Jan 30 What is media day? Every player from both teams sits behind a desk on the field for one hour, and the assembled media have a chance to interview whomever they want. Sounds straight forward, right? Maybe in 1970. Not anymore. We've never witnessed the craziness of a media day, but we've read about it. Apparently it becomes a bit of a circus, with reporters jostling with "reporters" to ask questions of the players. One question could be about the running game. The next about the nightlife. Sometimes it's funny. Most times, we presume, it's rather awkward. Again, only from what we've read and heard.
From the human rush-hour traffic surrounding the players, to the woman wearing a bridal dress who proposed to both Manning and Brady (and was turned down both times) to the media doing stories on how the media covers media day, it's something that every sports journalist, print or broadcast, should experience at least once. And for the most part, the players seemed to be enjoying themselves. "I'm next to Eli," Jeff Feagles said, pointing to Manning's podium next door. "This is good."
As expected, the two stars of the day were Brady and Manning, who managed to hold their heads high while being assaulted with a series of mind-numbing questions, over and over and over again. Although they met with reporters an hour apart, they seem to be locked in a battle to the death to see who can be the most humble, affable quarterback in NFL history. They can't stop saying how lucky they are to be in Glendale. They can't stop praising each other to the heavens. And, after a while, you find yourself wondering if they're really going to face off on Sunday or just skip the whole thing and go out together for dinner and a movie.
His blue eyes twinkling, Tom Brady looked at his interviewer and tried not to laugh. A tough thing, considering the young woman was wearing a very short white wedding dress, veil and red pumps. "Marry me" the TV reporter from Mexico City said. "I have a few Mrs. Bradys in my life," he answered neatly. Brady came up with an answer for everything - yes, he said, girlfriend Gisele Bundchen planned to attend Sunday's big game against the New York Giants. "Someone have a dumb question? I need a dumb question," he said. Prompted, one of the 200 or so reporters clustered around him shouted out: "Who's your favorite band?" "U2," he said without missing a beat.
Michael Strahan has become a pro at handling all kinds of media requests. And he showed off all his skills in a matter of minutes yesterday -- in some cases, at the same time. Former NFL kicker Nick Lowery, now a media member and youth activist, asked Strahan about the value of prayer. Meanwhile, country singer Kellie Pickler was perched atop Giants practice squad wide receiver Brandon London's shoulders, waving her arms and yelling, "Hey, Michael."
Strahan laughed and joked with reporters, who repetitively fired questions about his relationship with Tom Coughlin, the team's famously grumpy old coach. The relationship is good and Coughlin is a changed man, Strahan cheerfully answered a million times and in a million different ways. But even Strahan's happy mood began to flag. It showed when a gentleman of the Fourth Estate wondered what Strahan would like in the way of super powers. "To disappear," the big man said. "Right now."

Tom Coughlin took his seat, on a podium with a small enclosure, and had a thought. "Any of you ever been to a carnival," he said, "where they throw balls at you and try to dunk you in the water? I have. I've been dunked, for charity. That's what this feels like." And Coughlin, the Giants coach, didn't experience the half of it. He was able to stay up on his perch and answer mainly football questions. The players were the ones who never knew whether a football question, a marriage proposal or some off-color gibe was coming..

Steve Spagnuolo fielded one easy question about the Giants' secondary and how well it's been playing before the word Redskins was mentioned. Surprising it took even that long. Spagnuolo has been mentioned as a potential head coach for the Redskins, who still have not replaced Joe Gibbs despite hiring two coordinators. He's flattered, as he was when the Falcons asked (and were denied) permission to speak with him before the playoff game against the Cowboys.
"I've talked all week long to the guys about focusing on this game, not having any distractions," Spagnuolo said during yesterday's media day session. "I don't want to be hypocritical. We're strictly focused on this game. I have a lot of respect for (Giants owner) John Mara and (head coach) Tom Coughlin. I want to keep my loyalties in that regard."

Before the question was even finished, John Mara cringed as if someone had just kicked him in the stomach. He's a conservative man, quiet by nature, content to lurk in the background. He'd prefer his team to be that way, too. "Yeah, I don't particularly like to have people make guarantees and stuff like that," Mara said yesterday. "I'd like to keep it as quiet as possible. There's been a minimal amount of chirping all season and we'd like to keep it that way. "God willing, we'll get through today without incident." Mara's Giants did appear to get through Tuesday's media day unscathed, but that minimal chirping the Giants have done has flared up lately. Plaxico Burress, GM Jerry Reese and co-owner Steve Tisch have all issued what have been portrayed as guarantees of victory in Super Bowl XLII.
Five days before the biggest game of his career, Plaxico Burress predicted that the Giants would spoil the Patriots' bid for a perfect season with a 23-17 win. "It was the first thing that came into my mind," said Burress, sporting bling galore - a diamond in each ear, a silver cross hanging from his neck and a huge gold watch wrapped around his wrist. He then downplayed the obvious bulletin-board material for the Patriots. "I am going to say it again, the goal is to win the football game," Burress said. "It is not to come here and just play. The goal is to come here and win. That's why we are here." When pressed, Burress would not back down, noting if the Giants do what is necessary "we will win the football game." Giants coach Tom Coughlin was stunned to hear that one of his players guaranteed a win, a la Joe Namath poolside in 1969. "That's not the way we have done things all season," Coughlin said.
It makes Coughlin a little antsy. He was unaware of the Burress prediction prior to sitting for a solid hour and coming across as Mr. Congeniality as he breezily fielded question after question. A stern look crossed his face when 23-17 was brought up. Their co-owner, Steve Tisch, a few days ago was quoted as saying, "We'll have more points than they do, that's my score." Michael Strahan, asked by The Post while unpacking his bags prior to the charter flight if he was ready to make history, said, "History will be ours." Burress, asked the same question, said, "You better believe it" and then, as a nice touch, contributed his score.

"It doesn't fit in with the motto," Coughlin said with disgust in his voice. "I've tried to make our guys understand all along that we'd rather do our talking on the field." Did he plan to speak with Burress? "Maybe," Coughlin said. Burress, who is always a go-to guy in the locker room and manages to say provocative things hidden in his low-key, deep voice, didn't seem concerned that he might have ticked off Coughlin as the days count down to the biggest game of their lives. He said he didn't destroy Coughlin's battle cry. "We do our talking on the field," he said. Well, most of the time.
As he walked off the podium Monday, he was asked to predict a final score and "23-17" fell from his lips, causing a bit of a stir. Ever since Joe Namath and Super Bowl III, anything that sounds like a guarantee hits big this time of year. Burress wore No. 23 in high school and wears 17 with the Giants. That's where the score came from. "Are predictions guarantees?" Burress asked Tuesday. "We want to win this game. It's interesting, you think of some things in life, professional sports or playing in this game, it's OK to want to win. Think big and dream. We're going to take this back to New York City."
No other Giants tried to emulate Plaxico Burress by predicting a score for Sunday's Super Bowl. But no one criticized him for saying Monday that the Giants will beat the Patriots, 23-17. For a team that's been counted out before each of its last two playoff wins, no one thinks victory is out of reach against the perfect Pats. "Are we supposed to say we're going to lose? What do you want us to say?" Antonio Pierce said yesterday at Super Bowl Media Day. "We want to win the game. We're not here to be second-best to anybody. We came here to win a game. If you want to consider that a guarantee, it's not. We're not going to think negative and say we're going to lose and have the same perception everybody else has about us."

One of the more popular theories that went around the Giants during the postseason was the team was better off without volatile tight end Jeremy Shockey. While it's true that rookie Kevin Boss has done an admirable job in the injured Shockey's place, some of the Giants at Super Bowl XLII Media Day said the team could use Shockey right about now, especially the way Eli Manning is playing.

Antonio Pierce is easy to spot on the field. He's the animated guy bouncing back and forth as opposing offenses line up, often stationing himself close to the line to pick up any communications from the quarterback. More than once this season, he has changed a defensive call when he saw a clue, much like a poker player sees a telling twitch on the shark across the table. He'll undoubtedly be moving around this Sunday as he faces down Brady, a master at beating the blitz.

They have been listening to the Patriots moan and groan about the off-day they had a month ago, particularly on defense, and here's the retort from the Giants: You haven't seen us at our best either. "They think they played bad," Brandon Jacobs said yesterday at Media Day, "but we didn't play the best football game either. It could have been that much of a better game." The Giants plan on saving their best for last. Super Bowl XV MVP Ottis Anderson predicts the best is yet to come.
If you're listing the reasons the Giants are in the Super Bowl against the Patriots, listing reasons why they played so much better from mid-December on, the coming of age of Eli Manning would rank first, with the emergence of Ahmad Bradshaw, who didn't get a carry until November, a solid second. "He gives them a spark when he touches the ball," Patriots coach Bill Belichick said last week. "He's a threat to [score from] anywhere on the field."
While Belichick got to see Jacobs in person in the season finale, he did not see Bradshaw. The rookie was injured for that game, having suffered a bruised calf in his coming-out game the week before against Buffalo. "But we have seen plenty of him from the other games," Belichick said of their tape study. "He is quick, has good vision and he likes to cut back." Bradshaw had a potential 48-yard game-winning touchdown run called back because of a holding penalty in the NFC title game in Green Bay. The play made a huge impression on Belichick.

Randy Moss' bad reputation was so strong, even he had come to expect poor behavior. The Patriots wide receiver said that when he was younger he probably would have been throwing tantrums, complaining about not getting the ball, and creating rifts in the locker room over his recent drought in production. After 23 touchdown catches in the regular season, Moss hasn't caught any in a month. But that's cool with him, he said. He's not playing with anger anymore. Now he's playing with the Patriots. And he's playing in the Super Bowl.
It took 10 years for Randy Moss to reach the Super Bowl, and he sounded Tuesday like a man determined to seize the opportunity. This is his legacy moment, which means it could be an uh-oh moment for the Giants. He won't - repeat, won't - accept a third straight one-reception performance. "No, not in the Super Bowl. ... I'm setting myself up to come out and show the world what I've really got," an ultra-confident Moss told half the Western-civilization media (or so it appeared) at Super Bowl media day.
Anger, Randy Moss says. That's what fuels him. That's what drives him. That's what makes him a pain in the neck for opposing defenses, and that's what sometimes makes him a pain in other anatomical areas for his own team. "The chip on my shoulder," he insists, "drives me to extremes sometimes." He is a classic study in sporting schizophrenia. When he plays for the Other Guy, you empty out the thesaurus for words with which to slander him - arrogant, conceited, haughty, egocentric, with just enough off-field mischief thrown in to shade the image in strict tones of darkness.
Brady's top target said he isn't worried about the status of his quarterback. "Tom is a warrior," Randy Moss said. "He's always been a warrior. I don't think that a high ankle sprain can keep him out of this game. Hopefully, he's ready and I look forward to seeing him out there Sunday." Asked what makes Brady special, Moss said, "His drive and his motivation to be the best even in bad situations." "Through the course of the season or through the course of the game, players start to panic," Moss said. "When it comes down to the nitty-gritty, nail-biting time, Tom has been a player and a leader who's been able to show poise."
The idea of trying to contain Randy Moss alone is enough to keep most NFL defensive coordinators awake at night. When you throw slot extraordinaire Wes Welker into that equation, the notion of keeping the Patriots' fearsome 1-2 receiving punch under wraps becomes an utter nightmare. That nightmare has played out in real life 18 times this season, all in favor of New England.

