The Super Bowl.
It's the biggest single-day sports event in the world.
Bigger than the Daytona 500.
Bigger than the Kentucky Derby.
While it's for the championship of American football, it is watched in virtually every nation.
It features world-class entertainment, multi-million dollar commercials and somewhere in between all that hubbub and hype, there is a football game.
This year's matchup is a particularly intriguing one.
It features the New England Patriots, who won three Super Bowl titles between 2002 and 2005, each fueled by the combination of coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady.
Providing the opposition is the New York Giants, who beat the Patriots in the 2008 Super Bowl with coach Tom Coughlin and quarterback Eli Manning engineering an upset of the B&B combo.
Today, both of those coaches and both of those quarterbacks return to sport's biggest stage, where their every move will be recorded as a piece of football history.
It's easy to make a case for either team.
The combination of Brady and Belichick already has won three Super Bowls. Brady already is being compared to the all-time great quarterbacks such as Terry Bradshaw, Joe Montana and John Elway. Certainly, he belongs in that conversation and elite company.
Then there's the Giants. They beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl four years ago under similar circumstances. Plus, they beat New England this season. Beat them in Foxborough. Beat them despite going into the game with numerous injuries.
While the Patriots have been the more consistent team this season, the Giants go into the Super Bowl as the hottest team at the end of the year, much like the Green Bay Packers went into last year's game, when they beat the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Fans are divided nearly 50-50 as to today's outcome. As of Saturday afternoon, 54 percent of those making their selection at espn.com were going with the Patriots, with 46 percent backing the Giants.
If you listen to the TV commentators and so-called experts, the Giants are the sexy pick. They point out New England's defensive woes and injuries. Plus, there's no doubt the Giants have played well in winning five straight games, all against quality opponents.
Yet, one can just see Lee Corso shouting not so fast and making a case for the Patriots. After all, any team with Brady pulling the trigger is almost always the favorite, which is indeed the case today.
Las Vegas odds makers, who set the point spread on which millions of dollars will change hands, made the Patriots a 3-point favorite.
Just as the linesmakers were telling me they liked WVU when they made Clemson only a 3-point favorite in the Orange Bowl, they're screaming they like New England by making the Patriots 3. The problem with blindly following them is they're human and they're not always right.
The good news is this a great matchup that should be entertaining. That's all we can ask.
Contact Dave Poe at dpoe@newsnadsentinel.com
