What does a Super Bowl Win Mean for the Patriots and Giants?

We are currently 10 days away from Super Bowl 46 between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants. It’s been noted everywhere by now, but I will remind you anyway: this Super Bowl will be a re-match of Super Bowl XLII where the Giants crushed the Pats’ hopes of the second undefeated season in league history. My question going into this game is what will a win mean to each team, its players, and the organizations?

First, the Patriots. If they win this years Super Bowl it will be their 4th win in 9 years, adding to wins in 2002, 2004, and 2005. Four wins would tie them with the Green Bay Packers, but they would still trail the Cowboys, 49ers, and Steelers. A win would also be Tom Brady’s 4th, tying him with Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw and making his Hall of Fame career that much more impressive. A win would solidify the Patriots place in everyone’s memories as the team of the 00’s decade. Yeah, technically this one will fall outside of the 2000-2009, but 4 wins in 9 years is still damn impressive. For Belichick, a win would put him in rare and hallowed company – he would be only the 2nd head coach in NFL history to win 4 Super Bowls (the other being former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Chuck Noll).

With all that said, the Pats want this win very, very badly for 2 main reasons. 1. They want to avenge the loss to the Giants from 3 years ago. That was a blow to their collective ego and to their place in history. 2. Speaking of history, a 4th win in 9 years put them right in the discussion with just a few other teams as the upper echelon of the league.

As for the Giants, a win is their chance to establish an ongoing presence as one of the league’s truly elite teams. A 2nd win in 3 years leaves them with only the Patriots and Steelers as teams with multiples championships in the past 10 years. For Tom Coughlin, a win would allow him to keep his job. It seems so long ago at this point, but earlier this season, Coughlin was on one of the hottest seats of any coach in the league. The fact is you can’t fire a coach that wins 2 Super Bowls in 3 years. I simply can’t imagine a scenario, outside of something similar to the Penn St. fiasco, where you could justify getting rid of a coach with wins of that caliber. A win for Eli Manning puts him ahead of Peyton and one of three active QBs with multiple championships (Brady and Roethlisberger, if you couldn’t have guessed by now).

It’s going to be a fantastic game. Come back next week and we’ll break the match-ups down together!