Pats LBs are old, slow and dangerous. They are not your typical snowbirds who come to Arizona for the heat and the sun. Just the Super Bowl. Junior Seau turned 39 days ago, which makes him a certifiable antique among NFL linebackers. New England inside linebacker Tedy Bruschi is a stroke survivor in his 12th NFL season, and he's hinting at retirement after Sunday's game against the Giants. Next to them, 11-year veteran Mike Vrabel can actually brag about being young despite the flecks of grey in his brushcut hair and beard. Together they constitute three-quarters of a New England linebacking corps that - excluding 30-year-old Adalius Thomas - is often accused of being too old and slow and vulnerable. They have an answer for that, of course. "We are old," Bruschi has laughed. And so what? Maybe it's enough to be very, very smart.

At only 31, Josh McDaniels has orchestrated arguably the NFL's greatest offense. The Patriots piled up a record-setting 589 points during the regular season. Moss and quarterback Tom Brady set touchdown records and made it seem so effortless at times. "That's a tribute to the players and everybody that comes into this organization," McDaniels said. "When people come here, within a short period of time, you know that you have to put in a tremendous amount of time and preparation." McDaniels has been putting in long hours for nearly a decade. As a junior at John Carroll University, a Division 3 school outside of Cleveland, McDaniels was offered a spot as a graduate assistant on Nick Saban's Michigan State staff.

Shirts and hats -- 288 of each saying the Giants won, and 288 pair of hats and shirts naming the Patriots the winners -- will spend the rest of this week under guard at University of Phoenix Stadium, where the game will be played. When the game clock ticks down to 0:00, the shirts for the winning team will be handed out on the field and businesses throughout New Jersey will put their special teams in play. If the Giants win, Reebok has a game plan in place to immediately ramp up production and delivery of souvenir shirts and other apparel in areas with the highest concentration of Giants fans -- primarily New Jersey, New York and Connecticut. The championship apparel -- a phenomenon known as the "locker room" shirt because the winning players are seen wearing them in the locker room after the game -- can be a big win for retailers' bottom lines, depending on which teams make the big game.

Jan 29 One by one, the Giants stepped off their charter plane Monday afternoon dressed inappropriately for the desert sun. Almost all of them wore black suits, at the urging of linebacker Antonio Pierce. It was a fashion statement with a statement of its own. "It's just a team unity thing," said wide receiver Amani Toomer. "That is how this team is. We follow along."
Antonio Pierce is not interested in coronating the Patriots. He is here to prevent their perfect season, stomp on their crown, which would make this a perfect season for the Giants. When I asked Pierce Monday night if it was easy to build up hatred for the Patriots because they are standing in the way of what he wants, he turned the question around. "We stand in the way of what they want," he said. "We're not here to hand over the Lombardi Trophy. We're not Roger Goodell. We're the New York Giants. We've come here to get the Lombardi Trophy. That's what we are about. That's what we came here for. Strictly business."
They walked off the plane one by one, not looking like football players or even businessmen. No, in their black suits -- and in some cases black shirts and ties as well -- they were unmistakably pallbearers. They were the Giants. And though they simply smirked and evaded the questions when asked about their wardrobe choices, they were undoubtedly sending a message that they are expecting a funeral on Sunday in Super Bowl XLII. For the death of the Patriots' perfect season.
The middle linebacker quickly put aside thoughts that the day's attire was supposed to signify an upcoming funeral for the unbeaten New England Patriots, Sunday's opponent. "This is a business trip," he said, "and we are wearing our business attire. Really, it's just a sign of team unity, that's all." Burress, Michael Strahan and Amani Toomer all showed up for Monday night's interview session in total black. Jeff Feagles had the black suit and black tie. Even Coughlin wore a black suit. "I was wearing black, regardless," Strahan claimed. "I think I look good in black." Only Eli Manning was out of the fold with a gray suit. "Quarterbacks are always a little different," Pierce said.
If they can do this - and the odds sure say they can't - they will have produced an improbable victory, a story, to go with anything any New York team has ever produced. They go right to the top of the list with the '69 Mets and Joe Namath and Willis Reed, anything you want to talk about all the way back to Bobby Thomson. Maybe that is why people were already setting it up after Scottish-born Lawrence Tynes' kick in Green Bay, pointing out that Bobby Thomson was born a Scot, too.

Maybe Coughlin will be holding the Lombardi Trophy high over his head Sunday night. Maybe the 1972 Dolphins will be clicking champagne glasses and toasting the 2007 Giants for keeping the Patriots from joining them on their perfect pedestal. One part of me recognizes that Burress and Strahan didn't get to be the players they are without supreme confidence, or athletic arrogance, and bravado. Burress is coming off a monster game and he never met a cornerback he thought could cover him one-on-one, bum ankle or not, and Strahan never met an offensive tackle he thought could block him one-on-one, 36 years old or not. The other part of me shouts a Super warning, that this is the worst time and the worst place against the worst opponent to throw your Talk Is Cheap Play The Game t-shirt in the Big Blue laundry bin.

Bettors are supporting red-hot Big Blue in Sunday's Super Bowl by an almost 3-to-1 margin, riding the points given the Giants New York Giants against the Patriots. They especially like the odds they can get if the G-Men - 12-point underdogs - truly upset the unbeaten Pats and win outright. "There is definitely a sense among Giants fans that they don't need the 12 points," said Jason McCormick, sports book director at Red Rock Casino. McCormick reported that as of yesterday, his group had taken three times more money on the Giants than the Patriots, and Robert Walker of MGM Mirage said his ratio was almost 4-to-1. Nearly all money-line wagering was going toward the Giants, where a $100 bet could lead to a $340 return.

Earlier this season, in the week leading up to the Giants game against the Dolphins in London, Barry Cofield could tell Tom Coughlin was agitated. On Saturday, as the Giants practiced for the last time before flying here yesterday for Super Bowl XLII, Cofield saw that same look in an intense Coughlin, who was undoubtedly preparing himself for one of the most trying weeks of his coaching career. The same questions over and over. The logistical issues of where and when to practice. The press conferences, photo ops and other appearances. All things surrounding, but not actually involved with, putting together a game plan for the Patriots. All things he experienced to some degree when the team traveled to England for an extended road trip and a game against Miami in Wembley Stadium. Hey, it's not exactly the three Super Bowl appearances that many of the Patriots have had, but at least it's something.
Tuesday is "Media Day" at the Super Bowl. Wow, that's big news. This just in: Every day is "Media Day" at the Super Bowl. Judging by recent events, and measuring trends, the whole exercise has expanded. That's what happens when so many are called on to find news when they would be more likely to find a waterfall in the Arizona desert. That's why part of the job is finding out - now try following this - how participants, players, coaches and other big-name media types react to the Super Bowl media. If the question comes off as silly, causing the interview subject to cringe, no problem.

His right ankle was so heavily taped, it could have been mummified. When he moved, he walked with what was described as a "slight limp." It's official now. Tom Brady's "minor" high ankle sprain is an issue, even if the Patriots keep treating it as if Gisele just broke a fingernail. The good news for the Pats was that yesterday Brady took every snap during their first practice of Super Bowl week, an hour and 40-minute session. He's definitely playing. And the Giants' pass rush can definitely start thinking about how this injury might affect him and whether any hits could take him out of this biggest of games.
With news from the team practices here in Arizona now reduced to a pool reporter, the information on Brady was limited. And not surprisingly, Brady's teammates and head coach weren't looking to share additional details of how much Brady was able to do, instead barely acknowledging his presence. "He was out there along with everybody else," coach Bill Belichick said. "The injury report will be out Wednesday."

You think life is all big-screen glamour, all flowers and lingerie models, for Super Bowl quarterbacks? Not so. Eli Manning was trying to watch a movie on the chartered flight yesterday to Arizona, and something kept happening to thwart his viewing enjoyment. He was halfway through "Michael Clayton" when the film turned into static. He was almost finished with "Gone Baby Gone," and then that tape broke, too. So Manning slept a bit and he listened to music a little. He tried not to get too close to the teammates with the flu bugs. He clambered off the plane, and his mom was already text-messaging him, reminding Manning to smile a lot during all these press conferences that lay ahead of him.
If Peyton were here, he no doubt would have received the same treatment Tom Brady did Sunday night. Brady was given a whole room, same as Bill Belichick got, same as Tom Coughlin got yesterday. And filled it, with both people and an outsized, Hollywood-ready personality. Eli? He got himself a riser in the auxiliary room, which gave him the perfect perch to field the first few thousand questions of his week, many of them pertaining to a quarterback named Manning - the one kicking back 1,800 miles away. "I am Peyton's little brother," Eli said. "That's not a bad thing. I don't take it as an insult when people ask me about that. It isn't an insult."
Peyton's kid brother has morphed into Brady's latest stooge, at least that's what the bookmakers are calling a safe bet. Eli's Giants were the last to walk into the Super Bowl ring - usually a privilege assigned the heavy favorite or the champ - and yet they've been cast as something rarely seen out of the world's biggest and loudest market: Gene Hackman's "Hoosiers.'' Only Manning can't walk into Sunday thinking this is some million-to-one shot. Like Hackman's baskets, 10 feet off the floor, the end zones measure out the same. "We have to understand the goal is not just to get to the Super Bowl," Manning said Monday night at the Giants' hotel. "The goal is to win the Super Bowl. So that's what our purpose of being here is, and that's what we're going to try to do." Eli has to believe he can win this shootout with Brady. He needs to believe this will be the only Super Bowl he ever plays in.

The Patriots have Tom Brady's sprained ankle. The Giants have a flu bug that just won't go away. An illness that popped up before the NFC Championship Game in Green Bay (when tackle David Diehl was vomiting on his own face mask) has continued to make its way up and down the Giants roster. Yesterday rookie cornerback Aaron Ross got sick on the plane to Arizona for Super Bowl XLII. Defensive end Michael Strahan was one of those who was affected late last week. "Green Bay, everyone got sick after that game. I'm still not right after that game," Strahan said of the subzero temperatures. "A lot of times, when you're sick, you play better anyway." Added linebacker Antonio Pierce: "That's what happens when you play in negative-20-degree weather. You get a lot of guys sick. I think, by the end of the week, we'll be okay." It'll be interesting to see if they will be okay. They will be spending plenty of time in tight quarters this week, at team meals and slamming into each other at practice.

Wide receiver Plaxico Burress said Monday that his sprained right ankle, which has plagued him since training camp, is almost completely healed. "Plax had a boot on," linebakcer Antonio Pierce said with a smile. "He took it off right before he got off the plane. We knew the paparazzi was outside." The biggest story leading up to the Super Bowl has been Brady's ankle since TMZ.com posted video of the MVP wearing a boot on the streets of Manhattan. Burress' ankle is important to his team since he's the Giants' deadliest weapon, as evidenced by his 11 receptions for 151 yards against the Packers in the NFC Championship Game. Burress says his ankle is at "97%." Burress feels so good that he even said he has been practicing since the Giants lost to the Vikings on Nov. 25 despite the fact that he was routinely listed on the weekly injury report as not participating in practice. Most of the time it was believed that Burress was at practice on a bike on the sidelines but the receiver said otherwise yesterday.

