Coughlin's take

Comments from Giants coach Tom Coughlin after Super Bowl XLII:

On his emotions
“The best part of it for me is the idea that this group of young men, who came together and believed in themselves, bought the team concept completely, took the names off the back of the jerseys, checked the egos at the door. The reinforcement for team is the greatest source of satisfaction for me. I told the players last night – and I had stayed away from any personal refrain because I didn’t think it was proper timing, but last night it was. I told them about my experience in 1990, when you realize that you are the World Champion, other than your family and your children and those type of things professionally, there is no comparison to the feeling. You could walk around six feet high and it would be appropriate, for our players. When you stop and think about Michael Strahan, when you stop and think about Jeff Feagles, Jeff in his 20th year and only six times in the playoffs. You start to think about all our veteran guys who now are World Champions and are experiencing that feeling for the first time, reinforcing the concept of team, that’s the greatest thing for me.”

On final TD drive
“It was an amazing drive in that we’d make a first down and then we’d stall for a few plays. And then we’d make another one and obviously I’m trying to conserve my timeouts. But there’s a couple situations I can’t – a sack the clock would have run forever and you’ve got to use them, now we have no timeouts. But before I say anything about that, the escape by Eli and the throw that is caught by David Tyree, that ball was challenged. That wasn’t like he just jumped up in the air and caught the ball. That was challenged, you had two people, ripping for the ball and he brings it down. That might be one of the great plays of all time in the Super Bowl. And then when you’re out of timeouts and Steve Smith’s tight in was a big one, getting that first down was a big one there. And then they came with the blitz, which we knew would come eventually, and he went on the fade to Plaxico. I couldn’t tell if he was in or out. I didn’t know where the ball was until the reaction of the crowd. It was amazing to me, and I looked and I said, ‘Holy cow there’s still 35 seconds left here.’”

On his team’s resilience
“That was the best example of all because our defense played so well. I mean so well. And the Patriots are a great football team and a great offensive team, and their defensive team and their special teams, their leadership. Any time you have a team that’s 18-0, stop and think about that, in this league. That’s just an incredible accomplishment for them. But our team, we’ve been building momentum and building momentum. If you’re going to have a chance to win, you’re going to have to play great defense, and we certainly did really throughout the entire playoffs and certainly tonight was a great example of it. It was a tremendous team effort all the way around, all the way through the playoffs, and just a wonderful way to end this thing.”