Sun 10 Feb 2008
Mike Lupica with a nice article in the DN.
Doesn’t matter now. What matters is that the last Giants drive down the field is instantly and marvelously part of the permanent sports memory of the city. Even if the line was out of line. Even if the point spread had more to do with 18-0 than the way the Patriots had looked coming into this game, the Giants go in now with the underdog teams of all time.
These Giants, the run they just gave us, go in with the best sports stories of all time, and not just in New York.
Eli to Amani Toomer to start that last drive, for 11 yards. Eli handing it to Brandon Jacobs on fourth-and-1 and Jacobs grinding for two. Then the greatest single play of any Super Bowl, Eli Manning somehow breaking free from a rugby scrum, from underneath a pocket collapsing around him like a house of cards, setting himself, throwing the ball to David Tyree, whose hand will be pressing that ball to his helmet forever, a football picture for Giant fans like the baseball picture of Willie Mays catching Vic Wertz’s ball at the Polo Grounds in 1954.
Then Eli to Steve Smith after that.
Finally the sweetest spiral you will ever see, Eli to Plaxico Burress in the left corner of the end zone with 35 seconds left.
And you know something? It was an even better ending than you know.
NEW YORK – At 11:00, on a damp Tuesday morning, the city officially welcomed the New York Giants back home. But, make no mistake about it. Ever since the Giants’ buses pitted at the Meadowlands the night before, they have –both individually and collectively- been hailed at every turn. It wasn’t that New York won Super Bowl XLII against just another AFC team. Less than 48 hours ago, they had played the previously-unbeaten New England Patriots, considered by many to be the best in NFL history. New England had won each of their 16 regular-season games and, in fact, had beaten New York, 38-35, at the Meadowlands in Week 17 to clinch that mark of perfection. With two more victories in the postseason, the Patriots ran their overall record to a sterling 18-0. That fact was not lost among the million-and-a-half Giants fans, several of whom proudly waved 18-1 placards as the numerous floats crawled along Broadway, or what is simply known as ‘The Canyon of Heroes’.