Maybe it’s enough to say that it was an honest effort. At the close of a year of disheartening sports scandals, the New York Giants and the New England Patriots gave us all a gift: they refused to tank. With nothing at stake except a record, a piece of history, and some personal honor, they played to win. The result wasn’t just history, it was a beauty.

After months of investigations, corruptions, fallen idols and dirty referees, it was difficult to trust even the score of a tennis match. You could be pardoned if you had somewhat jaundiced, sour expectations for this season-ending game between the Patriots and the Giants. It need not have amounted to much: both teams had clinched NFL playoff spots, and had every excuse to rest their starters and to cheat the audience. Instead, the starters actually started — and Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and the Giants’ Eli Manning were still dueling at the bitter finish of the game. A crowd of 79,110 rose to its feet when Manning struck Plaxico Burress with a 52-yard pass on just the second play from scrimmage, signaling that the Giants meant business. The crowd was still on its feet late in the fourth quarter of this electrifying contest, as Brady rallied the Patriots from 12 points down, their biggest deficit of the season, to pull out a 38-35 victory.