I – This is the Giants' fifth Super Bowl. They will be the 10th franchise to play in at least five Super Bowls, joining San Francisco, Green Bay, Pittsburgh, Dallas, the Raiders, Washington, New England, Miami and Denver.
II - The Giants are 3-1 in Super Bowls: 3-0 vs. opponents they faced in the regular season (beating Denver in Super Bowl XXI, Buffalo in Super Bowl XXV and New England in Super Bowl XLII). They are 0-1 when facing a Super Bowl foe they did not play that season (Baltimore in Super Bowl XXXV). The Giants defeated the Patriots in Foxboro, 24-20, on Nov. 6.
III- This is the 13th Super Bowl that is a rematch of a regular season game. The teams winning the first game are 5-7 in the Super Bowl. Teams that won on the road in the regular season are 2-4 in the Super Bowl. This is the first Super Bowl rematch since the Giants and Patriots met in Super Bowl XLII.
IV - The Patriots are 3-3 in Super Bowls, so the winner of this game will become the fifth franchise to win at least four Super Bowls. The others are Pittsburgh (6), San Francisco (5), Dallas (5) and Green Bay (4).
V- The Giants have won each of their last six postseason games away from their home field – including Super Bowl XLII – an NFL record.
VI – The Giants are the third team since the introduction of the 16-game schedule in 1978 to reach the Super Bowl after finishing the season with a 9-7 record. The others were the 1979 Los Angeles Rams and the 2008 Arizona Cardinals, who lost the Super Bowl.
VII – New England was 13-3 in the regular season. This is the fourth time there is a 4 win disparity between opposing teams in the Super Bowl. The team with the lower victory total has won two of three:
1967 Oakland (13-1) Green Bay (9-4-1) Green Bay, 33-14
1985 Chicago (15-1) New England (11-5) Chicago, 46-10
2007 New England (16-0) Giants (10-6) Giants, 17-14
VIII – In their three postseason victories, the Giants defeated 10-6 Atlanta, 15-1 Green Bay and 13-3 San Francisco to join the 2008 Cardinals as the only teams to beat three teams in the playoffs with better regular season records to reach the Super Bowl.
IX – Tom Coughlin is one of 14 coaches to lead a team to three postseason victories to reach a Super Bowl. Coughlin is the only coach to do it twice.
X – Teams with the most total yards are 36-9 in Super Bowls.
XI - Super Bowl XLVI is the first Super Bowl in which both starting quarterbacks have won a Super Bowl MVP award. New York quarterback Eli Manning passed for 255 yards and two touchdowns – including the game-winning 13-yarder to Plaxico Burress with with 35 seconds remaining – in Super Bowl XLII and was named the game's MVP. New England quarterback Brady has been named Super Bowl MVP twice (XXXVI, XXXVIII) and is one of only four players in NFL history to win the award multiple times, joining Pro Football Hall of Famers Joe Montana, (XVI, XIX, XXIV), Terry Bradshaw (XIII, XIV) and Bart Starr (I, II).
XII – The Giants are 5-0 in postseason games in which Manning does not throw an interception.
XIII - Neither team has won in Lucas Oil Stadium, the site of Super Bowl XLVI. The Patriots lost there in its inaugural season in 2008, 18-15, and 2009, 35-34. The Giants lost there in 2010, 38-14.
XIV - The Giants scored 394 points and allowed 400 this season to become the first team in history with a negative point differential in the regular season to go to the Super Bowl.
XV - Steve and Zak DeOssie are one of 13 father-son tandems to reach the Super Bowl, but the only one to win Super Bowls with the same team. Steve won with the Giants in Super Bowl XXV and Zak won with the Giants four years ago.
XVI – Fifteen Giants and seven Patriots who played in Super Bowl XLII are still with their respective teams.
XVII - The Giants were 4-4 at home this season. Of the 92 teams to reach the Super Bowl, only four did so with a home record of .500 or worse – and the Giants account for two of the four. In 2007, they were 3-5 at home and were the first – and still only – team to advance to the Super Bowl with a sub-.500 record at home. The 1979 Los Angeles Rams and the 1988 San Francisco 49ers were both 4-4 at home.
