 Super Bowl team and they are both playing like they have a fire inside that cannot be extinguished.  I admire them for playing at the level they are.  At their ages, most players might have considered a lesser role or retirement, but not these two warriors.  They are in it to make the naysayers take notice that the Giants have arrived.           The only team left standing in the way are the undefeated New England Patriots who had a storybook season.  They are the only team since the 1973 Miami Dolphin team, led by Coach Don Shula, to be perfect.  Don Shula’s team won the Super Bowl that year to complete the perfection, it is my hope that New England does not win the Super Bowl and that Big Blue figures out a way to do what no other team this year has done - beat the Patriots.  The Giants came close in Week 17, but lost by 3 points.  That game lit a fire that has been burning up the NFC champs for the last three games.  They believe they can win this game and I have to believe they are winning the hearts and minds of America in their quest.           So on Feburary 3rd, 2008, remember that it’s not all about the Tom Petty halftime show and the Budweiser commercials - though, I am looking forward to them.  It’s the players that will make the memories this day.  Warriors who are not afraid to lay down everything they have in their souls for just one more play, just one more yard, just one more second on the clock to kick a game winning field goal.  That’s why the Super Bowl is Super - the players make it that way.   For feedback, visit our message board or e-mail the author at g-pop@g-pop-net.