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We've found the team that will stop Bill Belichick. I sense it. I know it. I didn't feel it before Sunday's two conference championship games, but I sure feel it now, communicated to me by the grace and gumption of Eli Manning, Plaxico Burress, Michael Strahan, Corey Webster and the rest of the New York Giants. Belichick will be stopped. (And he must be stopped!) Randy Moss will lose. (And he must lose!) The 18-0 New England Patriots will finish 18-1. (I must stop writing in exclamation points!) No need for screaming. It's just NFL karma: The New York Giants will ensure that there will be no perfect season. The only regret I have is directed toward Junior Seau, Tom Brady, Tedy Bruschi and the other honorable Patriots, though that is not a lengthy list. They're going to lose - at last - in Glendale, Ariz., two Sundays from now in Super Bowl XLII, to the New York Giants. Crystal ball says 27-24 final. It sounds silly, of course. It sounds irrational to pick against New England, which already has been established as a 13 1/2-point favorite over the Giants and touted as one of the greatest teams in sports history. It sounds wrong. But I saw what I saw. You saw what you saw. Don't run away from it. Everybody saw it Sunday: The Giants are playing better than the Patriots, have the sharper quarterback, have endured and overcome much more adversity, and have the closer arrangement with the destiny of this moment. In other words, the Giants are blazing hot, the Patriots peaked two months ago, and nothing else matters. The records don't matter. Belichick . . . well, he still matters, and so does Brady, since they're 3-0 together in Super Bowl trips so far. (Though they've won by only three points in each trip.) But they've never faced a Super Bowl opponent as ideally - and cosmically - aligned to defeat them as the Giants are right now. How could you come to any other conclusion if you watched and weighed New England's choppy home victory over battered San Diego and then the Giants' stirring, stunning overtime victory in Green Bay on Sunday? There are dozens of reasons to believe this, and here are just a few: • In the NFC championship game, Eli Manning outplayed Brett Favre on Favre's home turf. Which came after Manning outplayed Tony Romo on Romo's home turf. As Manning has done in an amazing 10 consecutive Giants road victories. In fact, Manning (Eli Manning!) has outplayed everybody in the playoff tournament - zero turnovers and four touchdown passes - including his big brother Peyton. • In more benign weather conditions, Brady threw three interceptions against San Diego in Foxborough, Mass.; Brady is incredible, but he almost single-handedly kept the Chargers in this game when their QB was limping and LaDainian Tomlinson was sidelined. Brady, of course, was due a chilly streak. He threw 45 TD passes and only five interceptions in the first 13 games of the season; in the past five games, including two playoff games, he has thrown 10 TD passes and six interceptions. • Playing against Al Harris and Charles Woodson, Green Bay's excellent press-coverage cornerbacks, the Giants struck deep and struck often, with Manning hitting Burress 11 times for 154 yards, including receptions of 21 and 32 yards. • Playing against Antonio Cromartie and Quentin Jammer, San Diego's excellent press-coverage corners, the Patriots did not have a pass play longer than 18 yards. Moss, by the way, caught one pass for 14 yards and has a total of two catches for 32 yards in the playoffs. • In the regular-season finale, the Giants, whose playoff matchup was already determined, came within a smidge of destroying New England's bid for 16-0. The Giants had a 28-16 lead in the third quarter but wound up losing 38-35. They can play this team. • The Giants lost six games in the regular season and gave up more points (351) than any other playoff team. But in the playoffs, the Giants have given up only 14, 17 and 20 points. (Bet on defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo landing that Atlanta job now.) • The Patriots lost zero games and scored an NFL-record 589 points (36.8 average) in the regular season, but have averaged only 26 in two playoff victories. • The Giants did all this in brutal sub-zero conditions and while enduring two R.W. McQuarters fumbles and two missed Lawrence Tynes field-goal attempts. When Tynes finally knocked in the winner from 47 yards - the longest opponent field goal in Lambeau Field playoff history - it only lent a greater weight to the proceedings. The Giants are the horse for the course. They are the perfect long shots, rising at the perfect time to ruin the perfect season. They are Seabiscuit, champing at the bit for another shot at War Admiral. I didn't think so until Sunday, but now I know it.
