SURVEY SAYS: Pulling for the Pats or Jumping for the Giants?

January 31, 2008 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Come Sunday, the nation will turn its attention (if not its TV/radio) to - the Super Bowl.

Now while there are certainly a lot of folks pulling for a perfect season for the Patriots – perhaps just as many hoping the Giants will do this weekend what they almost did the last week of the regular season – and doubtless many in both camps (and some in neither) who are just planning to tune in for the commercials.  

This week I asked readers who (or what) they’d be rooting for – and the results were as close as one might hope Sunday’s contest will be.

A slight plurality ( 35.2% ) of this week’s respondents said they would be “jumping for the Giants”, while nearly a third ( 32% ) said they were “pulling for the Patriots.”  

There were no doubt certain geographical biases, of course.   One reader said simply, “I live inNew England ” by way of explaining their vote, while a goodly number in and around the New York/New Jersey area was clearly anxious to see their Giants continue to prevail against the Patriots as they have against other favored teams on their march through the playoffs.  

Perfect Season-ings?

There is an obvious difference this year, however, and it all revolves around the Patriots’ potential perfect 19-0 season.   A large number of those across the country were pulling for them to “make history” by doing so – and what appeared to be an equally large number were rooting for an end to that “perfect” season (and no, they didn’t seem to be from Miami – the only team to record a perfect season in the NFL, including a Super Bowl win).  

“The Patriots are so close to a perfect winning season, I’d like to see them win this to really go down in the history books,” noted one – who went on to say, “But I’ll probably be watching the commercials more closely than the actual game!”

“We tell our children that “You can’t win them all.” I hope the Patriots don’t undermine this eternal wisdom,” said one respondent.   Another said simply, “I’m not a supporter of perfection.”

From the sound of it, there will be quite a bit of diversity in the team favored, even within the same household:

“We are a house-divided,” noted one.   “My spouse is a long time Giants fan. We’ll open a bottle of bubbly. One can celebrate and the other can drown their tears.”

Another said, “My wife is a Saints fan, which means she’s an Archie Manning fan, which means she’s an Eli Manning fan, which means I’m a Saints/Archie/Eli fan, just to keep peace in the family, or unless the Giants were playing someone who I gave a rip about.”

“Go Pats!! Woo!” noted another, who went on to acknowledge that “Of course, my husband is from New York and a HUGE Giants fan so…it is going to be quite a game!”

It's an event that can also bring families together.   As one reader noted, "The Super Bowl is an opportunity to get my son to come visit since he likes my large screen HD-TV. Sometimes we use any ruses we can. ;-)"

And, of course, there were more "practical" considerations for some who didn't really seem to care who won:

"I will be rooting for the team that will score the appropriate numbers for the squares where I have my money . . . by quarter," shared one.   Another said, "I'm really rooting for the Patriots score to end in "8" and the Giants score to end in "3".

And there were those who would be just as happy to see both teams lose; "Can't decide which is the worst of   the two evils; the Pats going undefeated and (Patriots coach Bill)Bellichek basking in the glory or a New York team pulling the upset of the Century and gloating about it."

But most seemed to be able to find good news in either outcome:

"I'm in a terrible quandary" , admitted one. "I love football, but do not feel strongly about either team. On the one hand it would be great to see the Patriots end a spectacular season with one more win. On the other hand I love upsets and like to root for the underdog. I just hope it is a good game where neither team makes too many mistakes, the lead changes several times and the final outcome is resolved in the last two minutes."

"I'm hoping for a close, exciting game that goes into multiple overtimes & ends on a controversial play that includes a bonehead call by an official. Now that would be Super!" commented another.

One reader said, "I'd like to see the Patriots win as I am from New England. However, I like to root for the underdog. So it would be ok if the Giants won as well."

Another said, "It's ironic that the Patriots represent all the things we say we want sports to be--no individual superstars, a buy-in to the team approach to winning, fundamentally sound--and yet so many of us can't stand the Patriots, including me."

But this week's Editor's Choice goes to the reader who said, "Just hoping for a great game - no matter what happens, should be seeing history!"

