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| Feb 19 Tom Coughlin entered the 2007 season not knowing if it would be his last with the Giants. But after upsetting the previously unbeaten Patriots and winning Super Bowl XLII, the coach is close to reaping the rewards of a long-term extension. Two league sources familiar with the Giants' situation told Newsday yesterday that there are few hurdles left in negotiations, and that a deal could be completed sometime this week. One source said the contract will be a four-year extension through the 2011 season. No financial terms were disclosed, but the deal likely will average about $5 million - or perhaps slightly higher - per season. Grey Ruegamer realizes that he's playing with the football equivalent of house money. Since the average length of an NFL player's career is three years, and because Ruegamer is in his ninth season, he long ago beat the odds. "There are a lot of reasons why you can stick in the NFL and a lot why you can get out," said Ruegamer. "You need the right combination of luck, hard work and smarts. You have to know what you're doing and how to do it. Right now, I can play any position on the offensive line and I know everybody's job." Stadium
Information
Feb
15 A
sneak peek at what could be the MVP of all Super Bowl rings. The "Ring of
Destiny," as its designer is calling his prototype Giants championship ring, is
solid platinum with a 12-carat sapphire and 4.2 carats of diamonds - an estimated
$25,000 worth of precious material. "We want to top any other ring ever made for
a championship team," said the designer, Fred Cuellar, president of Diamond Cutters
International. Thousands of unsold caps and t-shirts proclaiming the Patriots Super Bowl winners have been donated to a charity that distributed them to children in Nicaragua. Rather than throw them away, the NFL -- as it's done every year since 1994 -- donated the clothes to World Vision, an international Christian charity that delivered the items on Wednesday, published reports say. The shirts proclaim "Patriots Super Bowl Champions" and "19-0." Giants Team Report - SS James Butler was a surprise starter in defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo's first season, but he was exposed too many times in terms of cover ability and speed and could be allowed to walk. QB Jared Lorenzen was the third quarterback after earning backup status after training camp. He has size and strength, but virtually no experience. Still, coach Tom Coughlin is intrigued (he's 6-4 and 285) and if his demands aren't high he could be kept. Players resigned - P Jeff Feagles: Potential UFA; $1.7M/2 yrs. Players lost - FB Jim Finn (released, failed physical). How we stopped the greatest offense ever - Giants assistant reveals the game plan. The Patriots defeated the New York Giants, 38-35, in one of the most entertaining regular-season games of the year, thus being the first team ever to go unbeaten 16-0. Giants coaches had a little bounce to their step as they were gathered in the conference room at the Meadowlands. But before they talked about Tampa Bay, the coaches discussed the Patriots. "We always do that the morning after a game," said Giants defensive backs coach Peter Giunta, a Salem, Mass., native. "Tom (Coughlin) likes to talk about the team we just played and what we would do differently if we played them again. Justin Tuck is the Giants' third-year defensive end from Kellyton, Alabama and Notre Dame. The Giants selected him on the third round of the 2005 NFL Draft, the 74th overall pick. Tuck played in 14 games as a rookie and six games in 2006 before suffering a foot injury that required surgery and sidelined him for the remainder of the season. This year, Tuck has been a steady contributor, particularly as a tackle in the sub defenses. Antonio Pierce was slapped with a summons on Wednesday charging him with animal neglect after one of his pit bulls escaped his property and was found to be underweight and sick, according to a report. It's not clear who was taking care of the dogs while Pierce was at the Super Bowl. According to a report, the dogs were returned to Pierce, who then placed them in a kennel. NFC
East News - Team Reports Feb 14 There's some wheely big news across the Hudson - the largest Ferris wheel in the nation is about to be built in New Jersey. The massive ride will rise 286 feet into the sky, easily topping Dallas' Texas Start Ferris wheel, which stands tall at 213 feet. It will be part of Meadowlands Xanadu, a $2 billion entertainment center being built near Giants Stadium in East Rutherford. Despite speculation around the league, Giants general manager Jerry Reese told Newsday yesterday morning in an e-mail that Shockey "is our starting tight end." The Giants have no plans to trade Shockey as they prepare for free agency and the draft, nor are they considering releasing him this offseason. He's chatted on television with Ellen DeGeneres and Jimmy Kimmel. Rubbed elbows in first class with Ahmad Rashad and Dave Navarro. Oh yes, he also made one of the greatest catches in NFL history and played a huge role in the Giants' Super Bowl victory. Is David Tyree leading a charmed life or what? Feb 13 How can Cooper Manning be so well-adjusted and non-self-loathing when both his younger brothers are Super Bowl MVPs? Cooper was recruited to play football at Ole Miss, but once there, he was diagnosed with spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the spinal canal that makes it impossible to play competitive sports. He’s six foot four, 33 years old, and works at Howard Weil, an energy-investment firm, in New Orleans. As a team captain and a member of Tom Coughlin's Leadership Council, Jeff Feagles is a respected veteran and an integral part of the team chemistry. Giants general manager Jerry Reese has moved quickly, as barely a week after the Super Bowl triumph he locked up kicker Lawrence Tynes on a five-year contract then secured his punter. The kicking tandem that helped the Giants to the Super Bowl XLII crown will be back for the attempted repeat next season. Punter Jeff Feagles, who turns 42 next month, signed a two-year contract Tuesday to return for a 21st NFL season. That came one day after placekicker Lawrence Tynes agreed to a reported five-year, $7 million deal that he is scheduled to sign next week. Feagles, also the holder for Tynes' kicks, became the oldest player to appear in the Super Bowl when he punted in the 17-14 win over the New England Patriots, his first appearance in the big game after two decades in the NFL. Jeff Feagles has a new goal. He wants to be the oldest player in NFL history to play for two Super Bowl winners. "Back to back, that would be nice," Feagles said. The Giants' indomitable punter today ensured that he will be in the hunt when he signed a two-year contract extension. Feagles, whose appearance in the Giants' Super Bowl XLII victory over New England made him the oldest player in the game's history (at 41 years, 333 days), will return for a 21st NFL season and sixth with the Giants.Feb
12 Kicking
the Giants into Super Bowl XLII turned out to be very lucrative for Lawrence
Tynes. The hero of the NFC Championship Game, who booted the game-winning 47-yarder
in overtime after missing two previous attempts to win it, Tynes was close to
agreeing to terms Monday on a five-year, $7 million contract, an NFL source confirmed.
