By Ian Tasso, YawkeyTalkies Correspondent
He read the play. He jumped the route. He looked the ball into his hands. He did everything right.
That’s what made it all the more surprising when the pass clunked off his fingertips and fell to the ground. Meriweather blankly stared at his hands in shock. Meanwhile, the clock still read :51, and while the safety’s world stopped, Super bowl XLII went on.
Two plays later, Eli Manning gently lofted a pass high over Ellis Hobbs and right into the hands of a wide open Plaxico Burress. Giants 17, Patriots 14; a shocking end to greatness. A dagger into the heart of perfection.
It could have never happened that way. It should have never happened that way. And for Brandon Meriweather, it almost didn’t.
But for number 31, it was just another small hurdle on the route to greatness – of which he’s faced many.
The hardships started at an early age for Meriweather, whose mother gave birth to him when she was only 13-years old. She then succumbed to the difficulty of raising a son at such a young age, handing over legal guardianship to his high school assistant principle, Mary Bridgeses, and her husband Tom when Meriweather was just [...]