XVIII - Coughlin will be 65 years 158 days old on Sunday, making him the second-oldest head coach in a Super Bowl. Buffalo's Marv Levy was 68 years old when he coached the last of his four Super Bowls in January 1993. Coughlin would be the oldest coach to win a Super Bowl; he is currently the third-oldest:
Name Team Super Bowl Years Days
Dick Vermeil St. Louis XXXIV 63 92
Weeb Ewbank Jets III 61 251
Tom Coughlin Giants XLII 61 156
XIX - With Coughlin and New England's Bill Belichick, who is 59, this is the first Super Bowl matchup of coaches who are each at least 59 years old.
XX - Coughlin and Belichick have combined for 28 postseason victory and 345 total victories, both the highest total by two coaches facing each other in a Super Bowl.
XXI- The Giants lost four consecutive games from Nov. 13-Dec. 4. They are only the second team to reach a Super Bowl after losing at least four games in a row during the season. The first was the 2002 Oakland Raiders, who followed their four-game losing streak with a five-game winning streak.
XXII – Coughlin and Belichick have each won Super Bowls, so a streak will be broken on Sunday; each of the last six Super Bowls has been captured by a first-time Super Bowl winning head coach: Bill Cowher, Tony Dungy, Coughlin, Mike Tomlin, Sean Payton and Mike McCarthy.
XXIII – This is the fifth Super Bowl rematch of teams that previously met in a Super Bowl (sixth if two Pittsburgh-Dallas rematches are counted). Miami and Washington split Super Bowls XII and XVII. Pittsburgh beat Dallas in Super Bowls X and XIII, but lost to the Cowboys in Super Bowl XXX. San Francisco beat Dallas in Super Bowls XVI and XXIII and Dallas defeated Buffalo in Super Bowls XXVII and XXVIII.
XXIV - Manning and Brady will be third pair of quarterbacks to start two Super Bowls against each other. The others were Pittsburgh's Terry Bradshaw and Dallas' Roger Staubach in Super Bowls X and XIII and Dallas' Troy Aikman and Buffalo's Jim Kelly in Super Bowls XXVII and XXVIII. Bradshaw and Aikman won both games.
XXV - The Giants are the 15th team to reach the Super Bowl by winning three playoff games – and the sixth in the last seven seasons. Those teams are 8-6 in the Super Bowl, including the Giants in 2007 and the Green Bay Packers last year.
XXVI - The Giants can become the first franchise to win Super Bowls in four different decades – and they would accomplish the feat in four consecutive decades. They won Super Bowl XXI following the 1986 season, Super Bowl XXV in 1990 and Super Bowl XLII in 2007 to become the first franchise to win Super Bowls in three decades (if the determining factor is the season in which the titles were won). Pittsburgh won four Super Bowls in the 1970s, though the last of those games was actually played on Jan. 20, 1980. They didn't win again until 2004. Dallas won twice in the 70s and thrice in the 90s, San Francisco four times in the 80s and once in the 90s.
XXVII - The Giants finished last in the NFL in rushing yards in 2011 with an average of 89.2 yards a game. Only three teams have reached the Super Bowl after they had the league's fewest rushing yards – all within the last four seasons. The Giants joined the 2008 Cardinals and the 2009 Colts as teams to advance to the Super Bowl despite finishing 32nd in rushing.
XXVIII - Phil Simms (Super Bowl XXI), Ottis Anderson (Super Bowl XXV) and Manning (Super Bowl XLII) are Giants who have won the game's MVP award.
XXIX – The Super Bowl will be the 48th postseason game in Giants history. That is third-most in NFL history, behind Dallas (58 postseason games) and Pittsburgh (53). The Giants are 23-24 in postseason games.
XXX - Manning is one of 29 starting quarterbacks to win a Super Bowl. He's also one of two Mannings to do so. His brother, Peyton, led the Indianapolis Colts to the title in 2006 year. The Mannings are one of 22 sets of brothers to play in the Super Bowl. They were the first pair of brothers to play quarterback.
XXXI - Super Bowl XLVI will be played indoors. The NFC is 9-4 in Super Bowls played indoors, including the Giants' victory over New England three years ago and Green Bay's triumph over Pittsburgh last year in Dallas. The Giants are 27-16 playing in domes in the regular season, plus 1-0 in Super Bowl XLII. They are 10-4 under Coughlin in regular season indoor games, plus the Super Bowl. The Giants have won four of their last five indoor games.
XXXII - Eight former Giants assistant coaches have led teams to Super Bowls as head coaches: Six of the eight have won at least one Super Bowl. Former Giants coaches are 11-6 as head coaches in Super Bowls.
