Super Bowl 2012: The Sequel of Dark Helmet vs. Uggs

I can count on one hand the number of movie sequels I think have out-shined their predecessor. I might even be able to count it in Spanish. I can't count high enough to list the number of sequels that have been complete trash compared to their movie ancestor... and that's saying something because I can count pretty high on a good day.

Now we have the ultimate sequel in sports. The Brady v Manning bowl. Or is it the Coughlin v. Belichick bowl? Either way, it's the sequel to one of the most compelling Super Bowl's of my lifetime.

Four years ago underdogs around the world cheered the Giants on. The 2008 Super Bowl was built up by one of the greatest storylines in recent memory. Two completely opposite teams, with utterly opposite approaches, were competing for the ultimate prize.

On one side we had the supermodel-dating-God-really-loves-some-people-more QB in Tom Brady, who spent his off season participating in exciting events like "growing my hair out because my wife tells me to while I lounge in this lawn chair next to my expansive pool while practicing my acting skills for my next Uggs commercial." Tom Brady, the male representation that yes, everything can go great for you.

Then on the other side we have the "my helmet is so huge that sometimes small children think I'm Dark Helmet from Spaceballs" Eli Manning who spent his off season participating in Oreo dunking competitions that featured tennis players more popular than he was. An interesting situation in which he was still out shined by his older brother.

The 2008 Super Bowl featured two coaches that also couldn't have been more different. We had the never-loved Tom Coughlin who will most likely be the first coach in NFL history to get a legitimate Vegas prop bet on the odds that he bursts a blood vessel right there on the sidelines. There's going to be an Ahmad Bradshaw fumble and then BOOM, there he'll go.

Fifty yards across the field from him was Coach Belichick, who constantly wore an expression that lied somewhere in between "I was cheating and still lost at Words With Friends" and "I have painful gas." Belichick, the classic stoic. The perfect opposite to Tom Coughlin.

In 2008 it was the ultimate underdog story. It was East Dillon vs. West Dillon. The Empire vs. The Rebels. Scarlett Johansson vs. Singing Talent.

Then the New York Giants did something that nobody in at least three planes of existence thought possible... they knocked off the perfect Pats.

It was the perfect ending to a not so perfect season for the Giants and a nightmare ending for the perfect Patriots, and if you weren't a Pats fan you were probably relishing in every moment of it.

It played out like classic Disney. It felt right.

As far as drama goes, it will be difficult to top the drama of the 2008 Super Bowl. It was perfect versus ugly and perfect got served.

Jump forward four years and here we sit, a rehash of that fateful Sunday in 2008 that promises to be a true grudge match. For the Patriots, a match that may prove the Giants victory over them was some kind of cosmic fluke. That maybe God was too busy focusing on Tim Tebow for a fateful moment.

For the Giants, it will be a victory that will say four years ago was no fluke and it doesn't matter how you look doing it, as long as you are the last one standing.

Dark Helmet vs. Ugg slippers. Who you got?

As a football fan I can only hope the game on Sunday delivers in sequel form like the Godfather 2 and saves the Hangover 2 for Monday morning.