Rob Gronkowski's Game of Inches

Sports has always been called a game of inches. A basketball that lands on the front iron instead of in the net, a hockey puck hitting the crossbar, the baseball striking the wrong side of the foul line.

"Right size, wrong shape" says Ken Harrelson, when a White Sox player hits a foul ball with home-run distance. When a Sox hitter knocked a fly ball just short of the fence, John Rooney used to say, "Another strip of bacon on his breakfast plate and that one's outta here." "Juuuuuuuust a bit outside," for Bob Uecker. "Threeeeeeeeee--nope" for Neil Funk.

A game of inches, they've said. For the New England Patriots, the game came down to six inches last night. It was not the six inches of indoor grass between the ball and Rob Gronkowski's fingertips, however.

No, six inches separated the Pats from their fourth Super Bowl victory. The six inches of white tape on Rob Gronkowski's left ankle.

A wounded giant...excuse me, Patriot


Allow me to channel Alfred Hitchcock for a moment.

Imagine, if you will, a healthy Rob Gronkowski. A beast of a man, quick, speedy, agile and able to catch about anything he can reach. A devastating tandem along with fellow tight end Aaron Hernandez, Rob Gronkowski frustrated linebackers and defensive backs all season...until he suffered a serious ankle injury in the AFC Championship game.

Suddenly, Gronk was slowed, chained, restrained. The high-ankle sprain limited his astounding mobility, turned him into a lumbering player. Gronkowski and the Patriots said all week that he would play in the Super Bowl, and when the time came, he came onto the field. But it was clear he wasn't the same. Gronkowski caught only two passes, and missed a chance to haul in the greatest of his career.

So close...


As Tom Brady looked to duplicate Eli Manning's desperation fling from four years earlier, the Patriot receivers hustled to the end zone. Aaron Hernandez arrived first and was the only man in the area who had a chance.

Rob Gronkowski, a hobbled Rob Gronkowski, was still about three yards away from the spot.

Hernandez and the Giants D-backs tip the ball in the air. Gronkowski runs and dives, but ends up short. About six inches short.

Football nation watched this year as Gronkowski made play after play this season, with his hands and his legs. He set records as a tight end for receiving yards and touchdowns. He was a leader in that vaunted Madden stat of "yards after catch".

Yet there he was, in the last moment of the first Super Bowl of his young career, coming up short.

Six inches of grass. Six inches of tape.

Does a healthy Rob Gronkowski, running full speed with maximum force on that ankle make that play?

Maybe he doesn't. Maybe he overruns the ball and is out of position. Maybe gets blocked out. Maybe he just misses it.

Or maybe he doesn't. Maybe a healthy Rob Gronkowski has more than two catches in the game. Maybe a healthy Rob Gronkowski makes Tom Brady even better and the Giants have to do more than score an easy touchdown with one minute to go.

Maybe a healthy Rob Gronkowski cradles that ball in his hands, and Tom Terrific doesn't turn into Tom Thumb on the bus ride back to the hotel.

Four years ago, the inches of David Tyree's fingertips gave the Giants all they needed. This time, the Giants got the break again.

A game of inches, indeed.

See you in the cheap seats.

JS

Another Super Bowling Sunday

All right, I'm just going to say it...

It's really hard to get up for this Super Bowl.

It shouldn't be, I get that. It's the epic rematch of the Super Bowl four years prior, where the little blue engine that couldn't, wouldn't, shouldn't...did.

David defeated Goliath, and in doing so, beat his older and better brother to the mountaintop.

Evil finally succumbed to its own gigantic id (remember Belichick going for it on fourth-and-five from the Giants 32, instead of kicking a field goal?), and paid the price.

For once, the majority of America cheered for New York, for they had taken down the cheaters of the league.

This year, the quarterbacks are the same. The coaches are the same. The stakes are the same.

Eli vs. Tom! Tom vs. Bill! New England vs. New York for a place in history! The most famous trophy in America!

Yawn.

Last time was different

There's a reason the pundits always take the Patriots in the big-game situations now, except for the year Matt Cassel was guiding the team. A few reasons, actually.

It was 2007, and the Patriots were a few years removed from their dynastic run of NFL championships. Tedy Bruschi had retired. So had Mike Vrabel and Willie McGinest. Adam Vinatieri, Pats hero of Super Bowls past, had just won a ring with the hated Colts (I say "hated" since they did beat my beloved Bears the year before).

New England was fairly mortal. They had won their first game against the New York Jets, but the season was wide open for just about anyone in the NFL.

Suddenly, the accusations came flying: the Patriots were cheaters!

The Pats had been accused of sending a member of the staff to tape the Jets' practice prior to their Week 1 matchup. The fallout was monumental. The topic was debated on every single sports show, in bars, at water coolers—if someone knew about football, they were talking about the Patriots' supposed wrongdoing.

The Patriots were incensed. Bill Belichick denied it. Tom Brady denied it. Everyone in the Northeast was angry that any such accusations would be leveled at them. So the Pats decided to make a statement.

By beating everyone else on their schedule.

New England went 16-0 in the regular season. They lost by less than a touchdown only four times, never lost by less than three, and they ended the year by beating the Giants 38-35 at the Meadowlands.

The Patriots were untouchable, a juggernaut, a lock to win the Super Bowl. Worst of all, everyone "knew" they had cheated. Their NFC counterpart, the Giants, had only made it to the playoffs via the Wild Card, and had taken a 22-10 loss against the hapless Washington Redskins. The same Redskins the Patriots embarrassed 52-7 early in the year.

There was no chance for the Giants. It was Patriots and the points at every bookie in the country.

Needless to say, there were a lot of stunned bettors that night in 2008, as Plaxico Burress and little Eli Manning celebrated the most improbable postseason victory in NFL history. Oh, and David Tyree made some kind of catch as well.

Thanks, Joe Buck, for all your enthusiasm. Just imagine if Gus Johnson had this call.

But this year...

The Patriots are a good football team. They're the favorites on the line once again, but that's debatable this time around. They had a close shave against a determined Ravens team and only got away when Billy Cundiff pulled (shanked?) a Steve Norwood-level kick at the final gun.

Meanwhile, the Giants aren't the underdogs they were four years ago. Eli has the experience, has the ring, has the big-time receivers in Hakeem Nicks and the young, exciting, salsa-dancing Victor Cruz. He also has a great defense to put pressure on Tom Brady, but New York had that four years ago as well.

Honestly, it will be a great game. It will. It just won't have that same magical quality as it did in 2008.

All the little guys got the chance to beat on their chest back then, as the Evil Empire finally fell on its face.

This time, someone just gets a ring. But at the very least, it won't be this guy.

Enjoy the Super Bowl, cheap seaters.

JS