Super Bowl XLVI News Conference
Indianapolis, Indiana – February 6, 2012
Head coach Tom Coughlin
(Opening statement) “What a great morning it is for us to come before you as Super Bowl Champions and as world champions. It was a great football game, as it always is. The New England Patriots, Bill Belichick, an exceptional football coach and a great game. These games are always this way. Last minute, fourth quarter – we talk an awful lot throughout finish, finish, finish, and the young man who won the MVP certainly put our team on his back many, many times, and we finished in the fourth quarter with some kind of a score that would allow us to eventually win the game. We’re excited. We’re excited right now, to be honest with you, and our stay here in Indianapolis has been outstanding. I mention the University of Indianapolis and the people there, and the hospitality that we received in practicing over there, and the facility, and the National Football League, and the University of Indianapolis providing us with an exceptional practice site. We appreciated that very much, and the hospitality of the people of Indianapolis has been extended to us and we’re very, very thankful. I’d also like to mention the general manager Phil Ray of the Downtown Marriot. You don’t find many people like this who answer questions for you and solve problems, and it’s done. All you have to do is say something to Phil about any issue that you’d like and he solves it, and I appreciate that very much as well. We’re excited to be world champions, and excited to be here again this morning.”
(on how he explains the narrow wins over the Patriots) “I don’t know if you can explain it, to be honest with you. I don’t know if there is any explanation for it. The games are highly competitive. Very, very skilled teams. Outstanding quarterbacks on both teams. Great defense, to be honest with you. The numbers that you look at throughout the course of the year, the New York Giant and New England Patriot defensive teams that didn’t have the numbers, weren’t ranked in the upper echelon of the defensive teams in the league, but how both (defenses) have played in the playoffs, and how we played since the Jet game – just exceptional defensive play. Special teams, I recognize our guy Steven Weatherford and the way he’s played down the stretch and punted the ball, and created field position for our team. Just highly competitive, highly physical football games that are designed, and established, and work out exactly the way you would want. They are fourth quarter wins, and both teams are playing exceptionally hard. The New England coaching staff, Bill Belichick, a friend of mine, a guy that I admired for many years, a true Hall-of-Famer, a great football coach. The games are so competitive and so close, and we’re just fortunate to have made the necessary plays late in the game to win.”
(on what went through his mind with the ball in the air on the final play) “What was going through my mind was I was yelling and thinking to myself, ‘Knock the ball down, knock the ball down,’ which is what we tell the guys to do in that circumstance. I didn’t get a good look at it, but what I saw at the end was the official (signaling incomplete) and I did take a sigh of relief.”
(on what traits make the Giants finish games well) “Mental toughness, resiliency, resolve. We keep playing, we keep fighting, and we’re highly competitive. We do have great trust in each other, great belief that we can finish, and that if we keep playing one play at a time as hard as we can go that we will find a way to win. It didn’t look real good. The last drive before the half, in which New England drove the ball and scored, and the first drive of the second half, (the Patriots) drive the ball and score, but the game was within reach. There was some frustration on our part, in terms of kicking field goals instead of scoring touchdowns as we put the ball in the green zone. We just kept scrambling away, and we did find a way to get them out, and in getting them out we put the ball back in our offense and in Eli (Manning’s) hands, and the very first play, the Mario Manningham (catch), which was an exceptional football play, which these young men are capable of making. An excellent, excellent pass and a great, inbounds catch going to the ground to secure the ball ¬¬- that really got us going, and provided us with that spark, which I thought was again, another exceptional play to put us in position to win the game.”
(on if he has thought about his legacy as a coach since the win) “No, I don’t really think about that stuff, to be honest with you. It’s not about me and this is what we talk about all the time. We’re about team, we’re not about individuals. We’re about the team and what’s in the best interest of our team, and we feel that all our power is generated from team. We’re certainly very cognizant of some of the superior individuals that we have on our team, thank goodness, but it is the team that provides us with our strength, and our ability to perform under pressure, whether it is good or bad, and that’s the way we think.”