Tynes was scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent on Feb.29. The 29-year-old,
Scotland-born kicker, whom the Giants acquired from the Kansas City Chiefs last
May, got off to a rough start this season, missing three kicks under 35 yards
in the first eight games. But he finished with respectable numbers, nailing 85.2%
of his kicks (23 for 27) including 11 of his last 12. The Super Bowl was what, more than a week ago? It's all a blur to the hero of that game, the player who went from a special-teamer to special TV guest, the fourth-string Giants receiver who made the toughest and possibly biggest catch in Super Bowl history. Yes, if you're David Tyree, you instinctively throw up your hands and rest them in disbelief on your head, even if the football, once famously stuck in between, is suspiciously missing. "God is good," Tyree said. Sports have always been a training ground for leaders because they intensely focus energy on self-development and competitiveness. This year's superbowl was rich in the variety of lessons about leaders, offering something for grade school beginners to corporate executives on their way to the top - and to those at the top. It was also compelling drama as a grand metaphor of life. The protagonist of the drama is Eli Manning who, up until late December,2007, was badly and erroneously characterized by the press. NFC East
News Feb 11 Pro Bowl - February 10, 2008 [NFC 42 AFC 30]. Osi Umenyiora, the lone representative from the Super Bowl champion Giants, had one tackle on the day: He sacked the Browns' Derek Anderson on the AFC's final drive, forcing a fumble that was recovered by Jeff Saturday of the Colts. Recap Feb. 10 Pro Bowl - 4:30 p.m. ET, FOX Aloha Stadium, Honolulu - AFC vs. NFC - Brett Favre, Tom Brady. Feb
10 The
planning for the 2008 season began right in the middle of the playoffs, when
Jerry Reese took a detour to Mobile, Ala., to get an up-close look at the prospects
in the Senior Bowl. It continued on Friday, three days after the Giants' ticker-tape
parade, when the organizational draft meetings began. If the Giants are going
to become the dynasty that their GM hopes they will be, then there's plenty of
work to be done and it has to be done fast. One
week after the 2004 draft, I conducted a survey of 17 GMs, coaches and personnel
experts around the NFL and asked them who got the better of the Giants' franchise-altering
trade with the Chargers for Eli Manning. An astounding 13 gave the edge to the
Chargers. Now that Manning is a Super Bowl champion and Super Bowl MVP, that trade
can no longer be questioned. He also has earned a grace period - for a couple
of games, at least - if he reverts next season to how he played for most of his
first four years. The ball was in the air for what felt like a lifetime, and David Tyree David Tyree was perfectly willing to wait it out that long if that's what it took. All around him, the Super Bowl had come to a complete standstill. All around him, every eye, thousands of them, were fastened on a football. "I couldn't hear a thing," Tyree said. "I felt like I was all by myself." There were, in reality, 71,101 spectators inside University of Phoenix Stadium. There were a couple hundred others, give or take, patrolling the sidelines: players, coaches, photographers, officials, various other folks with lanyards and credentials around their necks. All of them entranced by the football. All of them seized by the moment.'' The Giants were called so many names during the course of the season, it's hard to remember them all. Eli Manning's leadership skills were "comical," retired star Tiki Barber said. Michael Strahan was an over-the-hill distraction during his 36-day holdout. Tom Coughlin still was a dictator. After an 0-2 start, Steve Spagnuolo's defense was a disaster. Manning was a bust when the offense stalled later in the year. The Giants were going to be one-and-done in the playoffs again. Then they were considered overmatched in Dallas. And in frozen Green Bay. And in the Super Bowl. But there's really only one word you need to remember about these Giants: champions. Tiki Barber's agent speaks about the former Giants' intestinal fortitude and claims he's not going to Tampa Bay. The coach and quarterback who are taking a victory lap through the Tri-State area are simply better at their jobs than they where when Barber took off his pads for the last time. The improvements that helped the Giants win the Super Bowl were not evident a year ago, to Tiki or anyone else. As an analyst and studio host, Barber still has a lot to learn. But as an athlete Barber had a lot left in the tank when he retired after the 2006 season. More
on the Giants: NFC
East News Feb 9 How much is all this success worth? When Tom Coughlin was hired in 2004, he got a four-year, $12 million contract. Last January, when the owners extended his deal through 2008, it's believed the extra year was for about $3.5 million. Now, Coughlin would seem to be in line for a four-year deal worth at least $20 million-$24 million. It's doubtful the Giants will make him the highest-paid coach in the NFL - an honor that belongs to Seattle's soon-to-be-retired coach Mike Holmgren ($8 million per year). But it's probable they'll raise his salary into the range of Tennessee's Jeff Fisher and Tampa's Jon Gruden, who are both in the $5.5-6 million-per-year range. There
is no rest for the weary, not even for the Super Bowl champions. And so, Giants
general manager Jerry Reese and his entire scouting department yesterday were
gathered together at Giants Stadium for the first day of pre-draft meetings, five
days after the Giants shocked the world with their 17-14 upset of the Patriots
in Super Bowl XLII.. There were full-size helmets and mini-helmets, jerseys, footballs and print after print of Manning escaping the claws of the New England defense before making that most memorable throw to David "Catch With Your Head Not Your Hands" Tyree. "It's amazing how much stuff came together in the past few days, a myriad of things," said Brandon Steiner, chief executive of Steiner Sports, the company that will sell a majority of the signed collectibles from the Giants' Super Bowl XLII victory. "People want to be brought as close to the moment as possible, and that's what we're trying to do." Many Giants players have signed agreements with Steiner Sports and receive a share of all the items sold. In a ritual as guaranteed as the Jets' victory in Super Bowl III, the week after the Super Bowl has brought the usual avalanche of memorabilia. A Giants fan with more brass than most found a way to crash his heroes' victory party and make it look easy. Joe Whelan, who lives in Manhattan, simply took a seat with the team on the stage at City Hall Park Tuesday, rode with the Mara family out to Giants Stadium and even basked in the cheers of thousands as he stood on the field - all because nobody stopped him. Feb
8 The
Giants first had to stop the Patriots' prolific offense, then stave off the
Redskins' riches. With defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo in the fold, the
Giants won both times. Spagnuolo, whose once-struggling unit shut down three of
the NFL's best offenses on the way to winning Super Bowl XLII, withdrew his name
from the Redskins' head coaching search late yesterday morning after interviewing
with team owner Daniel Snyder and executive vice president of football operations
Vinny Cerrato for much of the previous two days. After
hours of discussion, it was clear Snyder wanted to make Spagnuolo an offer
to succeed Joe Gibbs as head coach. But yesterday morning, Spagnuolo called Snyder
to tell him he'd be staying with the Giants, who in an aggressive and rare (for
them) move ripped up Spagnuolo's contract and made him the NFL's highest-paid
