In a house built by one Manning, another Manning grabbed the keys to the kingdom and inherited the throne — king of his own royal family and all of pro football.
Legends and dynasties are built and tumble within the time frame of one football game. Super Bowl XLVI gave another example of how the NFL’s line of ascendancy moves like a conga line — up and down, back and forth, with its own peculiar cadence.
It never stands still.
The New York Giants and quarterback Eli Manning are rulers of all they see in the NFL following their 21-17 victory over the New England Patriots on Sunday night in Super Bowl XLVI.
Crowns and trophies and slogans aside, the NFL got something it needed in its capstone to a season that almost never got started because of a messy labor negotiation between the owners and players.
The Super Bowl was a football game, not a show for fantasy football players, which was the case in the regular season and the early portion of the playoffs.
It was a game of transforming star power — Eli Manning taking a 2-1 lead over brother Peyton, and taking a 2-0 lead over Patriots quarterback Tom Brady in head-to-head Super Bowl matchups.
It was a game in which small mistakes by the Patriots added up to become major stumbling blocks and in which role players, especially for the Giants, made highlight plays in the clutch.
And it was a game in which inevitable comparisons could be made in other NFL cities. The fans will ask, if the Giants can win a Super Bowl, what about our team?
That question resonates loudly in Detroit, where the Lions made the playoffs with a 10-6 record, a game better than the Giants’ 9-7 mark in the regular season.
Those are some issues to be addressed in the Super Bowl XLVI Playback. It ends with a personal disclaimer on the Super Bowl commercials, but we start with the Lions-Giants comparison, and their surprising odds for next season’s Super Bowl:
1. Super-ready Lions: Yes and now. Their offense is more than ready. There’s nothing any quarterback can do that Matthew Stafford can’t do as well or better, and Calvin Johnson is simply the NFL’s best and most dominant player among non-quarterbacks.
But defenses have to show up to win big games, and the Lions disappeared on defense in their final regular-season game at Green Bay and in the playoff loss at New Orleans.
Coach Jim Schwartz and general manager Martin Mayhew have work to do in the draft and free agency to add to the defense, especially in the secondary.
2. Lions Super Bowl XLVII odds: The Lions are 20-1 in the future odds posted overnight in Las Vegas to win the Super Bowl next season. In the NFC, only three teams are ahead of the Lions. The Packers are 5-1, Saints 6-1 and Eagles 12-1. The Giants and 49ers also are in a group of teams at 20-1.
The Lions were 60-1 at the start of the 2011 season and 100-1 in 2010.
I’d bet on the Lions to repeat as a playoff team, but 20-1 on the Super Bowl seems a little short. For now.
3. Eli vs. Peyton: The irony of Super Bowl XLVI is that Eli Manning walked away with his second Super Bowl championship and second MVP award in the game in a stadium where big brother Peyton almost certainly has played his last game for the Colts.
Peyton, perhaps the greatest regular-season quarterback in history, has a spotty playoff record. He is 1-1 in the Super Bowl, and he was good but not brilliant in leading the 2006 Colts to a Super Bowl victory over the Bears. Peyton was voted the MVP of that game.
Going into his ninth season, Eli is better than Peyton, who sat out all of what would have been his 14th season because nerve damage in his neck.
4. Eli vs. Tom Brady: If I were building a team today and had to choose between Eli Manning and Brady, I’d take Eli. Like Peyton Manning, Brady’s body of work is better. He is a lock for the Hall of Fame. Eli is on a Hall of Fame track, but he’s not a lock — yet.
At this moment in time, Eli Manning is a more versatile quarterback than Brady. He moves better in the pocket, which is vital in the postseason, and he throws just as well.
5. Chase Blackburn, Giant playmaker: Blackburn’s story became well known in the Super Bowl. He was cut this year after six seasons with the Giants and signed back late in the season when the Giants needed help at inside linebacker.
Blackburn played the last five regular-season games and started the last four. He started all four playoff games.
On the second play of the fourth quarter Sunday, Brady scrambled to his right and threw a deep floater down the middle meant for tight end Rob Gronkowski.
Blackburn got back to make the interception with a leaping grab.
Again, comparisons can be made to the Lions. Eric Wright and Aaron Berry both had changes to make drive-stopping interceptions in the playoff loss to the Saints, but each dropped the ball.
6. Brady: He threw six touchdown passes in a rout of the Broncos in the divisional round, but his star descended after that. In his own words, he “sucked” in the Patriots’ win over the Ravens in the AFC Championship Game, and he wasn’t a star in the clutch in the Super Bowl.
He started the game by giving away two points for grounding the ball on a safety when he threw deep down the middle to nobody in the face of the pass rush.
The interception was inexcusable. On first-and-10 at the Patriots’ 43-yard line, there was no reason to take a risk.
In the second half, Brady completed 12 of 23 passes — a decent performance but not up to his clutch standard.
7. Manningham the man: Mario Manningham has been a solid No. 3 receiver in four seasons with the Giants. His 38-yard catch on the first play of the Giants’ game-winning drive will be part of football’s championship history.
Manningham did not play a perfect game, but his timing on the big catch was perfect.
8. Welker the goat: He was the opposite of Manningham — a player whose star declined because he had a chance to make a game-clinching catch and failed.
On second-and-11 at the Giants' 44 and 4:06 left, Welker dropped a pass that would have been a first down at the 20.
A catch could have clinched the game, with the Patriots holding a 17-15 lead and the Giants down to one timeout.
Instead, the Patriots wound up punting, and the Giants drove to the winning touchdown.
The reaction on the Patriots’ sideline told the story. The defensive linemen all dropped their heads. They knew what a catch would have meant.
Welker has been a major producer in five seasons with the Patriots — 554 catches, including 122 in the 2011 regular season — but the catch he did not make will haunt him.
9. Penalties: They were in focus all season in Detroit because the Lions were one of the league’s most heavily penalized team, but the reality is that the timing of penalties is more important than the volume.
Case in point: The Patriots' defense had a first-quarter drive stopped on a fumble recovery deep in its territory late in the period. The recovery was nullified by a penalty against the Patriots for having 12 players on the field.
Two plays later, Manning threw a TD pass for a 9-0 lead. Big mistake. Big play.
For the game, the Giants had four penalties and the Patriots five.
One big one, for a measly 5 yards, meant more than all the others combined.
10. Commercial grade: When I covered 31 Super Bowls for The Detroit News, I never saw the commercials. Watching on TV on Sunday night, some were good, but most were pretty blah. It made me wonder why Warren Pierce, my frequent radio interrogator on WJR-760 in Detroit goes gah-gah over the commercials.
But to set the record straight, I was not — repeat not!!! — the body double for David Beckham’s underwear commercials.
Just to clear the air.