(on what he said to QB Eli Manning after winning the Super Bowl) “Well I haven’t really had many opportunities to take Eli aside and express myself to him. I did say to our team on Saturday night how proud of them I am and I mean that sincerely. What these young men have done, and the key thing when I say pride is that the way the team has come together, the way that we support, trust and believe in one another, the way they play for each other and support each other. I think Chase Blackburn is a great example of that. He’s probably the best on-the-field, during-the-game, cheerleader that I’ve ever seen. Well Michael Strahan was like this, too, but he is up and down the sidelines cheering for the special teams and the offense, doing his job defensively. It’s heartwarming to see guys who want it so badly and perform themselves at such a high level. (It) means so much to our team. But really share, instead of sitting over there on the sideline and conserving your energy, share that energy with everyone else. I congratulated Eli and of course being Eli he said to me after winning the MVP that, ‘All I want to do is help our team win,’ which is so consistent with the way he is. I thought, again, this business is about elite quarterbacks, I think that question’s come and gone. I don’t think we’ll hear much about that again, but I thought that his response to that was one of the…if I could have spent hours scripting what I would say to someone in that same category, what he said was incredible: ‘I’m just trying to be the best football player, the best quarterback I can be and help my team win,’ and I think that says it all.”
(on if he is an elite coach and a better coach than Belichick) “There you go. I’m just trying to do my job the best I possibly can do it. Thank you very much.”
(on if he envisions himself coaching this team 10 years from now) “Well, I’m only 45. Maybe that could happen.”
(on if he is coming back to coach next year) “I certainly hope so. My intentions are to be that way. I do have some ownership that has to give approval, but I’m looking forward to it.”
(on if he knows players have resiliency and toughness or if he develops it) “Well I think it’s an ingredient we hope they all have when they become a Giant. We do a great job of that, investigating, thoroughly investigating the player, not only his physical ability, but what he’s made of. But it’s a collective development. There isn’t any question about it and it’s a part of the team idea and a part of the individuals being responsible to one another. When I called for better peer pressure, maybe three quarters of the way through the season, that’s what I was looking for were guys who, yeah they were constructive, there’s no doubt about it. But they were also asking of each other that each individual study and prepare and practice and play his very, very best and the result being that you are responsible to one another. You have to be accountable to one another. You have to be someone who takes great pride in that responsibility.”
(on what his night was like last night) “It was basically family, very close friends and a lot of banter back and forth. The circumstances were great. As late as the hour was, being able to reminisce about the game, talk about the game and take great pride again in the outcome, and just relax a little bit, different from the way it’s been for the last six months.”
(on if he slept last night) “I did. About 15 minutes, but yes I did.”
(on what he’s looking forward to about the next few weeks) “I think a little bit of time away from it, perhaps, and then probably right back here in Indianapolis. I’m excited, to be honest with you, for the young guys and the guys who have not experienced it – whether they are veterans or not – for Tuesday. If you’re any kind of historian, and you do have any recollection of this parade, the ‘Parade of Champions’ if you will, the ‘Canyon of Heroes’ – I remember (Giants President and CEO) John Mara looking at me and saying, ‘You don’t want to miss this now.’ It’s the same thing I would convey to all of our players, you don’t want to miss this. Heartwarming doesn’t quite cover this, what you go through and what your feelings are. When you are looking down the side streets, and there’s people forever down those side streets, and they’re all there because they are taking ownership of their team.”
(on if he would have played the end of the Giants last possession differently knowing New England was letting them score) “In the back of my mind always was the touchdown. I didn’t care how much time was left. We had 35 seconds a few years back and I was worried about that. When that ball went down the field in the seam twice with 35 seconds left, and they only needed a field goal – so the thought about the touchdown was always there. Would I have orchestrated it differently? Perhaps, you certainly don’t want to leave that much time on the clock. But anything that would have become as a result of that would have been my fault because I really didn’t instruct the runner not to score. But having scored and having the four-point difference, and the way our defense played at the end, although we certainly kept the drama involved with the fourth-down completion, it turned out the right way.”
(on his success impacting the Jay Fund Foundation, which he started) “What this Super Bowl championship will allow us to do is to reach out and help others because of this forum. That’s what you pray for. Jay Fund has been very successful in reaching out to families who have children with cancer. To help them in their time of desperate need, many times families don’t have any place else to go. When a child has cancer, everyone runs to the side of the child. Many times people can’t go to work, they’re there for the support of the child. But as we know, life doesn’t stop. There’s many times where there are other siblings, mortgage payments, car payments, grocery bills and all the things that happen within a family that have to be taken care of, that’s where the Jay Fund comes in. Hopefully with the recognition again of the opportunity to take full advantage of the Super Bowl championship to make sure people understand even more about the Jay Fund, that we can do more to help people in need and families in need.”