It's a dirty job, having to defend yourself against accusations of being a dirty player, but yesterday Matt Light reluctantly did so, answering Osi Umenyiora's charges. "I finally watched (Umenyiora's HBO interview) and I don't think that was what everybody wanted to create, not what everybody wanted to make it out to be," said Light, the Patriots' Pro Bowl left tackle, accused last week of bending the rules among possibly some other things when the Pats and Giants played on Dec. 29 at Giants Stadium. "I don't think that anyone who has watched film of me would say that and I sure don't talk out there. "I try not to play in any other fashion than what everybody else is doing and I'm sure most people would say that."
They forearm each other in the throat, land a punch in the gut now and then, run full speed at each other, collide, fall down. Then get up and do it again. The job description is high-stakes tackle football - for pay. So don't blame them for throwing up their hands and laughing like choir boys in the past week every time someone says there are dirty players among them. "Who ... us?" the Giants and Patriots said in unison. Then there's Giants linebacker Antonio Pierce, who seems to be from the same tribe as Raiders Hall of Fame linebacker Ted Hendricks. Why not just embrace your Inner Penalty Flag? As Hendricks once said of his skull-and-crossbones Raiders teams, "Because of us, there's the no-clothesline rule, the no-spearing rule, the no-hitting-out-of-bounds rule, the no-fumbling-forward-in-the-last-two-minutes-of-the-game rule, the no-throwing-helmets rule and the no-stickum rule. "So you see," Hendricks smirked, "we're not all bad." "This ain't tennis," the Giants' Pierce reminded everyone Saturday.

Nine days ago, when Lawrence Tynes was lining up to kick the 47-yard field goal that would vault the Giants into the Super Bowl, his brother Mark, watching on television 575 miles away and agonizing over two previously missed attempts, had his hands clasped in prayer. In between divine petitions, he again offered his brother hope. "You can do it," he whispered. "You can do it." And as the ball sneaked through the uprights in the sub-zero Green Bay air, Lawrence Tynes was the hero of the moment. And the following day, the kicker returned the favor, offering hope to his brother, federal inmate 05559-017. Mark Tynes, convicted of marijuana trafficking, won't be free until 2026 at the earliest, with another eight years of probation tacked onto that. "We can get you out," Lawrence Tynes told him over the phone for the umpteenth time. "We can get you out." One brother is in the Super Bowl. The other is in the slammer.

According to a league source, Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo is still on Dan Snyder's radar and may be interviewed for the Washington Redskins' head coaching vacancy after the Super Bowl, likely Monday or Tuesday. Now that USC coach Pete Carroll has reportedly turned Snyder down, former Giants coach Jim Fassel remains the favorite to get the job. It's possible Snyder will make a move to hire a coach before the end of this week.

The kickoff is five days away, but New York is already a Super Bowl winner. The Giants' unexpected trip to Arizona has turned on a Big Blue spending spigot in New York at a time when the rest of the country is counting its pennies. It has sparked a run on all things Giants, including Eli Manning jerseys, and has New Yorkers stocking up on everything from potato chips and beer to big-ticket items such as flat-screen TVs for Super Bowl bashes. Restaurants and bars big and small also are expecting to do well on Super Sunday, preparing for overflow crowds and fat checks.

Jan 28 The outcome of Super Bowl XLII could have a bearing on the identity of the next head coach of the Redskins. The Giants New York Giants are determined to win, but in the process certainly do not want to lose Steve Spagnuolo, their defensive coordinator. The coveted but demanding Redskins job remains open weeks after Joe Gibbs once again stepped away and does not appear close to getting filled any time soon. The waiting game strongly suggests Washington owner Dan Snyder wants to talk to someone currently involved in the Super Bowl and it doesn't take an insider to figure out the two candidates are Spagnuolo and Josh McDaniels, the Patriots' offensive coordinator.
But if Spagnuolo is smart, he won't the leave Giants, no matter what kind of money Daniel Snyder throws at him should the Redskins call. If Spagnuolo is smart, he'll not only remember the success Belichick enjoyed in 1990, but also the mistake he made in taking the Browns' head coaching job a few weeks later. Belichick was the hot defensive coordinator back then, orchestrating the Giants New York Giants ' upset of the favored 49ers in the NFC Championship game and then beating the Bills in the Super Bowl. He accepted the Browns job and five years later it was questionable whether he would become a head coach again. Belichick was 36-44 at Cleveland, going 5-11 in his final season when the Browns announced they were moving to Baltimore.

Better than anyone, Phil Simms understands the bittersweet emotions that must be eating away at Giants tight end Jeremy Shockey. Season-ending injuries in Week 15 of Super Bowl campaigns can be difficult -- and humbling -- for stars to watch. In 1990, it was Simms who broke his foot in Week 15 against the Bills. After leading the Giants to an 11-3 record, Simms had to hand the reins over to QB Jeff Hostetler for the run to the Super Bowl XXV championship. "It doesn't get any worse, no matter what anybody says," Simms said the other night from his home in Franklin Lakes. "Even though I played all that year until the 14th game, it doesn't matter. When it's all said and done, people don't care. It's like you were never part of it. That's just the reality of it."
There was a time when the role of Eli Manning was played by Phil Simms. A first-round draft pick with a strong right arm and a voice from way south of South Jersey, brought to the world's biggest stage to one day steer the Giants to Super Bowl glory. Another similarity: Neither player lived up to the chore quickly enough to suit the team's loyal but impatient legion of supporters. See the connection? Simms doesn't. Not even a lick. "It's a case you can try to make, but it's not one I believe in," Simms said the other night from his Franklin Lakes home. "My first four years, gosh, if it went like Eli Manning's, it would've been a dream start for me. All quarterbacks coming into the league would like to suffer and go through what Eli Manning has gone through," Simms said. "Three straight years in the playoffs. Getting to play as a rookie. Playing all this time without getting hurt."
Nine years ago, Eli Manning foretold his Newman classmates what the world is now witnessing. For the second straight year, a Manning will be on flat screens around the world: This time, it's Eli's turn in the Super Bowl as he tries to hand Tom Brady and the Patriots their first loss of the season on Sunday. The fact that he predicted such a feat nearly a decade ago - even if he said it in jest - is proof that what you see is not always what you get with Manning. "Peyt - We had our fun times, and our serious times (watch out world, you ain't seen nothin' yet.)" The statement is so out of character for the shy Manning that his father and brother burst out laughing when told of the line.

Tom Brady is playing in Super Bowl XLII. There's no question in his mind. The Patriots quarterback last night addressed questions about his injured right ankle, and told reporters shortly after arriving here that he will absolutely, positively play in Sunday's game against the Giants. "It's feeling good," said Brady, who suffered a sprain last Sunday against the Chargers in the AFC Championship Game. "I'll be ready to go." Brady acknowledged he was held out of practice last week, but he plans on taking snaps when the Patriots have their first practice Wednesday. "I'm feeling better," he said. "I've been able to jog around, shuffle and drop back. I've thrown the ball a little bit. Not as much as if I'd been practicing, but enough to know I'll be able to play on Sunday."
But it wasn't all happy talk. Brady admitted he's not sure if he will be able to practice Wednesday when the Patriots return to the field, saying, "I don't know. It's a couple of days away. But I'm feeling better." Brady also acknowledged that he hasn't done much heavy-duty physical work since the injury, which occurred in the third quarter of the AFC Championship Game. He said he was limited to "a little bit" of jogging, shuffling, dropping back and throwing."

There was turbulence on the flight and then there was rain everywhere in this alleged desert paradise where the Prozac flows down from the craggy hilltops to meet the valley of Lipitor below. The New England Patriots didn't enjoy these unseasonable omens, after landing Sunday at a camera-infested airport and then right-angling their way to a resort hotel in the middle of nowhere. The bad guys were the first team to arrive, look around, and wonder what the heck is going on. Tom Brady grumped that this was basically the same lousy weather that he left in Foxborough. Isn't the right to a blue sky guaranteed in the Super Bowl constitution? "We were surprised it was raining," Bill Belichick said. "It wasn't in the forecast." The genius had been ambushed already, unprepared.
The last time the Giants were in the Super Bowl they returned home, from Tampa, 34-7 losers, to the Ravens. They never had a chance. This team will have a chance, and this team knows it. And before boarding Air Super Bowl, this team made this promise to New York: We'll make you proud. "We have to man, it's the greatest city in the world - I ain't talking about the country, I mean the whole world, so we definitely have to make 'em proud," Osi Umenyiora Osi Umenyiora said. "We're gonna give it all we got, it's a hard-working city, they love winners out here, so we're gonna try to do that for 'em."
From the moment their charter flight touches down here this afternoon, the Giants New York Giants will be on the clock. Minutes, hours, days all winding down, drawing ever closer to Sunday, when at last they get to unleash their pent-up emotions and finally confront the unbeaten Patriots in Super Bowl XLII. The game before the game commences immediately upon landing, when the Giants will be tugged and pulled and shoved in various directions as they attempt to retain a sense of normalcy amid a situation that is anything but. The Giants can't win or lose the game before Sunday but how they come through the next six days can either help or hurt their chances of pulling off what would be an historic upset.
Despite his youth and inexperience, Zak DeOssie has his own Super Bowl memories to fall back on. As a high school senior, he served as a ball boy for the Patriots following the 2001 season, when his dad was playing for his former coach, Bill Belichick, in New England. Zak DeOssie worked in New Orleans as a ball boy for the entire week of the Super Bowl and received a first-hand view from the inside how the Pats engineered an upset of the heavily-favored Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI. "I was there the whole week, I know what to expect," Zak DeOssie said. "I know it's mayhem, it's crazy. Coach Coughlin's got a schedule for us that won't allow us to get in over our heads."

The Patriots are the worst 18-0 team in the history of football. Their linebackers are old and slow. Their running game is unreliable. Tom Brady is hobbled. Randy Moss is slumping. And now they must somehow hold off the rampaging Giants' road show. You almost have to feel sorry for them, no? "We can't control that," defensive end Richard Seymour said of the growing perception that the Pats suddenly are vulnerable. "We understand what we have in this locker room. We have fun with what we are doing. That is our approach."
When Richard Seymour walked out of the Meadowlands on Dec. 29, the Patriots' defensive end knew who was going to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl. Seymour predicted the Giants, not the Cowboys or Packers, would be the NFC champs. He saw more than enough to convince him after the Giants gave the Patriots a fight in a 38-35 win in the regular-season finale. "We saw firsthand how good this football team is," Seymour said Sunday shortly after arriving at the Westin Kierland Resort and Spa, where the Patriots are staying. "They can run the football, stop the run, they are well-coached, they play tough. This is football. This ain't piano lessons."

Frantic Giants fans have flocked to places such as P.C. Richard & Son and Circuit City, which have stores across from one another on Route 17 in Paramus. They want the latest big-screen plasma or LCD ready to go for Sunday night's Super Bowl. But they don't always consider that the biggest, baddest new TVs sometimes come with the potential for major headaches. Handle with care"

Through illness, pain and awkward adjustments to new positions on the offensive line, David Diehl has done everything the Giants have asked in every game they've played since they selected him the fifth round of the 2003 draft. "We need you to start at right guard as a rookie, Dave." "No problem." "Wait, we just drafted the coach's son-in-law and that's his spot, so can you slide to right tackle?" "Sure." "Sorry, but we just signed a free agent to play that position. Bounce over there to left guard, will ya?" "Okay." "Dave, you're not going to believe this but we just cut our left tackle, the kid we drafted last year isn't ready and the guy we tried to sign went to Dallas to play guard. Would you mind playing the most important position on the line even though you've only played two games there?" "Absolutely." "Oh, and would you mind playing well enough to get us to the Super Bowl?"

