Wait weighed heavily on him
Toomer happy for another shot
CHANDLER, Ariz. - The worst memory, he says, wasn't the 34-7 flogging they took from the Ravens in Tampa seven years ago. "It was right after the game," Amani Toomer recalls. "All the confetti's going off, all the people are celebrating, and you know it's not for you. That's the worst feeling you can have."
Every year since, the Giants wide receiver had had a variation of that hollow feeling. Somebody else was playing for the title, and it wasn't him and his blue-helmeted teammates.
"Every year when you get eliminated, you think, will we ever get another shot?" Toomer says. "You watch the playoffs and you think, man, I could be there. If we'd just done this, this, and that. This year was our turn. We deserve to be here."
Toomer and defensive end Michael Strahan are the only members of the 2000 Giants team who were on the plane that arrived in Phoenix yesterday afternoon. And Toomer, who was the go-to pass catcher for most of those truncated seasons, still is very much in the mix, bookending with Plaxico Burress to give quarterback Eli Manning two seasoned and accomplished targets.
Sharing the spotlight doesn't bother him.
"I don't think I've been overlooked," says Toomer, who was second to Burress in every receiving category during the regular season, but has equaled him in the playoffs. "I just got an opportunity to play, that's all, and I took advantage of it."
During the postseason, Toomer has 15 catches for 196 yards and three touchdowns. In the 24-14 wild-card victory at Tampa Bay, he caught seven balls for 74 yards and the fourth-quarter touchdown that finished off the Bucs.
Then Toomer produced two huge scores at Dallas, a 52-yard touchdown that put the Giants up less than four minutes in and the 4-yarder that brought them even seven seconds before halftime. "He always seems to make big plays at the right time," observes Manning.
That was the Toomer whom Meadowlands fans had seen from 1999 on - more than 70 receptions and 1,000 yards a season, guaranteed. He wasn't the only man running routes; there has always been an Ike Hilliard, a Tiki Barber, a Jeremy Shockey, a Burress to share the ball with.
But No. 81 has been the constant, season after season, 12 of them now, and he's still adding to his career marks at 33.
"You have belief in yourself," says Toomer, who holds club records for receptions (620), yards (8,917), touchdown catches (50), and 100-yard games (22), plus playoff marks for receptions (36), yards (498), and touchdowns (7). "I thought I could play. I didn't know I'd play for New York for this long. I didn't know I'd break the franchise records. I just felt if I got a chance to play, I'd just do my best."
Toomer never counted on playing in another Super Bowl, either. The first time was like being invited to a carnival.
"I was real giddy, I'll be honest with you," he says. "I was happy just to be around. Get off the plane, see all the cameras."
The Giants had a terrific team in the 2000 season, going 12-4 and destroying the Vikings, 41-0, in the NFC title game. They just forgot to show up for the finale.
The trip here was sweeter, because it wasn't expected. Most observers thought the Giants would struggle to make the playoffs after dropping their first two games, and nobody figured that they'd knock off the top two seeds away from home.
"Winning on the road is the tough way to go," says Toomer. "We went to three different stadiums and silenced them all."
It's been a long seven years between Super Bowl trips for Toomer, who is playing for a different coach and catching balls from a different quarterback. Do the rookies know how rare this experience can be? "I told [Michael] Matthews and [Kevin] Boss that I want to punch them in the stomach for getting here in their first year," Toomer jokes.
You've got to enjoy the moment, Toomer has been telling the younger guys. And you've got to keep the week in balance. It may be a party for everyone else, but this is a business trip for the Giants, which is one reason why they all wore black suits yesterday.
"Regardless of the hoopla, at the end of the day we're going to be on the field with the Patriots," Toomer says. "And that's it."
John Powers can be reached at jpowers@globe.com. 