By Mike Lupica
New York Daily News
Monday, February 4th 2008, 2:04 AM
GLENDALE, Ariz. - The best Super Bowl of them all really ended in the left corner of the end zone at University of Phoenix Stadium, one last ball in the hands of Plaxico Burress, who called this one the way Joe Namath called one once. Eli Manning delivered that ball to Burress, delivered it the way great quarterbacks are supposed to deliver the ball at the end of a game like this, delivered it the way Joe Montana did in a Super Bowl in Miami against the Bengals. And now it wasn't just Super Bowl XLII ending this way, even with 35 seconds still left on the clock. This was the ending to one of the great sports stories of all time, any sport, in New York or anywhere else.
"The greatest victory in the history of this franchise," John Mara said on the field when it was over.
And it was. It was. It was 17-14 for the Giants against the Patriots, and the Patriots weren't going to be 19-0 and Tom Brady wasn't going to have enough time to drive his team down the field one last time the way the kid, Eli Manning, just had. Eli and the Giants were underdogs again Sunday night, the way they have been underdogs for a month. Couldn't stop them because nothing could stop them, not in a month when a sports team carried the city, carried the whole area we think of as New York, as much as any New York team ever has.
The Cowboys couldn't stop them and the Packers couldn't stop them at Lambeau and the Patriots couldn't stop them yesterday. And as much as a money throw that last throw was, as much of a money play it was from Eli, it wasn't the play that will be remembered from this game. The play that will be remembered, a play that goes in with the best Super Bowl plays ever made, is the one you had to see to believe in that last drive, the one Eli made to David Tyree four plays before the winning touchdown to Burress. The one where Eli seemed to disappear underneath the pocket and then break free like a swimmer coming out of the water.
"An amazing play," Tom Coughlin said, "in the middle of an amazing drive."
The Patriots did not sack Manning (19-for-34, 255 yards, two touchdowns, the MVP of course) on third-and-5 from the Giants' 44. They did not bring him down even though everybody in the stadium thought they had. He was still standing, standing up and standing in there the way he had all day long. Then he was running to his right and throwing one down the middle of the field to Tyree, who outjumped an old Patriots safety named Rodney Harrison for the ball and came down with the ball at the Patriots' 24.
How/Getty
Eli Manning and David Tyree connect on play that propels Giants to Super upset on third-and-5 with 1:15 left.
Under a minute left in Super Bowl XLII. And now the improbable had become inevitable in the Super Bowl.
Namath shocked the world once for the Jets. Eli did the same Sunday. Only he had a better game against the Patriots than Namath had in Super Bowl III, and against one of the best teams to ever play. Even after Tom Brady hit Randy Moss and got the lead back near the end, it didn't matter. Wasn't his day. It was Eli's day and his time to make history for the Giants, on the best day the Giants have ever had.
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.
Now Eli Manning came through the confetti of University of Phoenix Stadium, came into the tunnel through all the Giant fans at the other end of the field from where Eli had hit Burress. And now he put up one finger, the way Namath did when he beat the Colts.
"How did you get away from that sack?" he was asked.
"Don't frankly know," he said. "All I was trying to do was escape."
He was asked if he could feel not just the pressure, but a hand on the back of his uniform jersey.
"I knew I was getting grabbed," he said. "And then I saw Tyree."
A few minutes later Tom Coughlin couldn't stop talking about that scramble from his quarterback and that throw, amazing throw in an amazing drive, that Eli made to David Tyree that was like the punch that started to finish the New England Patriots on the day they thought they were going to be 19-0.
"It has to be one of the great plays of all time in the history of the Super Bowl, doesn't it?" Tom Coughlin said.
The last Giant drive, the end of everything that really began with that 38-35 loss to the Patriots on the 29th of December, began with a throw to Amani Toomer for 11. Then he hit Toomer again, out to the 37. Fourth-and-1. One hundred seconds left in the Super Bowl. Brandon Jacobs ran for the first down. Three plays later came the escape, the scramble, the throw, Tyree going up for the ball like it was a basketball rebound that was going to win the Super Bowl for the Giants, Tyree out-wrestling Rodney Harrison and holding on when he hit the ground.
"Some things just don't make sense," Tyree said. "I guess you could put that catch up there with them."
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