The bruising Jacobs and speedy Bradshaw have been dubbed the Giants' version of "Thunder & Lightning," but you can't leave Bruschi and Seau out of the nickname party. Think "Bruise Brothers," because the Patriots' suffocating run defense wouldn't be so suffocating - or ranked third in the league - without their relentless, hard-hitting ways. At nearly 270 pounds, Jacobs is a load for any defender. Just witness the smackdown he laid on the Packers' Charles Woodson early in last week's NFC title game, a hit that will go down in playoff lore. But Woodson is a cornerback - Bruschi and Seau are run-stuffing inside linebackers in the 250-pound range who don't shy from contact and are sure tacklers with veteran savvy.
There are signs in storefronts supporting Ahmad Bradshaw and the Giants. The message board outside the school announces that Chelsea Gallinger is the Athlete of the Week, and Marco Leung is a scholarship winner, and it offers congratulations to Bradshaw, too. Meanwhile, the mayor is drafting a resolution that will be presented when Bradshaw returns to town. Bradshaw still lives here, with his father and his grandmother, in a robin's egg blue bungalow at the top of Rigby Street, next to the railroad tracks. But the family is keeping a low profile and dodging the media.

Plaxico Burress wasn't supposed to be a player who did the right things when he signed with the Giants. His talent was never doubted; his commitment was forever called into question. Observers wondered if he had a heart size compatible with his imposing frame. Burress was said to be physically fragile and emotionally fickle. He wanted the ball, damn it, and if he didn't get it, he could either lose interest in the game or humiliate his quarterback by throwing up his hands in disgust. But to see him now -- playing hurt every Sunday and doing a Monday-through-Saturday limp through the locker room with considerable chunks of ice attached to his right ankle - is to see an accountable athlete come of age. "Plax has always been very coachable," Coughlin said. How else would he be able to carry the Giants to the Super Bowl on one good foot?

Floyd Little says he never had a better teammate than the rosy-cheeked wingback out of Waterloo, N.Y., with whom he shared a Syracuse backfield. Oh, Coughlin "wasn't fast" and on the football field, Little said, "He was as serious as a heart attack." But Coughlin also always knew where every player on the field had to be, he'd tell everyone precisely where that was in every huddle, and the way he squared up to block, he could've run a clinic. "In practice, he'd get the ball. But with Csonka and me, he never got to carry it in a game. And Tom never complained."
In the 1990 season both were relatively obscure understudies to renowned coach Bill Parcells. Bill Belichick was the reclusive yet brilliant defensive coordinator who doubled as defensive backs coach; Tom Coughlin was the hard-driving receivers coach whom his players often detested because of his relentless attention to detail. "I'd say I worked more with Tom than any other offensive coach," Belichick said of their days with the Giants. "Even though we were on different sides of the ball, we worked closely together and talked about different schemes, how receivers run certain routes, what adjustments they'd make. I'd talk to Tom about what was hard on our coverage, and he'd do the same with me."
Belichick grew up as a coach with the Giants as Parcells' defensive genius. Young deserves credit for changing the culture of the Giants in 1979 when he hired Ray Perkins and then promoted Parcells when Perkins went to Alabama after the 1982 season. But Handley over Belichick? Giants co-owner John Mara, who joined the team full-time right after Belichick left for Cleveland following the Super Bowl 17 years ago, said he was not aware that Young wanted Handley over Belichick, but acknowledged, "I know George had some issues with Belichick."

Jan 27 It was the perfect prelude to a postseason of high drama and memorable football: A regular-season finale that appears to have set the Giants resolutely on their course to an improbable Super Bowl run. Many of the Giants, and virtually all of their fans, seem to think so. But what did the Patriots take out of that game, in which they barely held on to win 38-35 to secure a perfect 16-0 regular season? Certainly a healthy respect for the Giants. But the mighty Patriots, who haven't worn Cinderella's glass slipper since they shocked the Rams in 2002, look back on that Week 17 game through an entirely different lens than the Giants. While the Giants may feel there was a long-term victory in that loss on Dec. 29 at the Meadowlands, many Patriots, especially on defense, felt they did not play well. And they still won.

If the Giants beat the Patriots, it would be the No. 3 upset in Super Bowl history, based strictly on how Las Vegas views these things. Of course, Joe Namath and the Jets' domination of the supposedly invincible Colts in Super Bowl III is No. 1. No. 2? That would be six years ago, when Bill Belichick dismantled the Greatest Show on Turf, and Tom Brady led the Patriots on a last-minute field goal drive to beat the Rams, starting a run of three championships in four years for New England.
The Super Bowl XLII Giants are, in so many ways, the Super Bowl XXXVI Patriots: Against-all-odds dreamers who never stopped believing. Because everybody loves the underdog, everybody except those misguided souls who harbor an anti-New York bias, an ESPN poll this week tallied 59 percent of the country rooting for the Giants New York Giants . The Patriots were two-touchdown underdogs to the Kurt Warner-Marshall Faulk Rams; the Giants are 121/2-point underdogs to a team that will have a chance to be called the greatest team of all time.

They asked Eli Manning the other day about the pressure of "playing" Brady in a game like this. Like it was Kobe matching up against LeBron. "That's our defense's job," he said. "They have their hands full. It will be our job on offense to hold the ball as long as we can, have long drives." Maybe that is the reality of this game, the way it was the last time the Giants won a Super Bowl game, against the Bills. Maybe the stars of the offense have to be Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw, trying to control the game and the clock the way O.J. Anderson did in Tampa.

It will take a combo platter of poise, mistake-free offense, bend-but-don't-break defense, an in-your-face pass rush and solid special teams for the Giants to pull off the upset. Here's how to do it:
1. Try to rattle Brady This may be the hardest to accomplish.
2. Overcome the moment.
3. Don't commit turnovers.
4. Eliminate big plays on defense.
5. Win the battle on special teams

Standing on a riser with a large group of media members encircling him, Tom Coughlin yesterday responded to a question with one of his own. Speaking of the Super Bowl, Coughlin said, "Who was the loser two years ago?" Several seconds went by before "Seattle" finally sounded as the answer. Yes, he did. Coughlin wanted to hammer home a battle cry that was repeated by several players, most notably by Eli Manning, who stated, "Nobody remembers who loses the Super Bowl." When Coughlin broached the subject with his team, no one immediately came up with Seattle as the answer.
Coughlin seemed to pick up his intensity in practice Saturday, barking at players to keep them focused and reminding them to take care of things like tickets requests and family needs now. "I think he is fearful," Cofield said. "That's how most coaches are. I don't know what the word I want to use is .... Paranoid! Most coaches are paranoid. They always feel like they have to be prepared for everything, and coach Coughlin is like that, more so than most coaches. He sees the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and he knows if we do the right things we have a chance of getting there."
Amani Toomer doesn't much care to be cast as the sage old veteran, not when he feels so much spring in his 33-year-old legs, so much life in his reliable hands. Yet the parade of questioners continued all week, his youthful teammates eager for some nugget of wisdom or hint of insight into life as a Super Bowl participant. Toomer and veteran teammate Michael Strahan are the only two holdovers from the Giants' team that reached (but lost) the 2001 Super Bowl, making them the resident experts on a team long on excitement but short on experience.

Tom Coughlin used to tell Pat Hanlon, the Giants' vice president of communications, "there ought to be two head coaches, the guy who coaches the team and the guy who deals with all the BS." At age 61, when most human cores are fully developed, Tom Coughlin has, if not quite softened, then at least adapted. He's still the same fire-breathing, fist-stomping, clap-clap-clap raving maniac on the sideline during games, clearly. Last Sunday in Green Bay, before the Giants beat the Packers in overtime, Coughlin's tantrums following offensive guard (and son-in-law) Chris Snee's penalty and Lawrence Tynes' missed field goal looked even more alarming considering TV viewers could see the blood vessels bursting in the coach's bare cheeks.
In this unfathomable Giants season, there is the comeback quarterback, Eli Manning. There is the comeback coach, Tom Coughlin, and the comeback kicker, Lawrence Tynes. And, greatly helping to fuel this incredible playoff express, is Corey Webster, the comeback corner. Without him, the Giants would not be anywhere near this game, the last remaining obstacle between the Patriots and perfection. In one week, Webster will be on the field at the University of Phoenix Stadium, likely lining up across from the one and only Randy Moss in Super Bowl XLII, the Giants' best line of defense against the best receiver in the NFL. "Crazy, huh?" Webster said, grinning.
MacArthur Webster never had a doubt. From Section 105 in Lambeau Field, MacArthur watched as Corey stepped in front of Donald Driver and picked off a pass from Brett Favre to set up Tynes' third attempt -- a 47-yarder he made to beat the Packers in the NFC Championship Game a week ago. "He lives for those times. He does well in big games," MacArthur Webster said of his son the other day by phone from his home in Vacherie, La. "I just felt he'd do something good."

When you've missed four of the last five games, you do anything you can to find a way to contribute. So nickel back Kevin Dockery Kevin Dockery has been watching film of the Patriots and he thinks he found a way to slow down one of the most potent offenses in NFL history: Hit the New England wide receivers until they say, "Uncle!" "We always feel we want to play physically every week,'' said Dockery, who has been shelved most of the last five games with a hip flexor injury. "To beat up the receivers, that's our No.1 goal. In the Chargers game (against the Patriots), we saw how physical they were."
Fortunately for the Giants, their banged-up defensive backfield will be rested and ready to go by next Sunday's kickoff. Cornerbacks Sam Madison (abdomen) and Aaron Ross (shoulder), who played hurt against the Packers, will have had two weeks to mend and take on the likes of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and wide receivers Randy Moss, Wes Welker and Donte' Stallworth. "Having all of our guns is great," said Madison. "Kevin has been huge for us all year. Now, by having him back, Corey (Webster) playing well, having me back, having R.W. (McQuarters) playing well, we just have a bigger arsenal that we can use. We're going to need everybody for this game."

No, his helmet is not made of leather. And it does have more than one bar across the front. Jeff Feagles has heard those quips from the "kids" on the Giants. But he does still have the first helmet he wore in the NFL, with the Patriots in 1988, and he probably couldn't get away with using it today. "It's not made quite as well as the ones we have today," he said Saturday, as the Giants finished their last practice at home before traveling to Arizona for Super Bowl XLII. The evolution of football, the size, strength and speed of its players, the technology, the tactics and strategy, leave most players behind after 10 or 12 years, but Feagles, 41, has been punting for 20, taking snaps from players young enough to be his sons. Feagles has answered the call for a record 320 consecutive regular season games, never missing one during his career, but for the first time he will ply his specialized trade on football's grandest stage. He'll be the oldest player to appear in a Super Bowl.
Feagles found his fountain of youth when he held the snap for Lawrence Tynes' 47-yard field goal in overtime of the NFC Championship Game that sent the Giants to their first Super Bowl in seven seasons. It's Feagles' first trip to the big game since he broke into the league with the Patriots in 1988. Since then, Feagles has established NFL records for punts (1,585), punting yards (63,793) and punts inside the 202yard line (451). If he sets foot on the field Sunday in Super Bowl XLII, Feagles will be the oldest player in league history to play in the Super Bowl. Atlanta backup quarterback Steve DeBerg was 45 when he suited up in Super Bowl XXXIII, but did not play. "This is the last goal of mine that I've been trying to achieve," said Feagles, who's older than the Super Bowl itself.
Feagles spent time with Jay Alford developing a routine and some mechanics. He said he felt the rookie had matured in the final quarter of the season and feels he will be ready for any situation in the Super Bowl. He tried to be cool as he took the field in the NFC Championship Game at Green Bay, but he let the situation get to him. "(Jeff Feagles) came and told me they are gonna ice the kicker, but they iced me too," Alford said. "On the field I started thinking this kick can take us to the Super Bowl, there's four seconds left, a lot of people don't ever get this chance. I kept telling myself, 'Jay don't mess up, Jay don't mess up.' "Then, I messed up," Alford said with a smile remembering the high snap that preceded kicker Lawrence Tynes' 36-yard miss. Alford, the third-round pick from Penn State, can smile because when he got his second chance, he was dead-on.