(on how he explains being at this point after sitting at 7-7) “Well I don’t know if I really can, but I will tell you this: from the earliest part of camp moving forward, particularly what we went through the seemingly every week, we would have an injury that would be, under normal circumstances, devastating, I think what would happen there is that the players fed off of me and I fed off the players. The players would not back down from moving forward no matter what. We all felt bad about when an individual was hurt and could not continue and the season would come to an end for that player, and we would try to recognize that and recognize the contributions, but we never changed our objective. We never changed our goal. We never changed our attitude about what had to be accomplished and what we had to do. This is a great statement to our players as well as to our mental toughness. That’s what you have to rely on. Somehow, someway, you have got to answer these questions. The next guy has to come along, step up, play well and give you a chance to win. That’s exactly what we did. That’s exactly the approach we took. The players were great about that. We didn’t spend time thinking backwards. We were always looking forwards and knowing that, yeah there were a lot of young guys that had to step up or people that were not recognized perhaps as starters prior to that, we had to do some things. We had to shuffle some people around and put them in positions where they had to emerge and emerge very quickly. For a while, as we were trying to get this thing organized, perhaps it didn’t look as if the end result would be this. But because of their mental toughness, because they hung in there, because they continued to believe, because we continued to be in the hunt for the NFC East title, that was always there for us. That was something that we relied on. No matter good or bad, when we would come together on a Monday, we would recognize exactly where we were and what had to happen for us to have a chance in that capacity. That says a lot about our players as well.”
QB Eli Manning – SB XLVI MVP
(on if he got any sleep last night) “I got a little sleep, but we enjoyed the victory with friends and family and teammates, so it was a good night. A good night to celebrate, but I got enough sleep to make it this morning.”
(on if he’s excited about what this team could accomplish long-term in the future) “I am. I’m excited about a number of young guys who stepped up this season. There were some questions going into the beginning of the season on a few spots, but that quickly got answered. Victor Cruz has been a great story, Jake Ballard. Some of these guys have played great football, made great plays for us this year. We knew we had good players on this team. A veteran offensive line, two running backs who won Super Bowls before and played well. Hakeem Nicks, who was here. Mario Manningham. These guys have made big plays in games over the years. Obviously, a defense with a number of players who can rush the quarterback and get sacks. We felt we had talent across the board on the team, that there were a few spots where we needed young guys to step up, as any team always does every year. You’re going to need young players to come in and play a role, and give you a chance to win a championship.
(on what he saw on his 38-yard completion to Mario Manningham) “Well, they were playing Cover-2. They really had our Cover-2 beat to the right side with Hakeem (Nicks) and Victor Cruz in a two-man route. The Patriots did a good job of jamming both receivers, throwing off the timing of the route. They do have a tendency, their safeties will read my eyes, so I did look to the right pretty long. I didn’t like what I was seeing, so I slid up in the pocket. I was going to see where that safety was to the left. I saw he had cheated in, I saw a little window for Mario Manningham where he would catch it or nobody and he made a great catch. A good job staying inbounds, keeping his two feet inbounds, knowing he was going to get hit on the sideline and holding onto the ball. So a big play in the game right there, obviously. When you’re backed up in that situation, when you get a 40-yard gain, that changes your play-calling. You can run the ball, you can be a little more patient. You feel like you’re getting close to field-goal range right there, which was all we needed. But, (there were) a couple of other big plays. Mario had another catch later in the drive, Hakeem Nicks on a slant, and then obviously, Ahmad (Bradshaw) on the touchdown run. Just a great drive and a great way to finish the game.”
(on Manningham’s route) “It’s basically a ‘go’ route. It’s something that we work on all the time. Down the sideline, we feel our receivers have a great ability to make those plays. Great speed on the outside. New England did a pretty good job of eliminating our big plays, not enabling us to get one-on-one coverage, keeping two safeties a lot to eliminate our playmakers from getting those opportunities. On that play, Mario was running hard, didn’t look at the coverage and dictate, ‘Hey, it’s ‘Cover-2,’ I’m not getting the ball.’ He was running down the sideline and made a big play for us.”
(on why he tried to run a similar play to a previous pass to the opposite sideline) “Two different plays, but obviously, very similar. That one I haven’t seen on film yet, but it looked like I maybe led him too far out of bounds. It could have been a big play for us, but I still had confidence in Mario and I had a feeling he would have a good day. I talked to him all week, saying if teams want to double Hakeem and Victor Cruz and if that leaves you singled up, you’re going to have to play well. So he was excited about the game, excited about his opportunities and he obviously stepped up and made a lot of catches for us.”
