Why My Best Friend Cried On the Greatest Night of His Life

    By: Jared Zeidman

      Winning is awesome. The feeling of victory is absolutely unparalleled. When we lose, we are upset because we worked for something and it simply did not come to fruition. But then there is winning. The feeling America was both figuratively and literally built on. A term tied so strongly with any sort of success. Perhaps that is why it is a feeling so indescribable.

      Sometimes it is up to the people around you to remind you what just took place. And on February 3rd, 2008 I was fortunate enough to be around someone who reminded me what ultimate victory felt like. Not an “oh cool, we won,” kind of victory. But rather the, “I am so proud that I am incapable of rational thought,” kind.

      Brandon Schwartz (known to his close friends as “Bondo”) is a Senior Public Relations Major. He is one of my closest friends, my radio co-host on 98.1 WQAQ fm and a brilliant writer. But if you’ve had one conversation with him you know one thing; he lives for New York Giants football. On a Monday morning, you knew instantly if the Giants had won the day before, just by looking at him. Calling Schwartz a fan would be a terrible disservice. He is not someone that cheers, or boos his team. He is much more understanding.

      Schwartz is a student of the game of football. He watches and understands live action at the same speed as a color commentator; interpreting every missed assignment and every great play seconds and sometimes even minutes before the Buck’s, Albert’s, and Tirico’s of the world. But I think what fascinates me the most about Bondo’s fandom is the same thing that fascinates me about a lot of “diehards.” Bondo had incredible ways to identify with this team.

      It began when the Giants drafted Eli Manning four years ago. The team always had a stingy defense. In fact, defense is what that entire franchise was based on. And now, all of a sudden, the Giants are expected to perform offensively. New receivers and backs (most notably Plaxico Burress) also joined the cast, and raised expectations even higher. So when the Giants just couldn’t get it together, even in the beginning of this year, Bondo was the first person to express his disappointment.

      Bondo’s relationship with the team is probably best described with the now infamous quote he made over the air a few years ago. “The New York Giants are like your kids. You do not love them because they are good. You love them because they are yours.” It was earlier this year that Bondo’s faith hit an all time low. For the first time in our four years of college radio, Bondo picked against the Giants. Over the air, Schwartz bowed his head and said, “The Giants can’t beat the Redskins.” When the Giants won that week 3 match-up with a last second goal line stand, Bondo, out of apparent superstition chose to intentionally pick against the Giants for the following six weeks.

      With the Giants’ historical playoff performance and Bondo’s cynicism in mind, we thought it would be a great idea to host a Super Bowl preview show on WQAQ. We agreed to call it, “The most biased preview show ever.” The premise was to fabricate almost every part of the show to make the Giants look like they had a real shot at winning the big game. It took me a few minutes into the show to figure it out, but Bondo was not in on the joke. Schwartz said, with 100% certainty that the Giants had a great chance at winning.

      On Sunday night, there was a lot on my mind. First, I wanted to see what we got right about the game on our preview show. Also, I wanted to see the Giants win. Not just because I don’t like the Patriots, but mostly because I was absolutely terrified of seeing how Bondo would react to a Giant defeat. By the end of the first half, I learned that my fears were merited. When the Giants failed to convert on a 3rd down late in the second quarter, Bondo threw his phone across the room out of frustration, completely destroying it. Even though at the time, I felt like talking to Bondo would have been a death sentence, watching his mannerisms during the game really started to make me think about the profound impact that sports really do have on people.

      When we were freshmen here, we walked into a room full of strangers and told them we wanted to do a football radio show on Sundays. They looked at us like we had nine heads. We worked diligently to become a respected radio show, only to be suspended from WQAQ for badmouthing parts of the QU administration. The look on Bondo’s face when the Giants still trailed 7-3 heading into the fourth quarter reminded me of the look on my face when we were suspended. Radio was always my release; football was his escape. And the real reason why losing hurts so much is because it reminds you of times when you’ve lost yourself.

      In the beginning of the 4th quarter, the Giants offense finally seemed to get it together, and I had a thought about what would have to happen for the Giants to win. I thought about overcoming adversity, believing when others didn’t; the fact that this game was essentially billed as, “The Patriots can go undefeated, and yeah, the Giants are here too.” But as the game unfolded, what I really thought about was how everything was unfolding exactly the way Bondo predicted it would more than 48 hours earlier on our show.

      The first thing he said was that Steve Smith, the Giants’ rookie receiver, would have to have a serious impact in the slot. Smith atoned for his dropped-pass turned interception in the 1st quarter by converting first downs on two huge fourth quarter plays. He finished the game the Giant’s second leading receiver. He also said that the Patriots had one weak link; defensive back Ellis Hobbs. Hobbs (as you may remember), ended up being royally torched on the game winning touchdown pass to Plaxico Burress.

      It was the fade route. A play the giants spent the entire week practicing and saying they would run only if Burress was separated in one-on-one coverage with Hobbs. A play that symbolized not just the game, but the entire Giants season; a team that was given no chance from the very beginning of the season; and worked, feverously, to not just beat the team of the year, but to be the team of the year. A team of good, characterized by a no nonsense head coach, the last of his kind; triumphant over the juggernaut favorite, characterized by their coach who was not even a decent enough person to shake the hand of Tom Coughlin at game’s hand. It was the fade route.

      As the Giants took the knee to seal victory, I saw Bondo in a brand new way, in tears. He was crying in the arms of two of his best friends from home, who cried with him. This was the first time he was conscious enough to understand the magnitude of what just happened. A game that more than 85 million people watched for no reason but for the sake of watching was powerful enough to make the strongest person I know cry. This game was powerful because it had victory, real victory; the triumph of symbolic good over evil. The team that gave you the same chills that the Patriots gave you in 2002 when they elected to be introduced as a team; forever changing the landscape of professional football. The team that literally sunk their feet into the stirrups and did not let go until the horse gave up; the American dream.

      Somehow, all of these thoughts came into my head, over two tears, which to me is the most incredible part of the whole thing. The one moment that left a person speechless and numb, gave everyone around him a million things to talk about. I can only hope that Bondo is there to return the favor and pinch me if the Knicks ever win an NBA championship.