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Giants made themselves into champs

Johnette Howard

February 5, 2008

CHANDLER, Ariz.

That the Giants' hotel was still standing yesterday morning after a raucous postgame celebration that stretched on until 4 a.m. ranked as only the second-biggest upset they pulled off as a team in the previous 24 hours.

As they happily milled around their hotel, waiting to leave and fly back to New York for their ticker-tape parade today down the Canyon of Heroes, the afterglow of their 17-14 shocker against the unbeaten New England Patriots still hadn't worn off. But the reason how and why they won was crystal clear.

A year ago, they were a bickering team with a coach seen as too uptight and a quarterback who was too mistake-prone and laid-back. Now they're a team that pulled off a historic upset and the owner of one of the NFL's all-time unlikeliest postseason runs, because their stars and their no-names alike outplayed the Patriots. And their coach, Tom Coughlin, who was on the hot seat earlier this season after an 0-2 start, outwitted New England coach Bill Belichick, the NFL's latest genius.

"When you play like a team," general manager Jerry Reese said, "this is what you get."

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Then, like everyone else, Reese broke into a grin and muttered "Unbelievable" again to no one in particular.

Defensive end Michael Strahan, who had exclaimed, "We shocked the world! We shocked ourselves!" immediately after the game, came sauntering by looking as bleary-eyed but serene as you'd expect from a 15-year vet who had just won what he called "a fat ring to wear around the rest of my life. "

Wideout Plaxico Burress, who was so overcome by the Giants' victory that he wept openly on the field, was limping around the hotel lobby holding a cup of coffee. A pair of suede bedroom slippers peeked out beneath the pants legs of his gray suit. His eyes were open only half-mast.

Ernie Accorsi, the general manager who drafted Manning four years ago and retired after last season, was spinning stories. as usual - the funniest one about finding the game so nerve-wracking that he ran out into the stadium concourse after a scrambling Manning overthrew a wide-open Burress with about nine minutes to play. Another anxious Giants fan already was out there and yelled at Accorsi.

"He said, 'Your quarterback just cost us the world championship!"' Accorsi said, "and by the end of the game, he was trying to kiss me on the lips."

The end of the game, of course, featured the 83-yard touchdown drive that Manning took the Giants on in the final 2:39 to win Super Bowl MVP honors he said he would rather share with the whole team.

Because this was a team win, all right - that was the thought that still stuck with you the morning after yesterday.

The Giants won because they played better than the Patriots at every position, from quarterback to offensive line, receivers to linebackers, their secondary to their relentless defensive line.

They won because their stars were better than the Patriots' stars, and they won because their young players who are still trying to make an NFL name for themselves - Steve Smith, Kevin Boss, Corey Webster - all played better than the Patriots' role players did.

The Patriots started nine Pro Bowl picks in the Super Bowl, and three of them were on the vaunted offensive line that was embarrassed all night by Strahan and fellow pass rushers Justin Tuck and Osi Umenyiora, the Giants' lone Pro Bowler.

The Patriots also had Brady, who was trying to tie Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw for most Super Bowl victories by a quarterback, four.

Does any of this figure? Unbelievable is right. A wild-card team with six losses defeated a club unbeaten in 18 games that was being called best ever? Manning coolly outdueled Brady, the NFL's ultimate closer?

David Tyree - the Giants' fourth-best wide receiver, a man who had four receptions all year - made the play that will go down as The Catch, that unforgettable, game-changing grab for the ages after Manning miraculously escaped the grasp of two Patriots linemen, then scrambled into the clear, then heaved the ball toward Tyree with a minute to play. Tyree somehow pinned the football against his helmet one-handed, then held on as he was falling backward and getting mauled by Patriots safety Rodney Harrison.

"A Hail Mary," Harrison called it.

"The ball just seemed to hang there in the lights forever," Manning remembered.

"BOY, I LOVE YOU TO DEATH!" Burress screamed as he helped Tyree up after his 32-yard gain set up Burress' winning 13-yard touchdown catch four plays later.

Barely 12 hours later, Burress took another sip of his coffee yesterday morning and half-said, half-sang, "We are the champions" as he walked toward the team airport bus.

New York has seen plenty of ticker-tape parades before today. But never for an unsung team that pulled together and made the impossible possible quite like this.