Giants’ Super Bowl win: a ‘Cinderella story’

In every sport there is a story of an underdog team that went against great odds and still came out on top when the other team was supposed to easily win. Although each story is different, every underdog team shows similar characteristics.

In movies, the underdog team is always a group of losers who do not have any talent who all of a sudden become good and beat the best. Often times, real stories consist of losing teams who manage to step up at the right moment but other performances are not noted as much.

One of the most recent underdog stories was last year in Super Bowl 42 when the New York Giants beat the New England Patriots 17-14.

In this game, the Patriots were favored to win 13-1 against the all but perfect Giants in the largest football game of the year. The Patriots, who were on the verge of being the only team other than the Miami Dolphins to have a perfect season, could not pull out a victory as quarter back Eli Manning threw the Giants to victory.

Another aspect that makes underdog stories so great is the teams’ abilities to overcome negative feedback.

Manning said the team just believed in themselves.

"There's something about this team," Manning said. "The way we win games and performed in the playoffs in the stretch. We had total confidence in ourselves."

A week before Super Bowl 42, the media constantly talked of a Patriot victory, but Manning and the Giants kept their composure and stayed focused.

Manning said his team could win if they played good football and stayed focused.

“The thing that shows is, even as well as we played, we didn't win," Manning said. "That tells us if we expect to win this game, we're going to have to play even better than that, and play a near perfect game.”

On the other hand, the loss was very bitter for the Patriots because 12-point favorite New England was one play from winning and getting the ultimate revenge for being penalized for illegally taping opponents' defensive signals in the season opener against the New York Jets.

The Patriots head coach, Bill Belichick, could say nothing more about game other than his team was outplayed.

"We made some plays – they just made a few more," Belichick said. "We played as hard as we could. We just couldn't make enough plays."

According to the Television Audience Measuring Firm, over 97.5 million viewers watch this classic Cinderella story.

Manning said winning this game felt like something that was written in a script.

"You can't write a better script," Manning said. "To go and do it is just an unbelievable feeling."

Underdogs play an important role in the world of sports and give hope that anything is possible.