Thanks to everyone who participated in our suvey!

Being a life long Philadelphia Eagles fan, it is painful to pull for ANY team from New York. But I so strongly despise the smug nature of Tom Brady and the flippant attitude of Bellicheck, that I'll swallow my pride for one day in hopes that the New England fails!
cheering for my numbers on the office block pool...
Super Bowl? What Super Bowl?
Sorry it's late - just got to read today's NewsDash! Go Pats!!!!
I'm not a fan of either team, but I will be jumping for the Giants. Being from New Orleans, it would be nice to see local boy Eli win the big game just like his big brother did last year.
I'm in a terrible quandry. I love football, but do not feel strongly about either team. On the one hand it would be great to see the Patriots end a spectacular season with one more win. On the other hand I love upsets and like to root for the underdog. I just hope it is a good game where neither team makes too many mistakes, the lead changes several times and the final outcome is resolved in the last two minutes.
I'd hate to see Randy Moss (the closest thing to an NBA player that plays in the NFL) rewarded for his prior bad behavior. Plus I don't want to see New England go undefeated!
Our child is due that day I just hope I am not in the hospital watching the game
Miami fan...cannot pull for Patriots
I have a 7 am flight Monday morning, which means I have to rise at 4 am, so will only watch the 1st half.
Should have had a don't care category.
None of the above. I'm hoping for a close, exciting game that goes into multiple overtimes & ends on a controversial play that includes a bonehead call by an official. Now that would be Super!
Actually, I like football but I don't like TV. Haven't had TV on a regular basis since 1961 (no, that's not my birth year). Where's Gene Autry, the Cisco Kid, Sky King, the Lone Ranger, Roy & Dale, Zorro, Clarabelle? Is it true programs are in color now?
And eating our annual Super Bowl Sunday meal - shrimp gumbo prepared by a group of men at our church called "The Holy Smokers" (it's Texas - we BBQ a lot!)
Despite joy over Giants current run, and hopes for a successful outcome, Pats are favored for a reason. If they were not playing the Giants, I would cheer for their undefeated season.
Of course I will watch the game. It is football isn't it? But as for who wins I could care less if the Steelers are not playing. Already looking forward to next year..
It's ironic that the Patriots represent all the things we say we want sports to be--no individual superstars, a buy-in to the team approach to winning, fundamentally sound--and yet so many of us can't stand the Patriots, including me. As a Dallas Cowboys fan, it's hard to say this, but "Go GIANTS!!!"
I'm going to a Super Bowl party strictly for the social aspects. I couldn't care less about the game, even though I live about 15 miles from Gillette Stadium in Foxborough. As my friends are watching, I will, however, stick my head in and ask, "What inning is it?" periodically, just to aggravate them. 🙂
We tell our children that "You can't win them all." I hope the Patriots don't undermine this eternal wisdom.
I'm a depressed Packer fan. I hope the Giants squash the Patriots. I can't believe I sat in the cold for the game the Pack lost... Oh well, I hope it lights a fire for next year like this year's Patriots. Maybe the Giants will whup the Patriots and next year the Pack can go undefeated the entire year. I can dream, can't I??
I love the superbowl. The commercials, the game, the wardrobe malfunctions. It all equals my favorite day of the year!
I'll be watching for the commercials and the wardrobe malfunctions.
I will be out playing golf, a lot of courses give good discounts on Super Bowl sunday!
Since the Patriots beat my Chargers, I'm going to hope the Giants will will. I'll also be watching those commercials closely just to see if any of the new ads can compare to the Mean Joe Green Coke commercial!
We are a house-divided; my spouse is a long time Giants fan. We'll open a bottle of bubbly. One can celebrate and the other can drown their tears.
Can my TiVo be reprogrammed to just see the commercials? I love commercials with one-upmanship like Michael Jordan and Larry Bird calling impossible basketball shots or like the two dalmations separated as puppies - one grows up VERY proud to be riding the fire engine until the other rides by on the Budwieser wagon. The Coke truck driver refusing to give back the Pepsi is also classic.
I will be rooting for Fox finally sending high definition signals over Dish network - why can't the two of them just get along?
The Patriots are so close to a perfect winning season, I'd like to see them win this to really go down in the history books. But I'll probably be watching the commercials more closely than the actual game!
