Blessed are the underdogs...

for one day, they shall truimph.

Congratulations to Tom Coughlin*, Eli Manning, Plaxico Burress, David Tyree, the entire Defense, and Offensive Line of the New York Giants. Defensive games are underrated, but this one proved the value of faith in providing resilience.

To the Patriots fans: nobody's perfect, my friends. And to Tom Brady, who continually got knocked on his butt tonight... you've known the joy of winning this thing time and again. It's just one loss, really. Coach Coughlin said he told his team last night that nothing, except family, beats the feeling of being world champions. So go home, Tom, hold your baby boy, and keep things in perspective. Oops... then again, I somehow don't think holding a Brazilian supermodel, no matter how beautiful and amazing, can compensate for what you've lost. Good luck getting things together in the off-season...

And what a fine sight all night, that of the classy Peyton Manning cheering on his little brother from above. I bet the way the game played out, somehow he appreciated the win this year more than last. Family happiness and all.
-----------------------

*

...
Coughlin is a hothead sometimes, you bet. Still. Can't help himself. He's a coach who probably was always more Catholic than he was military, though sometimes it is hard to tell the difference. But he was never ever the cartoon general they made him out to be when he first got to New York, no matter how long it took people to get off that story. He was always more than that.

His players said they didn't like him. Now they do. Obviously he changed the way he dealt with them, even if there are still memorable shots like the one we got in Green Bay after Lawrence Tynes missed. It has obviously worked. He has had a very good week in Arizona in front of the media during Super Bowl Week, which is hardly ever kind to coaches, mostly because coaches are afraid to say anything that might explode.

On Thursday, Coughlin probably got the biggest laugh he has ever gotten when somebody asked a question about whether the Giants might just possibly be the first team in Super Bowl history to win the toss and elect to kick off. Coughlin gave the guy a look and then he said, "Yeah, we're going to give the Patriots the ball one extra time."

He hasn't turned into George Carlin because the Giants are in the Super Bowl, but with football coaches, you generally set the bar for humor about as high as the curb.

He learned under Parcells the way the other coach, Bill Belichick, learned under Parcells. It was the best training of its kind you could get from a football coach in this time. Parcells has a right to be proud of this, two former assistants coaching against each other in a Super Bowl. Another good story this week, in a Super Bowl Week full of them.

I asked Parcells the other day about Coughlin and Belichick.

"Both of them are up-the-hard-way football guys," Parcells said. "No silver spoons there. Both diligent. Emphasis on sound football. Both good competitors. Hard-driving. Both have an attention to detail. And, while it's not always obvious to the public, both have a good sense of humor."

Coughlin is the Other Coach here the way Eli Manning, even if he isn't the Other Manning for a week, is the Other Quarterback. Coughlin is the opponent to his old friend Belichick. He will win here even if he loses, because he is going to get more money from the Giants than they have ever paid a football coach. Coughlin isn't wired that way, because nobody who has been a coach all the way back to the Rochester Institute of Technology when he was 23 comes into the game of his life thinking he is going to lose to Belichick or anybody else.

Coughlin said something Thursday talking about his young players, but could have been talking about old coaches, too, talked about "an individual who discovers within himself that the job isn't too big for him."

I saw him coach teams at Boston College that weren't supposed to be as good as they turned out to be, used to hear Wellington Mara talk in those days about Coughlin being "the one who got away." I saw him get the Jaguars to the AFC Championship Game, one of the best coaching and organizational jobs in the pros I've ever seen. Did I think he had a Super Bowl in him this time?

I like the guy and I thought he was working on another first-round loser. And here he is.

"And if you're not here to win I don't know what you're here for," he says.

He could always coach, even before he got with Parcells. He always knew he had one like this in him. Something else about the coach of the Giants that never changed.