There will be a Manning playing in that dome in Indy, but it won't be Peyton.

Another chapter will be added to the Brady-Manning rivalry, but it won't involve Peyton.

And when people talk about the New England/New York rivalry, they sure as hell won't be talking Sox or Yanks, and you won't hear anything about the Jets. They'll be busy sitting at home disappointed in their players, their team, and their coach while watching their two biggest rivals duke it out for the Lombardi Trophy. The beasts of the East are the New England Patriots and the New York Giants. Strangely, we can both thank the opposing team's special-teams and their freakish mistakes for making it easy for us to advance. Maybe it was Tebow.

The NFL Network will be reairing our last Super Bowl date in an hour. I might force myself to watch it, but why torture myself? That game won't give us much to analyze. Both of our teams have changed a lot since then, as you all surely saw when our teams met during the regular season. That mid-season game seems like so long ago. It was the first-time in years that Belichick's team lost two games in a row and it broke the home-game record. It gave the Pats so much more reason to hate the Giants more than the Jets, if only because they've been beating us and earned our begrudging respect. It led to Albert Haynesworth and DL-coach Pepper Johnson screaming at each other during the game on the sidelines.

Despite that huge win over my Pats, the Giants were still being doubted the whole way. And to think, people actually thought Coughlin might get fired. That was about as absurd around that time as when people were talking Brady's time coming to an end as the 5-3 Pats go 5-3 in an eight-game stretch. Pats have gone 10-0 since then, and the Giants smoked Green Bay at home.

Again, congratulations on making it to another Super Bowl. Your team deserves it just like my Pats deserve a chance at completing what we have begun calling the Redemption Tour.

I'll get into the next game later in the week. We have plenty of time to soak in the success of our teams.