New York Fan No. 1
[Play, 7 February 2008]

By RICHARD MORGAN

“Did you see Tom Brady?” Spike Lee asked yesterday over the phone. “He hasn’t ever gone up against a pass rush like that before. He thought he’d have the time to get the snap, read The New York Times, read The Wall Street Journal, chill a while and then make a decision. But our guys weren’t having any of that” he said. “Tom Brady got a beat-down, Brooklyn style.”

There is perhaps no bigger New York sports fan than Lee, the iconic film director who has set up shop courtside at Madison Square Garden over the years, jawing with Michael Jordan and taunting Reggie Miller at Knicks games. He was there at Game 7 in 1970, at age 13, when Willis Reed played through an injury and the Knicks won their first title. He was there at Shea Stadium in 1986 when the ball went through Bill Buckner’s legs. He was there at Game 5 of the 1969 World Series, when the Miracle Mets upset the Baltimore Orioles.

And there he was Sunday in Arizona at his fourth Giants Super Bowl, midfield in his Strahan jersey, with his wife, Tonya — wearing a Umenyiora jersey — for a game that ranks among the best in New York sports history.
“The natural balance of the world has been restored,” Lee explained. “New York is up, Boston is down. They got the Celtics and we got the Knicks, they got the Red Sox and we got the Yankees, but right now we got the champs and they got the losers. That’s how it’s supposed to be. That’s how it feels right.”

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