It’s hard to believe it’s been 15 years since the New York Giants knocked off the New England Patriots, 17-14, in Super Bowl XLII, ending the Pats’ quest to become the first team to go 19-0 in an NFL season.
The Giants won the Super Bowl again four years later, beating New England again, but went in the tank after that, qualifying for the playoffs just once (2016) before finally getting there again this year.
Giants co-owner John Mara recalled in a recent interview the team’s odyssey of winning four postseason games on the road to secure the Lombardi Trophy. The Giants came into the Super Bowl on a 10-game road winning streak.
“(That) was something that gave me a little added sense of confidence,” Mara said, via Giants.com. “We’ve got something going here. We’re winning on the road. And I know that they believe they can win. So, that gave me a little bit more confidence with that, particularly when it appeared Plaxico wasn’t going to be able to play in the game.”
The week before the Super Bowl, Mara said he was nervous that star wide receiver Plaxico Burress might not play due to ankle and knee issues. His replacement, David Tyree, was not instilling confidence in practice that week in practice, dropping several passes.
“I felt sick watching that, thinking, ‘How are we going to beat these guys without Plaxico if David’s having these kinds of problems?'” Mara said. “I was at every practice that week. And I can’t say that I felt overly confident after that.”
We know how the game turned out. Tyree not only made one of the most important and improbable catches in Super Bowl history, but he also had a five-yard touchdown catch. Burress battled through his injuries to make the game-winning reception.
Quarterback Eli Manning somehow avoided a certain sack to hurl a prayer down the middle of the field in Tyree’s direction. Tyree, as you can recall, trapped the ball against his helmet and the Giants went on to score the go-ahead touchdown and win the game.
“To break out of it was something that Eli was not really known for, to say the least,” Mara said. “The fact that he got out of that and was able to make that throw is still amazing to me. It looked like he was down, and I remember thinking, ‘It’s going to be fourth down.’ It’s pretty bleak. It would’ve been fourth-and-long against this defense. But he gets out of it and wings it. It’s stuff that legends are made of.
“I couldn’t believe that he caught it. I’m saying, ‘hurry up, let’s get the next play off.’ And then you’re looking at the replay like, ‘my God, he did catch it.’ It’s still amazing to me that he was able to hold onto the ball. He’s got (Patriots safety) Rodney Harrison trying to get it away from him — one of the best defensive players ever. It’s just an amazing play. Once that happens, now you’re thinking, ‘they’re not going to stop us now.'”
And they didn’t. The Giants, who were 12-and-a-half-point underdogs, became unlikely champions.
Mara finally got to live out his lifelong dream of having the commissioner hand him the Lombardi Trophy.
“That to me was a dream come true,” he said. “Being handed that, that was pretty cool. It was a pretty cool moment in my life.”
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