defensive coordinator. Gregg Williams made $1.9M with the Redskins and will make
that in his new job with the Jaguars. Michael Strahan could soon be headed to his eighth Pro Bowl because Osi Umenyiora might be headed home. Umenyiora, the only member of the Super Bowl champs in Hawaii this week, missed an NFC team meeting Thursday morning because of what a Pro Bowl spokesman called "a bad, bad case of the flu." It was so severe that Pro Bowl officials were considering sending him home. If they do, the 36-year-old Strahan would get the call to replace his teammate. Opponents had five chances to derail Giants' Super fortunes. There was so much that happened to the Giants during the last month that easily could have gone the other way. There were so many close calls, so many times the Giants' miraculous run was inches away from ending. Really, that's the story of their entire season, going all the way back to when they stopped Ladell Betts six inches short of the goal line in Washington on Sept. 23. That's how close the Giants came to a crippling start of 0-3. But that was only the beginning. OK, break it up. Move along, nothing more to see here. Parade's over. Giants fans can now await the 2008 schedule. And they can fully expect that as NFL champs and a New York team the Giants New York Giants , more than ever, will be a TV money team. They'll be a 4:15 team, a Monday night ESPN team, a Sunday night NBC team, a Thursday night NFL Network team. Giants tickets next season will become the perfect gift for the school and work night wanderers in your life. The NFL, having sold its sense of common decency to TV, will sustain its habit of punishing the fans of Super Bowl champs. Entering this past season as an 8-8 team, only four of the Giants' eight home games began at 1 p.m. This time next year, that should seem like a lot. Feb
7 Giants
defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo spent all of yesterday meeting with
Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder and executive vice president of football
operations Vinny Cerato in Virginia. As of last night, there was no word if Snyder
and Cerato had offered Spagnuolo the Redskins' vacant head-coaching job. Spagnuolo
arrived in the D.C. area Tuesday night after joining the Giants in their Super
Bowl parade in Manhattan and the afternoon rally at Giants Stadium. The first-year
coordinator spent about seven hours meeting with Snyder and Cerato before spending
the night in one of Snyder's guest houses. The referee stood just few feet from Eli Manning when he pulled off The Great Escape and ignited the play that changed Super Bowl XLII still can't believe that the Giants quarterback got out of the Patriots' grasp. Mike Carey, the Super Bowl referee, told the Daily News on Wednesday that his "radar was definitely up" when Manning was clutched by two Patriots defenders with just over a minute left on Sunday night "because I knew a sack, or at least grasp and control, was imminent," he said. But the sack never came. Carey said he was never close to whistling the play dead. But if either Patriot had pulled Manning backwards, he might have had no choice. Eli was the main Mann about town on Wednesday - all day and all night. The Giants hero starred on the David Letterman show last night after partying into the wee hours and finding himself on the front page of the Daily News for the third straight day. Manning told the late-night talk show king he never doubted New Yorkers were behind him - even when some fans booed him earlier in the season. "Well, I knew you were always on my side," he told the cheering crowd. "You never doubted me. No doubts, right?" Eventually when the euphoria they certainly deserve wears off, the Giants will be faced with the task of trying to repeat as Super Bowl champions. Unfortunately the time-consuming run through the playoffs leaves little time to enjoy the fruits of triumph. The NFL Combine begins in two weeks, and free agency arrives at the end of the month. But before that they have to solidify the coaching staff. If Spagnuolo leaves, there are some people on the staff who could step into the position. Secondary coach Peter Giunta was a coordinator in St. Louis, but the in-house favorite probably would be linebackers coach Bill Sheridan. General manager Jerry Reese will preside at the first draft meeting Friday. The decisions on which of their free agents they wish to re-sign also must be made soon. Scouts already have been working on both of the above, but the emphasis usually placed on them by now has been overshadowed by the epic championship run. The comical quarterback is the Super Bowl MVP. The inept head coach is looking at a $20 million contact extension. And Tiki Barber, the Mouth That Ripped 'Em? The retired Giants running back, who blasted both Eli Manning and Tom Coughlin before their improbable championship run, was keeping a low profile on Wednesday - his mouth closed, his ring finger still vacant. Barber's first season on the sidelines started with a series of verbal hand grenades launched at Manning and Coughlin - and finished with both of Tiki's record-setting feet in his mouth. Barber continued his pointed critiques of Coughlin, suggesting in his autobiography that the disciplinarian coach drove him into retirement. And he traded barbs with Manning during training camp. Given their success at raising champions, if Archie and Olivia Manning had produced girls, they probably would've named them Venus and Serena. Instead, they had Peyton and Eli, who grew up, became Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks and went from boys to Manning. In the annals of famous brotherhood, this accomplishment is off the charts. No other brothers can compare. In the political world, the royal family was the Kennedys, except only John got his own airport. In the musical world, where the Jacksons ruled, only Michael could hold a tune for very long. In the sports world, Peyton won a Super Bowl and Eli won a Super Bowl. Think about that for a moment. You can have your 100 points in a game, or 56-game hitting streak, or undefeated season. Having brothers go 2-for-2 in back-to-back years in the big game and both win MVP is the record we'll never see matched in our lifetime. Feb 6 It can be lonely for champions. Osi Umenyiora certainly knows that. The star defensive end for the Super Bowl-winning New York Giants is the only member of the team at the Pro Bowl. Yes, the champs have all of one Pro Bowler. "It sounds incredible. There's no better feeling than being world champions," OUenyiora said after the NFC's practice Tuesday. "I'm a little sad that no teammates made it with me, but I'll represent for New York. I watched it on TV this morning and I cried when I saw them celebrating. Saw Mike (Strahan) and the coaches. I love those guys so much." Brandon Jacobs was one of the many Giants getting teammates to autograph something. Players were milling around excitedly. Some shot video of a Giants Stadium worker painting the Super Bowl XLII logo on the wall outside the locker room. Former Giants running back Charles Way, the team's director of player development, was the most popular man in the room. He carried the ring sizer to make sure the soon-to-be-designed championship rings fit properly. No, Tuesday was not a normal last day of work for the Giants. "Yeah, this is usually a quiet, slow day," Jacobs said. "Not today. This is the best." In
the wee hours after Super Bowl XLII, at a private party at the Giants' hotel,
Eli Manning - quiet, reserved Eli - took the stage with brother Cooper and delivered
a rousing rendition of "New York, New York." "It was the highlight of the evening,"
Archie Manning, the NFL's most famous father, said Tuesday with a kind smile.
