THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4. 2008
SPORTS
SUPER BOWL
9B
Manning leads Giants over Patriots
Manning, Giants pull dramatic come-from-behind win with 35 seconds to deny New England, end streak
New York Giants coach Tom Coughlin kisses the Vince Lombardi Trophy after the Giants beat the New England Patriots 17-14 in Super Bowl XLII yesterday in Glendale. Ariz.
BY EDDIE PELLS ASSOCIATED PRESS
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Oh well, nobody's perfect. Except maybe Eli Manning.
A masterful magician when the stakes were highest, Manning engineered one of the best drives in Super Bowl history Sunday to help the New York Giants squash the New England Patriots' run at history-making perfection with a 17-14 victory.
In a game, and a finish, that showed precisely how the Super Bowl has become America's favorite spectacle, Manning led the Giants 83 yards in just more than two minutes. He capped it with a 13-yard touchdown pass to Plaxico Burress with 35 seconds left, to win what easily could go down as the best Super Bowl ever.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
"The greatest victory in the history of this franchise, without a question," said owner John Mara.
It was a scintillating closing chapter to a crazy week that seemed to have everything; the perfect team; the upstart underdogs; the cover boy quarterback; the kid brother in Manning.
The star was Manning, the scruffy younger brother of Peyton, who won his own Super Bowl last year.
America loves an underdog, and the Giants, with their stirring victory, etched themselves as one of the best this game — or any sport — has ever seen.
Now both Mannings have a championship and Tom Brady — well, he's still got the looks, the supermodel girlfriend, Giselle Bundchen, and three Super Bowl titles of his own, even though he didn't come out on top this time.
It means New England finishes 18-1 and the 1972 Miami Dolphins remain the only team to go undefeated from the start of the season through the Sucker Bowl.
Their coach, Don Shula, was
on hand, ready to congratulate the Patriots had they finished 19-0. Instead, he figured to be sipping champagne, continuing a tradition the Dolphins have enjoyed every year when the last undefeated team finally gets its first loss.
They remain alone thanks to Manning, whose 13-yard game-winner came four plays after he somehow escaped a cadre of Patriots engulfing him, threw the ball up for grabs and watched receiver David Tyree somehow pin it between his hands and his helmet for the 32-yard reception.
That kept the drive going, and it will be Manning's mastery that everyone remembers — not the coolly efficient 80-yard touchdown drive that Brady had completed only moments earlier.
This game was such a back-and-forth stomach-turner that it seems a sure bet to beat the record for Super Bowl viewership (94.08 million) and give the advertisers their money's worth on the $2.7 million they spent for each 30-second spot.
It might even force the water- cooler conversation Monday to be about football, not commercials or halftime shows.
For the record, Tom Petty did a four-song halftime set, closing, appropriately, with "Runnin' Down A Dream."
Some highlights on the commercial side included Shaq as a winning jockey in a big horse race, Richard Simmons barely avoiding being squished on the highway and Will Ferrell playing a — well — notso-fit pro basketball player who also likes beer.
Funny as those were, the best show was really on the field.
It was a tight, taut defensive battle for three-plus quarters — yet anything but boring.
Then it was taken over by two quarterbacks — one already a star, the other yearning to escape the shadow his big brother has cast over
the family, and the sport, for many years now.
Eli said it was flattering being compared to his older brother Peyton because "he's at the top of his game, and I'm still trying to get my game up to his level."
He's there now, capping a fourweek stretch of nearly flawless playoff football during which the Giants were underdogs in every game they played, but won them all.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
New York Giants receiver Plaxico Burrell (17) fails to catch a pass in the end zone while under pressure from New England Patriots defenders Ellis Hobbs III, right, Brandon Meriweather, (31) and Asante Samuel in the third quarter during Super Bowl XLII at University of Phoenix Stadium yesterday in Glendale, Ariz.
COMMERCIALS Super Bowl results in super expensive, crazy ads
NEW YORK — It's often called the "game within the game" — the ads that do battle with each other for viewers' attention during the Super Bowl. There, the great brands go head to head: Coke and Pepsi; GM and Audi: Hershey and Planters.
Here, then, is one account of how game night went for the major marketers, who ponied up as much as $2.7 million each for a 30-second shot at reaching the gargantuan television audience provided by the Super Bowl, which topped 93 million viewers last year.
BEST REFERENCE TO A CLASSIC
MOST ALARMING USE OF A COMB-OVER: PepsiCo Inc. Guy nodding off while sitting at the bar in a diner, sending his massively exaggerated comb-over flailing in all directions. His state of sleepiness — along with a factory worker who's watching a line of bobble-head dolls go by — is soon fixed with a dose of PepsiCo's Diet Pepsi
MOVIE SCENE: Audi. In a replay of a vintage scene from "The Godfather," an older man wakes up in his luxurious bed and senses something amiss. In the movie, it's a severed horse head which turns up under the sheets — here, it's an oil-soaked grille from another car. "Old luxury just got put on notice," the tag line says, as a spanking new Audi speeds off.
BEST USE OF FURRY CREATURES:
Bridgestone Firestone North America. When a car comes rushing up on a squirrel munching on an acorn in the middle of the road, a chorus of creatures — including an owl, raccoon, deer, and even a turtle — unleashes terrorized screams that alert the driver to swerve and avoid the squirrel.
CLEVEREST USE OF SWEDISH WORDS: Procter & Gamble Co's Tide to Go brand, for inserting several words of Swedish into the babble-talk spoken by a distracting stain chattering away on the front of a shirt worr. by an applicant in the middle o'a job interview.
Associated Press
Max.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
New York Giants receiver David Tyree (85) makes a 32-yard reception as New England Patriots safety Rodney Harrison (37) defends during the fourth quarter of Super Bowl XLII at University of Phoenix Stadium yesterday in Glendale, Ariz.
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