The real MVP of Super Bowl XLII
doubledragon
Posts: 23,269 ✭✭✭✭✭
The 2007 Patriots were one non-call away from immortality, the real MVP of Super Bowl XLII was Giants center Shaun O'Hara.
Giants Shaun O’Hara confirms he choked Richard Seymour on Eli Manning’s Super Bowl scramble
Ten years after the game, the New York Giants center admits that on the famous “Helmet Catch” play, he was choking Patriots defensive end Richard Seymour.
Yes, holding happens on almost every play in the NFL and goes uncalled. Yes, on any one play where holding does get called, there probably could have been four or five other holding calls that don’t get called. And yes, you really, REALLY don’t want a ticky-tack, “Really, bro??” call to decide any game, much less a playoff game, a championship game, or the biggest sporting event in America that should be a holiday already, the Super Bowl.
Ok, now, with THAT all out of the way, usually if you are going to hold a defensive lineman, you don’t hold them by their throat.
But buried deep in a click-baity “19-0 sounds crazy, just not with this Patriots team” , we finally get confirmation from the man himself that Giants center Shaun O’Hara was choking out Richard Seymour on Eli’s scramble before Eli wound up and Brett Favre’d it downfield, and....well, you know.
Let’s let O’Hara tell it.
The tape of the game must have made the result even more haunting. On the Manning escape, the New England rush overwhelmed nearly the entire Giants offensive line. Jarvis Green exploded past Shaun O'Hara to the center's left and plowed through left guard Rich Seubert, and Richard Seymour looped behind Jarvis Green and beat O'Hara to his right. The offensive linemen tried to play the rush as if they were switching on a basketball pick-and-roll, and they failed miserably. As Seymour and Green converged on the immobile Manning, O'Hara said he saw "Eli curl up in the fetal position, which he normally does," and then thought, "OK, we're probably going to lose this game."
But as Manning kept moving his feet and staying alive, struggling to break free from the grasp of both New England rushers, a desperate O'Hara slid his gloved right hand onto Seymour's throat. "I said, 'Screw it,'" the Giants center would recall. "I was squeezing his trachea as hard as I could and not letting go." Choked by a 300-pound man, Seymour was temporarily disabled for the split-second that allowed Manning to get away. O'Hara gambled that the officials would miss his WWE move, and miss it they sure as hell did. If they threw a flag there, the Patriots would have ended up 19-0.
Comments
I knew he was holding after they showed the slow-motion the night of the game. as a fan, that was the most gut-wrenching loss i have ever or probably ever will experience. I have never gotten over it.
best team i ever saw.
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
The Giants were Super Bowl Champions but I have seen better teams.
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Ralph
The 2007 Patriots were the best team I have ever watched as well, and it rubs me the wrong way about that non-call. It's bad enough to hold on that play, but to grab Seymour by the trachea and squeeze as hard as you can on purpose?
Uhhk this still hurts. It upset me greatly but I was more infuriated after the 2011 loss, they played like garbage
.......
Thanks for bringing this up @doubledragon ! /s
And since you did, let me work through my feelings a bit over this keyboard. lol I have said this all before , but let let me say it again, for posterity....
When the Pats lost to the Giants the last game of the regular season 2007 SB year, I knew right then and there that we were in trouble. The team had not been hitting on all cylinders as they were earlier in the year, and I felt as though losing that game would have provided the wake-up call they needed. Playing the Giants again, in that first SB, I knew we were in trouble based on what I know about the NFL and playing a team the second time after a close loss, etc.
2011 was a lot worse for me. I just felt like we didn't show up. And at that point I, like everyone else, didn't know what to expect in the future. Was 2004 our last hurrah?
I think Brady once said he would trade 2 rings for that 2007 Super Bowl, for perfection. Would you trade 2 rings for perfection, or would you rather have the extra Super Bowl?
When did he say that? How many did he have?
If we had won in 2007, would he he have gone on to have the same career? Probably not. He was motivated and striving for things for a long time between 2007 and his next SB win, or should I say the next time he was part of a SB winning team. I love the way it all worked it. But of course it still eats at him.
Let me add, if the Pats win 2007, there is no way, in my opinion, that he is still playing today.
The article I was reading was from May 2021, so I think he said it this year.