Super Bowl News Roundup

The New York Post’s George Willis: “No doubt it was a total team effort. But the Giants defense, maligned early in the season, authored a performance that will rank as one of the best in the history of the franchise. Owner John Mara called it the ‘greatest win in Giants history.’ It may well have been the greatest defensive performance in Giants history considering the opposition and the setting.”

The New York Post’s Steve Serby: “Eli Manning will never be more perfect for New York than he was last night, when he was SuperMann, when he stood eyeball-to-eyeball with the great Tom Brady and shot him dead with the whole world watching.”

The Daily News’ Mike Lupica: “There will be other teams in New York, because there always are. There is always another team. This team goes with Namath’s Jets now and the ’69 Mets and Willis Reed, with anything the city has ever seen or will ever see. Never a bigger day than this, never a better Super Bowl than this.”

The Daily News’ Gary Myers: “A few weeks ago, Manning was a mess. On the last Sunday in November, he had four interceptions against the Vikings, three returned for touchdowns. In the middle of December, he had 35 incompletions against the Redskins. The next week in Buffalo, he fumbled five times and threw two interceptions. Could anybody at that time possibly have predicted he would be a better quarterback in the Super Bowl than Tom Brady?”

The New York Times’ Bill Pennington: “They conceded that Brady was the top player in the NFL. But all the other attention directed at Brady, the pop culture icon with the supermodel girlfriend, was starting to grate on some Giants.”

The Boston Globe’s Jackie MacMullan: “And so New England’s 18-0 mark is for naught, just as each and every Patriot player warned it would be if they could not win the Super Bowl. This seemingly magical season has gone up in smoke. The quest for perfection turned out to be a hollow, meaningless pursuit.”

The Boston Herald’s Michael Felger: “In other words, the loss may have shocked the world, but it should not have shocked you.”

The Boston Herald’s Tony Massarotti: “So this is how it ends, in the barrenness of the Arizona desert, with the once greatest team in history getting bullied, battered, outplayed and outcoached.”

The Providence Journal’s Jim Donaldson: “What had been expected to be a coronation turned into devastation.”

Sports Illustrated’s Peter King: “As Mike Tyson would say, ‘Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.’”

ESPN’s Bill Simmons: “Finally, can you guess the last thing we heard as we were walking (OK, hustling) out of the stadium right after the final play? That's right, it was the sound of euphoric Giants fans chanting, ‘Eighteen and one! Eighteen and one! Eighteen and one!’ Yes, it's safe to say the Boston-New York rivalry has been taken to new heights. As a tennis umpire would say, ‘Advantage, New York.’”

Sports Illustrated’s Don Banks: “To quote the NFL's rather lame Super Bowl XLII catch-phrase, they wanted it more. They out-hit the Patriots, they out-hustled them, they out-played them at every key moment of the game.”

ESPN’s Gene Wojciechowski: “The Patriots’ season is history, but not historic. They didn't choke, but they definitely suffered from a lack of oxygen. Pinching the air tube shut was a New York Giants team with just enough nerve, just enough composure to leave this Jiffy Pop-looking stadium with a 17-14 win and the Vince Lombardi Trophy.”

CBS Sportsline’s Mike Freeman: “They lost 19-0 and a chance at immortality because in the biggest moment they strayed from the Patriot way. Instead of intensity, there was cockiness. Instead of humility, there was foolish bragging. No Bill Belichick team has ever been full of itself but these Patriots were.”