INDIANAPOLIS — Eli Manning wakes up Sunday morning and it’s the Super Bowl, against Tom Brady and the Patriots. Tom Coughlin wakes up Sunday morning and it’s the Super Bowl, against Bill Belichick and the Patriots. Brady wakes up Sunday morning and starts worrying about Justin Tuck and Osi Umenyiora.
Today is Groundhog Day.
For the Giants, Sunday is Super Groundhog Day.
“I wasn’t a part of that ’07 team,” Steve Weatherford said, “but just watching those guys and seeing them just crush people through the playoffs and get in, and nobody gave ’em a chance to win once you get into the Super Bowl, which is the only game that really matters, and they pulled it out when it mattered most so I mean. . .
“I hope it’s Groundhog Day again, you know what I mean?” he said, referring to the Bill Murray movie in which he relives Feb. 2 over and over.
COMPLETE GIANTS SUPER BOWL COVERAGE
Chris Canty sent a confident message to Giants fans that it will indeed be a Super Groundhog Day.
“Get ready for a great day on Super Bowl Sunday … and get ready for a parade on Tuesday,” Canty said.
No one expected a Canyon of Heroes parade when the Perfect Patriots beat the 2007 Giants 38-35 in the regular-season finale. Or when the 2011 Giants lost 38-35 to the Packers and dropped to 6-6.
“It’s special to be a part of it because talking to [kicker] Lawrence [Tynes] and [long snapper] Zak [DeOssie], this year is so eerily similar to that year, the way that we just get hot at the right time,” Weatherford said, “and we really kinda feel like we’re a buzzsaw of a team.
“I mean, nobody really wants to play us right now.
“We’re a scary, talented, hot team right now, and . . . I’m excited.”
Tynes kicked the 2007 Giants into Super Bowl XLII. Tynes kicked the 2011 Giants into Super Bowl XLVI.
“The circumstances of how we got here are very similar to how we got here in ’07, yes . . . the teams, not so much,” Tynes said.
Of course not. No David Tyree, no Plaxico Burress, no Michael Strahan, no Antonio Pierce for the Giants. No Randy Moss, no Rodney Harrison, no Mike Vrabel, no Tedy Bruschi for the Patriots.
“Bill Murray kept waking up and it was the same day, over and over again,” Kevin Boothe said.
“He even committed suicide a couple of times and still woke up and was in the same situation,” Kareem McKenzie said. “The same hell, so to speak.”
The same hell, so to speak, awaits Brady on Super Groundhog Day.
Some of the names and some of the faces have changed but the formula remains the same: Hit Brady, harass Brady, hound Brady, pound Brady, rattle Brady, beat Brady to the Lombardi Trophy.
The predators this time are named Jason Pierre-Paul and Canty and Mathias Kiwanuka instead of Strahan and Barry Cofield and Jay Alford. But once again Justin Tuck and Osi Umenyiora will be coming for the head and the heart of the Pretty Boy.
“It’s kind of like pounding away at a rock,” Tuck said. “Sooner or later, it’s gonna break. We haven’t gotten to Brady’s breaking point yet, but hopefully Sunday we can.”
Manning delivered a championship to New York with a two-minute miracle at the end. The Giants are certain that Elite Eli can do it again if they need him to.
“You just feel so confident in the fact that, in the end of the game, regardless of the fact of how things have been going, he is always gonna find a way to get us in that position to get a game-winning score or whatever we need at that point,” Tuck said.
And no one should be surprised if Victor Cruz makes a Tyree catch, or Hakeem Nicks goes up with those huge hands and snatches a game-winning touchdown out of the night sky.
The Giants were 12-point underdogs then. The Giants are three-point underdogs now. The 2007 Patriots had won 18 straight before Super Bowl XLII. The 2011 Patriots have won 10 straight.
“I think we should have beat the Patriots in ’07 at the end of the year anyway,” D.J. Ware said, “and once we ended up beating ’em in the Super Bowl, it was a dream come true. And now it seems like we got the same two teams about to face up against each other again. We’re kinda stacked up the same — offense, defense and special teams. It’s gonna be a great day to go out there and see who can come out on top. It’s crazy. It almost seems like it’s the same setup. It’s a little different, we got different people on the team, but it’s still the same atmosphere, it’s still the same feeling. … It’s a great feeling at the same time, we just want to have the same end results.”
steve.serby@nypost.com