Sad to see the football season end:( Be more accurate to say that I'm "leaning" toward the Patriots. I will not mind if the Giants pull an upset.
The only team I would root for is no longer in the running, so I don't care if the Patriots or the Giants win. I am looking forward to the commercials - here's hoping it's a better showing than last year.
Only because my Packers didn't pull it off, might as well cheer on the team that played better than them. And hope and pray that Frave will grace us for one more year!
since the Packers are out, I'll root for the perfect season that beats Miami's record!
I'm not a supporter of perfection.
The thing that keeps me watching year in and yaer out is the commercials. Even a blow-out can have good commercials late in the game. I especially like the ones where the clydesdales play football.
As an Indianapolis Colts' fan, I'll be jumping for the Giants since there will be a Manning in the game--unfortunately, just not the right Manning!
I'm a Green Bay fan.......could care less. I've TiVo'd a months' worth of South Park....got some catching up to do.....
Patriots do not need a perfect season; they want it sure but to be humbled is good for you.
The other teams will just never learn -- keep your mouths shut! He who brags usually sags.
I enjoy football - but I watch the Super Bowl for the Half-time show and the commercials and the socialization among friends - not to mentions the food and drinks. Patriots/Giants - - - who really cares?
I live in New England.
Just hoping for a great game - no matter what happens, should be seeing history!
The Clydesdales . . . I always root for the Clydesdales.
The Super Bowl is an opportunity to get my son to come visit since he likes my large screen HD-TV. Sometimes we use any ruses we can. 😉
I am a native Bostonian. Nothing makes me happier than watching a New York team lose!
...and hoping for a career-ending injury for Tom Brady. Cheater Patriot team.
Even though the Giants beat my favorite team (Dallas) I'm hoping they'll pull off a miracle win against the Patriots. The Patriots need to be taken down a peg or two off the ladder of arrogance they've been on this year.
I don't really care much about the outcome of game, but at least the Vikings beat the Giants this year - pretty badly. So it would give us limited bragging rights. Not a lot to cheer about in MN Sports these days. The Angels got Torii Hunter, and now the Mets have Johan Santana...
Just to see history made.
Just not the same without the Colts.
Can't decide which is the worst to two evils, the Pats going undefeated and Bilick basking in the glory or a New York team pulling the upset of the Century and NY gloating about it. Therefore I am rooting for either some memoriable commericals or at least a wardrobe malfunction. Come on Bud.
I'm a Packer fan who will enjoy the commercials and wait until next year. If I had to choose a team, It would be the Giants.
I have been a Giants fan going back to the days when they held their summer camps at Fairfield University. As a nine year year old boy growing up in Connecticut in the sixties my Dad would take me to watch them practice. The atheletes were so unassuming back then. Guys like Kyle Rote and Frank Gifford would actually get down on a kids level and stop and talk with when they were walking from the field house to the practice field. Go G-MEN ! - Mike Polis
Go big blue! I've been a huge Giants fan ever since my dad, a season ticket holder since 1957, took me to my first game 1st game in in December of 1977 against the Bears.
The Patriots have a wonderful "team" spirit! The Boston-NY rivalry will make this a very exciting game between two excellent teams.
Go Pats!! Woo! Of course, my husband is from New York and a HUGE Giants fan so...it is going to be quite a game!
Go Pats!
As a lifelong Giants fan, all I can say is: Go Big Blue!
Our family are long-time Giants fans. So proud of that team! I think we will see a great game on Sunday. Even if they don't win, we will be proud fo the accomplishments they made this season. Eli has come into his own.
I live in New England. Curious to know what people in Chicago think.
I want the New England Cheaters to lose as much as I want the New York Giants to win.
If the Pats win the Super Bowl, it will be perfect. I however, will not be watching the game (the Steelers aren't playing) but will be honoring my own Super Bowl tradition . . . going to a Chick Flick.
