MONEY IN THE BANK: ELI AGREES TO BIG CONTRACT EXTENSION

The New York Giants and quarterback Eli Manning agreed to a six year-$97.5 million dollar extension Wednesday, making him the richest player in the NFL. Manning is guaranteed $35 million under the new deal.

I am very surprised, like many sports fans, that the Giants forked over this much money to their star quarterback. I know he won a Super Bowl two seasons ago after defeating the New England Patriots in a shocker, but it still does not seem right. He has led the Giants to the playoffs the last four seasons, and luckily for him, was able to get hot a couple of years ago.

As you can tell, I'm not a huge Eli fan. It all goes back to when he broke into the league and complained about how he didn't want to play for the San Diego Chargers. He came across to me as a spoiled brat who already lived in a rich family and wouldn't budge until he got what he wanted. Well, in the end, he did. He got to play for the Giants, he won a Super Bowl ring, and now he has the big contract. He now makes more money than his more talented brother, Peyton. I hope he is finally happy with his life.

In my opinion, I think Eli should pick up the check at the next family dinner. Peyton and big daddy Archie eat for free the next time they all get together.

Shawn Marosek

DID YOU CELEBRATE MANNING DAY?

I definitely didn't because I didn't know that this "holiday" existed. As where I get most of my sports-news-related stories, I checked out MJD's blog on Yahoo! Sports. He couldn't have put it any better than myself:

"I need a new calendar. This thing I have right now lists a bunch of unimportant holidays like St. Patrick's Day, Arbor Day, Independence Day and Christmas, but it made absolutely no mention of "Manning Day", and now, the moment has passed."

I know I am excited to celebrate St. Patrick's Day! But if I had known about Manning Day before it actually occurred, it would have given me enough time to prepare jokes and snide remarks about this random holiday. Everyone knows who the Mannings are; if you don't you're a woman completely oblivious to sports (I can be sexist), or you live under a rock. However, just because you know these people are famous doesn't mean we need a holiday for them. I'm not a fan of the Colts or the Giants. I think Eli's IQ is maybe equivalent to one of the dodo birds that used to inhabit the earth, and their father (I heard) wasn't exactly an all star player. Mediocre is a good term, right Pat? Anyway, it just so happens that the Mannings are a football fanatic family. Say that ten times fast. To get anywhere in life it really helps to know people, and if you're father, or brother, have already made it to the NFL, well then you must really fit in too!

As far as the events of the holiday go, it wasn't much to even make fun of. There was a small ceremony and people got autographs from the Manning clan. Maybe if I was a Colts/Giants/old Saints fan, I would have jumped for this type of chance to get an autograph. But I'm not. I have my own deams of T.O. making some big plays for the Bills instead.

I guess if there had to be a Manning Day, it should be for Peyton Manning. That guy really cracks me up. He's a pretty good ball player, and he makes the best commercials. What more can a football watching gal ask for? I don't see Tom Brady making funny commercials. Or any commercials. He's too busy trying to model... good luck with that Tom.

To conclude on a funny note, MJD really knows how to strike a funny bone:
"Had I known, I'd have celebrated like any good Manning-fearing American ... by dressing up as my favorite Manning (I prefer Olivia) and licking the middle of Oreo cookies until my tongue bleeds."

If you don't find that funny, you either don't watch enough t.v. or your IQ is too high (So Eli must be on the floor dying!).

Jaclyn Kahn

Will the Super Bowl be without a Manning or Brady?

So even though the Super Bowl isn't for a few weeks, I just began to think about it and who might be showing up. Now that both of the Mannings are out of the playoffs, and Brady has been a no-show for most of the season (Hallelujah, am I right?) it just might seem that none of the "big guns" or celebs of football are going to be in the spotlight. That will be even more true if the big names like McNabb, Westbrook, and Roethlisberger don't make it to Tampa.

Since last Super Bowl, Eli Manning has become as popular as his brother, which makes some people elated, and others astonished. Personally, I think that he got to where he was because of his family name, but that is another story for another day. So that's why so many are shocked and dismayed that Baby Manning will not be venturing to the Super Bowl this year, at least with his Giants.