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Watch out, Peyton - your little brother is gaining on you. Fresh off two straight playoff wins, Eli Manning is fielding numerous endorsement inquiries from national brands - and a victory Sunday will only earn him more money, experts told the Daily News. "If the Giants win and go on to the Super Bowl, he'll be on center stage in one of the most-watched sporting events in the world," said Steven Weinreb, managing director of Steiner Sports. Manning's growing list of endorsements includes Citizen Watch Co., Toyota of New Jersey, Reebok and ESPN Radio. "It will take a little time for him to ring the register in a big way," said David Carter, principal of the Sports Business Group. "This playoff run is helping him increase his footprint more nationally." Peyton Manning probably realizes his brother's growing cache: They share the small screen in a new Oreo commercial that has them quitting football to join the DSRL - Double Stuff Racing League - where they race to lick the icing out of double-stuff cookies. They've also appeared together in an ESPN commercial that began airing before the season kicked off. Eli would have to win today and then lead the Giants to a Super Bowl championship to transform himself into an advertising darling like his older brother, who is practically ubiquitous during NFL commercial breaks. The Indianapolis Colts star is a pitchman for several big-ticket companies, including DirecTV, Sprint, MasterCard, Gatorade and Xbox. Sports Illustrated ranked Peyton Manning the 12th highest paid athlete in the country last year, with $13 million in endorsements. His brother didn't even crack the list. Peyton enjoys the spotlight so much that he's even dabbled in comedic acting. He's reportedly been asked to host "Saturday Night Live" again following his star turn last year. "If he wins, Eli will vastly improve his marketability, but Peyton will still reign supreme," Weinreb said.
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There are tons of storylines in today's AFC/NFC Championship games. One that hasn't gotten much press but is rather interesting is that the Giants and Chargers are led into today by quarterbacks that were dealt for each other. Remember that the theme heading into the 2004 NFL Draft was that Eli Manning didn't want to play for the San Diego Chargers. San Diego owned the #1 pick in that draft. When the pick was made, Manning famously had a forced smile on his face and refused to wear the customary cap during the photo op. Maybe he knew that the New York Giants were feverishly working behind the scenes to get him. Later in the day, New York drafted Philip Rivers with the #4 pick ... then dealt him and three draft picks to San Diego for the rights to Manning. For New York, it has been an on/off love affair with the younger Manning. He is criticized more than any QB in the league ... yet has led the Giants to the playoffs the past three seasons and into today's NFC Championship game. Also, the Giants did a great job of not folding to San Diego's wishes to include Osi Umenyiora in any deal. For San Diego, it has worked out extremely well. Not only did the Chargers get Rivers (who is in just his second true season), they used the three draft selections the Giants gave them to draft Shawne Merriman, Nate Kaeding and to trade for Roman Oben. In that 2004 draft, the Bolts also drafted DT Igor Olshansky, C Nick Hardwick, DE Shaun Phillips and DT Ryon Bingham.
Though the two won't be anywhere near each other today ... and Rivers may not even see the field ... it is quite interesting to see how trades like that work out for two teams down the road.
Especially if the Giants and Chargers pull the upset today and meet in Super Bowl XLII.
By the way, what a decent draft class in 2004. Bob Sanders, who just won the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year, was a 2nd round pick. Guys like Ben Roethlisberger, the late Sean Taylor, Larry Fitzgerald, Kellen Winslow, Tommie Harris, Vince Wilfork, Steven Jackson, Benjamin Watson and Kevin Jones were first rounders.
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Any pro football fan worth his salt remembers the moment at the start of the 2004 NFL Draft when then-commissioner Paul Tagliabue ambled to the lectern and said, "With the first pick in the 2004 draft, the San Diego Chargers select Eli Manning, quarterback from the University of Mississippi." Ah, was that sweet. Manning, with his famous daddy and famous brother and famous agent all helping pull the strings, had tried to manipulate the draft by telling San Diego he would not play for them if selected. And the Bolts took him anyway. The NFL draft has a lot of looks - mostly unbridled joy, glee, relief. This was the first time a player walked onto the stage looking like 6 feet, 4 inches and 225 