"Like a day out of the old New York"

Lupica's got a nice story in today's Daily News about the parade in Manhattan for the Giants.

The last time there were crowds like this on the streets of lower Manhattan, they had been heading north on the worst day the city has ever had. Tuesday they were on their way downtown again, trying to get the best places on Broadway to cheer a team that for a few weeks lifted us all.

Think Tom's learned another lesson since Sunday?

Don't get me wrong, I have a great deal of respect for the New England Patriots, and even Tom Brady. But does this not go down as one of the great crow-eating moments in sports?
It's one thing for a young, upstart, underdog team like the Giants to spout their mouths off during Media day and say all kinds of things they're "not supposed to say." But for a guy like Tom Brady to dismissively ridicule Plaxico for making the prediction, while indirectly making a prediction, himself: I mean, *smirk*, don't all reasonable people agree that the Pats are going to score more than 17? Haha.. hoho..

Get over yourself, Tom.
Glad you learned a thing or two about New York other than where to pick up Supermodels.

Oh but it is good to be Giants...

Can you blame Strahan for giving voice to the feelings that must have been reverberating through the Giants lockerroom for weeks before the Superbowl.. if not during the stretch of the playoffs?
This team was consistently overlooked by the national media, never given credence.. disrespected...

I grew up in a house of Giants and Patriots fans.. dual loyalties in me that have never been so divided as they are now. Time was, the Pats were safely irrelevant while the Giants won championships in 86 and 90. In years since, of course, the Pats have become content with their own greatness. Smug, even. And with the way they were beating teams in the regular season this year, who could blame them.

But for whatever reason, even as great as the Pats appeared to be, no one was paying attention to the Giants-- their 10 wins, undefeated on the road... underdogs throughout the playoffs... yes, even going into Tampa in week 1. Tampa? Seriously.

I mean these are the guys who were chided by the press (and the Pats, themselves, of course-- more on that in a bit) for their 'false confidence', their chest-out talk, their predictions following Media Day. They broke all the superstitious rules-- and afterall, these Patriots know how to behave on Media Day and look at them, all well-behaved and tight-lipped...

After all that, who wouldn't be tempted to say "Howya like us now?"

So forgive the Giants if they're flat-out obnoxious in victory. With the way that they pushed the Patriots around on the field (where it counts, right?), just physically overpowering the offensive line, knocking the great, un-muddied Tom Brady to the ground a dozen times or so-- has Brady ever been so harrassed in a game?-- with the way the Giants' smash-mouth broke the Pats' finesse, they deserve to get a little bit back. Turnabout is fairplay.