(on what Peyton Manning said to him after the game last night) “I got to be with Peyton a bit and he was proud of me. He was proud of the team. A quarterback like Peyton is, he knows the game well and he asks questions a lot of people won’t ask. Like the touchdown to Victor Cruz, he asked me if I saw the middle linebacker running out there, and I didn’t. He can see there and tell it how it looks. It was ‘single-high’ and he kind of jabbed to my right a little bit before running left and looking up Victor. Under center, you know they’re bringing a blitz. It is tough to see that, but luckily, he never looked back at me and I threw it right off his shoulder and Victor did a good job of concentrating and making the catch. Then he talked about the throw to Manningham. He was mad, he said everybody was talking about how great of a catch it was. He said it was a pretty good throw, also. It’s a brother looking out for me. He was proud of me and happy for me.”
(on the last time he had bragging rights on his brother) “This isn’t about bragging rights. This is a lot bigger. This is about a team, an organization being named world champions, and that was the ultimate goal. That’s the only thing that’s important, is the team finding a way to get a victory. That’s the only thing I care about and Peyton and I both know that’s what the goal is every year. It’s not about anything else.”
(on if the pass to Mario Manningham late in the fourth quarter was one of the best throws of his career) “I’m not good at ranking my throws. Obviously, it was a Super Bowl and a tight throw, but I didn’t have any questions. I felt the safety was inside. I wasn’t worried about whether it would be an interception or a dangerous throw when the ball was released. I saw a window. I felt confident about it. I didn’t think much about it. I just saw where Mario was and knew the timing. A lot of those throws are muscle memory. You don’t think about how far to throw it or what to do. You see your receiver, you step, you make the throw and hopefully you put it in a good spot where he can catch it. He made a great play.”
(on what went through his mind when Tom Brady completed 16 passes in a row) “I thought it was great by our team not getting frustrated, not getting down or not losing our momentum at that point. Honestly, when they go on a two-minute drive right before half, score a touchdown to take lead and then start the third quarter with another touchdown to extend their lead, we could have got frustrated, tried to force something to get back in the game or make a mistake, and we didn’t do that. We had a good drive going. We had to settle for a field goal, but at least you get the game back into a one-touchdown game. So, that was important. We had another drive, again, we got into field goal range. Obviously, we wanted a touchdown to take the lead, (but) we had to settle for another field goal. There wasn’t anything there, we didn’t force anything, didn’t make a mistake. Our defense was playing outstanding. They were doing a good job. Offensively, we were moving the ball, we were controlling the clock. We thought we were wearing down their defense a little bit. We thought they were getting tired. Obviously, we just needed another stop by our defense, which they gave us and gave us an opportunity to get the ball back one more time and go get the lead.”
(on if the loss to the New Orleans Saints was the low point of the season) “All season, we have kept our confidence. When you lose four games in a row, that can really test a team. I think we played a lot of those games tough. Besides the New Orleans game, all those other games were tight games. Green Bay was close. At San Francisco came down to the wire. Philadelphia came down to the wire. Those three games could have easily been flipped the other way. I think we recognized that and still understood that we were a good team – we had talent. We weren’t playing our best at that point, but we weren’t playing terrible. We just had to make a few adjustments, play a little smarter. We were a couple of plays away from winning those games against great teams and teams that were playing great football at that time. We just said we had to step it up. We have to play a little bit better, we have to keep working and keep our confidence during this time, and sure enough, that’s what we did. When we needed some wins, at Dallas was a huge win for us in the season. To come back, down 12 in the fourth quarter, go score two touchdowns, get a blocked field goal to win the game, that was an emotional win. The excitement in that locker room was fun. Everybody just got that winning feeling again and said, ‘We have to ride this momentum.’ Sure enough, we were able to win a couple of big games vs. the Jets, vs. Dallas again, just to get into the playoffs. Our defense was playing outstanding. Offensively, we were playing smarter, not turning the ball over, not making mistakes, being effective, running the ball better than we were to start the season. Everything just seemed to be coming around, and we were starting to play our best football. We kept that confidence and kept that style of play through the playoffs.”