"That was a pretty good show there." To see his son belt out one of the famous
lyrics from "New York, New York" - If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere
- before 120 people meant so much to the elder Manning. "The thing we're proudest
of as parents is how Eli dealt with the tough times," Archie said. Now, 36 hours
after Eli stunned the Patriots with a two-minute drive for the ages, Archie seemed
truly humbled by his sons' success. A year ago, Peyton was the Super Bowl MVP
for the Colts. Now, Eli. Super
Bowl MVP Eli Manning - the team's resident shy guy - pumped a fist in the
air as his float snaked up Broadway. He smiled as thrilled fans yelled out his
name while a blizzard of confetti rained down from the gray skies. "On behalf
of this team I wanted to tell you how proud we are to bring a championship to
New York City," Manning said at City Hall Plaza, where he and the other players
were presented with keys to the city. Giants
faithful played hooky or took sick days. They rose before dawn, or didn't
sleep at all. They stood for hours against metal barriers, stacked more than 20
deep along the Canyon of Heroes on Broadway. The Rev. James H. Cooper, rector
at Trinity Episcopal Church on Broadway, canceled his afternoon service, donned
a Giants cap and a gold ecclesiastical cape and, from atop a ladder on the church
steps, waved a Giants poster and a gold thurible smoking with incense. Michael Strahan almost missed history. He could have missed all this. He could have missed being honored in a way that only the greatest of our heroes -- astronauts and war veterans and icons like Nelson Mandela -- are honored in New York City. If things had gone the way Michael Strahan briefly thought he wanted them to go last summer, he would have never joined their ranks. He would have been watching Tuesday's ticker-tape parade from his living room in Southern California. (Note - Video at this story link). The
Giants' post-Super Bowl merriment reached its peak today as they were feted
at two celebrations in two states as hundreds of thousands of raucous fans cheered
the men who brought a championship back to Giants Stadium after a 17-year drought.
In the morning, the Giants received a ticker tape parade up the famed Canyon of
Heroes in lower Manhattan, then received keys to the city in a ceremony at City
Hall. They then returned to the stadium, where an estimated 20,000 fans watched
another ceremony and sounded as loud as the much larger crowd across the Hudson
River. (Note - Photos at this story link). Plaxico Burress played through ankle and knee injuries all season but the Super Bowl hero took himself out of the lineup for the victory parade in Manhattan Tuesday. Burress, who caught the game-winning TD with 35 seconds left in the Giants' upset victory over the Patriots, managed to limp his way through the celebration later in the day at Giants Stadium. Burress revealed after the Super Bowl that he'd slipped in the hotel shower last Monday and sprained his MCL. The injury caused him to miss practices Super Bowl week but as he has done all season, Burress gutted it out on Sunday. Burress, who tied a Giants playoff record with 11 catches in the NFC title game win over Green Bay, didn't attend the parade in Manhattan and was seen limping in the stadium tunnel after the rally at the Meadowlands. Burress did manage to get up and execute a few dance moves for Giants fans at the afternoon rally. Steve
Spagnuolo made sure to stay in town long enough to ride a float in the Super
Bowl parade and attend the rally before an estimated crowd of 20,000 fans at Giants
Stadium. At both stops, the architect of the Giants' dominating defense heard
the same plea: "One more year." But Spagnuolo left Giants Stadium Tuesday afternoon,
hopped a private jet and went to Washington, where he was to meet with Redskins
owner Daniel Snyder Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. Spagnuolo spoke by phone
with Snyder for nearly 90 minutes Monday night after the Giants returned from
Arizona. Kawika Mitchell a year ago signed a one-year, $1 million deal, making this past season a look-see for player and team. The Giants no doubt liked what they saw from the consistent and rugged Mitchell, who fit snugly on the field and in the locker room and wants to stay. He probably will. Free safety Gibril Wilson wanted a long-term deal last year but instead as a restricted free agent played for $1.3 million. He put together a solid season and, unless he prices himself out of the Giants' budget, should return. Other key players set to become free agents are strong safety James Butler, linebacker Reggie Torbor, running back Derrick Ward and quarterback Jared Lorenzen. Bill
Belichick preaches the team concept. It starts with him, he often says when
his New England Patriots don't play to expectations - he has to coach better,
the team has to play better. But on Sunday night at University of Phoenix Stadium,
as his defense stood on the field for the last play of the season, Belichick was
not on the sidelines. He was headed for the locker room. What Belichick did miss
was the chance to stand with his players - his team, the one that he misses no
chance to dress down nor remind that no one is more important as the whole - as
they lost together, just as they had won together 18 times this season. Feb 5 They put Eli in the right place - A week before the Super Bowl, New York Magazine put this story up:
New Jersey won't be left out of the New York Giants' Super Bowl celebration. The team will celebrate at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, following an 11 a.m. ticker-tape parade in New York City. John Samerjan, spokesman for the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, said the event will be free and feature players, coaches and officials. Stadium gates C and D will open for the Tuesday celebration at 2:15 p.m., with the program start shortly after the arrival of the Giants team buses. The Giants come back across the river Tuesday, come back for a parade through the Canyon of Heroes, the first for the city since the Yankees last won the World Series seven-and-a-half years ago. The Giants, even coming from Jersey, do it as more a team of New York than they have ever been. They do it because of the Super Bowl game they played against the Patriots, one watched by more people than any game in history, because of that drive at the end, because of the way they laid out 18-0 the way they laid out Tom Brady.. According to multiple reports, Redskins owner Daniel Snyder and executive vice president of football operations Vinny Cerrato will interview Spagnuolo for the team's head-coaching position either tonight after the parade in Manhattan and the rally at Giants Stadium or tomorrow when the Giants' offseason truly begins. The Giants will do all they can to dissuade Spagnuolo from leaving by likely offering him more money, but they won't give him Tom Coughlin's job. So if Spagnuolo wants to be a head coach, there's not a whole lot they can do. No one understands what the Giants -- particularly quarterback Eli Manning -- did for themselves Sunday night better than Phil Simms. The MVP of Super Bowl XXI welcomes the Super Bowl XLII MVP and all of this season's Giants into the exclusive club occupied by the 1986 and '90 teams that won championships. Forever Giants, like Simms and Bill Parcells, Lawrence Taylor and Mark Bavaro, Ottis Anderson and Carl Banks. Asked yesterday about welcoming the newest members to the franchise's championship club, Bavaro, the former tight end, voiced mixed emotions. Even
in retirement, Ernie Accorsi couldn't avoid the kind of second-guessing that's