Chris Mara is not the general manager of the Giants, nor is he the son of Wellington sitting on the highest limb of the corporate tree. But Chris Mara is the living, breathing reason why a franchise that could be irreparably harmed by a family feud should thrive beyond the neon desert lights of Super Bowl XLII. A highly respected vice president of player evaluation, Chris wanted to be the GM of the Giants in the worst way. He burned to land the job now held by Jerry Reese, who's already proved to be one of the best executives in the game. Why didn't Chris get hired in a process steered by his brother John, the team president?
Giants co-owner Steve Tisch said Saturday coach Tom Coughlin's contract extension will come "at the appropriate time, probably over the next three weeks, maybe into the latter part of February. "No one is focused on it because there is no pressure for us to focus on it right now. If things go well next week, we are going to really enjoy the wonderful benefits and gifts of victory." Tisch told The Record on Friday he believes the Giants will defeat the unbeaten New England Patriots in next Sunday's Super Bowl XLII at University of Phoenix Stadium. He said Saturday one reason for his confidence has been Coughlin's handling of the team this season.
Even the Hollywood producer in Steve Tisch finds this all a little hard to believe. There have been many movies made about scrappy underdogs over the years, including more than a few that Tisch, the Giants' co-owner, has produced. But if someone had given him the script for the 2007 Giants back in July, it never would've made it past his desk. "If you had asked me up at training camp what our record was going to be, and you had said ‘Steve, I'm pretty sure I'll see your guys in the Super Bowl,' I'd have called your editor and said ‘You've got a problem with one of your guys,'" Tisch said. "It's very unexpected."

Steve Smith saw the pained look on Plaxico Burress' face and the awkward limp in his step. There is no way Plax can play on Sunday, he thought to himself. It was just one week after the Giants' blowout loss to the Green Bay Packers in Week 2. Burress left that game in the fourth quarter after aggravating the nagging right ankle sprain that kept him inactive for most of the preseason. Burress sat out that week of practice to try to heal before the then-winless Giants went on the road to play the Redskins.
"I didn't think he was going to be able to play the way he was talking, the way his facial expression was," says Smith. "Then, miraculously he comes out, and he was out there playing." Burress wasn't just playing, he was leading the Giants to their first win of the season. Burress caught five balls for 86 yards that day, including a 33-yard game-winning touchdown in the fourth quarter that gave the Giants a 24-17 win over the Redskins.
He didn't practice all week before that Giants' first win in Washington and saw Dr. Robert Anderson, a Charlotte-based orthopedic specialist, before the Giants' home win over the Eagles. Anderson determined that Burress couldn't do further structural damage to the ankle, but would have to rest the ankle as much as possible to be able to play each Sunday. He still led the Giants with 70 catches for 1,025 yards and 12 touchdowns in the regular season.
"I think it's pretty impressive that he's able to do what he's done," Weinfeld says. "I think with the adrenaline flowing during the game, he might not think of it as much, but it's got to be in the back of his head." Weinfeld says Burress' injury limits his ability to make sharp cuts on the field or break into stride off the line of scrimmage. Weinfeld says the two-week break between the NFC Championship Game and Super Bowl XLII wouldn't do much to heal Burress' bum ankle.

The mystery of Tom Brady's injured right foot deepened yesterday when he was spotted by a Boston Herald photographer limping around outside his Boston home. According to photog Mark Garfinkel, the Patriots quarterback backed his car into the garage of his Back Bay residence, then emerged for 20 seconds, walking with a noticeable limp.

Belchick: The Giant Years - This was long before Spygate and Super Bowl rings, long before the hoodie or Hall of Fame talk. This was 1979 and Bill Belichick was a 26-year-old who had just been hired by Giants head coach Ray Perkins to coach the special teams and serve as a defensive assistant. This was the first time Belichick ran a team meeting. He was younger than many of the players he was addressing, and as he began to speak, one veteran sat in a corner laughing and making remarks. Belichick stopped the meeting, pointed to the veteran and told him, "You might think this whole thing is a joke, but you were 6-10 last year. You better shape up." Belichick put an end to anyone questioning his authority with that.
In talking to some of the old Giants, they continue to marvel at how nothing takes a Bill Belichick team by surprise. Jim Burt remembers having made, "an adjustment to the adjustment to the adjustment to the adjustment." They even had an adjustment for something Burt called, "defending the ghost," meaning a play not seen on tape but that Belichick might have anticipated. Yeah. It happened. "And he had alerts," says Burt. "On Wednesday he'd come in with 20 alerts and 20 more on Thursday and 20 more on Friday and then we took the test on Saturday."

New York architect Peter Eisenman is going to watch his beloved Giants play in the Super Bowl in a majestic new stadium that he himself designed. A season-ticket holder for 50 years, Eisenman is also a world-renowned architect whose award-winning body of work includes the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, the Wexner Center in Columbus, Ohio, and the Koizumi Sangyo Corp. headquarters building in Tokyo. "To have the Giants play the Super Bowl in my stadium is just fantastic," he said. "It's like having a papal inaugural in one's church."

The Star-Ledger Road Trip To Super Bowl XLII has started here in this Philadelphia suburb, seven miles from Lincoln Financial Field. A call was placed to the most famous hair stylist in the history of the New York Giants franchise -- who happens to be the wife of defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo. The Super Bowl requires a super cut.

Jan 26 Jeremy Shockey, on crutches down in Florida, bleeding Giant blue from afar, believes in his gut the Giants New York Giants will shock the Patriots and shock the world on Super Sunday. "Yeah, of course," Shockey told The Post, breaking his month-long silence following season-ending surgery on his broken left leg. "It's my team. Don't you think they're gonna win? Are you gonna pick 'em this week, Serby?" Maybe not. Still studying tape. "You're going against 'em like everybody else?" Shockey asked. "They've been underdogs all year long and they just keep winning and winning. You could look like a hero here. "I'd pick 'em if I was you." Because? "Having something to prove," Shockey said. "What else is a bigger motivator than that?" Just like the story of your life. "Yessir," Shockey said.

The specter of being 12 1/2-point underdogs in Super Bowl XLII does not phase Giants center Shaun O'Hara. "We're playing against a perfect team, the best team in the NFL," he explained. Yet three weeks ago the Giants defeated a far-from-perfect Tampa Bay club, which was a three-point favorite. Then they went to Dallas as 7 1/2-point underdogs, and beat a flawed Cowboys team. Finally they moved on to a bitterly cold Lambeau Field and shocked the touchdown-favorite Green Bay Packers, who showed some frozen warts. Nevertheless, the Giants have earned little respect from the oddsmakers during the postseason.

Against the grain of Tom Coughlin's talk-is-cheap, play-the-game mandate, the toughest talk of the week actually has come out of the Giants' front office. Jerry Reese was quoted in Thursday's Record saying, "Absolutely I think we can beat [New England]. Absolutely I do. I don't think we have a shot. I think we have a good shot." Tisch upgraded that good shot into a sure shot. The son of the late Bob Tisch, Wellington Mara's partner, Steve has been heavily involved in the building of the new stadium and has been a conspicuous presence on the Giants' sideline. "The last five minutes of these last two playoff games could've definitely been scripted by screenwriters," Tisch said.

He is the quarterback for the reigning Super Bowl champions, a surefire Hall of Famer with all sorts of records. But this week Peyton Manning is just a big brother shaking down people for tickets. It's grunt work, to be sure. But it's one burden Peyton can take off Eli Manning's shoulders leading up to Super Bowl XLII, one way he can help the Giants quarterback get ready for the biggest game of his career. "As you know, every NFL player gets two tickets," Peyton said yesterday. "And so I called all of my Colts teammates, as many as I could get, ones that hadn't given them away already, and helped collect some for Eli. And so I have been working for him a little bit."
Peyton won his Super Bowl ring last year when he led the Indianapolis Colts to a 29-17 victory over the Bears. Eli has a chance to make a trip to the jeweler if he can lead the Giants New York Giants to an upset of the undefeated New England Patriots a week from Sunday. The Mannings have more in common than their last name. They have faced their share of criticism and now seemed poised to set a standard for brother QBs that might never be equaled.
Peyton has been so impressed with the way Eli has taken the Giants all the way to the title game that he insisted this trip to the Super Bowl won't be Eli's only one. "This is obviously the biggest game that he has ever played in. It was certainly the biggest game I had ever played in last year," Peyton said. "I feel he is ready for the opportunity, although I have to say that I feel strongly that this will not be the last Super Bowl that he will play in." Needless to say, Peyton also believes last year's appearance won't be his final one in the Super Bowl, which leaves open the possibility of the brothers facing each other for a world title. How might that feel? "I can't tell you that," Peyton said. "Maybe next year we'll have to answer that question."

Shaun O'Hara, an eighth-year pro in his fourth season with the Giants, is trying to become the fifth player in Rutgers history to win a Super Bowl ring, following Harry Swayne, James Jenkins, Bill Pickel and Gary Brackett. "I got a text (message) from (former Rutgers standout) Nate Jones saying he wished I wasn't playing in the Super Bowl," joked O'Hara. "Being that he plays for the Dallas Cowboys, I thought that was funny." These are indeed happy times for O'Hara, who anchors the Giants' underrated offensive line.
He moved to New Jersey from Chicago when he was a freshman in high school and graduated from Hillsborough High. He grew up a Bears fan but quickly adopted the Giants. He remembers his father taking him to his first NFL game to see the Giants at the Meadowlands. "It's special for me," he said of going to the Super Bowl as a Giant. "Additionally, going to Rutgers University, it's even more special to be here now and represent."

Osi Umenyiora never intended to have his interview with Bob Costas become the first salvo in a pre-Super Bowl war of words with the Patriots. Now that it's all out there, though, he doesn't mind that he caused a stir by stopping just short of calling Pats tackle Matt Light a dirty player. "Now everybody in the world is going to look and see if he's a dirty player - the fans, referees," Umenyiora said Friday. "Maybe now the referees are going to be able to look and see a lot closer to what's going on out there." - - At the end of a 13-yard run by Laurence Maroney in the second quarter, Light pushed Umenyiora in the back, causing him to trip over Giants linebacker Antonio Pierce and New England wide receiver Wes Welker. Umenyiora immediately jumped to his feet and went face mask to face mask with Light.
- Six plays later, the Patriots ran a quick screen to the right. On the back side, Light set his feet, waited for Umenyiora to start rushing, then dived with his helmet and shoulder toward Umenyiora's knees.
- On a second-and-7 in the third quarter, Light kept blocking Umenyiora after the whistle and drove him into Giants safety James Butler, clearly angering Umenyiora.
- And on a few more runs, Light kept blocking Umenyiora while every other player on the field pulled up.

The starting job already had been taken from him after the third week of the season. And then six weeks later, preparing for a game against the Dallas Cowboys, the word came to Corey Webster that he wasn't even dressing for the game. It didn't come in the form of an inspirational message from the head coach, not even from an assistant coach. It was the equipment manager letting him know there wouldn't be any equipment for him. "Corey, you're down," Webster recalled. "Those were the exact words they used."
Webster returned to the starting lineup after Sam Madison strained an abdominal muscle in the final game of the regular season. He made an end zone interception in the first playoff game against Tampa Bay and played solidly against receivers Joey Galloway and the Cowboys' Terrell Owens. Then in the NFC Championship Game, he intercepted Brett Favre in overtime to put the Giants in position to kick the winning field goal. "He was down in the dumps for a while," Madison said. "But I stayed on him and he stayed focused. Sooner or later in this league, you have to call on your fourth, fifth, sixth defensive back. I told him, 'Your time is going to come again.'"