(on when he realized New England might let them score on their final possession) “Right as I broke the huddle, I kind of had a feeling, under the circumstances, that they were going to let us score. It’s a tough situation right there as you are thinking about what to do. I think you have to score a touchdown right there. That’s the goal. That’s the ultimate goal – to score a touchdown. As a quarterback, I have great confidence in Lawrence Tynes and kicking field goals. Obviously, he has kicked game-winners for us, but you just don’t want to leave anything to chance in that situation. We could have kneeled and run out the clock and kicked a field goal with 10 seconds left, but if you get a bad snap or if they block it or if something fluky happens and you miss that field goal, you feel terrible. In that situation, as I am handing the ball off, I saw that their defensive line was standing up and not rushing. I am yelling not to score. Maybe you get down to the six-inch line, make them use their last timeout and then try to score on third down, hopefully score a touchdown to give you a bigger lead and get the four-point lead, five-point lead possibly and take it from there. Looking back, we did the right thing. I think you have to score a touchdown in those circumstances.”
(on what he was yelling to Ahmad Bradshaw on the final scoring play) “I just yelled, ‘Don’t score! Don’t score!’ Obviously, he heard me (because) he thought about it. I know it’s tough for a running back. They see a big hole right there going for a touchdown. I think something almost had to pop into his head like something was up. This is a little bit too good to be true. I am yelling, and he obviously had heard me. He thought about kind of going down, but I think he didn’t quite know what to do. He said, ‘Hey, I have a touchdown, I am going to take it.’ I am glad he did.”
(on if either of the two Super Bowl victories are more special than the other) “A championship is a championship. Each one is special. Each one has special moments during the season and, obviously, different teammates. This year, I am just happy for a number of guys getting a championship, whether it’s rookies, whether it’s offensive players. Hakeem Nicks getting his first championship, Mario Manningham, Victor Cruz. Those guys weren’t a part of that last championship, so (I’m) happy for those guys. Rocky Bernard on defense is a guy who has played a long, long time. He has lost a Super Bowl. Antrel Rolle, Deon Grant, those guys who had opportunities to win before, have had great careers and never got the opportunity to say they are world champions and have that feeling in a locker room after winning a Super Bowl. I am happy for a number of guys on this team. I know that they are excited, and that’s why you play. You play for your teammates, you play for your coaches, the organization. To give them that opportunity for these next five or six months, we can say, ‘Hey, we are the best. We are the champs.’ That’s a pretty nice feeling.”
(on the similarities between the 2011 and the 2007 seasons) “There are some similarities. Like the 2007 season, we started off fast, then we did hit a rocky road where weren’t playing our best football. But, when we needed a win, when we needed to start playing better, we came together as a team when the playoffs started. I think we had a great confidence going into the playoffs and realized that we had kind of found our way, our style of football that was going to give us the best chance of winning. That is playing smart offensively, taking the short throws, taking the flats, moving the ball and finding good third-down situations to hold the ball, hold the time of possession, win those type of things and have a defense that gets after the quarterback, play great defense. I think both sides of the ball had great confidence in each other. We knew that we could be patient. We knew that we could not force things, not try to make mistakes, and we would help out each other. Sure enough, that’s exactly what happened and gave us a chance to win the game.”
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell
(Opening statement) “Good morning. Let me start by thanking the people of Indianapolis, starting with Jim Irsay and the Colts organization for pursuing the Super Bowl here in Indianapolis and their great leadership. The people did a fantastic job here, from the Super Bowl Host Committee to all the volunteers, to the leadership starting with Governor (Mitch) Daniels, Mayor (Greg) Ballard. We can’t say enough about the tremendous work that everybody did. I see (Host Committee Chairman) Mark (Miles) over here with the Super Bowl Host Committee. It was just an extraordinary effort and a great event, so we thank you all for a great week and a tremendous Super Bowl. The game itself speaks for itself, another fantastic finish and probably another fitting way to conclude our season. A lot of unscripted drama during the season and unpredictable finishes, and we had another one yesterday that will go down in the record books. In fact, I just got an e-mail that looks like the rating was either on par or slightly ahead of last year’s rating, which was, as you all remember, the largest audience for a television show, not just a sports show – the largest television show in the history of television. Another extraordinary audience got to see a great football game, which makes us all happy. As far as individual performances, which is not our game, but is certainly important. Eli Manning just put in an unbelievable performance last night along with his teammates, but Eli really stood above that an played fantastic. He’s only the fifth player to be named on a multiple basis as MVP of the Super Bowl, and he joins a pretty elite group of quarterbacks that achieved that. I think it was Terry Bradshaw, Bart Starr, Tom Brady and I think I have one other one. Joe Montana. How could I forget that one? So that’s a pretty elite group, and well-deserving. To the Giants, congratulations on the Super Bowl. To Eli, congratulations on the Super Bowl, I know that’s most important to you, but also, we’re thrilled to have you as the Pete Rozelle MVP Award winner.