made New York fans famous. Accorsi, the Giants former general manager, was sitting
with his children in a section of the team's rowdy fans Sunday during the final,
heart-stopping moments of Super Bowl XLII. When Eli Manning, Accorsi's hand-picked
franchise passer, overthrew a wide-open Plaxico Burress during a critical Big
Blue drive, a nearby fan wheeled around to Accorsi and screamed: "Your quarterback
just cost us a chance at the world championship!" When Manning followed that a
few minutes later by throwing the game-winning touchdown to Burress in the Giants'
epic 17-14 upset of the Patriots, that same fan had a much different reaction. As
Eli Manning, Most Villified Player turned Most Valuable Player, drove the
Giants to a championship-winning touchdown in the final minute of Super Bowl XLII,
television cameras peeked at nervous team president John Mara, who reached into
his shirt pocket on just about every snap of that fateful drive. "I had a little
medal this nun sent me," he said. "She sent me a great letter a couple of days
ago with this medal of the Blessed Virgin, and she said, 'I guarantee you this
will bring you luck.' I did reach in for that. Did they actually show that on
TV?" Television captures almost everything, John. Just ask Britney. Giants
QB Eli Manning works on two drills designed to help him escape the clutches
of a defender and pick up a receiver downfield. It certainly looked like a schoolyard
play, one drawn up in the dirt and not in the meeting room of some NFL team. But
despite the spontaneity of perhaps the greatest play in Super Bowl history, there
was a little planning that went into it. Eli Manning barely got any sleep Sunday night. Bleary-eyed yesterday morning, Manning said there was only one thing about him that had changed. "I'm a Super Bowl champion," he said less than 12 hours after hoisting the Lombardi Trophy, as well as the MVP trophy, for leading the Giants to a 17-14 win over the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII. "I'm happy today, I'm fired up and I'm going to enjoy this moment. But you want to have this feeling again. "I want to become a better quarterback. That's my goal." The Giants may have arrived late, but arrive, they did, with three impressive playoff wins on the road and a 14-4 record after an 0-2 start. They had 11 rookies on their active roster for the Super Bowl, thanks to a strong draft by first-year GM Jerry Reese, and except for defensive end Michael Strahan, wide receiver Amani Toomer and punter Jeff Feagles, they have no significant players nearing retirement. Manning is only 27, four years into his career, and has proved he can handle any kind of situation. Jerry
Reese made a lot of good moves in his first year as the Giants' general manager.
But one of his latest - that five-year, $30 million extension for defensive lineman
Justin Tuck - also was one of his best. "The price was going to go way up after
last night," Reese said Monday as the Giants basked in the glory of their Super
Bowl upset of the Patriots on Sunday night. Eli Manning was named the most valuable
player, and rightfully so after leading his team on that dramatic, improbable
83-yard touchdown drive for the win. But lots of people, even many of his teammates,
thought Tuck was the best player on the field during the 17-14 win. The team returned to Giants Stadium last night at 7:34 as legends after leaving as longshots. The four buses pulled up to the stadium surrounded by a police escort, with about 200 fans waiting for them. Coughlin rode in the first row, waving to the fans. The team got off the buses wearing their championship hats. Some raced to their cars, others stopped to chat with reporters. "I think everybody should win one of these," Toomer said. "I guess to win it in this city is probably going to be great. I'm really looking forward to the parade. If anybody's on the fence about going, go - it's going to be a great time." Burress concurred.
When
Manning returned to his hotel room Sunday night, he said he was still far
too excited and energized to sleep. He watched the game again and then watched
the highlights. Still, it wasn't enough. He kept replaying plays. As he says,
that's just his personality. He talked yesterday about continuing to get better.
At 27, that might be a frightful thought for the rest of the league. He did get
to enjoy one part of his MVP experience: For winning the MVP, he won his choice
of a brand-new Cadillac. As an oversized checklist from which to choose was brought
out, Manning hesitated for a minute. At the top of the list, the Escalade, 14
miles per gallon for the regular model. Finally it looked like he would rub his
success in. But as has become usual with Manning, there was a catch. "I'll take
the hybrid," he said sheepishly. "I know it's coming out in the summer, so I want
the first one." It
wasn't that long ago, actually mid-December, weeks before the Giants got on
their world championship run, when it looked like Tom Coughlin and Eli Manning,
after years of trying, just didn't have that special something it takes to make
it in New York. No coach and quarterback in the NFL had ever been ridiculed more
than Coughlin and Manning. That's what made it even sweeter Monday that they were
at the day-after news conference for the winning coach and Super Bowl MVP with
a championship over the imperfect Patriots. The struggles were just part of the
process. Preparation for the 2008 season officially begins Friday when Giants GM Jerry Reese assembles his staff of scouts and coaches to discuss the upcoming draft. Evaluations of players on the current roster will soon follow and two weeks down the road is the NFL Combine in Indianapolis. As the Giants ate their first breakfast together as Super Bowl Champions yesterday, Reese was already making plans to build an even stronger team to defend the franchise's latest Vince Lombardi trophy. The Giants' upset of the Patriots forever will be seared into the memories of sports fans in New Jersey and New York, but they won't be the only ones. Super Bowl XLII was a national phenomenon, easily setting viewership records for a U.S. sports event and attracting the second-largest audience for a measured sports or entertainment program. No one came out of this week looking worse than Bill Belichick, who was dogged with Spygate not only rearing its head again two days before the game, but with even more dramatic allegations that he videotaped a Rams walkthrough before the Super Bowl in 2001 surfacing Saturday. Adding to that was his bizarre departure from the field to the locker room with one second still remaining in the game and his players still on the sideline. It's something that'll surely further dim his already-dark image. Had they won a fourth Super Bowl title, the Patriots would have been mentioned in the same sentence with the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers. Not by me. They are not a great team. The measure of greatness in the NFL is not based on wins and losses, but on dominance over a long period of time, with Hall of Famers manning the key positions. How many future Hall of Fame players, homegrown through the Patriots' system, are there on any of New England's Super Bowl championship teams? I can think of only one - quarterback Tom Brady. Notes, anecdotes and statistics from the Giants' exhilarating and incredible 17-14 victory over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII - The No. 5 Giants are the lowest-seeded NFC team to win the Super Bowl since the NFL began seeding teams in 1990. The previous low was a second-seeded team. Feb 4 Giants are the Super Bowl Champs with a 17-14 win over unbeaten New England.