When Domenik Hixon was released by the Denver Broncos in October, he said he hadn't seen it coming. After he was told to see Broncos coach Mike Shanahan in his office, where he learned he'd be let go, Hixon made the obligatory call to his parents and his agent to figure out what to do next. And then he waited. Fortunately for Hixon, the Giants claimed him. Fortunately for the Giants, they now have a pretty good kickoff returner. And now Hixon has a shot at a Super Bowl championship in his second year in the league.

Still no Tom Brady. Even though everyone knows Brady will play in the Super Bowl a week from tomorrow, concern has risen just slightly in the Boston area about how much Brady will be able to prepare for the game because of his reportedly sprained right ankle. For the second straight day, Brady was not seen by reporters at Gillette Stadium. Brady, who could be getting extra rest for his ankle, wasn't seen at practice on Thursday and wasn't present during the first part of practice yesterday, when backup Matt Cassel threw passes to Randy Moss and Matt Gutierrez threw to Wes Welker.
He reportedly suffered a mild high right ankle sprain against the San Diego Chargers last Sunday and was spotted with the now infamous walking boot in Manhattan on Monday. He also was absent from the Patriots' locker room and early portion of practice Thursday. That doesn't mean Brady isn't trotting onto the field once prying eyes have left the field house, chucking bombs to Randy Moss in rehearsal for the Super Bowl meeting with the Giants Feb. 3. But with only a little more than a week to go before the big game, Brady's conspicuous absence has most of New England starting to think that Bill Belichick's shell game may be dragging on a bit too far.
Brady was seen early this week in Manhattan wearing a protective boot on his right ankle. Since the Patriots returned to work on Thursday, no one has admitted whether Brady is healthy, hobbled or even on the premises. Belichick playfully talked about being "excited" to provide a Super Bowl injury report on Wednesday, which is the first day either team is required to do so. "Portray it however you want," Belichick said Thursday. Yesterday, he was no more expansive. "I'll let you know after practice," he said dismissively, "or does everybody have a deadline before then?"

Amani Toomer has made this Super trip once before and about all he recalls are the potholes, the mistakes, the raised voices the night before the game. That's when the offense learned that only the defensive team would hear their names and numbers announced when all the Giants came running out of the tunnel. Ooooh, they were ticked off. That 2000 team had won its last seven games but the offensive coaches tore up the winning plans. This game, "they changed a lot of things on offense," Toomer said. "That hurt us."

Strahan, who appeared to open the door to potential retirement in response to a question during his news conference Friday, later told The Record he is not "even considering that right now." In the afternoon, Strahan was asked whether a win over the Patriots in next weekend's Super Bowl XLII would lead him to revisit the idea of retirement, a notion that kept him out of training camp this past summer. He didn't rule it out. "I don't know," he said. "Who knows? Winning sure would help in a lot of different ways. It would make me go 'hmmm.' At that point I think I would probably have everything I ever imagined in football. I've done everything individually. This is the ultimate team goal. To win the Super Bowl, that would definitely cap off a career. You could look and go, 'I could end like [John] Elway or [Jerome] Bettis.' That's everyone's dream. But to be honest with you, I don't know if this is my last year."
Tiki Barber has said numerous times he has no regrets about leaving when he did. "I respect the fact Tiki decided he was done, he didn't want to play any more," Strahan said. "You don't know how many times I said if I quit and we went to the Super Bowl and won, I'm coming back here and hold somebody hostage until I get a ring. I understand Tiki made his decision and I know he has no regrets. . . . If he says it doesn't bother him I'll take his word for it that it doesn't. But if I were at home it would bother the heck out of me. I'm telling you."

Jan 25 After Sunday's win over the Packers in the NFC Championship Game, the Giants locker room was the scene of an intense and impromptu party. But Amani Toomer said this year's team -- unlike the Giants from seven years ago -- understands there's a bigger party to be thrown.
Amani Toomer had never really expressed the depths of his disappointment over losing the only Super Bowl he ever played in. But Thursday, a few minutes after the Giants' first practice for Super Bowl XLII, Toomer confessed to being devastated by what happened seven years ago.
"It was a horrible experience last time going down there and getting blow out by the Ravens," Toomer said. "It was not an experience I want again." That is the cautionary tale Toomer has for his teammates. He has been tempering the Giants' excitement about their trip to the Super Bowl by describing the disappointment he felt after that 34-7 loss to the Ravens in Tampa back on Jan. 28, 2001.

Last week the Packers said the Giants play dirty. This week Osi Umenyiora said Patriots tackle Matt Light "was doing a couple of things ... he shouldn't have been" when the two met in Week 17. But as far as the NFL is concerned, there was only one action that was excessive and illegal in the Giants' loss to New England on Dec. 29. It came after a play in the second quarter when Pats nose tackle Vince Wilfork stuck his finger into Brandon Jacobs' face mask -- an action that resulted in a $15,000 fine from the league.
Osi Umenyiora began to lightly fan the flames Wednesday night, suggesting that Patriots tackle Matt Light crossed the line of fair play a couple of times in the teams' Dec. 29 game. The rest of the Giants wouldn't take the bait yesterday, the first of what promises to be many days of trying to get some of the more outspoken Giants to say something inflammatory.
The back-and-forth started when Patriots safety Rodney Harrison, who was once voted the league's dirtiest player in a player poll, accused the Giants' line and wide receiver Plaxico Burress of taking liberties during New England's regular-season meeting with the Giants on Dec.29. "Their offensive line is a big, physical group, but sometimes I feel they go overboard, all that extra pushing and Plaxico trying to cut guys and trying to take my knees out, there's no call for that," Harrison said. "It's disappointing, but that type of intensity, you're going to have that."
Richard Seymour called claims by Chargers center Nick Hardwick that he was a dirty and cheap player "bogus." "First of all it's not true," Seymour said. "So, I think that the facts are the facts. Secondly, I can't control what others say or think. Only thing I can do is control my actions the way I approach game, things I am able to do throughout the week. For me, that won't change and the people that know me best know that that's totally bogus."

Who said the Patriots don't have a game until Super Bowl XXLII against the Giants on Feb. 3 in Arizona? They played a game yesterday - a high-stakes cat-and-mouse game of hide-and-seek with their superstar quarterback Tom Brady. Should there be there considerable concern about the health of Brady and his famously photographed ailing right ankle? The footsie-playing Patriots would love the Giants to think so.
Bill Belichick wants to assure everyone that he eventually will let them in on Tom Brady's status as soon as the NFL requires him to do so. In six days' time. "The injury report will be out next Wednesday and we're excited to give that to you," Belichick said yesterday, when the perfect Patriots returned to their practice bubble for Super Bowl XLII. "That form will be filled out completely and I can't wait to give that to everybody. I know you're anxious for it, so when it's due on Wednesday, we'll have it for you. Don't worry about that."
Brady could have been standing directly behind his coach at the time, running in place and doing jumping jacks, and Belichick still wouldn't have answered the question. (Just in case you spent the past five days in an isolation tank in New Guinea, Brady was photographed in Greenwich Village on Monday wearing a protective boot while carrying white flowers for his girlfriend, model Gisele Bundchen. Reports surfaced that he had a mild high ankle sprain.)

Brady was not seen at practice during media availability. Doesn't mean he didn't practice after the press left. (Note: only local media can watch the 30 minute window of practice, and that's where this info comes from.) Richard Seymour said he expected Brady to practice and Jarvis Green said he'd worn a walking boot during the week and played in a game on Sunday. "I think the New York media probably made more of it that it is," Seymour said of the boot-i-licious coverage of Brady and his limp.
Before he won Super Bowls, before he dated supermodels and before he was stalked by paparazzi, Tom Brady was just "Tommy," a regular kid from the neighborhood. He collected baseball cards by the boxful, played golf with his dad on Sunday mornings, served as an altar boy in the local parish and demonstrated his arm strength from the back of his mother's Volkswagen van, flinging newspapers to the neatly manicured lawns in this hilly suburb of San Francisco.

Eli Manning already insisted the Giants know how to beat the New England Patriots. Yesterday he revealed the secret. All he has to do is throw a perfect game. "We did a lot of good things (in the first game against the Patriots) from an offensive standpoint, but we had one interception, that one turnover and they answered," Manning said. "We gave them a heck of a shot, but that shows we're going to have to play our best football and play a perfect game if we want to win.
If ever there is a day when Giants fans need Eli Manning to be Phil Simms, it is Super Bowl Sunday. Because to beat Brady and the 18-0 Patriots, Eli needs his own Pasadena, where Simms was an unconscious 22-25 for 268 yards and three TDs to slay John Elway and the Broncos in Super Bowl XXI. His Pats-adena. "We're gonna have to play great," Eli said yesterday. He's gonna have to be ready to overcome the Sports Illustrated cover jinx. "I think it's only seven days, so I should be all right," Eli said, and smiled. He's lucky to have Big Brother offering him advice. "He said, 'Don't watch television for two weeks,'" Eli said.

As normal as possible, that's how Tom Coughlin wants it. Normalcy and Super Bowl rarely find a method of coexistence, but if it can be done, Mr. Routine will find the way. "I think it will be fairly easy with our coach, he is so professionally oriented in how he does things," placekicker Lawrence Tynes said Wednesday after the Giants' first practice for the New England Patriots and Super Bowl XLII. Coughlin's schedule this week basically is the same as it is during the regular season with one difference -- there is no game this Sunday. The Giants will practice three days as they do in a regular week and install some 80 percent of the game plan before they leave Giants Stadium.
The Giants began a three-day string of workouts yesterday in prelude to their Monday flight to Phoenix and their meeting with the undefeated Patriots in Super Bowl XLII. Advertisement The objective: Keep things as calm and as routine as possible before the whirlwind of Super Bowl week hits full force. The reality: Twenty cameras. A hundred reporters beginning to scurry for even the smallest detail around which one can build a story or TV piece.
And, oh, one other thing: The Giants don't do well after bye weeks. In case anybody is keeping count, this is for all intents and purposes a bye week. Good luck with that primary goal. "We're not really looking at this as a bye," wide receiver Plaxico Burress said. "We have a normal week of work."

All the glitz and celebrity hoopla that comes with the Super Bowl these days would have left the camera-shy Wellington Mara and Bob Tisch cringing. For two generations, the Giants team was a mom-and-pop operation, a family-run football club headed by old-school owners with a developed sense of understatement. Times change, and the Hollywood-style glamour of next month's Super Bowl will have the new generation of Giants' ownership - at least half of it - feeling right at home.

Not that Plaxico Burress has any problem with the accolades Randy Moss, Wes Welker and Donte Stallworth have received this season, but he doesn't want to hear about the Patriots having the better wide receivers heading into Super Bowl XLII. "We've got guys that can go out and do things just as well or maybe even better than some of those guys," Burress said yesterday. He would have a difficult time making his case on paper. Moss set an NFL record with 23 touchdown receptions this season, Welker caught 112 passes and Stallworth had nearly 700 yards in receptions as the No. 3 receiver. And the Patriots have a notable fourth option in Jabar Gaffney. The Giants counter with Burress, Amani Toomer Amani Toomer and Steve Smith, as formidable a unit as the franchise has assembled, even if it lacks the luster of Moss, Welker, Stallworth and Gaffney.
When asked if he would put the Giants' receivers right up there with the Patriots', Burress said, "I don't see why not. We're both going to be on the same field on (Feb. 3)." That's true, but for most of the season they were in different leagues. Burress had an outstanding season despite a sprained ankle that lingered since August, as he caught 70 passes for 1,025 yards and 12 touchdowns. And Amani Toomer was his usually reliable self, with 59 catches for 760 yards and three touchdowns. But the Giants never were able to develop a consistent third receiver, and with the exception of one big game, tight end Jeremy Shockey (57-619-3) wasn't having much of an impact before he got hurt in Week 15. A lot of Burress' confidence seemed to stem from the Giants' 38-35 loss to the Patriots on Dec. 29, when Manning was an impressive 22-for-32 for 251 yards and four touchdowns. Burress caught two of those touchdown passes and made four catches for 84 yards.

