Eli Manning Plays With Your Perceptions Of Reality

As amazing as Eli Manning was last night, it might have behooved someone on the Giants, whether it was a PR person or just an assistant coach, to inform him that when you win the Super Bowl, you're supposed to take your pads off before you put on the championship T-shirt. Doofy fella kept those pads on the whole night. We bet he's still wearing them.

As we mentioned in our Times column, we were almost surprised to realize that the Eli Manning after the game was still the same dopey, earnest, dork character he was before the game. We expected him to take off his helmet and suddenly talk like Barry White. That's how amazing his fourth quarter was. Truthfully now: You've never seen Peyton be that gutsy, have you? Where did that come from?

We suspect most of you are like us, and feel as if the ground has shifted beneath your feet: Eli Manning — the guy who would rather be playing squash — turned out to be a true champion. We are flabbergasted, and we will never doubt him, or that family, again. At this point, we're ready to ask businessman Cooper Manning to pull us out of this recession.