ESPN - Eli, monster defense power Giants to shocking Super Bowl victory. Giants.com - Giants are World Champions! BostonGlobe - Brady had no more tricks up his sleeve. BostonGlobe - The pressure no doubt got to them. BostonGlobe - In the end, it was all for naught. BostonGlobe - 18 and done. BostonGlobe - Perfectly brutal. BostonGlobe - Burress was a man of his words. BostonGlobe - Manning is on task and on target. Newsday - Giants beat Patriots to win Super Bowl. Newsday - Amazing Eli outduels Golden Boy Brady. Newsday - Vindicated Eli Manning named Super Bowl MVP. Newsday - Unlikely hero Tyree makes catch of a lifetime. Newsday - Spagnuolo to interview. Newsday - Despite TD catch, Moss only partially effective. Newsday - Giants' pressure defense kept Patriots grounded. Newsday - Patriots' defense let it slip away. NYDailyNews - Giants stun Patriots to win Super Bowl. NYDailyNews - Plaxico Burress backs up guarantee. NYDailyNews - David Tyree catches on in Super way. NYDailyNews - When the heat was on, Eli Manning kept Giants, self cool. NYDailyNews - Eli Manning, David Tyree show why Giants are Super this night. NYDailyNews - It's an early exit for Bill Belichick. NYDailyNews - Patriots are 'shocked, heartbroken' and 18-1. NYDailyNews - Big rush to endorse cheating. NYDailyNews - Giants coaches outclass the masters. NYDailyNews - Tom Brady all bunched up. NYDailyNews - Giants pass rush too much for Tom Brady, Patriots to handle. NYDailyNews - Wait for ring is finally over for Michael Strahan, Amani Toomer. NYDailyNews - Joe Buck, Troy Aikman make right calls. NYDailyNews - Team Daily News' Super Bowl XLII Blog. StarLedger - Historic final drive wins title for Giants. StarLedger - Burress prediction not far off. StarLedger - Ends beat the odds. StarLedger - Moss says Giants' DBs were 'ordinary'. StarLedger - For once Brady comes up mortal. StarLedger - Webster's big play made on big stage. StarLedger - Patriots can't cheat their fate. TheRecord - MVP Eli leads Giants. TheRecord - The 'Big Az' lingers on. TheRecord - Fox announcing team finally kind to Giants. TheRecord - Eli secures spot in history. TheRecord - A huge win for the ages. TheRecord - DEE-fense gives fans a tremendous boost. TheRecord - Big Blue's defense stands tall. TheRecord - Giants' parade. NYPost - Big Blue authors biggest of upsets. NYPost - Terrific Tyree helps Jints catch Super Dream. NYPost - Plax comes up big when it counts. NYPost - Eli delivers a perfect ending. NYPost - Boss' big play gets job done. NYPost - Giant defense turns juggernaut into patsies. NYPost - Tuck, Spags enjoy plenty of sack-cess. NYPost - Amazing march. NYPost - Eli heaps praise on Coughlin. NYPost - Giants win one for '72 Dolphins. NYPost - Shame game. NYPost - Pats fumble away shot at immortality. Feb
3 Super
Bowl Info.
NFL
News Feb
2 A Tale of Three Quarterbacks:
Eli vs. the Legends. TE Jeremy Shockey arrived in town Friday, deciding after all to attend Sunday's Super Bowl. Shockey remains on crutches following an operation to repair a broken fibula suffered in the Dec. 16 loss to Washington. He originally planned not to attend the game because he did not want to be a distraction, nor did he want to stand too long on crutches. With media availability over, he does not need to worry about the distraction element. The Giants have not determined whether Shockey will stand on the sidelines, where he could be in jeopardy because of limited mobility, or sit in the stands. His mother also will attend the game. In
preparing for the most important game of his NFL career, Plaxico Burress got
virtually no practice time. The Giants' eighth-year receiver was listed as having
missed practice yesterday because of ankle and knee injuries, though the media
pool report said he did some light work during individual and red-zone drills.
He's listed as questionable after missing the team portion of all three practices
the team conducted here, but is expected to play. Bill Belichick sounded almost satisfied yesterday when the Patriots finished their final practice for tomorrow night's Super Bowl XLII against the Giants. Tom Brady's right ankle crept more and more toward footnote status in the practice report filed by the pool reporter able to watch the Patriots' practice. Per NFL rules, one reporter, chosen by the Pro Football Writers Association, has access to New England's practices. Receiver Jabar Gaffney's shoulder was well enough for him to participate fully in team drills yesterday. And Jim Brown talked with the Patriots beforehand. "We're ready to roll," Belichick said. "We're ready as we're going to be." Sam Madison told the young guys how fast Randy Moss is. He warned them, actually, and reminded them that covering Moss would be unlike defending any other player in the NFL. So, when the Dec. 29 game at Giants Stadium was over, did any of the young defensive backs tell him he was right? "Yeah," Madison said quickly and flatly the other day. "A lot of guys came up to me and said, 'Sam, I'm glad you told me and warned me.' They would have had no clue."
If
the Patriots beat the Giants tomorrow and complete their run through a perfect
NFL season, it will be one of the greatest feats ever in sports. It will be as
monumental as Roger Bannister's sub-4:00 mile. As Herculean as Sir Edmund Hillary's
assault on Mount Everest. As dominant as Mark Spitz winning seven gold medals
in the 1972 Munich Games. However, a perfect season by the Patriots, capped by
a fourth Super Bowl title, should be more closely associated with another milestone
- Barry Bonds' home run record. Why? They're both tainted. Should the Giants take a shot at Tom Brady's leg? The quarterback's right ankle will be sitting out there in plain view, wrapped or unwrapped, a giant bull's-eye for the targeting. And if Tom Brady goes down, if Matt Cassel is suddenly standing in the pocket for the Patriots, then this Super Bowl on Sunday becomes a very different sort of affair. It
hasn't just been one of the story lines at this Super Bowl, it has been a
huge story line for the whole Giants' season, that Tom Coughlin has, at the age
of 61, turned into a good guy. People have jumped on that the way they used to
jump on the idea that he wasn't a good guy. Or a good football coach. Extreme
makeover, New York Giants edition!. Feb
1 Give
him a chance for a do-over, and Phil Simms would follow the game plan of Jeremy
Shockey. Benched by injury and hobbled by crutches, he too would have skipped
the Super Bowl. Shockey, the Giants' four-time Pro Bowl tight end and resident
lightning rod, has apparently told the organization as of Thursday that he won't
be coming to Arizona for Sunday's game against New England. Still on crutches
from surgery to repair a broken fibula sustained in the Dec. 16 loss to Washington,
Shockey can't risk further injury by standing on the sideline and can't stand
further heartache by being left out of this stirring postseason run. This
was nearly a month ago on SportsNet New York's "Daily News Live" set. Two
normally even-tempered former Giants, Brandon Short and Tim Hasselbeck, were in
a heated argument over whether the Giants were better off without Jeremy Shockey.
