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By now, anyone not living a rock or playing the Joker in the upcoming Batman movie is looking forward to Volume 19 of America vs the Patriots. America's latest team of choice, the New York Giants, have essentially shocked the football populous en route to their second Super Bowl appearance of the decade. The G-Men started out the season predicted by many to be overshadowed, outplayed, and just plain beaten up by the teams in their division. A fourth place finish seemed to be in the cards.

Can you blame the analysts? Tiki Barber was bashing his teammates openly and allegedly sharing secrets about their schemes with his brother Ronde. They had a fresh faced quarterback who still looked like he had some puberting to do. On top of all that, Tom Coughlin was basically a walking corpse of a coach, somehow avoiding the axe (and the bullet, and the cyanide, and the dagger, and...) from the previous season's meltdown. Nevertheless, the boys in blue find themselves, for the second time this season, the object of America's affection and competition to history.

Last time out, 16-0 meant nothing to the Giants. The #5 spot was locked down. There was really nothing to play for. But watching that game, you'd never have known. Coughlin threw his men into the fire, testing their resilience, fight, and their ability against the league's resident freak of nature. They lost, just like their 15 predecessors had, but the meaningless game took meaning for these Giants. They knew they could hang with the best. They knew with a little extra oomph, they could put a scare into a team that knew no fear. In December, the Patriots stormed New York like the monster from Cloverfield with thousands of minions by their side. It felt like the Super Bowl. Nerves were so high that indulgent Patriots and Giants fans drank all the alcohol in Giants Stadium that night, much to the chagrin of freezing cold and stone cold sober Jets fans who had to watch Kellen Clemens and Brodie Croyle play for draft picks the next day. The atmosphere was electric that Saturday night and, maybe, it seemed destined that these two teams would meet again.

Since Scotland's greatest American football expert Lawrence Tynes kicked the Giants to Arizona (and saved his job in the process) Giants fans nation-wide have come out from the woodwork, talking up a storm only New York fans could. The New York post called Tom Brady a "girlie man" and opening the flood of questions regarding Bootgate. Tom Brady has since been absent from practice twice. The Boston Herald put his picture on a milk carton on their front page and The Boston Globe put his locker on the front page of their sports section. Has Tom Brady abandons his Patriots in their most important game in franchise history? Is Tom Brady sitting on an island sipping tea with Dave Chappelle, Amelia Eirhart, and Dr. Livingston? Is his leg even attached anymore?

Please. If there's one thing the immortal Tom knows, its gritting through the pain and going out for the W. These days there isn't a single quarterback who can hold a candle to Tom Brady's accomplishments. Not Joe Montana. Not Brett Favre. Nobody. The three rings on Tom Brady's hand, two Super Bowl MVPs, and regular season MVP awards are all priceless accolades, though I'm sure you could figure out the monetary value if you crunched numbers and consulted an accountant, but we'll save the math work for tax time. Basically, all accolades and numbers aside, the name "Tom Brady" in Latin means "I just like to win all the time" and that's exactly what he does. Sure, with a couple pro-bowl caliber receiver he can torture secondaries with Jack Bauer-like ruthlessness, but it's so much more than that. Winning is a part of his DNA structure. In the future, if John Hammond decided to construct an island where the DNA of football players was reanimated as a tourist attraction, whoever is coaching would pick Tom Brady under center above all others. Why? Have you seen the resume? It speaks for itself.

Eli Manning, on the other hand, has bigger shoes to fill. In addition to being branded with that dreaded label "shows flashes of brilliance", he was on the fast track out of New York (along with Coughlin) as early as two months ago. He was a bust, he was finished. Then, those Manning genes kicked in. After a disappointing performance, throwing 2 picks against Buffalo the week before, Eli registered a season high in passer rating (118.6) and tied his best in passing touchdowns (4) against these very Patriots. Since then, the boy who threw 20 interceptions this season grew into a remarkably stable man, going 53/85, for 499 yards, 4 TDs, and 0 INTs, in three playoff road games, one of which his hand was freezing to the ball. You grow up pretty fast in those conditions.

So what does the quarterback match-up mean? Not a lot. Tom Brady is a game changer regardless of his supporting cast while, traditionally, Eli Manning's success doesn't have a lot to do in the outcome of the game (his quarterback rating is .5 points better in Giants' wins). New York has learned to take what they can get from Eli, but their strength comes on the defensive line. Michael Strahan's return gave bite back to the line. It helps that the line remained healthy this year. The last few weeks, the Giants have played with a mission. Many will be quick to point out that they barely edged by some teams in the postseason, but, nevertheless, Eli's Giants remained strong in the face of adversity (I know, I can't believe it either). Is confidence enough to dethrone the king?

If there's one thing we've learned, it's that the underdog is dead...perhaps killed by that awful Underdog movie. When the Patriots booked their plane tickets to New Orleans back in 2001, there was not a single prognosticator, not a single public figure on the planet willing to predict a Patriots victory. It's too bad. If someone had, they'd be billed as a guide to the spiritual world, truly in touch with members of the great beyond, and still probably utterly insane for making such a prediction. These days, ESPN runs the same half hour show with the same information, regurgitated, reprocessed, repackaged, and repeated that discuss every solitary detail of the sports universe. No potential upset goes unannounced. This upcoming week, the casual sports fan is likely to hear prognostications from at least a few dozens sources. Who's to say which of those 36 Super Bowl predictions will be right? Nevertheless, they're all experts. Many of said experts will go against the grain in an effort to gain credibility for not making the safe pick. Thus, the underdog becomes trendy, even wanted. I'm not saying the Patriots changed all that, I'm not even saying ESPN changed all that, it just happened that way. There will never again be an underdog that doesn't have a reasonable chance to win, even if they don't have a reasonable chance to win.

Of course, the Giants are the latest incarnation of the popular underdog. ESPN's latest Sportsnation poll has about 59.5% of the world picking the Patriots. More shocking is the fact that 39.5% of people favor an NFC team beating an 18-0 team that has obliterated nearly every significant offensive record on the charts and proved its running prowess last week. Eli Manning, at his best, isn't Brady or Peyton and won't be a game changer.

Yet, these last few nights, on consecutive nights, I dreamt the Patriots would lose. But, one was a dream where they lost to the Chargers in the AFC Championship and last night's dream featured the Pats losing to the Eagles in the Super Bowl with a dejected Jake Duhaime on the sidelines. What does it all mean? One, my dreams are highly inaccurate and, two, in the real world, the Patriots are far better than any fan could have dreamt.

My prediction, one of thousands you'll see this weekend, is Patriots over the Giants, 45-17. We know they like to embarrass teams and we know that the Giants used to be in the business of being embarrassed. It seems only a logical conclusion to me that the Patriots stomp all over the Giants (and America) to round the best season in NFL history. But then again, in a season where a team went undefeated, how can anybody have any idea what will happen to round out a zany season? Getcha popcorn ready.