Name Giants Assistant Team, Super Bowl(s)
Bill Belichick 1979-90 New England: XXXI, XXXVIII,
XXXIX
Tom Coughlin 1988-90 Giants: XLII
Jim Fassel 1991-92 Giants: XXXV
John Fox 1997-2001 Carolina: XXXVIII
Tom Landry 1954-59 Dallas: V, VI, X, XII, XIII
Vince Lombardi 1954-58 Green Bay: I, II
Bill Parcells 1979, 1981-82 Giants: XXI, XXV; Patriots XXXI
Sean Payton 1999-2002 New Orleans: XLIV
XXXIII – There have been five safeties in Super Bowl history and the Giants were involved in two of them. George Martin sacked John Elway in the end zone in Super Bowl XXI and Buffalo's Bruce Smith did the same to Jeff Hostetler in Super Bowl XXV – still the most recent Super Bowl safety.
XXXIV - Manning will be the first quarterback to start two Super Bowls for the Giants. In their first four Super Bowls, four different quarterbacks started for the Giants. The others were Simms, Hostetler and Kerry Collins. The Giants were the first team to start a different quarterback in each of their first four Super Bowls. Only two other teams have started four different quarterbacks in a Super Bowl, though not in the franchise's first four games. The Raiders have started Daryle Lamonica, Ken Stabler, Jim Plunkett and Rich Gannon. Washington's four Super Bowl quarterbacks were Billy Kilmer, Joe Theismann, Doug Williams and Mark Rypien.
XXXV – Brady has thrown more passes (156) and completed more (100) than any quarterback in Super Bowl history.
XXXVI – The NFC holds a 25-20 lead over the AFC in Super Bowls.
XXXVII - Super Bowl oddity: The NFC team has won the coin toss in each of the last 14 Super Bowls. The last AFC team to win the coin toss was New England in Super Bowl XXXI. It didn't help. The Patriots lost, 35-21, to the Packers. The Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII and Green Bay last year are the only teams to win the coin toss and defer its choice to the second half. The team that has won the coin toss is 22-23 all-time in the Super Bowl.
XXXVIII - Manning is the only quarterback to wear No. 10 and win a Super Bowl. The only other starting quarterback to wear No. 10 in a Super Bowl was Minnesota's Fran Tarkenton in Super Bowls VIII, IX and XI.
XXXIX – The Giants have a turnover differential of minus-four in their four Super Bowls. New England has a minus-two differential in its six Super Bowls. Super Bowl teams with fewer turnovers than their opponents are 33-3.
XL – Manning is one of seven quarterbacks taken with the first overall selection in the NFL Draft to start a Super Bowl. The others are Bradshaw (4-0 in Super Bowls), Jim Plunkett (2-0), Elway (2-3), Aikman (3-0), Drew Bledsoe (0-1) and Peyton Manning (1-1). The former No. 1 choices are 13-5 in Super Bowls.
XLI – Simms completed a Super Bowl record 88 percent of his passes in the Giants' Super Bowl XXI victory over Denver 24 years ago. Simms completed 22 of 25 passes that day, including 10 in a row at one point (tied for the second-longest streak in Super Bowl history). The closest challenge to Simms' mark occurred two years ago, when New Orleans' Drew Brees completed 82.1 percent of his passes (32 of 39).
XLII – Forty seven players have won Super Bowls with more than one team, including nine who earned one of those victories with the Giants: Matt Bahr (also with Pittsburgh), Jim Burt (San Francisco), Matt Cavanaugh (San Francisco), Dave Duerson (Chicago), Kenny Hill (L.S. Raiders), Bart Oates (San Francisco), Elvis Patterson (Dallas), Grey Ruegamer (New England) and Jeff Rutledge (Washington).
XLIII - The Giants have won six title games and seven championships overall. They won NFL championship games in 1934, 1938 and 1956, plus the three Super Bowls. The Giants also won the NFL in 1927, before championship games were played. Only Green Bay (13) and Chicago (9) have won more titles than the Giants.
XLIV - With a Giants victory, Manning would become the 11th quarterback to win at least two Super Bowls.
XLV - Teams that have scored on an interception return are 11-0 in the Super Bowl, including Pittsburgh, New Orleans and Green Bay in the last three years. The last team to win a Super Bowl without a touchdown on an interception return was the Giants.
XLVI – The Super Bowl will be the second February game in the 87-season history of the Giants. The first was Super Bowl XLII.