When you have the kind of defensive line the Giants have, you always have a chance. The Giants have the ability to put pressure on Tom Brady. That's key. And the way the secondary is playing, it gives them a shot. The Patriots have a great defense, too, and Bill Belichick is the greatest defensive genius in the history of the game, and they have tons of offensive weapons. But the Giants have the type of team that the guys in Vegas would say, "You don't necessarily bet on them, but you don't bet against them." The Giants have done one of the toughest things to do in American team sports and that is to be the wild-card team and make it to the Super Bowl. You have to win three games against very tough opponents on the road. That's a tough, tough thing, and they did it.
Michael Strahan may have missed training camp, and he may have spent his summer pondering retirement, and for those of us on the outside those may have seemed like the most egregious kind of breaches in the sanctity of team. But for those on the inside, it barely registered a ripple. "I don't care what a man does when he isn't here because that's his business," linebacker Kawika Mitchell said. "I care about what he does when he is here. And when Michael is here, there is no doubt about who we fall in line behind. He is our leader on the field and off the field, and you don't have to take a poll to know that."

Patriots linebacker Adalius Thomas, who's from Equality, Ala., and Giants defensive end Justin Tuck are good friends vying to their hands on the same Lombardi Trophy. "We went to the same high school (and) our parents went to school together," Thomas said yesterday. "(It's a) small town. Most of the neighbors are either your aunt or your uncle or your grandparents. His sister is in the class with my sister now.
So how do the denizens of their small Alabama towns divide up the 15 tickets each player gets (two freebies and as many as 13 for purchase at the $700 face-value price)? "All of Tuckville's going to be there," Tuck said. "They're calling it the Coosa County Bowl instead of the Super Bowl where we're from," Thomas said. "It's so funny, though, two guys from the same area, which is a very rural part of Alabama, to play in the Super Bowl, so one family will be happy and one family will be kind of sad."

In becoming the first NFC team to win three straight road playoff games and the first NFL team to win 10 straight road games in a season, the Giants made it tougher on themselves than even the below zero temperatures and minus-23 degree wind chill could. "The thing I'm most proud of is the way we hang together and the way we never say die," said Coughlin, who will be coaching in his first Super Bowl. "No matter what the odds are, we keep scrapping, we keep working and finding a way to win." Tynes got a reprieve in overtime after Corey Webster intercepted a struggling Brett Favre. "I screwed it up twice," said Tynes, who sprinted straight to the locker room after his decisive kick, leaving his frozen teammates to celebrate outside. "Thank God we got another opportunity."
Playoff history is filled with stories of botched kicks. The Giants' last Super Bowl victory, in 1991, came after the Bills' Scott Norwood missed a 47-yard attempt. "[Teammates] watch for how you react to misses," Tynes said. "That's what this business is all about, how you react to misses." Feagles, an NFL punter for 20 years, offered encouragement between kicks, but Tynes said he never had a doubt Coughlin would go to him again, even though with the ball at the 30-yard line Coughlin might have gone for a first down or punted.
Lawrence Tynes, who played three seasons with the Chiefs and was acquired by the Giants for a sixth-round pick last May, has watched the replay of the kick about 10 times. It was the longest postseason field goal by an opponent in the storied history of Lambeau Field, the first of more than 40 yards. "I find that hard to believe," said Tynes. "You think of all the history involved in that stadium. To hear the numbers outside of 40 yards, that's shocking.

Special Report - "If the Giants manage to beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl, will that be the biggest upset in the history of that game?" Now that, fellas, is a silly question. Of course it would be the biggest upset in Super Bowl history. Without doubt, without question, without hesitation -- the answer is yes, yes and yes. .... "Well, what about Super Bowl III, when the Jets beat the Baltimore Colts?" Close, I suppose. And I was there, too. But the Colts weren't undefeated and the Colts didn't even have their starting quarterback, fella named John Unitas, until the fourth quarter. The Jets had a nice little team and a quarterback who got into the Hall of Fame for all the wrong reasons, named Joe Namath. The Colts weren't as good as the Patriots are today and the Giants are better than those old Jets, although with almost 40 years separating the two games, it is probably fair to say that most of the team in the today's NFL are better than the two teams that contested for the championship before they even called it the Super Bowl.
Want more? - Send a request to davesklein@aol.com for a free week's worth of news!"

Jan 24 When the Giants received a fax from the Falcons seeking to interview defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo six days before their divisional playoff game against the Cowboys, team president and co-owner John Mara was said to be livid. Not that the Falcons did anything that violated NFL rules about requesting permission to interview the popular assistant coach, who has done wonders with the Giants' defense this season and throughout the playoffs. The Falcons were within their rights to ask; they actually scheduled the interview for the Friday morning before the Dallas game.
But Mara, in concert with other team officials, including general manager Jerry Reese, promptly shut the door on the request. Actually, they slammed it, with a few private expletives thrown in for good measure. It didn't help that the fax came over as Mara's younger brother, Chris, was traveling to Atlanta that day to interview for the Falcons' general manager's job. He was not part of the Falcons' decision to request an audience with Spagnuolo.
The missed opportunities weren't a problem for Steve Spagnuolo. According to someone who recently spoke to him about his feelings on the Falcons' interest, Spagnuolo has been focused solely on the Giants' playoff run and hasn't yet prepared himself for the interview process associated with being a head coach. Perhaps that will occur this offseason. But for now, Spagnuolo will remain with the Giant.
With the Falcons hiring Jaguars defensive coordinator Mike Smith as coach last night, Spagnuolo will have no distractions for the biggest game of his career. The Falcons requested an interview with him after the Giants' wild-card win over the Bucs, but the Giants denied the request. That meant the Falcons, who have since named former Patriots director of scouting Tom Dimitroff as general manager, would have to wait until after the Super Bowl to talk to Spagnuolo.

The upcoming pre-Super Bowl event promises to last longer than the game itself, longer than Tom Coughlin's recovery from frostbite, Bill Belichick's frown, Tom Brady's love for his supermodel sweetie and yes, even longer than Tiki Barber's frequent bites of crow. Super Hype, that is. It begins with a trickle today, when both teams report back to work, and escalates next week, when someone inevitably asks Eli Manning how long has he been Peyton's younger brother.
The line on the Super Bowl is out of line. Now that doesn't mean the Patriots can't give the Giants the same kind of beatdown they gave a lot of teams this season. It has happened before in the Super Bowl and could happen again in Glendale, Ariz. No, the line is out of line because nobody who saw Patriots 38, Giants 35 on the last Saturday in December, whether they were at Giants Stadium or just watching the game on television, can think that the Patriots are nearly two touchdowns better.

Antonio Pierce isn't consumed with stopping the Patriots from making history. He's focused on the Giants making their own history, and wants Lawrence Taylor, Harry Carson, Phil Simms and icons from the franchise's championship teams to be on the sidelines with them for Super Bowl XLII. "It's all about us," Pierce said. "This game is all about the New York Giants." The Giants got caught up in trying to end the Patriots' undefeated regular season in the final game of the year. The atmosphere at Giants Stadium was intense, just like it will be in Arizona one week from Sunday.
Mark Bavaro was asked if he would like to see Shockey at Super Bowl XLII. "I think that would be the right thing to do," Bavaro said. "This is his team. These are his buddies. Unless logistically there's something preventing him from doing it. . . . I don't know why he'd want to miss this game, of all games." There it is, Jeremy. So Shock it to the Patriots. Shock it to your teammates and show up at The Show. "Phil was our leader, even though Jeff Hostetler was the quarterback," Mark Bavaro said yesterday. "Phil was still the guy we all looked up to. I don't think it ever crossed anybody's mind that hem would not have been there."

Mark Bavaro remembers the day he realized Tom Coughlin might be head coaching material. It was 1988 and Coughlin was an anonymous new receivers coach with the Giants, who were wrapping up minicamp. Coughlin sequestered his wideouts for a full hour past every other position group. This wouldn't have been a big deal, except his meeting room doubled as playbook storage, and the veterans couldn't leave until they returned theirs. The grumbling grew louder. What was he doing in there? Didn't he realize he was holding everyone up? Bavaro, an All-Pro tight end and locker room alpha male, took matters into his own hands.

Osi Umenyiora doesn't think the Patriots are a dirty team, but he sure thinks their left tackle, Matt Light, is a dirty player. Umenyiora, the Giants' right defensive end who will be across the line from Light in Super Bowl XLII, made that accusation Wednesday night on HBO's "Inside the NFL." He said when the two teams played back in Week 17, Light "did a couple of things that he shouldn't have done." "I'm not quite sure he thought that he was going to see me again because of some of the things he did and said during that game," Umenyiora said. "But, you know, unfortunately he does have to see me again."
Pressed on specifics, Umenyiora said Light would hit "after the delay" and that some angry words were passed between the two Pro Bowlers. "I don't know if he was trying to intimidate me, I don't know what he was trying to do, but he did a couple of things that he shouldn't have done and, you know, now we are really going to go at it this time," Umenyiora said.

Since that catch in the Patriots' 38-35 win over the Giants in Week 17, Randy Moss hasn't done much to warrant inclusion on a highlight reel. The talented yet temperamental wide receiver, who was a cornerstone of the Patriots' undefeated regular season, has been virtually invisible in two playoff games. One catch for 14 yards in the divisional round against Jacksonville. One catch for 18 yards in the AFC Championship Game against San Diego. Not a single playoff touchdown for the seemingly unstoppable player who hauled in 98 catches for 1,493 yards and a record 23 TDs in the regular season.
The Patriots' plane climbed toward the Miami sky on Jan. 12, 1986, rocketing upward like the team it carried. Having just beaten Dan Marino and the Dolphins 31-14, the players on board were enjoying the ride -- and not just the one that involved the airplane. "We were rocking at 35,000 feet," former Pats running back Craig James said yesterday by phone from his home in Dallas. "I remember Raymond Berry walked by and I said, 'Coach, we need to remind everybody we have another game.'"
The Patriots had that mentality at that moment, but somewhere in the next two weeks, they let it slip away. After becoming the first team to win three straight road games to reach the Super Bowl, New England faced the '85 Bears -- a team whose swagger and defense were deemed legendary before they had even stepped onto the field at the Louisiana Superdome. In the middle of the hype, the Patriots lost focus. Then, they lost their momentum. And finally, they lost Super Bowl XX, 46-10.

On the surface, there were no dramatic changes around the Giants New York Giants in the past four weeks. Yet they are a changed team. They are a team that lost its regular-season finale to the Patriots in a game that was much more of an awakening than a defeat. The Giants surged to three consecutive road playoff victories, which simply does not happen very often in the NFL. As significant underdogs, the Giants won in hostile Dallas and arctic Green Bay and here they are, awaiting Super Bowl XLII and another shot at the Patriots.
Could the Giants use Barber's legs and Shockey's hands in the battle against the Patriots in Phoenix two Sundays from now? Of course they could; only a fool would want to play a Super Bowl with a golf-style handicap. The problem is, neither Barber nor Shockey would come in a vacuum. They would bring everything else with them, too - their personalities, their opinions, their ego-centric ways. And that, the Giants don't need. That much the evidence - and the record - has shown us clearly and eloquently.
It's been nearly 11 months since Jerry Reese's tenure as GM of the Giants began with the sounds of silence greeting the free-agent market. It's been nine months since his first draft resulted in a list of names that left fans asking "Who?" To almost everyone's surprise, however, the team Reese pieced together is still playing, preparing to face the undefeated Patriots in Super Bowl XLII - a stunning development that has all but stopped the flow of hate mail into Mara's office. It's a reward for the faith and patience Giants ownership showed in their rookie GM.

