Giants Fan Blog: With Ice In Their Veins…

By Ryan G. Murphy

We did it. It was in the most dramatic fashion imaginable, but we did it.

After almost handing the NFC championship to the Green Bay Packers, the Giants turned to Lawrence Tynes who, with ice in his veins and his career on the line, found a way to kick a pigskin off a glacier and keep the Giants hopes of a Cinderella Super Bowl season alive.

If you’re a Giants fan, this was a hard one to watch, but you wouldn’t dare look away.

From the Donald Driver 90-yard touchdown catch, to the fumbled R.W. McQuarters interception, to the costly penalties, the collective blood pressure in New York approached 200 over 140 Sunday – peaking when Tynes missed the 36-yarder with a trip to Arizona resting between the uprights.

But as they’ve done for all of the 2008 playoffs, the Giants proved that resiliency in the face of desperation can prevail. Tynes connected in overtime and erased any doubt that the Giants were destined to be this year’s Cinderella.

Call it stubborn, call it destiny. Heck, you even call it lucky. The New York Giants are in the 2008 Super Bowl.

The New York Giants of five years ago lose Sunday’s game. But not this team. Not this quarterback.

In a little more than 60 football minutes Sunday we watched our shy, kid quarterback transform himself – again – into a poised, efficient leader who wanted the ball with the game on the line. With the help of Plaxico Burress and a tenacious defense, Eli Manning scripted his name into another legendary chapter of Giants’ history.

In hindsight, this one of the most exciting games I’ve ever watched, but my goodness, did it have to be THIS exciting?

Giants Fan Blog: If The Slipper Fits…

By Ryan G. Murphy

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. The New York Giants are going to win in Green Bay on Sunday, but don’t take my word for it, the script’s been written for years.

If I’ve learned anything in the 20 or so years I’ve been bleeding blue, it’s this: In the NFL, you have to expect the unexpected –- those unscripted moments of unforeseen success that thrust us into a front-row seat for Cinderella’s fairy tale on a football field.

It’s what makes the NFL –- heck, all sports — beautiful, and the 2007 New York Giants have embraced the idea that if the slipper fits, you might as well wear it.

All week I’ve been scouring the Internet for predictions and conjectures about Sunday’s game. It’s no surprise that most experts and prognosticators have surmised a Green Bay victory. All I’ve done is smile.

Two weeks ago they predicted a run in Cinderella’s stocking against Tampa Bay and, just last week, they vowed that a handsome, right-handed prince would shoot down Cinderella’s chance for a dance with a 30-yard-TD-strike to Terrell Owens.

Most people start to embrace a fairy tale once the “Happily Ever After” ink has dried. As Giants fans, though, we’ve been on the magic-carpet ride for weeks and the ubiquitous Brett Favre is only the next chapter in our date with destiny.

The Giants will not win on Sunday because they are the better team. The Giants will win on Sunday because when the football gods cast their hands and created the NFL they made sure that, every once in a while, the little guy would rise up against the legendary heroes of the time to usurp the order of the football universe.

And those supporting the little guy could sit around fires (or plasma TVs) and tell the celebrated fairy tale and how they saw it coming.