A couple of years ago, when neither the suddenly amazing Giants, nor the monopolizing Patriots made it to the Super Bowl, there was still a football giant to take much of the spotlight: Peyton. And with good reason; Older Bro Manning helped bring his team to Super Bowl XLI and win it. But what really pissed me off, and I mean PISSED me off was that Brady somehow ended up at this game by being involved with the coin toss.

It doesn't surprise me, now or then, that the NFL loves Brady and can't get enough of him. So even though his team didn't make it to the Super Bowl, he sure did. And because of this special guest appearance, I am intrigued and apprehensive to see which NFL "star" is going to make a special guest appearance this year. Will it be Brady again? Even though he was out for most of the regular season, there's no doubt in my mind that the NFL would pull any amount of strings to get him back out onto the football field, even to the dismay of all anti-Patriots/anti-Brady football fans.

However, after the big hoopla about Eli Manning and his winning Giants, the team who beat out the Super Bowl Giants (no pun intended...maybe) the NFL might not want to give up their overly praised NFC team. That is why the person that might be at that coin toss, who won't be Brady, will be Eli Manning.

In a perfect Super Bowl world, there will be no surprise appearances by any Brady, Manning, or anyone of that stature. The only players that should show up to this game should be the players from the two teams playing in the XLIrd Super Bowl. If any players are going to help with the coin toss, or any other mundane part of the show, why not have it be some Hall-of-Famer? Someone who isn't associated with a current football team that didn't make it because they just couldn't live up to the pressure, or just weren't that good?

Oh and if the NFL has Tony Romo show up for anything, I will search out the idiot who made that decision and give them a piece of my mind!

Go Eagles!
-The Jaxster

NY GIANTS ARE THE CLASS OF THE NFL

Maybe last year's stunning Super Bowl victory wasn't as huge of an upset as it appeared to be. Make no mistake that stopping an 18-0 team from perfection is a monumental upset, but the New York Giants may have just been getting started with that historic win back in February. There is no question right now who the best team in the NFL is at the end of the first quarter of play.

You can say the Dallas Cowboys or San Diego Chargers have better offenses when everything is clicking, and you might be able to say the Tennessee Titans have a better defense. But the Giants are the most balanced team in the NFL. HANDS DOWN!

The Giants have perhaps the most underrated offensive line in all of football. They have made a star out of Brandon Jacobs and the other two backs simply get the job done as well. The Giants receiving core is very deep and just got done hammering the Seahawks without Plaxico Burress. Most importantly, Eli Manning has not come back to Earth after his amazing playoff run last year. I doubt he'll join the elite ranks of Tom Brady and his older brother, Peyton, but he is becoming a superstar who will be the Giants man for years to come.

Perhaps the most stunning part of this team is the bottomless depth of the primary portion of the defense. This team lost the future hall-of-famer, Michael Strahan, to retirement, and Osi Umenyiora to a season-ending injury. But even without those two studs, the Giants defense has not missed a beat. Mathias Kiwanuka, Fred Robbins, Justin Tuck and others have been simply outstanding. The one knock on the Giants defense last year was their secondary, but that part of their team has improved greatly this year. Remember Aaron Ross is a year older and the rest of the secondary has fallen in line.

The only part of this team that you have a chance to exploit is their special teams. If you can dominate field position and somehow stop their running game, maybe someone can stop this team. As it stands right now though, I don't see a team beating them. The Cowboys are showing major warts, the Eagles are nobody without Brian Westbrook, and it may be too soon to take the Redskins real seriously. Outside of the division there really isn't another big time team in the NFL. Maybe the Panthers can get there, but it is a really weak conference outside of the East. Of course we know the AFC empire is crumbling down before our eyes. As I said many things can happen (injuries, breakdown of team chemistry), but it is hard to imagine the Giants won't have a great shot to win their second consecutive championship.

Pat Morgan

A Giant Win for the Ages; A Super Bowl XLII Shocker!!!

This is to anyone that is a New York Giants fan. You never have to win another game in your lifetime to backup the victory you celebrated last night. The Giants shocking 17-14 win over the three-time champion, New England Patriots, will simply go down as one of the greatest upset victories of all time. The Giants incredible march through the playoffs probably will go down as the greatest Cinderella story ever.

