False start: Giants' website proclaims win
Photo credit: David Pokress | Tom Coughlin viewing the last-minute action during the Giants and Packers game. (Dec. 4, 2011)
Giants videos
Super Bowl XLVI videos
Athlete and celebrity Super Bowl XLVI predictions
Top 11 Giants Super Bowl Moments
Ten plays that helped the Giants get to the Super Bowl
Giants-Patriots: Who has the edge?
Giants posters in Newsday
T-Rock's Take on the Giants
INDIANAPOLIS -- For a few minutes Saturday, the Giants already had won the Super Bowl.
Their website has a front page prepared for Sunday night and will publish it if the Giants do win Super Bowl XLVI. But Saturday -- for "a brief period," the NFL said -- that page went live before being taken down. "The Giants are Super Bowl Champions!" was the headline, with links to purchase official championship gear.
"It is common practice for both teams to create web pages in advance of the conference championship games and Super Bowl," the NFL said in a statement Saturday. "In this case, the hidden URL for the page was inadvertently available for a brief period of time while it was being positioned on the NFL server for possible post tomorrow night."
The Giants have been talking brashly about beating the Patriots all week. Antrel Rolle flatly said the Giants will win, although he did not guarantee it. And Chris Canty told New Yorkers to get ready for a victory parade Tuesday.
Must be true. He read it on the Internet.
Big finish?
The first word the Giants heard when they showed up at training camp will come full circle just before the start of the Super Bowl. Tom Coughlin did not reveal the entirety of his pregame message to the team, but he made sure to point out that it will finish with the theme that has prevailed the entire season: finish. "It was the first thing we hit them with," he said, "and it'll be the last thing they hear from us before they take the field."
In case of emergency . . .
Eli Manning has taken every snap this season, but if he has to leave the game, David Carr will take his place. If Carr has to leave, the Giants don't have a third quarterback. Or do they?
Punter Steve Weatherford is the team's emergency quarterback. And it obviously would have to be some kind of emergency for him to get under center.
"I'm an option guy," he joked. "I'm not really a pocket passer like Eli. I like to use my athleticism to make the defensive ends nervous. God forbid Eli jams his finger and David gets a cramp, they've been game-planning me this week. Be encouraged about that."
Giant stepsRolle has made a lot of noise this week. That's the way he's always been, said Kenny Phillips, who played with him at Miami. "He's crazy," Phillips said. "He's crazy, but he is very passionate about everything that he does. He wears his emotions on his chest, and he is just very outspoken." . . . Coughlin dismissed concerns about keeping the team in a downtown hotel near the center of Super Bowl hysteria. "There is a great build-up to this game and there are more people in the street than I can ever remember, which reminds you of what an exciting time this is," he said. "I think it's just a part of it. I don't have any problems or fears with that." . . . The team had a midnight curfew Friday and an 11 p.m. curfew Saturday night . . . RB Ahmad Bradshaw (foot) participated in Saturday's walk-through. "He looked fine, no soreness, nothing you could notice," Coughlin said . . . One of the four buses bringing the Giants to their workout Saturday broke down but was quickly replaced.
