Standing on a riser with a large group of media members encircling him, Tom Coughlin yesterday responded to a question with one of his own.
Speaking of the Super Bowl, Coughlin said, “Who was the loser two years ago?”
Several seconds went by before “Seattle” finally sounded as the answer.
“That’s exactly what happened in our team meeting,” Coughlin said. “I asked the same question.”
Yes, he did. Coughlin wanted to hammer home a battle cry that was repeated by several players, most notably by Eli Manning, who stated, “Nobody remembers who loses the Super Bowl.” When Coughlin broached the subject with his team, no one immediately came up with Seattle as the answer.
“It was a nice, long pause,” receiver David Tyree said. “It helps to get us to focus what the main thing is: You’re not going out there just to play a game, you’re going out there to win a game. We’ve had the wisdom of (Michael) Strahan and (Amani) Toomer, who have been there before, to express to us who haven’t been there before that it really [stinks] to lose it. It’s really nice, all the hoopla that goes along with going, but when you lose, it completely deflates your bubble. We going down there with a humble mentality. We know what we’re up against. We’re going out to Arizona to win a game.”
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Strahan skipped practice because of a cold. . . . The team is off today and leaves on a charter flight tomorrow at noon for Phoenix. DE Justin Tuck scoffed at the notion that the Giants enjoyed themselves too much this past week in the aftermath of their NFC Championship game victory in Green Bay. A few Giants were seen courtside at Knicks games or engaged in personal appearances.
“We were going to Knicks games before we got to the Super Bowl – that’s not anything out of the ordinary,” Tuck said. “Guys obviously are happy to be here, and a lot of opportunities have come a lot guys’ ways. We don’t have the big head about that. We know what our responsibility is when we get down to Arizona. You got to enjoy this stuff. You can’t just be a robot and play football. You enjoy your success. Once Monday comes (and) we get to Arizona, we’re going to turn all this stuff off and concentrate on football.”
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Patriots coach Bill Belichick mentioned rookie RB Ahmad Bradshaw as a key player to stop, which is quite remarkable considering Bradshaw barely played at all until the 15th game of the season.
“It really does feel good to have someone like that say that about me,” Bradshaw said. “I would have never thought this would happen.”