ALL IN: Hundreds of fans cheer the arrival of their triumphant Giants at the Timex Performance Center as Big Blue returned from Indianapolis with the Vince Lombardi Trophy in hand. (Dan Brinzac)
Just because we are The City That Never Sleeps doesn’t mean we don’t dream. Because we do. We dream big around here, and we adore the teams that wear the NY that dream big, especially the ones who realize the Impossible Dream against all odds.
And our Tom Coughlin-Eli Manning Giants have captured our imaginations twice in four years now and already are dreaming about a repeat.
“This football team could do this again, I honestly believe that,” Brandon Jacobs said yesterday before leaving for the triumphant flight home from beating the Patriots, 21-17, in Super Bowl XLVI. “We stick together, and fight like we’ve been fighting, there’s no reason why we can’t do this again.”
COMPLETE GIANTS SUPER BOWL COVERAGE
Sometimes we rally behind our bully teams, like the 1986 Giants of Bill Parcells or the 1986 Mets of Darryl and Doc and Kid and Mex, but there is something more romantic about the underdog team that shocks the world because Ya Gotta Believe in fairy tales.
A sea of blue drowns the 2011 Giants today all through the Canyon of Heroes when Coughlin and Manning bring the Lombardi Trophy back home.
No one believed they could win a Super Bowl. No one but them.
It is a team built in New York’s image in so many ways.
A bunch of fighters, starting with the 65-year-old coach who never squirmed on the hot seat, and the gentleman quarterback who has surpassed big brother Peyton in every way.
An afterthought undrafted free-agent receiver from Paterson named Victor Cruz, who wouldn’t take no for an answer and salsa-ed into our hearts.
A true Blue gym rat named Chase Blackburn, signed off the street to make the defense whole again.
A fearless swaggerlicious leader named Antrel Rolle, who told it like it was.
A rising star named Jason Pierre-Paul.
A clutch kicker named Lawrence Tynes.
A prideful captain named Justin Tuck.
And on and on.
It is a defiant team.
Jacobs mentioned how Fox analyst Jimmy Johnson announced: “Stick a fork in the Giants” after they had fallen to 7-7.
“I told him after the San Francisco game, ‘You stuck a fork in us,’ ” Jacobs said. “They always write us off, and we just keep working and we keep going. It doesn’t matter what everybody else says. It’s what you have in your heart. It’s what your teammates have in their hearts and your coaching staff and the whole organization that believe in you and the fans that believe in you as well, so we kept fighting.”
It is a team in every sense of the word, a team built on the concept of ALL IN.
“This is definitely the closest team I’ve been on, hands down,” Jacobs said. “Guys stuck together through the worst.”
“One thing that struck me just watching our guys all week was they have great camaraderie,” co-owner John Mara said. “Everybody got along really well, just great spirit, really unlike any other team that I’ve been around. It really was a special group.”
It is a resilient team.
“New York is a great place, man,” Jacobs said. “And they stick in there and they hang in there as much as we do and persevere through the negativity, through all adversity. I was on YouTube [Sunday] night — New York city bar erupts when Giants win. I mean, it was like eight, nine different bars on there, they went crazy. And it was good for me to see that, man. It’s truly a blessing in disguise for us to have this opportunity to be able to win a Super Bowl.”
It is a mentally tough team, a team built on “No Toughness, No Championship,” on “Next Man Up.”
“The players would not back down from moving forward no matter what,” Coughlin said. “We never changed our objective, we never changed our goal. We never changed our attitude about what had to be accomplished and what we had to do. This is a great statement to our players as well as to our mental toughness. Somehow, some way, you have to answer those questions.”
I asked Jacobs, “How important is belief?”
“Belief is key,” he said, “because if you don’t believe that it can happen, it won’t happen. You’ve already beaten yourself.”
Is it any wonder why Jacobs wants to stay with the Giants?
“We could be so much better,” he said. “But you know what? We’re always going to be the team that causes stress on ourselves, and just do it the wrong way. That’s how we win, man. I don’t know what it its. I don’t like those situations, I’ll be honest with you. We’re too good for that. We are a much better football team than doing it the dirty way, but hey, this team fights back, and we had a good win, got the Super Bowl, that’s all I can say.”
ALL IN today: New York Giants and Blue York City.
steve.serby@nypost.com