So how the hell did this happen? Well, the Giants defense was simply spectacular! They got to Tom Brady time after time after time. Again their pass rush covered up some of their holes in their secondary. Justin Tuck or Michael Strahan probably would have been named Super Bowl MVP prior to the Manning drive because they were that good. Even the secondary was great in making plays. Corey Webster tapping the ball away from Randy Moss in the closing seconds was tremendous. They held the NFL's best offense ever to a mere 14 points and just over 200 yards for the entire game. That is an all-time effort by the Giants defense.

Eli Manning was great when he had to be as well. Engineering that final drive was a thing of beauty. He did dodge a bullet when Asante Samuel couldn't grab an interception, but his scramble on that 3rd and 5 play will be shown forever. Then, of course, the grab by David Tyree. Where did Tyree come from? He has been a big disappointment for the Giants since he was a highly touted youngster four, five years ago. What a catch that was! Eli took a page out of Joe Montana's biography and engineered the same exact type of drive Montana did in Super Bowl XXIII. And what an effort all year by Plaxico Burress. Whether you like him or not, he played hurt all year and came up with the game-winning touchdown.

Two sequences really stood out to me and told me the stars were aligning for the Giants last night. In the 2nd quarter, Ahmad Bradshaw fumbled and it was clearly recovered by a Patriot. However, Bradshaw stripped it away before possession was ruled. Even though the Giants ultimately punted, that disallowed the Pats from taking over at the Giants' 25. The other was the Giants defense coming up huge after the 12-men on the field penalty on a Pats 4th down. That gave the Pats a first down inside the Giants' 40 with what I thought a prime opportunity to take a 14-3 lead. A touchdown there changes the game. The Pats probably win. Instead the Giants come up huge and force the Pats into either a 50-yard field goal or a 4th and 13. They went on 4th and 13 and came away with no points. Both those sequences were very telling.

In any event, this is a tremendous, tremendous win for the New York Giants and their fans. Tom Coughlin and Eli Manning have gone from the ultimate goats to the ultimate New York heroes in just six weeks! SIX WEEKS! You can't under sell how big a win this is. Like I said, Giants fans never need to see the playoffs again because you just had the ultimate win. It does NOT get any better than what you had last night. No way, no how! Enjoy it! I am one very jealous New York Jets fan this morning.

Pat Morgan

Third Tyme the Charm; Giants Claim NFC Championship

-Giants 23, Packers 20/OT
Heroes: Eli Manning & Plaxico Burress
Goat: Brett Favre
Turning Point: Brett Favre's INT in overtime to set up Tynes's third FG chance and game-winner
Next: Super Bowl XLII vs. New England

The New York Giants are going to the Super Bowl! Lawerence Tynes's 47-yard field goal in overtime completed an unlikely 3-0 run through Tampa, Dallas, and a frozen Green Bay. Now they will have two weeks to prepare for their second crack at defeating the perfect Pats in Super Bowl XLII.

Eli Manning was absolutely spectacular in leading the Giants on this march. He went through the entire NFC playoffs without throwing an interception! How his career has changed drastically since the regular season finale vs. New England. Manning managed another brillant game by picking apart the Green Bay defense with short stuff all over the place. He was extremely efficient in getting the Giants down field. He was only 21 of 40, but sometimes statistics lie as he was much better than that today.

Plaxico Burress had a tremendous game by catching 11 balls for 154 yards. Green Bay made the mistake of leaving Al Harris alone on Burress for most of the game. Harris is a good cornerback, but he was schooled today by Burress. Most importantly, the Giants dominated field position for most of the game. Even if a drive did not amount in points, they made the Packers' defense work. Only once did they go three and out, and that was only because Amani Toomer dropped a wide open pass. The Giants held the ball for over 40 minutes.