Hasselbeck said they were. Short said they were not. With
just two days to go until the Super Bowl, neither Plaxico Burress' ankle nor
his mouth is the biggest issue anymore. Now it's his knee. The Giants receiver's
left knee swelled up on him Thursday afternoon, forcing him to abort his attempt
to practice with the Giants at the Arizona Cardinals' facility in Tempe. Eli Manning will be compared to older brother Peyton throughout Sunday's Super Bowl. In fact, you can bet on it. Las Vegas casinos have added Manning vs. Manning to their growing family of proposition bets, an overall group that will account for 25 percent of the $100 million expected to legally be wagered on Super Bowl XLII. "They've become a fan favorite because you can have action on every play," said Jason McCormick, sports book director for Red Rock Casino, whose group of 14 houses put up three Eli-Peyton possibilities (see chart). "You can bet on some crazy stuff and cheer for odd things to happen." When his brother won Super Bowl XLI, it stirred something inside Eli. "It definitely made me want it even more," Manning said. "As proud as I was, it just kinda put something in my heart also, saying, 'This is where you want to be, and where you want to get. It sparked something in me. I didn't know when it would happen, but I knew I wanted to get to this point and have a shot to win a championship." There were times when New York doubted him, ridiculed him, gave up on him. He never stopped believing in himself. "The most important thing as a quarterback, you never lose your confidence," Manning said. "You never lose that thought that you can make every throw, that you have the ability to be here, and that's something I never lost." Tom Brady, who has won three Super Bowls, and Manning's brother Peyton, the MVP of the 2007 Super Bowl as quarterback for the winning Indianapolis Colts, make about $9 million each a year from endorsements, Pilson said. With a good Super Bowl, "Eli could elevate himself to those kinds of numbers -- if he wants to," Neal Pilson, president of Pilson Communications, a White Plains, N.Y.-based consulting company and a former president of CBS Sports said. "But he may not want to spend the whole off-season making commercials or doing endorsements." There
he was, sounding not at all like a grizzled, hard-nosed coach but, dare we
say it, a football romantic. Few envisioned the Giants getting this far but Coughlin
says he did. "Every minute," he revealed. "Every minute. Every dream. Dreams are
good. I tell the players 'It's OK. You can dream.' And when they come true, it
helps." Coughlin a dreamer? On Sunday, he officially becomes a Super Bowl coach
when the Giants face the Patriots, a testament to a startling image makeover,
changing from a coach few wanted to play for into a coach who has earned the devotion
of his players. Not
too many Giants knew what they had with Ahmad Bradshaw as a running back.
Even fewer knew how to react when the rookie started talking in the huddle after
getting a chance to play. "He came out in Buffalo and said, 'Block it up and I'm
gonna take it to the house!"' tackle David Diehl said, laughing at the memory.
"And then he went out and did it. You usually don't hear stuff like that from
a rookie. But we love to hear it." Bradshaw's 88-yard touchdown run against the
Bills sealed the Giants' playoff-clinching win, as well as his place in the offense.
This
is always one of the great fears for athletes, especially the ones who have
never won it all, the fear that they will retire one season before one like the
Giants are having. That they will miss out on the ride of their lives. Only Michael
Strahan, the best the Giants have had on defense since Lawrence Taylor, knows
how close he came to retiring last summer. Michael
Strahan and receiver Amani Toomer, the only two Giants remaining from the
Super Bowl XXXV team that lost to Baltimore, have been passionate in trying to
get the point across to their teammates that it's not good enough just to get
here. It's all about what happens on Sunday. "Well, we had a good practice [Wednesday],
but there are still two more to go," Toomer said. "I'm optimistic that we'll have
the right mindset going into this game." Every kick returner in the NFL dreams of opening the Super Bowl the way the Bears' Devin Hester did last year: With a long return for a touchdown. Domenik Hixon would love to do the same on Sunday. But he also has one more goal in mind, should the Giants receive the opening kickoff: Catch the ball. "We were actually talking about how many flashes will go off," Hixon, the Giants returner, said yesterday at the team's hotel. "There will be a lot of them." Hixon said there's nothing he or the coaches have done to prepare him for that moment. "There's nothing we can do," he said. Hixon, who was claimed off waivers from the Broncos in October, has been the Giants' returner since filling in for Ahmad Bradshaw in the Dec. 29 loss to the Patriots. In that game, Hixon had a 74-yard return for a touchdown on a short kick by New England. Actress Kate Mara, who latest film, "Transsiberian," premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last week, is the granddaughter of the late Wellington Mara. Her father, Chris, is the Giants' vice president of player evaluation, and her mom, Kathleen, is Art Rooney's granddaughter. Kate, 24 has two loves, football and acting and sometimes the two cross paths as they did in her critically acclaimed role in "We Are Marshall." This is how change happens in sports sometimes, because of a ball in the air, because it decides to fall one way instead of the other. The new general manager of the Giants, Jerry Reese, thought the Giants needed a new kicker. He eventually went with Lawrence Tynes. Rattle Tom Brady? The Patriots found the Giants' suggestion preposterous Thursday. "To put himself in a situation where he might be rattled?" Randy Moss mused. "I think if you take the five offensive linemen out of the equation and make him snap the ball to himself and let (Michael) Strahan and them rush, you'll probably rattle him. Six on 11 … you'll probably rattle him. That's about it." Actually, Brady was without his starting right guard and tackle the last night of the regular season when the Giants came after him with a pass rush that produced a league-high 53 sacks. They'll have to do a better job with both Stephen Neal and Nick Kaczur back in place Sunday. That night, the Giants got one sack - on a Reggie Torbor blitz - but managed to hit Brady eight other times. And he still lit them up for 356 yards and two TDs. Let's
travel back in time to draft day on April 15, 2000. The Giants were heading
into their Super Bowl season and Ernie Accorsi was looking for help anywhere but
at quarterback, where Kerry Collins had established himself as the first solid
starter since Phil Simms. Back then, the Giants drafted these six players before
the Patriots picked Michigan's quarterback in the sixth round. Don't be too tough
on Accorsi, because all the other NFL general managers made the same mistake about
Tom Brady. Tom Brady was a redshirt freshman and the best student in Elwood Reid's English 125 class on the first floor of Angell Hall, which overlooks the grassy Diag in the center of the U of M campus in Ann Arbor, and at the time there was good reason for his teacher's concern. The kid from San Mateo, Calif., didn't fit the mold. He was too tall and too skinny for the prototypical Michigan quarterback. The coach who recruited him, Gary Moeller (Reid's coach eight years before), had been fired, leaving Lloyd Carr in charge. And the two QBs ahead of him on the depth chart, Scott Dreisbach and Brian Griese, had loads of talent and experience -- real Michigan guys. A rehabbed thuggish jock whose duties as an offensive lineman for the Wolverines morphed into a career as a thoughtful novelist and English instructor at his alma mater, Reid may also have been the last person to warn Tom Brady that he might need a fall-back career. None
of the Patriots players knew exactly what they were getting with Randy Moss
after the team pulled off a trade with Oakland to bring him to New England last
April. Bad behavior on and off the field had followed him through college and
the pros. In Oakland, Moss became a disinterested bystander on a team going nowhere.