The Patriots do not deserve all the publicity and credit they've been given this year, especially Tom Brady winning both the MVP honors as well as the offensive player of the year title. I think he has an accurate throw, but do we all really think he'd be nearly as great if he didn't have his core receivers to throw to?? If anyone were to receive the offensive player of the year, it should have been Moss. The guy could catch a toothpick in the dark in double coverage!
The Patriots, if for no other reason to finally shut up the 1972 Miami Dolphins(the last team to go undefeated 17-0). They have been crying like babies the whole year, and they have a little party when teams finally lose every year. Time for players like Mercury Morris to go away. Go Pats!
If the Giants can come from where they were in the beginning of the season to where they are now, without cheating, they deserve to win. Patriots should not be allowed to enter the superbowl with the playbook incident in the beginning of the year.
Satirical newspaper The Onion has an article: "Giants: 'We Almost Beat The Patriots Once, We Can Almost Beat Them Again'" I don't care about football, but I live a few miles from Giants Stadium, so, I guess, "hopping for the Giants."
This year, as a New Yorker, I will be rooting for the Giants. I never watch football (don't really understand the game), but enjoy attending an annual superbowl party. More eating and drinking than watching the game, although we usually make a point to watch the commercials and the half-time show. They should make it Superbowl Saturday so we don't have to get up for work the next day.
My wife is a Saints fan, which means she's an Archie Manning fan, which means she's an Eli Manning fan, which means I'm a Saints/Archie/Eli fan, just to keep peace in the family, or unless the Giants were playing someone who I gave a rip about.
I hate football.
We're Jets fans in our house. Of course we will be counting on the Giants to Pulverize those Patriots!!!! Go Eli and the Giants!!!
I don't understand why the Pats are so disliked. With a few unavoidable exceptions, they are a solid, business-like team that doesn't trash talk in the media, doesn't "guarantee" victories but just plays as well as it can which, this year at least, is better than anyone else who has taken the field against them. Here's hoping (but not guaranteeing)that they cap off the "perfect season" (a media term, not the Pats').
I'm a Jets fan, so even though it hurts a little to root for the Giants, it has to be that way because there can never be enough bad things that happen to Bill Belichek.
If the Pittsburgh Steelers aren't in it, it's just not a super Super Bowl! However, the best part of any football game is the commercials, and the Super Bowl is the ultimate in commercials. I didn't even know who was playing until you told me.
Need to stay focused so as not to miss any commercials. Take breaks during the game since all of the plays will be replayed numerous times.
As a Colts faithful, rooting for anyone playing against the Patriots is required. Better yet, rooting for a relative of Peyton Manning to conquer the Patriots is mandatory.
I don't care for football. The end of the football season means the beginning of the NASCAR season. Gentlemen, start your engine! Yee-Haw!!
Since I rarely watch TV, I'll almost certainly be doing something around the house. After playing rugby, football just doesn't seem like that big a deal.
Well, I shouldn't say I'm jumping for the Giants. I'm really rooting against the Patriots. The only positive thing that might come out of a Patriots' win is that we won't have to watch and hear the 1972 Dolphins celebrate and gloat each year when the final undefeated team loses. Hopefully I won't be feeling the same way 30+ years from now about the current Patriots team. My how things have changed. A year ago we were watching two classy coaches leading their teams in the Super Bowl. I won't say anything more since "If you don't have anything nice to say..."
I don't care who wins but would find it funny if little Manning could find a way to knock off the mighty Patriots at least there would be a little something to cheer for here in Indianapolis.
Go Eagles! What.....they are not in it?
Since the Bronco's didn't make it to the final game I don't care who wins.
Don't really like either team, but I'm always for the spoiler! I'll also be chasing the kids around and stuffing my face with all of the oh-so-good, but not-all-that-good-for-you food!
This should be a Packers vs Patriots game with Brett Favre winning and being able to go out on top. Obviously, that will have to wait for next year.
Once again, I could care less. I'll catch the vaunted commercials on YouTube(or someplace else) the day after.
I will be rooting for the team that will score the appropriate numbers for the squares where I have my money . . . by quarter.
Football Schmootball. Give me a cold beer and the Clydesdales!
