They walked off the field at MetLife Stadium still alive as defending Super Bowl champions, then word spread like wildfire inside their locker room that the Bears had beaten the Lions and soon the 2012 Giants would be walking out of MetDeath Stadium into the December chill as former Super Bowl champions with no one to blame but themselves.
Wait Till Next Year never hurt so bad.
Pride, honor and dignity can get you an inspirational 42-7 victory over Michael Vick and Andy Reid and the Beagles with the children from Sandy Hook Elementary watching. Can get you five touchdown passes from Eli Manning. Can get you two touchdown catches from Rueben Randle. Can get you 107 rushing yards from Ahmad Bradshaw and 185 total on the ground. Can get you one last reminder of the way they were and what could have and should have been.
But if they arrive too late, you don’t deserve to be back in the playoffs. You deserve to be nowhere in sight when somebody else is hoisting the Lombardi Trophy.
“It’s like frosting on poop,” Mark Herzlich said. “It’s a good feeling, but it’s going to feel pretty bad in a week when we watch the playoffs.”
You can’t talk about building a bridge to Super Bowl XLVII if you play like a champion only when you feel like playing like a champion. Only after you fumble destiny away with your repeat dreams on the line.
VOTE: WHO SHOULD THE GIANTS BRING BACK IN 2013?
When you self-destruct on the road against RGIII and the Redskins, when you don’t bother showing up in Cincinnati, when you make a mockery of the Road Warrior Giants of yesteryear in Atlanta and Baltimore, when you are helpless to prevent yet another second-half collapse, then the only difference on this day between you and the Jets is Wait Till Next Year came a little later.
For some Giants, it came from a television in the training room that told them that Matt Forte had gained 13 yards to clinch a Bears win in Detroit. For Chris Snee, two-time Super Bowl champion, it came like this:
“The equipment guy came in, and said, ‘Don’t worry about your laundry, because you’re not going to need it anymore.’ ”
They’re not going to need it anymore because Manning was an elite quarterback only sometimes. Because Jason Pierre-Paul extended his sackless streak to seven games as the fearsome pass rush vanished into thin air. Because Hakeem Nicks was a hobbled shell of his former self. Because big players play big in big games, and Tom Coughlin couldn’t find any big players to play big when it mattered. Because they weren’t hungry enough. Because they weren’t mentally tough enough.
“You’re not going to win the Super Bowl every year,” two-time Super Bowl champion Osi Umenyiora said.
This was the fourth Giants team that failed to repeat. It would be a mistake to let Umenyiora go. He has plenty of football left in him. The Giants should try to keep him. He blew kisses to fans on his way out.
“I love ’em, man,” he said. “No matter what happens.”
Justin Tuck, another two-time Super Bowl champion, was asked outside the locker room whether there should be a lot of changes.
“No, not at all,” Tuck said. “You look at teams that are consistently good, are teams that don’t knee-jerk. We got an awesome quarterback, we got a defense with a lot of studs that didn’t play as well as we should have played, but, like I said, this league goes in cycles. I think we’re going to be right where we need to be again next year, just because we got so much consistency coming from the top. … I think we need to tweak some things. ”
The two-time Super Bowl champion coach: “I really do want to discuss with some of the players what in the world was the last two weeks about. It wasn’t to be.”
The two-time Super Bowl MVP quarterback: “It hurts. We had the ability to make the playoffs, and we’re disappointed that we didn’t play up to our ability each week.”
The locker room was empty now. The messages on the walls rang hollow:
Control your emotions. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
Talk is cheap, Play the game.
No toughness! No championship!
There will be new players to read them next year. And a new Super Bowl champion.
steve.serby@nypost.com