From the moment the New York Giants won the NFC Championship Game on Sunday, the main story line of Super Bowl XLVI is that it’s a rematch of Super Bowl XLII when the Giants fluked their way into history by upsetting the 18-0 New England Patriots.

Only eight players from that near perfect 2007 team are still on the Patriots, and it’s only the retired players from that 2007 squad that are talking revenge. (Although, if you choked, you really need to revenge yourself not the team that was lucky enough to be there when you choked.)

Still, we get this from former Patriots defensive back turned NBC analyst Rodney Harrison. “You still have key members of that team still there,” explained Harrison. “Logan Mankins, Matt Light, Tom Brady, Vince Wilfork, Wes Welker, so it’s a lot of guys that mean a lot — that core group of guys. So when you take away what the Giants took away, which inevitably could have been the greatest season in the history of the NFL, yes, it matters.”

As for Patriots coach Bill Belichick, he lost no time trying to say as many nice things as possible about the Giants:

We know how good they are. They’re well coached. It starts at the top. They’ve got great ownership from John Mara and family…. [Giants coach] Tom [Coughlin] and his staff have done a great job of pulling the schemes together and putting their players in productive positions where they can excel, and they’ve done that on both sides of the ball and the kicking game. … They’ve played some of their best football when they’ve had to when it’s counted the most. … They’ve done that and it’s a great credit to their organization, their coaching staff and their team. We know this is the best team we’ve played. This is going to take our best game and that’s the way it should be.

written by Chalk \\ tags: Bill Belichick, Giants, Patriots, Rodney Harrison, Super Bowl XLII, Super Bowl XLVI, Tom Brady, Tom Coughlin