Super Bowl History: Giants Slay The Mighty Patriots In Super Bowl XLII

Feb. 3, 2008. New York Giants 17, New England Patriots 14. The Giants upset the mighty 18-0 and assuming they were going to be 19-0 Patriots to win their third Super Bowl title. Mindful of all of the great history the Giants had before that day, this goes down as most likely the single greatest day in the history of one of the NFL’s original franchises.

Ahh, the memories. The David Tyree catch, the single greatest individual play in Super Bowl history. The Eli Manning escape that led to the catch. Plaxico Burress catching the game-winning pass.

Burress’ prediction of the Giants ultimate victory, and Tom Brady’s laughing reaction to it. The Giants putting a beating on Brady, sacking him five times.

No one thought the Giants had a chance and the Patriots had already printed 19-0 tee-shirts. What the Giants did, after all, had never been done. They became the first NFC wild-card team to win the Super Bowl. It is a feat the Green Bay Packers are trying to match this weekend against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV.

— Complete recap

Super Bowl History: Super Bowl XXXV Forgettable For Giants

Jan. 28, 2001. Baltimore Ravens 34, New York Giants 7. Super Bowl XXXV was a super disaster for the New York Giants, one they wish they could forget.

The Ravens dominated the Giants from start to finish, the only highlight for New York being Ron Dixon’s 97-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. Other than that, the Giants were miserable. The Giants cost themselves their only other touchdown when Jesse Armstead returned an interception for a score, only to have it nullified by a holding penalty.

Quarterback Kerry Collins, brilliant in a 41-0 mashing of the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC Championship Game, turned into a pumpkin against the Ravens. He threw four interceptions and completed just 15-of-39 passes for a measly 112 yards. The Giants compiled just 152 yards of total offense in the game.

The Giants had gone 12-4 in the regular season and won the NFC East under then-coach Jim Fassel. In the playoffs New York defeated the Philadelphia Eagles in the divisional round, 20-10, and then Minnesota in the NFC title game.

Super Bowl History: 'No Good. Wide Right,' As Giants Win Super Bowl XXV

Jan. 27, 1991. New York Giants 20, Buffalo Bills 19. Wide right by Scott Norwood gives the New York Giants their second Super Bowl championship.

Al Michaels' most famous words are, of course, "Do you believe in miracles?' in reference to the U.S.A.'s improbable Olympic victory over the Soviet Union. As far as Giants fans are concerned, the sweetest words he ever spoke were, "No Good. Wide right," when Norwood's kick sailed outside the uprights.

This is a game the plodding Giants were not supposed to win against the high-flying AFC Champion Bills. The Giants, though, controlled the ball for 40 minutes, 33 seconds. Super Bowl MVP Ottis Anderson carried 21 times for 102 yards, leading a bruising New York attack.

In a recent look back at the 20th anniversary of that day, SB Nation's Bills website, Buffalo Rumblings, called the game "the most exciting and devastating day in team history."

ESPN New York recently offered an exhilarating look back at the game, exhilarating at least from the perspective of a Giants fan.

Here is a snippet:

Buffalo had defeated the Giants 17-13 in December, and Phil Simms went down in that game with a broken foot. Parcells would have to win his second championship with Jeff Hostetler at quarterback. "And nobody really gave us a chance," [Bill] Parcells said.

"But I believe there's always a way to win games like these; that's how I was brought up in coaching. You've got to figure out a way to give your team a chance to be successful. One way is to let their talent flourish, and the other way is to give them a plan to inhibit the other team's talent from flourishing."

Parcells was right. The Giants followed his script. Norwood missed the kick, and the Giants were unlikely champions.

Super bowl XXV New York Giants vs Buffalo Bills (1991) - Last Drive of the game [HD] (via JINCHILE)

Super Bowl History: Simms' Performance In Super Bowl XXI Remains Unmatched

Jan. 25, 1987. New York Giants 39, Denver Broncos 20. The first-ever Super Bowl title for the New York Giants, thanks largely to the incredible 22-of-25, 268-yard, three-touchdown MVP performance from quarterback Phil Simms.

The record-setting performance led coach Bill Parcells to say “This might be the best game a quarterback has ever played.” No Giants fan will ever argue the point.

There have been other brilliant performances in the 24 years since Simms led the Giants amazing second-half route, overcoming a 10-9 halftime deficit to win easily. Last-minute comebacks, huge total yardage numbers. Not one as coldly efficient as the work Simms did that day in Pasadena. Over the years Parcells has pointed out that two of the three incomplete passes Simms threw that day were drops by Giants receivers.

Here is Simms discussing that Super Bowl in a CBS Sports video:

“What stands out to me, I think, is the way it unfolded,” Simms said in the video. "All that we thought, everything we thought they were going to do they actually did.

“The game played out almost exactly how the coaches thought it would.”

Thanks to the SI Vault, we can go back and look at the Super Bowl recap by the great football writer, Paul Zimmerman.

Here is part of what Zimmerman wrote:

Somewhere inside the mind of every quarterback there’s a 22-for-25 day, a day when every pass has eyes and every decision is correct. And for a showcase there’s a bright, sunlit stadium with more than a half-century of tradition, a place like, well, the Rose Bowl. There are 101,063 people in the stands to watch, and about 2,000 writers and broadcasters to tell people about it, and some 130 million Americans gathered around their TV sets to see what has been called the Ultimate Game.

That’s where the fantasy usually stays, inside, because nobody ever goes 22 for 25 in a game like the Super Bowl, not in this high-powered era with sophisticated defenses featuring shifting zones and blitzes and mixed coverages.

But let’s say there’s a quarterback who deserves this mythical kind of day, a quarterback who has spent eight years in the NFL being hammered by adversity and injury, who has heard the boos of the New York fans for as long as he can remember, a quarterback like the Giants’ Phil Simms.

On Sunday, Simms got even. The Giants crushed the Denver Broncos 39-20 in Super Bowl XXI, and Simms, the game’s MVP, personally carved them up with the best percentage passing day in Super Bowl history—in any NFL championship game ever, for that matter.

One thing for sure is that Simms will never again hear boos from Giants fans.

Super Bowl History: Super Bowl III Remains Best Day Ever For Jets Franchise

Jan. 12, 1969. New York Jets 16, Baltimore Colts 7. The famous Joe Namath guarantee game. The third AFL-NFL Championship Game, and the one that altered the relationship between the established NFL and the upstart AFL forever. Forty-two years later it remains the single greatest day in Jets franchise history.

Magical moments in time should never be taken for granted, and by now Jets fans should understand that all too well. For more than four decades they have waited for their team to scale that mountain again, and it has not happened. With Rex Ryan at the helm the last two seasons the Jets have gotten close, losing in the AFC Championship Game both times. The magic, though, has not seen fit to visit the Jets again.

With the Jets running anywhere from 18- to 23-point underdogs Namath, the brash Jets quarterback said "The Jets will win on Sunday, I guarantee it."