Her husband is more than two years gone now and so she is the official head of the Mara family, the one who connects this Giants team to the ones of the 1950s, when the Giants owned New York as much as any New York sports team ever has. Now the Giants own New York all over again, as much as they ever did in the glory days. And Ann Mara, the grande dame of the whole operation, out of a time in New York when you just would have called her a great dame, period, enjoys the ride as much as anybody in town. "Let me tell you about Green Bay," she said yesterday.
"This is before we even got to the stadium on Lombardi Ave., before it was Lombardi this and Lombardi that. This was at the hotel the night before [in Appleton, Wis.]. They even had a Lombardi Steakhouse, with a letter from my husband framed on the wall. All this Lombardi around you, no matter where you turned, and all I could think was, 'Vinny used to sleep on our couch!'"

Nineteen years she heard the promise, and 19 times it didn't come true. Jeff Feagles: record-setting punter, broken-record psychic. "Every year he said the same thing," Michelle said, a knowing smile creasing her face. "'This year we're going to be great.'"
"This is the first year I didn't do any of that predicting," Jeff admitted. "I had no idea how we were going to be. We had the project here in the house, we had tons going on with the boys. But before you know it, it's the middle of December and we're [playing] Buffalo to go to the playoffs."

Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes split the uprights on the David Letterman show last night, comically telling the CBS host he was afraid he'd have to live in Green Bay after missing his second game-winning field goal attempt. Tynes nailed his third try, putting the Giants New York Giants in the Super Bowl and the 29-year-old Scotsman in the national spotlight. After watching video of Tynes' second failed attempt Sunday against the Packers, missed horribly to the left of the uprights, he says, "That's very bad." Letterman replies, "Oh my God." Then Tynes kicks in with, "Right there, I'm thinking, 'What's it going to be like to live in Green Bay?'... "I'm thinking, 'How am I going to get back on the charter plane, you know?' " And that cracks up the "Late Show" studio audience.

Jan 23 He still looks young enough to be the quarterback of the high school football team, the kid his buddies nicknamed "Easy." It doesn't change the fact that Eli Manning is as much the face of this Super Bowl as Tom Brady, one of the great quarterbacks of all time. It doesn't change the fact that the kid has made quarterback of the Giants a star job again, for the first time since Phil Simms was the Giants quarterback in the Super Bowl.
Ernie Accorsi served as general manager from 1998 until 2006, when he made way for his hand-picked successor, Reese. It was Accorsi who brought in talent such as Antonio Pierce, Plaxico Burress, the existing offensive line and most of the defensive line. But his signature move was the draft-day trade that sent Philip Rivers, the Giants' pick at No. 4, to San Diego for the top overall pick, Eli Manning. It was a move that Accorsi has taken plenty of heat for over the years, and even this season as Giants crowds booed the quarterback through many a rough moment.

Sports Illustrated is single-handedly trying to sabotage the underdog New York Giants' chances of winning the Super Bowl by putting Eli Manning on the cover. "Eli's The Manning," the headline reads on the latest edition, which hits newsstands Wednesday. Don't think there's a jinx? Last week's cover boy was Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre. And we all know how well that turned out for the yellow and green cheesehead team.
The Giants have been featured on the magazine's cover 11 times in its 54-year history: Dec. 3, 1956: Chuck Conerly Sept. 29, 1986: Lawrence Taylor (with the Jets' Mark Gastineau) Dec. 15, 1986: Mark Bavaro against the Redskins Feb. 2, 1987: Phil Simms against the Broncos Jan. 26, 1987: Lawrence Taylor Sept. 9, 1987: Mark Bavaro Jan. 28, 1991: Ottis Anderson Feb. 4, 1991: Everson Walls Jan. 22, 2001: Amani Toomer against the Vikings Jan. 29, 2001: Strahan and Siragusa July 3, 2006: Lawrence Taylor
The January 2001 cover that featured Toomer appeared after the NFC Championship game win over the Vikings. The Giants went on to lose the Super Bowl, played the next Sunday, to the Ravens 35-7.

No active quarterback knows more about handling the two weeks before the Super Bowl than Tom Brady, who will be making his fourth appearance in pro sports' biggest game. So the fact that he's gallivanting with girlfriend Gisele Bundchen in Manhattan while Manning is sitting in a dark film room doesn't mean the Giants already have one hand on the Lombardi trophy while the Pats' perfect season is about to implode at its last speed bump. Plus, who's to say Brady isn't studying film of the Giants on his laptop once he gets inside Bundchen's apartment?
Bring on Brady and forget the boot. That's what the Giants are saying. Justin Tuck, who has been the Giants' best defensive player this year, wants Tom Brady, the best player in the league, perfectly healthy for Super Bowl XLII in 11 days.
Not that he needs it, but Tom Brady appears to have gotten lucky. According to sources familiar with his situation, he has a "mild" high ankle sprain that will not prevent him from playing in Super Bowl XLII. By Tuesday, Brady had even ditched the walking boot in which he was photographed outside girlfriend Gisele Bundchen's Manhattan townhouse on Monday.

The Brady-led Patriots will once again be playing on the NFL's biggest stage when they face the Giants in Super Bowl XLII and attempt to win their fourth championship in the past seven seasons -- at least in part due to Morris Lewis. Late in the fourth quarter of a 10-3 loss to the Jets on Sept. 23, 2001, Bledsoe tried to scramble for a first down and was hit by Lewis near the sideline as he approached the first down marker. The blow laid out Patriots starting quarterback Drew Bledsoe and unleashed an unheralded backup named Tom Brady on an unsuspecting NFL.

The officials for Super Bowl XLII were chosen based on merit, as those receiving the highest rankings at each position receive the honor of working a Super Bowl. That means it's akin to an all-star officiating crew, and on Feb. 3 at the University of Phoenix Stadium, Mike Carey will lead the crew as the referee. It's doubtful Carey would have been selected if a few members of the Giants New York Giants had a vote.

Some Giants-watchers (there are a lot more of them now) might think that Tom Coughlin has engineered the biggest turnaround, from nearly fired to Super Bowl coach. Or maybe it's Eli Manning, from "skittish" thrower to steady quarterback. But Corey Webster might hold the title of Most Improved Giant. The 2005 second-round pick was an afterthought for much of the season, which he began as a starter. He regressed to nickel cornerback, then to the bench, then to street clothes.
Then, starting with the playoff-clinching win Dec. 23 at Buffalo, Webster snapped back to life as if he'd been shocked with a defibrillator. He returned an interception for a touchdown in that 38-21 win over the Bills, the first of three picks in the next five games for a guy who had one interception in his first 39 NFL games.

As soon as Lawrence Tynes' kick sailed through the uprights at frigid Lambeau Field on Sunday night, Ottis Anderson flashed back to Jan. 21, 1991. Giants-49ers. NFC Championship Game. Candlestick Park. Matt Bahr's 42-yard field goal as time expired. The Giants had beaten the 49ers, 15-13. Jeff Hostetler had beaten Joe Montana. The Giants advanced to Super Bowl XXV, where they beat the favored Bills, 20-19. For Anderson, it is deja vu. And Anderson believes the Giants will pull off another shocker against the Patriots.
In 1990, the Giants had reached their second Super Bowl in five seasons. The Giants had been nine-point favorites against the Denver Broncos four years before, but the oddsmakers were not as impressed with Parcells and his 1990 team, despite a 13-3 regular season and the NFL's second-best defense. As seven-point underdogs, the Giants won, 20-19. Giants coach Tom Coughlin (wide receivers coach) and Patriots coach Bill Belichick (defensive coordinator) were on Parcells' staff. "Well, you know, they're their own guys, but it makes me feel good, sure," Parcells said. "It's been quite a while since I worked with either of them. I always thought both of 'em were going to be pretty good."

When the Giants look back on their regular-season finale against the New England Patriots, they see a moment that changed their season. It was the spark of their Super Bowl run. It gave them confidence they could play with anyone. Imagine how good they would feel heading into Super Bowl XLII if they had actually won the game.
Eleven days from the Perfect Patriots and Super Bowl XLII, the Giants New York Giants are anything but underdogs in their own minds and hearts. They remember how they played Tom Brady and Bill Belichick life and death last month and believe it will help them play the Patriots life and death again for the privilege of holding the Lombardi Trophy high for the third time in their storied history.
To a man now, the Giants believe they can pull off the perfect upset, believe they are the perfect team to end the Patriots' perfect season, and here's X reasons why they have a super chance in Super Bowl XLII.
Bill Belichick was weaned on film. From the time he spent as a 7-year-old watching his father, Steve, take the Navy football staff through sessions with the projector, Belichick has appreciated every nuance of every play. As a future Hall of Fame coach, he has figured out how to turn those details to his advantage.

Rich Seubert battled back from three broken bones in his leg to continue an NFL career that could have ended when former Eagles defensive end N.D. Kalu stepped on his leg in 2003. In other words, there's no way a sprained knee will keep him out of the Super Bowl.

Ann Mara misses these days the most, the time spent with her husband in the immediate wake of a playoff game gone right. In a perfect world, she would be talking to Wellington right now about Eli Manning and Lawrence Tynes and a Giants' defense that made Brett Favre look twice as old as Lambeau Field. "It hasn't gotten any easier without him," Mara said Tuesday.

Steve DeOssie is a Boston sports celebrity, a former Patriot (and Giant) who does pre- and postgame commentary on the Pats for WBZ TV and the Big Show on WEEI Radio. There is no question, however, whom DeOssie is rooting for in Super Bowl XLII. "My allegiance is, as always, family first," he said. DeOssie's son is Zak DeOssie, the Giants' backup linebacker and punt snapper who next Sunday will be the seventh son to follow a father into the Super Bowl.

Perhaps the only thing worse for Jets fans than watching their team finish 4-12 this season, is knowing the historic Feb. 3 matchup pits their big-brother co-tenants, the Giants, against Bill Belichick and the ever-villainous Patriots.

Former Giants
Former Giants coach Jim Fassel nearly had the Redskins job four years ago until Daniel Snyder talked Joe Gibbs out of retirement. And now that Gibbs has retired again, Fassel may be on the verge of replacing him. Fassel has interviewed twice with Snyder with their second meeting coming Monday in Washington.

Tiki Barber has no regrets about the timing of his retirement, even though he quit the NFL one year too early to join the Giants on their wild, Super Bowl ride. In fact, Barber said he's "ecstatic" for the teammates he left behind and insisted during The Barber Shop last night on Sirius NFL Radio that he's been rooting for the Giants all along.

Ernie Accorsi accepted an invitation by co-owner John Mara to attend Super Bowl XLII in Glendale, Ariz. and will be aboard a Thursday charter flight with the Giants support staff. Of course, Reese will be aboard the official team charter leaving Monday afternoon, with every occupant eyeing an upset of the undefeated Patriots.

Ex-Giants lineman George Martin, in the middle of a cross-country walk to raise $10 million for 9/11 first-responders, wants to make a quick detour to the Super Bowl. But first he has to get tickets.