pounds of stomach bile. Manning's persona was sadness, anger, confusion, and frustration, all rolled into one. He sheepishly posed for pictures, held up the Chargers uniform with the No. 1 on it, but he never put on the ball cap. Other than making fun of Mel Kiper's hair, that was about as much fun as the draft gets. Spoiled brat takes one on the chops. Alas, the fun didn't last long. About 40 minutes later, Chargers general manager A.J. Smith dangled Manning in front of New York Giants GM Ernie Accorsi, who had been drooling over Peyton's little brother, and vice versa, for weeks. Accorsi agreed to take quarterback Philip Rivers with the Giants' No. 4 overall pick, then immediately trade him, along with a third-round selection later in the day and the team's first-round pick in 2005, to San Diego for Manning. So, Team Manning got what it wanted, for Eli to play in the Big Apple and not in San Diego. The Chargers got another highly touted quarterback. Both players are expected to start for their respective teams later today in conference championship games, both one upset win away from the Super Bowl. Yes, everybody remembers Manning for Rivers. You recall the rest of it? The Chargers took kicker Nate Kaeding, a Pro Bowler last season, with the third-round pick acquired from New York. And, with the first-round selection vacated by the Giants a year later, San Diego got a linebacker you may have heard of - Shawne Merriman. They all went into the mix with running back LaDainian Tomlinson, who was acquired after another draft day swap, this one three years earlier with Atlanta that gave the Falcons a clear shot at Michael Vick - and how does that move look in retrospect? - to transform the Chargers into one of the AFC's best teams. Rivers suffered a knee injury last Sunday in the Chargers' win at Indianapolis but was optimistic he'd be able to go this afternoon against Tom Brady in the AFC title game at New England. In the NFC, it will be Manning vs. Brett Favre on the very frozen tundra in Green Bay. In neither case, at least on paper, does it appear to be a fair fight, but the two young quarterbacks have indeed come a long ways from the '04 swap meet with which they're associated. Manning, of course, is the better known of the two. First, there's the name. Second, it's New York City. Third, he's spent more time between the hashmarks. He backed up Kurt Warner for the first nine games in 2004, but has been the Giants' starter since. Rivers, meanwhile, held a clipboard for two years as Drew Brees led the Chargers. He had only 30 pro passing attempts before becoming the starter for good at the dawn of the 2006 season. Rivers is by no means an elite quarterback, not in the mold of a Brady or Peyton Manning or Favre. For that matter, he is often overlooked in a discussion of best young quarterbacks, a group that includes Tony Romo, Ben Roethlisberger, and, based on recent performance, Eli Manning, to name a few. Inconsistency is the biggest knock, but Rivers has completed 61 percent of his passes for 6,540 yards and 43 touchdowns while leading the talent-laden Chargers to 27 wins during his two seasons at the helm. He played extremely well last week in Indianapolis, but backup Billy Volek was on the field for the game-winning drive. Still, a hot stretch late this season - the Chargers, once 1-3, are 13-5 with eight straight wins - and his performance in the playoffs have upped Rivers' stock, much like the last two weeks have been a boost for the Giants' Manning. It has been suggested that the only player who can stop Eli is Eli, and in a five-game stretch from late November to late December he threw eight interceptions. But he has not thrown a pick during playoff wins over Tampa Bay and Dallas, and he has posted eye-popping, triple-digit passer ratings in his last three games, the first coming in a regular-season loss to New England during which the Giants and their quarterback played about as well as humanly possible without winning. With the Colts out of the playoff picture, Eli is finally getting a chance to step from his older brother's shadow. He seems to be operating at a new level of comfort and confidence. He's showing patience and, despite not producing huge numbers in terms of yards and touchdowns, is avoiding the big mistakes that have plagued him in the past. The Giants have a defense capable of pressuring Favre, whose boldness often complicates his greatness, and a running game made for the frigid conditions expected to exist today in Green Bay. If Manning can simply manage the game, a Giants' win would not stop the earth from spinning around its axis. A win by the Chargers, regardless of Rivers' efforts, might. Still, regardless of today's outcomes, and for that matter the future, Rivers and Manning will always be related by the way they were separated at the birth of their NFL careers.
