"The "Miracle on Ice" 1980 U.S. men's Olympic hockey team didn't come back four years later and beat the Soviets again. N.C. State, after shocking Hakeem Olajuwon and Houston, didn't come out of nowhere in the following NCAA tournament. Rollie Massimino and Villanova didn't get a rematch and once more coach the Wildcats past the Georgetown Goliath. The Miracle Mets of '69 didn't repeat. James "Buster'' Douglas shocked and knocked Mike Tyson out once, not twice.

Doing the seemingly impossible is difficult enough the first time. Getting it done again is not the way it's supposed to work. The beauty of a magical season is that it is isolated in time, never to be duplicated.

The 2007 Giants belong in the company of the select few championship teams that not only won the grand prize but did it in such improbable fashion that the victory resonates beyond that team and that city. Not many believed the Giants could knock off the unbeaten Patriots that night in Glendale, Ariz., and when they did the revelers were not only blue-clad loyalists but also those who recognized an inspiring story when, like David Tyree, it smacked them in the head.

That epic 17-14 comeback victory in Super Bowl XLII will stand the test of time but can no longer stand by itself, not after lightning struck twice in four years, again hitting the Patriots where it hurts. Once is a novelty, twice is a legacy, and three times is a dynasty."