The Super Bowl was a strange sporting event this year. There’s always the psychological effect of staying up sober past 1:00am – its quite daunting really – tension and hope and anxiety when I should be dreaming. All of the former adjectives had a part to play in a close game between the Giants and the Patriots, a rematch of their 2007 final in which, ironically, the giant Patriots were felled by the minnow Giants. Same stakes essentially, but none of the huge passes and dramatic dives and excitement you associate with the sport; Tom Brady looked lost at the end, and all I could think, attempting to stave of sadness before I hit the sack, was that I better understood, seeing his eyes, what it means to be a good father. He’ll get, I imagine, one more opportunity to prove his absolute greatness before retirement, the media serving up heroes and defining moments within seconds of the firework display within seconds of the clock running down (Eli Manning managed the games only great pass, and it set up the win and his ‘legacy’). This game Brady would prove he could overcome the adversity of the first, now he’s dealing the cold fact of winning three then losing two. He took a second-class side with a suspect pass defense and limited receiving corps to the brink; greatness now will be defined by doing it older, with the odds depleted and a younger player wanting his job. That would be really great, greater somehow that winning this one.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/michael_rosenberg/02/06/brady.legacy/index.html