SUPER BOWL
Mannings near top of brother acts, but can't match sisters
But until then, let the debate rage. Are the Mannings the best sibling combination in professional sports history? Football history, nobody comes close. But pro sports history? That's hooey.
The Waners (Paul and Lloyd) of baseball are the best brother act in sports. They're both are Hall of Famers and they own a brother record of 5,611 hits. Then there are the Perrys (Gaylord and Jim), nearly 600 career wins and the only two brothers to each win Cy Young awards. The DiMaggios (Joe and either Vince or Dom) and Niekros (Phil and Joe) might get a few votes, too.
For a sibling duo, there's the Miller combo, Cheryl (basketball Hall of Fame) and Reggie (most three-pointers in NBA history and probable Hall of Famer).
My vote for the best sibling pair goes to Serena and Venus Williams and their 22 grand slam tennis titles (14 singles).
Sure, there's probably a sibling act from Kansas or West Virginia that has won more international titles in skeet shooting or midget-car racing, but the Mannings do have one thing going for them: They're the only brother act in which each has been named MVP in championships, among the four major U.S. sports (baseball, football, basketball, hockey).
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Mannings are the fourth brother combo to play on a Super Bowl-winning team, and the second to start and win, joining Keith Fahnhorst (1981 and '84 49ers) and Jim Fahnhorst (1988 49ers). The two who won a Super Bowl, but one or both did not start: Matt Bahr (1979 Steelers and '90 Giants) and Chris Bahr (1980 and '83 Raiders), and Bubba Smith (1970 Colts) and Tody Smith (1971 Cowboys).
Just win it all, Baby: Al Davis used to say, and correctly so, that the Raiders were the only team to participate in a Super Bowl in three straight decades (1960s, '70s and '80s). Since Davis said so in the early '80s, several other teams have played in Super Bowls in three straight decades: Broncos and Redskins (1970s, '80s and '90s), and Patriots and Giants (1980s, '90s, and '00s). However, with their win Sunday, the Giants are the only team to win Super Bowls in three consecutive decades.
Keeping the faith: It might be interesting to go back and read the clips and quotes after the Giants lost 35-13 to Packers in Week 2. People were calling for head coach Tom Coughlin's head. And what were they saying when the Giants were trailing by 14 points in the second half in Week 3 against the Redskins?
The Giants came back and won that game against the Redskins and the rest is history. The Giants joined the 1993 Cowboys and 2001 Patriots as the only teams to win the Super Bowl after starting 0-2. As Elias notes, neither the Cowboys nor Patriots trailed at any point in Game 3 of their comeback seasons.
Six up, six down: The Patriots entered the playoffs with six more victories than the Giants, the biggest differential between Super Bowl opponents. The previous widest margin was four between the Raiders (13) and Packers (nine) in Super Bowl II in 1968 and the Bears (15) and Patriots (11) in Super Bowl XX in 1986.
Eli Montana: Manning's game-winning drive with less than three minutes to play evoked many memories of Joe Montana's game-winning drive in Super Bowl XXIII, a 20-16 win over the Bengals which was decided on John Taylor's touchdown catch with 34 seconds to play. When Manning threw a touchdown pass to Plaxico Burress with 35 seconds to play, he joined Montana as the only quarterbacks to throw a game-deciding touchdown pass in the final minute to win a Super Bowl.
There have been three game-deciding field goals in the final minute of a Super Bowl, two by New England's Adam Vinatieri (Super Bowls XXXVI and XXXVIII) and one by the Colts' Jim O'Brien in Super Bowl V.
Sub-20 winner: The 17 points scored by the Giants were the fifth lowest by a Super Bowl winner, and the lowest in 33 years. Not since the Steelers beat the Vikings 16-6 in Super Bowl IX in 1975 had a winner been held to less than 20 points. The lowest total by a Super Bowl winner is 14, when the Dolphins capped their 17-0 season with a 14-7 win over the Redskins in SB VII.
Midgame lull: Between Laurence Maroney's 1-yard run for a touchdown on the first play of the second quarter and David Tyree's 5-yard touchdown reception nearly four minutes into the fourth quarter, the two teams played 33 minutes and 52 seconds with scoring a single point. According to Elias, that's the longest single-game Super Bowl drought, eclipsing the 33:15 break in Super Bowl X between the Steelers and Cowboys.
Big arms, big flops: Tom Brady was the fourth quarterback to lead the NFL in passing yards to play in the Super Bowl. Like the three before him, he failed to pull off the victory in the title game. The three previous yardage leaders who didn't win the Big One were: Dan Marino, Dolphins (Super Bowl XIX), Kurt Warner, Rams (Super Bowl XXXVI) and Rich Gannon, Raiders (Super Bowl XXXVII).
Random numbers: The Giants have won three Super Bowls, tied for the fourth most in NFL history. Only the 49ers, Cowboys and Steelers have more (five each). ... The Giants were the 14th team to be an underdog by 10 or more points in the Super Bowl. Though the 14 teams are 6-7-1 against the spread, the past four are 4-0 against the spread, including outright wins in Super Bowl XXXVI (Patriots over Rams) and Sunday's Giants win over the Patriots. ... New England linebacker Junior Seau set a record by going 13 years between Super Bowl appearances. The previous record was 11 by Matt Bahr (1979 Steelers, 1990 Giants) and Ed Newman (1973-1984 Dolphins).
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