"You are a good and beautiful game."

When Paul Thomas Anderson was in the process of finishing Magnolia, he commented on how he was taking things from real life. As the great Ricky Jay would say as the narrator, "...we generally say, 'Well if that was in a movie I wouldn't believe it.'" Do we sometimes forget how ridiculously unlikely some occurrences are?

Sometimes it rains frogs. Really, it does. And sometimes we get a really great Superbowl. The fact that if it was in a movie, it would seem ridiculous only amplifies its importance. There is a reason why people will remember not just the one big play, but remember the game itself and the plays within. Think of the storylines. Will the Steelers defence really show how bad-ass they can be? Uh, sure. And in doing so, produce what many are already calling the greatest single play ever seen in the big game. Wanna bet they'll still remember the game more though? Fitzgerald lived up to his billing as the greatest wide receiver in the world, and Roethlisberger showed that he could move past his self-admitted "tarnished" first ring. If there was a big question about Kurt Warner going in to last Sunday, it was whether or not he belonged in the hall of fame. Another part of what made this year's show extraordinary and unique was that he confirmed his place in the hallowed halls as a losing quarterback.
This all led to Santonio Holmes making a catch that is iconic of what makes the NFL, for me the most consistently entertaining sport going. To really appreciate it through two separate images, go from the one above to #13 on this site. I can explain to you why it resonates so much for me but by now, you have no doubt seen this play dissected from every-which angle. I could gush forever about how brilliant the LeBron homage in the endzone celebration was for God's sake. We can say the same about the other events I touched on too, but I guess that makes my point.

This game will definitely continue to be remembered as it fades away in to NFL films of lore, somehow the talk of it will also give it this weird kind of legendary feel. Whether you want to call it the "best game ever" is simply up to whoever wants to call it that or not. A lot of people are still sticking with Tyree over Harrison's play above, so go figure. The important thing to remember is best revealed through a revisiting and paraphrasing of Ricky Jay's Magnolia closing monologue. See if you can picture his voice saying it: "In Tampa Bay on February 1st, 2009, there were stories of coincidence and chance and intersections and strange things told and which is which and who only knows... and someone's so and so passed the ball to someone's so and so and so on --."

Unlike Jay's closing words that follow, what makes sports truly a mark of importance is that "these strange things" do not "happen all the time." For about 4 hours it did though. It really did. And I didn't even mention The Boss.