The Giants' defense did a tremendous job in giving Brett Favre problems. They didn't really get to hit him much, but they did take away his receivers down field. Other than the broken play that resulted in a 90-yard touchdown to Driver, the Giants had Favre forcing passes all day. He threw two interceptions, but he really could have thrown two or three more. The Giants also took Ryan Grant completely out of the game. After having 201 yards last week vs. Seattle, Grant ran for a mere 29 yards. Conversely, Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw ran for a 130 yards between them.

The Giants really dominated this game in a lot of ways. They really should have won this game easily if it wasn't for missed field goals, dropped passes, key penalties, and a few big plays from Green Bay that kept the game close. Conventional wisdom tells you the Patriots from the much stronger AFC will beat them handily in the Super Bowl, but it's hard to bet against the Giants giving them a big, big test the way they are on this magic carpet ride. It should be a great game in two weeks in Glendale, Arizona.

Let the two weeks of media nonsense in beating this game to death in every possible way begin!

Pat Morgan

Third Time the Charm; Giants Stun Cowboys in Big D

-Giants 21, Cowboys 17
Heroes: Giants defense, especially after another injury in secondary to Aaron Ross
Goat: Tony Romo
Turning Point: After the Cowboys ate up 10 minutes to take a 14-7 lead, the Giants matched that TD with one of their own to tie with just :53 seconds on the clock before the half
Next: NFC Championship @ Green Bay

Well there will be a Manning playing on championship weekend after all. It will just be Eli Manning and not Peyton. For the second time today the road team went into a hostile environment and came away with a stunning victory. The Giants are clearly still riding high from their impressive performance vs. New England in Week 17 and playoff win in Tampa Bay, while the Cowboys were effected by not playing big time football in six weeks. This was a game the Cowboys had several chances to win, but they were unable to get on track in the second half.

The Cowboys were able to score two touchdowns in the first half because Marion Barber ran at will on the Giants' defense. Barber's ability to rush the football gave Tony Romo time to throw on third down. However, when the Giants adjusted in the second half, Romo melted under the pressure. He melted like Jessica Simpson on Celebrity Jeopardy! (zoom, zoom, zoom!) He overthrew Terrell Owens on what would have been a touchdown. It would have made the score 21-14. Patrick Crayton did drop a critical pass at 17-14, but other than that Romo was awful.

With good starting field position on each of the last three drives, Romo was unable to do much with the ball. During the final series, he did a poor job of managing the clock. They got the ball with 1:50 remaining at around midfield, but yet somehow they were forced to take last ditch shots at the end zone from around the Giants' 25. They were slow getting to the line on completions, and even ran the ball once on the drive that ate up about 30 seconds. It was not a good night for Romo, and for the second year in a row he'll be left to wonder what if?

I have to give a lot of credit to the Giants' defense though for their ability to stop the Cowboys several times in the second half. After Aaron Ross's injury there was not much left in the secondary. I thought at this point that the Boys would go to town on the Giants, but they didn't. Then the pass rush started to have an effect, and that really rattled Romo on the last few drives. How does a receiving core with Terrell Owens, Jason Witten, Terry Glenn, and Patrick Crayton not have success today? Give a lot of credit to the heart of the Giants' defense. After years of all kinds of internal problems, the Giants are finally playing as a team. Tom Coughlin has done a great job, and has gone from the chopping block to the cusp of a long-term extension. I wonder what Tiki Barber is feeling right now.

Eli Manning was fantastic in managing the Giants offense today. He did not have sexy numbers, but he didn't make any key mistakes. The drive of the day for Eli was his ability to lead the Giants down the field in 53 seconds at the end of the 1st half. The Cowboys had just taken a lot of momentum by scoring a go-ahead touchdown on a 20-play, 90-yard drive that lasted 10:28. If the Giants don't score there, they go in to the locker room down a TD without the ball first in the second half. That is a big time drive that even the likes of Tom Brady and Peyton Manning would have trouble doing.

Give credit to the Giants' special teams as well. R.W. McQuarters was able to return a punt to the Cowboys' 35 which set up the ultimate game-winning TD drive. It was an all around big time effort from the Giants, who were beat up and were playing a team with far more talent. The Giants will head to Green Bay next week with a chance to advance to Super Bowl XLII. It will be interesting to see if Eli Manning can go into a cold weather environment and continue his run.

Pat Morgan