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The resemblance was unmistakable everywhere except on the field. Once Eli Manning stepped between the white lines, he somehow made football seem more like his burden than his birthright. He is the son of one great quarterback and the little brother of an even better one. But he lacks the devil-may-care charm that made his dad, Archie, such a heroic figure on all those lousy teams in New Orleans. And he has yet to display the rocket arm or tactical mastery that made Peyton such a success in Indianapolis. In fact, until Eli capped the best four-game run of his own maddening career with a flawless performance on a frozen field far from New York, it seemed fair to wonder whether the family gene pool was empty by the time he waded in. "I might be a hard guy to read," Manning said, in one of the understatements of the season, moments after the Giants advanced to the Super Bowl with a 23-20 overtime win against the Packers. "But right now, I'm as excited as I can be." We'll have to take his word on that. Eli's expression gives away so little that for much of the fourth quarter and into overtime, the TV broadcast kept cutting to shots of Archie in a skybox at Lambeau Field burying his head in his hands. That way, at least, we knew somebody in the Manning family was anguishing over the outcome. Once Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes made up for two fourth-quarter misses by drilling the 47-yard game-winner in overtime, a smile flashed briefly across Eli's lips. He ran onto the field looking for someone to hug and settled on Jeff Feagles, the Giants' holder on the final play. Then Eli's eyes got wide as he looked up to see his opposite number headed in his direction. Yet it hardly looked like a meeting of equals. Brett Favre already had his helmet off and the poncho draped over his shoulders, set off by silver stubble and a tired grin, made him look more regal than usual. Manning, still wearing his helmet and an awed expression, thrust his hand forward like a kid about to shake his idol's hand. The only thing missing was a slip of paper in his palm for Favre's autograph. "We knew we could compete with anybody," Manning said afterward. Until Sunday night, though, that might have been the royal "we." The kid never inspired confidence, and the nagging feeling the Giants had mortgaged their future in the draft-day deal that brought Eli to New York was never stronger than it was on the eve of the regular-season finale against the perfect New England Patriots. In the three previous games, Eli had thrown four interceptions against the Vikings and had three returned for touchdowns; threw 35 incompletions against Washington; and fumbled five times against Buffalo. But Manning produced a career effort against New England - "I am not doing anything different or anything extra special," he said last week, taking a brief stab at self-analysis. More important, he followed that up with smart, caretaker performances against Tampa Bay and Dallas. All three opponents tried to shut down New York's ground game and counted on him to make telling mistakes. As Manning proved against the Packers, you make that a building block of the game plan at your own risk. "It's exciting," Manning said one more time, "but it's not about me. It's about this whole team." Giants coach Tom Coughlin might disagree, but he has no better explanation for the sudden turnaround than Manning does. He can't say why his quarterback's rating jumped 50 points the last few weeks, nor why he hasn't turned the ball over even once during that stretch. "Certainly not ideal conditions yet the focus of Eli was outstanding," Coughlin said. "He just willed himself to play well." Archie Manning wasn't going to try to explain the numbers, either. Outside the Giants locker room, he could hardly believe his good fortune. Peyton went to the Super Bowl and got his ring last season. Now much-maligned Eli, the runt of the Manning litter, was going to get his shot. "My cup runneth over," Archie said. "We're not crowning him yet. But I never thought that he was as bad as they were saying." It's not a glowing review - yet. But it's a lot better than a story Archie told not long after Hurricane Katrina passed by the family's New Orleans home, only to have burglars strike a few days later. Seems Peyton and Eli each had signed a dozen jerseys for a charity auction and left them on a table. When Archie returned home, the stack signed by Peyton had been stolen and Eli's were left untouched. Hang onto 'em, Archie, for a few more weeks. They might fetch something still.
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Four years ago the New York Giants went to great lengths to acquire Eli Manning, believing the baby-faced quarterback was the right man to lead them to the Super Bowl. It was Manning who led the way on Sunday as the Giants beat the Green Bay Packers 23-20 in overtime to clinch a place in the NFL's showpiece finale. For the second consecutive year a Manning will play for a Super Bowl ring although not the one most people expected to see facing the unbeaten New England Patriots in Phoenix on Feb. 3. That task was expected to fall to the reigning Super Bowl champion Indianapolis Colts led by quarterback Peyton Manning. But after the Colts were ousted in the divisional playoffs by the San Diego Chargers, the masterful Eli has taken over the spotlight from his older brother. "From watching Peyton, watching other guys, you never know when you're going to get your opportunity, when something is going to click, when you're going to get hot," Eli told reporters after the victory over the favoured Packers.
"You're just playing your best football at a certain time and that's what's happened to us." Reluctant to join the Chargers, Eli forced the draft-day trade that sent him to the Giants in exchange for young quarterback Philip Rivers and a host of draft picks. Since his much-heralded arrival in the Big Apple, Eli has toiled in the long shadow cast by Peyton.
While Peyton was piling up Most Valuable Player honours, Pro Bowl invitations and a Super Bowl title last year, Eli struggled to realise his potential. FANS TEASED
During his four seasons in the league, Eli has teased fans with flashes of brilliance but never produced the consistent performance that would allow him to take his place among the upper echelon of quarterbacks. Even late this season the verdict was still not in as to whether Eli was a draft-day flop or a shrewd investment.
That question has certainly been answered during the Giants's inspirational late-season run. Following a gritty effort in a narrow loss to the Patriots in their final regular-season contest, Eli has taken a firm grip on the attack, helping to engineer three consecutive road playoff wins over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Dallas Cowboys and Packers. Heading into the regular-season game against the Patriots, Eli had thrown 19 touchdown passes offset by 19 interceptions. He threw four TD passes against the Pats against one interception and since then has thrown four more in the playoffs without a turnover. "He (Eli) has played outstanding football down the stretch," said Giants head coach Tom Coughlin. "He's made really good decisions with the ball. "The focus of Eli was outstanding and he willed himself to play well."
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