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Magical Giants couldn't be stopped

Shaun Powell

February 4, 2008

GLENDALE, Ariz.

Grown men ran around the field like kids scampering at recess. Inside an enclosed stadium, it rained heavily, with brightly colored confetti falling. Yes, when Super Bowl XLII ended Sunday night, there was chaos, as expected, and history. That, too.

But the winner wasn't undefeated.

The winner was undenied.

The winner was the Giants, who began the season 0-2 and running in the exact opposite direction from the New England Patriots. The winner won away from home for a remarkable 11th straight time. The winner stared down Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and eventually wore him down, too. The winner was led by a young quarterback named Eli Manning, who put together one of the all-time game-clinching drives in football history.

And then, madness.

Was Giants 17, Patriots 14 the biggest upset in NFL history? Let the debate begin. But let there be no question about this:

"It's the greatest victory in the history of this franchise," Giants owner John Mara said.

It's the third Super Bowl victory for this original NFL franchise, and definitely the one championship the franchise never anticipated. This time last year, the Giants were in recovery from yet another first-round playoff loss, weighing the future of coach Tom Coughlin, getting retirement signals from defensive end Michael Strahan and still waiting for Manning, better known as The Younger Brother, to grow up.

Interesting, then, how all three men, as it turned out, made the proudest moment in franchise history possible.

Coughlin worked up a clever game plan and prepared the Giants far better than Bill Belichick prepared the Patriots. The Giants, as they had all postseason, kept their mistakes to a minimum and figured out how to tame a Patriots offense that rolled up 400 yards a game during a record-setting NFL season. Strahan led a blitzing, relentless defensive charge that kept Brady on the turf. "Everybody said he couldn't get rattled," Antonio Pierce said. "I don't know if he got rattled. But he did get grass stains."

And after Brady put the Patriots ahead with an 80-yard fourth-quarter touchdown drive, Manning answered with an 83-yard drive in the final 2:39 that can be safely described as Joe Montana-ish. "That's the position you want to be in," Manning said.

It took 12 plays to reach a triumphant conclusion with 35 seconds left. The moment of truth occurred when Manning scrambled away from the pass rush and heaved a 32-yard pass that was caught -- on the top of his helmet -- by David Tyree, a forgotten receiver in the rotation who earlier caught a touchdown pass. That play will be crystallized in Super Bowl lore.

It came on third down, with the clock evaporating, with Manning running for his life, with Tyree reaching and snatching and digging his fingertips into leather and never letting go.

It was a schoolyard play, busted and broken, certainly not pretty but absolutely productive. It was thrown by a quarterback who was still flirting with inconsistent growing pains as little as six weeks ago. It was caught by a reserve receiver who lost his mother during the holidays and was better known for being a special-teamer.

"That play took a few years off my life," Strahan said.

Said Coughlin, "That play will go down as one of the biggest ever."

That play alone was not enough. All it did was put the Giants in position to win, and four plays later, Manning found Plaxico Burress alone in the end zone with 35 seconds left. With that, he joined his brother Peyton as a Super Bowl winner.

"How many quarterbacks could do what he did today?" asked receiver Amani Toomer.

Better question: how many teams could do what the Giants did? They held the Patriots to two TDs. Brady & Co. was used to getting that in a quarter. They beat Belichick, a smart coach who had two weeks to study. And they were the only team this season to beat the Pats, who had been 18-0 and counting ... their potential fourth Super Bowl title. But the Giants weren't. "We didn't treat them like an unbeaten team," Tyree said. "We played them like they were some regular guys."

Actually, the regular guys won. When this strange trip began for them, they had a coach and quarterback under siege, a defense that looked soft. But they straightened up, moved on and played beyond all expectations, including their own.

So the celebration, a party they hadn't planned, raged just as hard as the game they played. This game was not about being undefeated. This was about being unexpected and, over time, unforgotten.

"I told the guys that, other than family, when you realize you're NFL champions, there is no feeling that compares," Coughlin said.

No other Giants win, either.