Super Bowl XLII on February 3, 2008, was one of the greatest football games I have ever watched. The New England Patriots came in with a perfect 18-0 record, chasing the first undefeated season since the 1972 Miami Dolphins. The New York Giants had other plans.
The Game
The Patriots were heavy favorites. They had dominated the entire 2007 season behind Tom Brady and a historic offense that scored 589 points, an NFL record at the time. The Giants were a wild card team that nobody expected to be there. The smart money was on New England completing the perfect season.
Instead, the Giants defense harassed Brady all game. Eli Manning pulled off one of the most improbable plays in Super Bowl history, escaping what looked like a certain sack and throwing a pass that David Tyree caught by pinning the ball against his helmet. The play, now known as the Helmet Catch, set up the game-winning touchdown. Giants 17, Patriots 14.
I wrote at the time that I thought the Patriots choked, but I also had to admit the Giants defense was fantastic. Looking back, that is an understatement. The Giants defensive line pressured Brady into one of the worst performances of his career, and it was the blueprint that would influence defensive game planning for years to come.
The Premature Book
The funniest part of that Super Bowl Sunday was not the game itself. It was an Amazon listing for a book celebrating the Patriots' perfect season that had apparently been published before the game was actually played. The book was titled something along the lines of “19-0: The Historic Championship Season of New England's Unbeatable Patriots.” It became an instant collector's item for all the wrong reasons.
This was a perfect example of counting your chickens before they hatch, printed and bound in hardcover format. Someone at the publishing house made the call to go to press early, presumably to be first to market after the inevitable Patriots victory. Oops.
What This Teaches About Business
The premature Patriots book is a lesson every entrepreneur should remember: do not announce the victory before you have won. In business, this shows up as premature celebrations of deals that have not closed, products launched before they are ready, or revenue projections treated as guaranteed income.
The game itself carries a different lesson: no matter how dominant you appear, execution still matters. The Patriots had the best record in NFL history going into that game, and they still lost because the Giants showed up prepared and played better when it mattered most. In business, as in football, past performance does not guarantee future results.
