New York Giants Superbowl

Team Report: Inside SlantInside Slant Notes and Quotes Strategy and Personnel
It isn't difficult to tell that this is the beginning of Super Bowl Hype Week. The daily newspapers have already exhausted their ammunition for the bye week, and with respect to the Giants we have learned that Lawrence Tynes, the kicker, has a brother serving 27 years in prison for trafficking in marijuana. We have learned that Giants' defensive end Justin Tuck and Patriots linebacker Adalius Thomas are second cousins once (or twice or however many) removed and that they grew up six miles apart in rural Alabama.
We have learned that Patriots head coach Bill Belichick and Giants head coach Tom Coughlin are reasonably close friends -- perhaps as close as either of them can allow -- from their days with the Giants when both labored under the Big Tuna, Bill Parcells.
It is clearly getting time for football.
Neither coach, as might be expected, has been forthcoming with any strategy or plans, nor should you expect any right up to and through game time. The players have obviously been threatened with torture if they reveal anything about game plans or injuries.
"We know," said Giants' center Shaun O'Hara, "that Coach Coughlin and Coach Belichick like each other, and that is rather surprising. "We know that when they were assistant coaches here Coughlin was in charge of the wide receivers and Belichick was in charge of the defensive backs, so I guess they were able to enact some simulated games that way."
What we don't know is exactly how the Giants are planning to derail the undefeated Patriots, with only one more chance before they get into the history books. That chance, of course, is this Sunday in Super Bowl XLII in Glendale, Ariz., and while the Patriots are heavily favored, there are more and more so-called experts who are beginning to sway toward the underdogs, the NFC champions who have become only the third team since 1970 to get to the Super Bowl as a wild-card entry into the playoffs and on the platform of three straight road victories (against three NFC division champions).
Nor has it been overly noted that the Cowboys opened their season with a home victory over the Giants and ended the same way, with a home defeat to them. The Green Bay Packers opened their road season in Giants Stadium with a victory (in Week Two) and ended their season against the Giants in Lambeau Field.
In fact, the Giants have atoned for each loss of their 10-6 season (they lost twice to Dallas, once to Green Bay, one to Washington in a two-game split and once to New England) except one.
That opportunity is scheduled for Sunday, the most important last game of the year for both teams, the game that carries Roman numerals as the only identification it needs.
And now, since the extra (wasted) week is done, we can get back down to football.