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Giants living the dream after Super Bowl upset

BY BOB GLAUBER | bob.glauber@newsday.com

February 5, 2008

CHANDLER, Ariz. - The sleep-deprived smiles were everywhere at the Giants' hotel.

Not even 12 hours after their historic 17-14 win over the unbeaten Patriots in Super Bowl XLII, the Giants still were numb over what had just happened.

"It's what you dream about as a kid, to win the Super Bowl," guard Rich Seubert said. "This is the greatest feeling in the world."

And if there were any lingering doubts about whether it actually had happened -- surely, Giants fans were pinching themselves to make sure it wasn't a dream -- the Giants awakened early yesterday morning to the realization that yes, the Super Bowl was really theirs.

"What an unbelievable feeling, to know you've done something that no one thought you could do," tackle David Diehl said. "Nobody gave us a chance, but we stuck together, and we got it done. We're world champions."

The Giants completed a meteoric rise from mediocrity. They beat only one team with a winning record during the regular season, the 9-7 Redskins, and their 10 regular-season wins were against teams with a collective record that was 40 games under .500. They went 0-4 against the Cowboys, Packers and Patriots in the regular season, giving up 149 points. But they beat all three in the postseason, allowing 51 points, and became the second team to win a Super Bowl with six losses, matching the 1988 49ers.

The Giants still were a giddy bunch the day after pulling off one of the biggest upsets in Super Bowl history and ruining the Patriots' dreams of a 19-0 season. "Can you believe it?" defensive lineman Justin Tuck asked rhetorically to a reporter. "Can you believe we did this? What a feeling. What an unbelievable feeling."

Tuck said it first sunk in when he was in the shower after the game at University of Phoenix Stadium. "I'm like, 'This really happened.' "

Tuck said he was so pumped up during the game that when he finally started to calm down at halftime, he vomited in the locker room and needed intravenous fluids to continue playing.

"I hated [the Patriots] when I played the game," he said. "I don't know why, but some of the things they were saying, it just made me play with hate. I was out of my mind."

With cooler heads prevailing yesterday morning, the Giants could let the moment soak in before they flew home to New Jersey yesterday afternoon. It is another day of celebration this morning with a ticker-tape parade in the streets of New York.

"This is what you play for," said wide receiver Plaxico Burress, who caught the winning touchdown pass with 35 seconds left in the fourth quarter. "To say you're the best that there is, baby. This is what it's all about."

Even the unflappable Eli Manning was in overdrive yesterday.

"I'm fired up and I'm going to enjoy this moment," said Manning, the Super Bowl Most Valuable Player. "You still want to do it again. You still want to have this feeling again."

Giants coach Tom Coughlin, in line for a contract extension in the coming weeks, spent the morning doing interviews at a media briefing in downtown Phoenix before returning to the team hotel to be with his team for the trip home.

On his way to the bus, Coughlin ran into Lt. Col. Gregory Gadson, an Iraq war veteran who has become an adopted member of the team this season. Gadson lost his legs as the result of a roadside bombing last May 7, and he addressed the players the night before the game. Coughlin embraced Gadson.

"We did it, Greg," he said. "We did it."

"You were fantastic," Gadson told the coach.

"We'll try and do this a few more times," Coughlin said. "But let's enjoy this one first."

How special was this one? Maybe the most special of all.

"This was bigger than our win over the Bills in the 1991 Super Bowl," said former Giants tight end Howard Cross, now a radio and television analyst. "We beat the Bills, but this team beat one of the greatest quarterbacks ever and the highest-scoring offense in history. Plus, the fact that they were unbeaten makes it even more special."