Super Bowl: Brady’s prize would be a place among the all-time greats, Eli wants his due respect

WITH a clutch of defensive players clawing at his jersey, it is a wonder he was able to stay on his feet, never mind throw the pass that won Super Bowl XLII for the New York Giants.

Trailing 14-10 with a minute left of the 2008 showpiece, quarterback Eli Manning somehow extricated himself from not one, but two challenges before steadying himself to gain 32 yards with a ball that David Tyree miraculously caught between hand and helmet.

It was the move that turned the game. Four plays later, with 35 seconds on the clock, Manning executed a 13-yard touchdown pass to Plaxico Burress that pulled off a stunning 17-14 victory. The New England Patriots, tipped to complete the perfect season after 18 successive wins, had lost to a side that barely made it into the play-offs. The Giants had become the first wildcard team from the National Football Conference to win the Super Bowl.

Manning was the hero, the Most Valuable Player, the quarterback and leader whose last-gasp contribution in the most trying of circumstances has since been described as one of the greatest plays in Super Bowl history. The media, of course, have laid it on thick, bestowing on the moment a variety of labels, from “Catch 42” to “The Helmet Catch” and, most dodgily of all, “The Giant Snatch”, but one man can be forgiven for not joining in the fun.

That Tom Brady was among the Patriot victims only added to the story. Where Manning was understated, under-rated and perenially living in the shadow of his elder brother, Peyton, his opposite number was, and still is, the poster boy of US sport, winner of three Super Bowls – in 2001, 2004 and 2005 – and the clean-cut, all-American husband to Gisele Bundchen, a Brazilian supermodel who is even richer than him. The man who could do no wrong had been outdone on a stage he had come to regard as his own.

No wonder there is talk of revenge in Indianapolis, the host city for tonight’s rematch in Super Bowl XLVI. The circumstances are eerily similar to 2008. The Patriots are again the favourites, this time on a run of ten successive wins. The Giants are lucky to be here at all, having needed to win their last two games of the regular season to make the play-offs. And Brady, four years down the line, is still seeking that record-equalling fourth Super Bowl win.

Were his team to triumph this evening, Brady would become only the third quarterback, after Pittsburgh’s Terry Bradshaw and San Francisco’s Joe Montana, to have four Super Bowl rings. It would formalise his place alongside Montana, John Elway, Johnny Unitas, and others, in the continued debate as to who is the greatest quarterback of all time. For many, he is already in that company on the strength of his mechanical perfection, his photographic memory for plays, and his mind-boggling preparation. “I have to prepare ten times more as a coach just to keep up with him,” says Bill O’Brien, the Patriots offensive co-ordinator, whose touchline bust-up with Brady in a match against the Washington Redskins in December set tongues wagging throughout the NFL.

That spat took observers by surprise, for Brady commands respect, much more than Manning has down the years. In the early part of Eli’s career, he was regarded as holding the Giants back, even when they were playing well, and comparisons with his brother, rated by many as an all-time great, have not helped. Some regard “Catch 42” as a fluke. And, when Eli dared to suggest last summer that he should be considered among the elite inhabited by the Brady bunch, Manning’s father, Archie, asked him to retract the statement. He didn’t.

If the Giants win tonight, it will certainly help Eli’s case. A second Super Bowl ring would give him a place in the Hall of Fame. It would also surpass the one held by his brother. Although there are fears for Peyton’s future after a neck injury that sidelined him all season, he already has a reputation as one of the finest-ever quarterbacks.

“Since I’ve been watching football, I haven’t seen anybody play at a higher level than he has,” says Eli. “It has always been my goal to get to his level of play. That is something that I’ve worked on.”

A second ring for Eli would also put him just one behind Brady. Some wonder if Manning is Brady’s bogeyman, just as the Giants are shaping up to be the Patriots’ bogey team. New England’s last defeat was against the Giants, who are one of only three sides to beat them this season. That was a come-from-behind, fourth-quarter victory, one of six the Giants have pulled off this season.

They are underdogs who will not lie down. Just as they left it late to claim their place in this year’s play-offs, they and Manning are the same clutch performers that they were four years ago. Manning has just broken the record for the most fourth-quarter touchdown passes in a single season. “He’s a great quarterback,” says Brady. “He’s obviously a great leader. I think a lot of the comments you hear coming from their team and their players are how much they respect him. New York is a tough place to play but he answers the critics. He never makes excuses.”

Manning likes a prank in the dressing-room, but on the pitch there is not a flicker of emotion. In the past, it was construed as a flaw, a lack of passion. Now, it is seen as a quality, a vital component of the quarterback’s art. Kevin Gilbride, the Giants’ offensive co-ordinator, says: “All the great quarterbacks that I have been blessed to be around, Warren Moon, Mark Brune ll, Drew Bedsloe, and Eli – their equanimity, their poise, their composure, has always been the same. They don’t show much emotion. It is beneath the surface. But I have always thought, in that position, it is an asset.”

The Patriots have the odds in their favour tonight, as does Brady in the quarterback battle, but he knows better than to take anything for granted. So, too, does his wife, whose sickly email to “my sweet friends and family” was published in the New York Post last week. “I feel Tommy really needs our prayer, our support and love at this time,” said Bundchen, which is probably not how Tommy would have put it.