I'd like to see the Patriots win as I am from New England. However, I like to root for the underdog. So it would be ok if the Giants won as well.
Commercials all the way! Although I read (via an article on MSN) that Super Bowl commercials aren't as good in "recession" years, I'm still looking forward to watching the ads. They provide water cooler fodder for much longer than the football plays.
Too bad the Redskins could not pull it off. Patriots may not deserve a perfect season, but the Giants- UGH! Perhaps with football out of the way, the writer's strike will be attended to. TV is the "pits" lately.
I think Bud is going to take down Bud Light in this year's Bud Bowl.
I've been a Pats fan since the days of Steve Grogan, and little chances of winning anything. I'll be a fan when their time in the spotlight is over, but for now - Go Patriots! (Same applies for the Red Sox. What a decade for true New England fans!)
As a born and bred New Yorker, I am rooting for the Giants. I live in Connecticut which has split loyalties between Boston and New York on this game, and baseball, and every other sport. Still, a perfect 19-0 season would be an awesome accomplishment (and would finally shut up those Miami fans!).
Been invited to a few Super Bowl parties. That's a good thing! Going to one closest to home and with most Giants fans. We are hoping for some great football, between commercials, of course. Super Bowl is where commercial breaks outnumber the plays on the field. Fortunately those commercials are entertaining, but this year espoecially, we want to see the real entertainment on th efield, with a Giants victory.
We're huge Giants fans, but even if the team manages to pull off a major upset, my husband will still be crying on Monday--football season will be over and he'll have no more excuses not to "tackle" those painting projects I've been nagging him about!
As the wife of a New England native, with 2 sons also born in New England, outwardly on Sunday, I'll be cheering for the Pats and hosting a Super Bowl party. Inwardly, I'll be cheering for the Giants. Eli Manning, as the "little brother," needs some respect from the NYC fans and sports analysts who discounted him during the season.
I really wanted the Packers to go, so I'll be sticking with the NFC. What I really will be pulling for is the Patriots to LOSE because I don't like "dynasties". Three Super Bowl wins for the Patriots in the last seven years is plenty.
I'd like the football season to be year-round. It's a great game!
The best team this season shall prevail.
I want Tom Terrific to complete the perfect season for the Patriots and for Boston (Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics?).
I don't plan to watch the game or the commercials. I checked "just glad the football season will soon be over", but I've had no problem ignoring the entire season, so I don't even care if it is over or not.
As a New Yorker, certainly, but also as one who likes to see true grit beat true talent; against Dallas and GB, the Jints just wanted it more!!
As a New York Jet fan that dislikes the Patriots as much as I do the Boston Red Sox, I have NEVER rooted for the Giants more that I will this weekend.
I'm really rooting for the Patriots score to end in "8" and the Giants score to end in "3".
Go Pats!
It's a stretch but I think Gottfried is correct.
Not so much jumping for the giants as pulling AGAINST the Patriots. Some day, Bellichek and Brady are going to have to pay that debt to Dr. Faust....
I usually cheer on the underdog if my team isn't in it. Not to mention that I will be rooting for the score at the end of each quarter to match up with the numbers I have in several pools.
Being a lifelong Pats fan, this is a very special season. I expect a close game (3-7 points) with the Patriots making one of thier classic 4th quarter, clock chewing drives to end the game.
I am sure that with 400 cable channels i can find a movie to watch. even an old B western will do.
I am not a Patriots fan, but I like the Giants even less. Plus, they have come this far, so I would like to see them go undefeated.
My favorite went out when Green Bay lost, so I'll be looking at and rating the commercials and half-time show. If I catch some football too, so be it. Janet Holland
I'm almost as sick of the football and I am of presidential campaigns!
Patriots all the way!
Even if I weren't a Patriots fan, I would still be rooting for them. AHHHH - Perfection!!
Through the magic of VHS, I can safely predict that the Bears will beat the Patriots 46 to 10 in New Orleans.
Even though I would like to see the perfect season, we folks from Mississippi just cannot make ourselves roote against Eli (or any Manning). Bill, Grenada, MS

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