In his final season with the Raiders, he caught 42 passes for 553 yards and three
touchdowns, pedestrian numbers for one of the most prolific pass catchers in the
history of the league. Stephen Neal will be at right guard Sunday when the Patriots face the Giants in Super Bowl XLII, having become a fixture on what might be football's best offensive line. Three New England blockers -- center Dan Koppen, left tackle Matt Light and left guard Logan Mankins -- were named to the Pro Bowl, and Neal might have made a run at joining them if not for a nagging shoulder injury that left him inactive for half the Patriots' games. Quite an impressive turn for a guy who didn't play college football. While at Cal State-Bakersfield, Neal won 151 of 161 wrestling matches, finishing fourth and second his first two seasons and then winning the NCAA heavyweight title as a junior and senior. Jan
31 In
an emotional and wide-ranging 90-minute phone interview with The Record on
Wednesday, his first newspaper interview since the Giants launched this wildly
improbable postseason run, Tiki Barber spoke of the day he helped save Coughlin's
job, his private and public quarrels with the coach, his criticism of Eli Manning,
and the roiling brew of feelings he's negotiated since being cast as a pariah
whose absence is the very reason the Giants remained cohesive enough to land in
Super Bowl XLII. To a man, the Giants say they are not a better team without injured tight end Jeremy Shockey and that they wish he was here joining in this wild Super Bowl ride. One former Giants player, however, says Shockey was more trouble than he was worth, and those privy to the offensive inner-workings of the team are relieved he's not on the scene. "I've been there, I've been in that locker room, I know how guys feel, I know how people in that organization feel," Tim Hasselbeck, a Giants backup quarterback in 2005 and 2006, said yesterday on the "Mike and Murray Show" on Sirius Satellite Radio. "People there are relieved he's not around." Any
chance the Giants have of upsetting the unbeaten Patriots starts with the
offensive line. It must protect Manning when he throws and control the line of
scrimmage enough to make the running game a constant threat. As different as they
might be individually, the ability to think and react as a collective unit will
determine whether the Giants can consistently move the ball. The
coolest quarterback in the NFL is also one of the best in history at working
under pressure. They say Tom Brady is unflappable in the face of a pass rush and
impossible to rattle. On Super Sunday, the Giants plan to find out. "Yeah, he
is a cool guy and he's cool under pressure," said Giants linebacker Kawika Mitchell.
"But that's what they said about Tony Romo, also, that he's always back there
in the pocket, smiling. "I didn't see him smiling too much when we played him
last time." Prior
to their first practice of Super Bowl week, a few members of the defense were
thinking about the 38 points that the Patriots hung on them a month ago, and about
how having seen that record-setting offense live will have an impact on Sunday's
game. "There's some stuff you see on film you actually have to see firsthand,"
safety Gibril Wilson said. "The way Moss runs, the way Wes Welker has to be tackled,
the way you have to tackle Kevin Faulk, Brady's audibles. Those are things you
have to experience live, and we did that." Plaxico
Burress created another stir, and this time he did it without saying a word.
The Giants' receiver, who has become the center of a storm of Super Bowl hype,
drew the ire of the NFL yesterday morning when he showed up 31 minutes late for
the team's mandatory media session at the Giants' hotel. He eventually showed
up and talked for more than half an hour, but only after a Giants official pulled
him out of his room. Burress said he was late because he was having breakfast
with his wife, Tiffany, and 1-year-old son. However, he was spotted alone outside
the press conference ballroom about five minutes before the session began. Conventional wisdom says that the Giants are peaking at the right time, considering they were 4-4 over the second half of the regular season before going undefeated in the NFC playoffs. Of course, New England has been going at this undefeated thing a lot longer, since September. But could it be that the Patriots aren't peaking while the Giants are? Consider that New England won its first 10 games by an average of 25.4 points, and that figure includes a four-point nail-biter over Indianapolis. In eight games since, the Patriots' average winning margin is 10.1. New England won three of those games -- against Philadelphia, Baltimore and the Giants -- by three points apiece. Madison Hedgecock is certainly one of the most unsung heroes on the Giants. But as a rugged blocking fullback, he was like a gift from heaven when they claimed him off the waiver wire from the Rams after the first week of the season. "It's a hard experience to describe because of the way I was disrespected and smacked in the face, whatever you want to call it," Hedgecock said of his release from the Rams. "It's one of those 'How do you like it now' situations? I'm playing in the Super Bowl and the team I wasn't good enough to play for is not." For the second time in three weeks, the Giants will face a hot quarterback - and his even hotter girlfriend. Big Blue had no problem kicking sand in the face of beach bums Tony Romo and Jessica Simpson, but now they face the power couple of Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen in Super Bowl XLII. There's little debate over who is the better quarterback, and after talking to members of the Giants and Patriots, it seems there's also no contest between the NFL's two most famous gal pals. For three days, the Patriots did what they do best (aside from winning): They kept their mouths shut, refusing to be drawn into a war of words with the chatty Giants. Then came Wednesday, and Randy Moss did what he does best: He broke free from the pack and scored, mocking the Giants' dressed-in-black fashion statement. "Yeah, you're supposed to wear black to a funeral," the Patriots' star wide receiver said at the team hotel, adding, "We'll see who has black on after the game." In the buttoned-down world of the Patriots, that is borderline trash-talking. It came in response to the Giants' decision to wear black to Super Bowl XLII. They arrived Monday night in dark suits, explaining their odd choice of wardrobe this way: Business suits for a business trip.
Kevin
Faulk, the Patriots veteran running back, is what teammate Junior Seau calls
"The X Factor." " 'Instant offense,' that's what I call him," safety Rodney Harrison
said of Faulk. "He's the face of third down," Patriots' defensive end Ty Warren
said. "He's always been a guy where when the ball touches his hands magic happens,"
tackle Matt Light said. Scorned
as a back only good for running around the edge, an edge is exactly what Laurence
Maroney has developed. "I want to laugh at the reporters but I just hold it in,"
said the Patriots' running back, who didn't hold it in yesterday, fairly crowing
after rushing for 122 yards in consecutive postseason games. "Coming into the
game all you hear about is stopping (Tom) Brady in the pass," Maroney said. "I
like the way that sounds. "I want them to keep thinking like that and forget about
the running game, because that will make it better for me. I can slide through
a couple cracks and be alright."
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