NFL

Giants veterans remain hungry for third Super Bowl crown

LET’S DO IT AGAIN! David Diehl is one of 13 Giants who will be attempting to get their third Super Bowl ring this season. And, if you ask any of them, they all say they’re just as hungry as they were the first time. (
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The shining Lombardi Trophy stands tall and proud inside a glass case at the bottom of stairs leading to the offices of John Mara, Jerry Reese and Tom Coughlin inside the Timex Performance Center. There are four of them, in chronological order from left to right, emblazoned with Super Bowl XXI, Super Bowl XXV, Super Bowl XLII and the most recent, Super Bowl XLVI. Directly behind them is a photo of Super Bowl XXV MVP Ottis Anderson, flanked to the left by Super Bowl XXI MVP Phil Simms and to the right by Eli Manning, MVP of Super Bowls XLII and XLVI.

It means a day doesn’t go by that Mara, Reese or Coughlin do not walk past these treasured symbols of championship glory that 32 teams obsessively chase, some more capably than others.

“I look every day,” Mara said, “because it’s special to see four of them in there, especially having gone through a such a long period of time before we even had one, so it’s a special feeling. But that was then, and we’re starting a new season on Wednesday. But I do look every day.”

No one can take away that Super Bowl XLVI trophy when the Giants begin the defense of their championship tomorrow night against the Cowboys, but there is certainly room for another one inside the long, rectangular glass window that displays a blue and red NY in script in both corners.

The Giants roster carries 13 players who will be attempting to make history by becoming the first three-ring Giants: Manning, Justin Tuck, Osi Umenyiora, Mathias Kiwanuka, Corey Webster, David Diehl, Chris Snee, Ahmad Bradshaw, Kevin Boothe, Domenik Hixon, Chase Blackburn, Lawrence Tynes and Zak DeOssie.

The money question: How would you compare the hunger level to win a second Super Bowl to win a third Super Bowl?

“Greater,” Tuck said. “When you’ve been at the top of that mountain, you never want to come down. After winning the first one, I think your desire to win it again is always going to be heightened just because you know what it feels like.”

“It gets stronger,” Tynes says. “Obviously everyone enjoys what comes with the Super Bowl — the parade and the ring and the not having to pay for food or meals in the city, that’s a pretty good deal.

“I just think that we’re a mature enough team to know that it took us four years to get back.

“We feel like we got a team that can get back there and if we stay healthy and play well, I feel like that this team’s as hungry as any team I’ve been in.”

“It goes up every time,” Boothe says. “You think about the joy and the excitement of winning, and you immediately want that feeling again, so I think that’s what kind of drives you the next yearYou want to have that feeling again. It’s one of the best feelings in the world. That’s why everybody works so hard to try to get there.”

You discover quickly there isn’t an ounce of complacency among the two-time champions, who will show the way for the one-time champions and those fighting to become first-time champions.

“We want to win it again, whether it’s going to be your second or third,” Snee said. “All the experiences you go through, whether it be the Canyon of Heroes, the ring ceremony, just the feeling on the field after the game … to me they’re both special, everyone asks me which one means more … to answer that question, it would be the same, if not greater.I want that feeling again, especially as you play longer and longer and you realize that the opportunities may be coming to an end.”

Zak DeOssie’s father Steve won one with the Giants (Super Bowl XXV).

“It depends on how long you’ve been in the league and you know how rare it is,” young DeOssie said. “I’ve been fortunate enough to win two in five years, which, I think, if you have that sort of perspective, it makes you that much hungrier no matter how many you have. I mean, second or third or fourth or 10th, it doesn’t matter … first. … But as time goes on and you get older and you learn how rare it is, how awesome an opportunity it is, the more hungry you get.”

There is no place for complacency in Coughlin’s locker room.

“Even if you don’t have a taste of any Super Bowl, complacency’s the first thing that gets you out of this league,” young DeOssie said.

Everyone knows that Manning is the same guy every day — the same driven guy who craves his third championship every bit as much as older brother Peyton craves his second.

“I’d say everyone’s still hungry, to be honest with you,” Hixon says. “A lot of similarities from the first one coming into the next season, kinda having a tough schedule, kinda people saying we’re lucky for winning, kinda just the same old story.”

Plaxico Burress drove the 2008 Giants off the bridge when he shot himself in the leg inside the Latin Quarter. The 2012 Giants are ready to Build The Bridge from the end of last season all the way to New Orleans.

“This coach knows how to get a team ready, and we’ve got a quarterback that has proven he knows how to win big games,” Mara said, “so I think we’re ready to have a good season. Whether we can repeat or not, I don’t know, I’m getting kinda tired of people asking me that because I don’t think about that, I think about next week. The more you start talking about repeating, the quicker you find yourself 6-10. So let’s just worry about Wednesday night.”

No three-ring circus in East Rutherford. Maybe three-ring Giants instead, and one for the Mara thumb.