This past Sunday the New York Giants won their fourth Super Bowl in franchise history.
They defeated the New England Patriots 21-17 in Super Bowl XLVI, the second successful Super Bowl win over the Patriots in four years.
Eli Manning won his second Super Bowl MVP award, and his second while going head-to-head with Tom Brady — who some claim to be the best Super Bowl quarterback of all time.
So where might that land Eli on the list? Maybe another topic for another day, but if he gets a third Super Bowl in his career then he can certainly be placed into that elite Super Bowl quarterback club.
The Giants finished the season 9-7 to squeeze into the playoffs before starting a long journey to Super Bowl XLVI. They then defeated the Falcons at home in the wild card round. Next came the seemingly unbeatable Green Bay Packers, number 1 seed overall and a record of 15-1. The Giants had no shot, right?
The Giants might be the most confident team in football, even though they sometimes play mediocre football, they can still defeat anybody on any given day.
After dominating the defending champion Packers they moved on to San Francisco where they were once again doubted, despite all the doubts they stunned the 49er’s in an overtime thriller. The NFC Championship earned them a spot in Super Bowl XLVI, where they were matched up with the Patriots, a rematch of when the Giants shocked the world in 2007 to beat the undefeated Patriots.
And once again they were the doubted, 2.5 point underdogs in the Super Bowl.
Sure, the Patriots were 13-3 in the regular season and were the number 1 seed in the AFC. But the Giants had just defeated three high quality teams in Atlanta, Green Bay, and San Francisco.
Plus, let’s not forget that one of the Patriots three regular season losses came from the New York Giants themselves.
Also, for the Patriots to be such a dominating team for all these years, I have never seen a team like the Giants have their number like they have, it is quite impressive.
So now the Giants come into another Super Bowl with the Patriots and once again they come into the game knowing that they will win, even when they were once again the underdogs.
The Giants have a lot of character; when they want to be the best team in football, they can turn it on like its nothing.
And to think that they came so close to not making the playoffs and finishing the season 8-8, not to mention that Coughlin was on the hot seat again this season.
The Giants are truly a remarkable story, never giving up.
Eli proved to the world that 2007 wasn’t a fluke, driving down the field again to beat the Patriots on a game winning drive for a second time.
The defense played great and lived up to the expectations that were set upon them. And of course, Coughlin coached like a stud. Somehow this guy always gets the job done. Maybe he just likes pressure because Coughlin thrives while on the hot seat.
Congrats to the Giants. You earned this Super Bowl. And to think, just how close we came to not even having football this season.
Tyler Rollason is a Winder-Barrow High School graduate and mass communications major at the University of West Georgia. You can e-mail comments about this column to
tyrollason@yahoo.com.
