Tides of darkness are growing. The hype has built to a fevered pitch. Smoke clouds the sky above a stadium in the Arizona desert where thousands will gather Sunday night. The entire season has been a mere prelude, a series of steps in an inexorable march toward the final culmination that is Super Bowl XLII.

For the unbeaten New England Patriots, that march has been mechanical and smooth, completely bereft of speed bumps as they swept through the regular and postseason unbowed. After losing the AFC Championship to the rival Indianapolis Colts, the Patriots went on an off-season spending spree. They completely revamped their receiving corps by adding Randy Moss, Wes Welker and Donte Stallworth and bolstered their defensive interior with LB Adalius Thomas. Questions of how the new acquisitions would mesh with the team first Patriots soon fell by the wayside. During their unprecedented run, the team smashed numerous NFL records including the single season TD pass (50 by Tom Brady) and reception (23 by Moss) records. But there is no doubt that the Patriots have been as much the bane of the league as they have been the toast.

Scandal broke after their Week 2 game against the New York Jets when it was revealed that the Patriots had been taping the Jets’ defensive signals. The backlash was swift and the commissioner docked Belichick $500,000 and the team $250,000 and their first round draft pick. But the Patriots channeled the embarrassment and doubt cast on their triple championship legacy by playing with a chip on their shoulders and running up the score on their hapless opponents en route to the first 18-0 record in NFL history. And not only do they still have a top 10 draft pick by virtue of a trade with San Francisco, but on the eve of the Super Bowl, new allegations have arisen of the Patriots having illegally videotaped the St. Louis Rams’ final walk-through prior to Super Bowl XXXVI. Infuriating and oh-so-typical of the Evil Empire.

The New York Giants enter the NFL’s greatest stage on an entirely different note. Winners of their last 10 road games, including tough playoff match ups at Tampa Bay, Dallas and Green Bay, the upstart Giants have been hardened and tested as they continue to respond to adversity by defying expectations. Perhaps no young quarterback has shouldered as much criticism in the past four years as Eli Manning, whose every misstep was a holocaust under the intense microscope of the unforgiving New York media. The Giants were supposed to miss retired running back Tiki Barber this season. They were supposed to be wrestling to keep aging defensive stars like Michael Strahan in training camp and buying into embattled coach Tom Coughlin’s system. They were supposed to be too old on one side of the ball, too young on the other, and lacking in sufficient talent all around to accomplish more than yet another early playoff exit. They were not supposed to be in the Super Bowl.

But Eli Manning’s coming of age (he has thrown 4 TDs and has not turned the ball over yet in the postseason) coincided with the the best defensive football the G-Men have played in years. Building on confidence drawn from their thrilling 38-35 loss to the Patriots in the final game of the season, the Giants have turned the NFC playoff field on its head. To upset the Patriots, the underdog Giants must continue to be turnover-free and play with the same sense of defensive urgency that propelled them into this Super matchup. Defensive ends Justin Tuck and Osi Umenyiora are going to be key in getting pressure on the usually unflappable Brady. If Manning continues his high level of play and the dual rushing threat of Brandon Jacobs and unheralded rookie Ahmad Bradshaw can get going, the Giants have a fighter’s chance.

And so the stage shall be set Sunday night. Emperor Belichick will prowl the sidelines, sneering and scheming under his hooded cowl. Darth Brady will take to the field with inhuman accuracy (more machine now than man) while the great bulbous orb of Robert Kraft’s cranium will hang in the Arizona sky, surveying the battlefield with cold calculation.

But young Manning and the rest of the Rebel Alliance will have a chance to take down the Death Star, and I believe they can and will succeed in pulling off one of the greatest upsets in NFL history.

New York 38, New England 35

Use the force, Eli.

Robert Kraft’s head will explode in a brilliant blaze of light, sparking celebrations across the NFL Galaxy. Eli Manning will be hailed as the savior of American football. Brady will lie broken and short circuiting upon the field while Belichick is sucked into a sudden chasm in the earth, howling and grasping for his tattered playbook.

Many years from now in a galaxy far far away, NFL fans will reminisce upon the night’s events with incredulity and awe.

“Do you remember when Eli Manning became a man? When he rose up to end New England’s tyranny and restored clean play and justice to the league?” They shall ask each other.

“And do you remember when the Patriots went 18-1?” They shall continue with the half-formed specters of grins already seizing at their cheeks.

“That was fucking hilarious.”

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