Both Antrel Rolle (left) and Justin Tuck (right) have had trouble keeping their “swagger” in check prior to the Super Bowl.
What’s the one thing you just don’t do in the week leading up to a game against the New England Patriots, something teams in the past have failed at and paid dearly for? Oh yeah, that’s right: open your mouth. New York Giants safety Antrel Rolle clearly didn’t get that message. Before boarding the Giants’ plane to Indianapolis for Super Bowl XLVI, he said that the team was expecting to win. At media day yesterday, Rolle continued to express this confident state-of-mind. “We are going to win this thing,” he said. “We are going to win this thing for a lot of good reasons.” The safety assured the New York media that this did not mean he was guaranteeing a Giants victory, yet contradicted himself when he said that his team was “not going to be denied at this point.”
As I’m sure most Patriots fans know, head coach Bill Belichick and his team are always looking for bulletin board material, and it appears that Rolle’s comments along with other “confident” (not cocky according to Justin Tuck) remarks made by the Giants will serve as such. Is this a reflection that New York really thinks they are going to win, or are these things simply being said as a form of self-reassurance? The G-men have boasted a confident swagger ever since that ’07 championship season, so this could simply just be a display of their mindset. I disagree. I think the Giants are scared of the Pats, just as New England seemed to be when the players’ confidence turned to cockiness in media sessions leading up to Super Bowl XLII.
This time around, however, the two teams have flip-flopped roles. While the Giants are letting their ego run wild, the Patriots have been very easy-going. The players are focused on winning and understand that this is a “business” trip as evidenced by their button-down attire at Sunday’s send-off rally inside Gillette Stadium, but they also realize it’s still just a football game. Not just any other game, no doubt, but one that they’ve always enjoyed to play and should on Sunday no matter what’s riding on it. This relaxed attitude has been best exemplified by coach Belichick, who has been seen smiling and constantly cracking jokes with the media the past couple of days. This is very unlike a man who has always been unhappy and tense even when his team won games. He has carried this positive demeanor throughout the playoffs, and with the Super Bowl just days away it’s been in full force. As speculated by former Patriot Troy Brown, currently a reporter with Comcast SportsNet New England (CSNNE), Belichick seems to be relaxing in order to get his players to as well. Brown says Bill realizes that his guys don’t play well when they’re tense and worried about making mistakes, so what better way to loosen them up than by acting as if he doesn’t have a care in the world? The Pats have always gone about things in a very particular, tight-knit fashion, so I think that this relaxed state that the team is currently in is serving as a “calm before the storm,” a storm that I don’t think the over-confident Giants are expecting come Sunday.
New England Sports React knows that you care about how your personal information is used and shared, and we take your privacy very seriously. Please read the following to learn more about our privacy policy. By visiting our website, you are accepting the practices outlined in this Privacy Policy.
This Privacy Policy covers New England Sports React's treatment of personal information that New England Sports React gathers when you are on the New England Sports React website and when you use New England Sports React services. This policy does not apply to the practices of third parties that New England Sports React does not own or control, or to individuals that New England Sports React does not employ or manage.
Information Collected by New England Sports React
We only collect personal information that is relevant to the purpose of our website. This information allows us to provide you with a customized and efficient experience. We do not process this information in a way that is incompatible with this objective. We collect the following types of information from our New England Sports React users:
1. Information You Provide to Us: We receive and store any information you enter on our website or provide to us in any other way. You can choose not to provide us with certain information, but then you may not be able to take advantage of many of our special features.
2. Automatic Information:
We receive and store certain types of information whenever you interact with us. New England Sports React and its authorized agents automatically receive and record certain "traffic data" on their server logs from your browser including your IP address, New England Sports React cookie information, and the page you requested. New England Sports React uses this traffic data to help diagnose problems with its servers, analyze trends and administer the website.
New England Sports React may collect and, on any page, display the total counts that page has been viewed.
Many companies offer programs that help you to visit websites anonymously. While New England Sports React will not be able to provide you with a personalized experience if we cannot recognize you, we want you to be aware that these programs are available.
E-mail Communications
New England Sports React is very concerned about your privacy and we will never provide your email address to a third party without your explicit permission, as detailed in the "Sharing Your Information" section below. New England Sports React may send out e-mails with New England Sports React-related news, products, offers, surveys or promotions.
Cookies
Cookies are alphanumeric identifiers that we transfer to your computer's hard drive through your Web browser to enable our systems to recognize your browser and tell us how and when pages in our website are visited and by how many people. New England Sports React cookies do not collect personal information, and we do not combine information collected through cookies with other personal information to tell us who you are or what your screen name or e-mail address is.
The "help" portion of the toolbar on the majority of browsers will direct you on how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to command the browser to tell you when you receive a new cookie, or how to fully disable cookies. We recommend that you leave the cookies activated because cookies allow you to use some of New England Sports React's coolest features.
New England Sports React's advertising partners may place a cookie on your browser that makes it possible to collect anonymous non-personally identifiable information that ad delivery systems use to present more relevant ads. If you would prefer to opt-out of this standard practice, please visit our advertising partner Platform-A's privacy policy and opt-out page.
Sharing Your Information
Rest assured that we neither rent nor sell your personal information to anyone and that we will share your personal information only as described below.
New England Sports React Personnel: New England Sports React personnel and authorized consultants and/or contractors may have access to user information if necessary in the normal course of New England Sports React business.
Business Transfers: In some cases, we may choose to buy or sell assets. In these types of transactions, user information is typically one of the business assets that is transferred. Moreover, if New England Sports React, or substantially all of its assets, were acquired, user information would be one of the assets that is transferred.
Protection of New England Sports React and Others: We may release personal information when we believe in good faith that release is necessary to comply with a law; to enforce or apply our Terms of Use and other policies; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of New England Sports React, our employees, our users, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for fraud protection and credit risk reduction.
Syndication: New England Sports React allows for the RSS syndication of all of its public content within the New England Sports React website.
With Your Consent: Except as noted above, we will contact you when your personal information is shared with third parties or used for a purpose incompatible with the purpose(s) for which it was originally collected, and you will be able to opt out to prevent the sharing of this information.
Children Under 18 Years of Age
You must be 13 years and older to register to use the New England Sports React website. As a result, New England Sports React does not specifically collect information about children. If we learn that New England Sports React has collected information from a child under the age of 13, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. We recommend that minors between the ages of 13 and 18 ask and receive their parents' permission before using New England Sports React or sending information about themselves or anyone else over the Internet.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
New England Sports React may amend this Privacy Policy from time to time, at its sole discretion. Use of information we collect now is subject to the Privacy Policy in effect at the time such information is used. If we make changes to the Privacy Policy, we will notify you by posting an announcement on the New England Sports React website so you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances if any, it is disclosed.
Conditions of Use
If you decide to visit New England Sports React website, your visit and any possible dispute over privacy is subject to this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use, including limitations on damages, arbitration of disputes, and application of California state law.
Effective Date of this Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy is effective as of April 19, 2012 and last updated April 19, 2012.
