So it seems that the trend of fans recording themselves while watching the final moments of a championship game continued on Sunday, with Giants fans everywhere looking to preserve their viewing memories of Super Bowl XLVI – good or bad – for all the internet to see.  Fortunately for these fans, Brady’s last-second hail mary fell harmlessly to the turf, sealing New York’s fourth Super Bowl championship in franchise history, and sending legions of Giants fans around the world into fits of hysterical joy.

This compilation of reaction shots goes on a bit long, but it’s still fun to re-live the final seconds (as well as the emotional post-game celebration) through the eyes of these passionate fans.

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I bet the Patriots version of this isn’t quite as light-hearted.

(Image via Youtube.com)

Jimmy Kimmel has gained some internet notoriety recently by challenging his viewers to pull cruel and unusual pranks on their children, video tape the results and post them to YouTube. The resulting “I told my kids I ate all their Halloween candy” and “I gave my kids a terrible present” were hilarious. Downright mean, but hilarious.

Well, for Super Bowl Sunday, Kimmel set his sights on the adults of America, challenging folks to unplug their television set during a crucial moment of the game (preferably at a large viewing party), and record the reaction for our viewing enjoyment. Predictably, the prank was not very well-received … but surprisingly, no severe beatings or hospitalizations were reported:

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I have to admit, as a Giants fan who had my heart in my stomach for much of the afternoon, if someone had pulled this at my Super Bowl party, I probably would have calmly delivered an open-handed chop to the adam’s apple before clotheslining them to the floor. That’s just not funny, dude.

Although, as with everything in comedy, it all comes down to timing. Some of these folks had the nerve to pull the plug during the final hail mary, while others played it safe and just shut the TV off at a less stressful moment during the broadcast. BIG difference. The lady Ryan Fitzpatrick fan going crazy after her boyfriend shut off the TV during Madonna’s halftime show was simply awesome.

Watch as RB Andre Brown leads the team in singing the hot new jam, “I got a ring”:

Well, the “Sh*t ____ Say” phenomenon that’s been sweeping the interwebs – which has seemingly been exhausted to cover every race, gender and social substrata – has finally reached the NFL.

This “Sh*t People Say During the Super Bowl” compilation, courtesy of theguysfromtheinternet, should give you a pretty good sense of what to expect if you’re planning to watch SB XLVI with friends this Sunday. We really didn’t plan on enjoying this (let alone re-posting it), but it’s actually pretty funny … particularly the commentary on Madonna’s halftime show:

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(Photo: NFLMocks.com)

Giants rookie linebacker Mark Herzlich has already defied the odds.

Two years ago, as an All-American at Boston College, Herzlich was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma – a rare form of bone cancer – and was told by doctors that he might not ever walk again, let alone play football. Well, after beating the cancer, returning to play his senior season and making it to the NFL as an undrafted free agent with New York, Herzlich continues to prove the doubters wrong. He played in eleven regular season games this year for the Giants, starting two (including a week 11 showdown against the Eagles), and making an immediate contribution on special teams.

But Herzlich’s tweet from today really put things into perspective as to just how far he’s come in so short a period of time:

(via LarryBrownSports)

Even though he hasn’t played since week 12 due to an ankle injury and illness, Herzlich hopes to take the field for the Giants at Lucas Oil Stadium on Sunday to complete his utter & total domination of cancer. And regardless, if you’re not inspired by Herzlich’s journey thus far, you may have no soul.

Back in September, NFL Network had Steve Mariucci sit down with Herzlich for this excellent in-depth interview:

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(Image via SportsGrid.com)

Sunday’s 2012 Pro Bowl started out pretty much as expected, with defensive players giving minimal effort at little things like rushing the passer, covering and tackling, setting the stage for the offensive shootout that ensued. The AFC ultimately out-gunned the NFC 59-41, with Dolphins WR Brandon Marshall reeling in a Pro Bowl record 4 TDs and earning the MVP trophy.

And while this laissez-faire defensive attitude elicited boos from the crowd and groans from television viewers everywhere, the game did end up providing a few noteworthy moments. To be honest, we didn’t actually watch the whole thing, but we got a pretty good feel for things via the stats and game highlights … and with 100 total points scored, you get the general idea: defense (and running backs) took the day off in Honolulu today. For their part, the NFC had three players – Tony Gonzalez, Larry Fitzgerald and Steve Smith - with more than 100 yards receiving, with Fitzgerald pulling in three scores of his own.

Marshall finished with 176 yards on six catches, but none of them were as memorable as this unbelievable (and wildly lucky) third quarter grab of a tipped Andy Dalton pass while laying on his back in the endzone:

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BONUS GIF: The other worthwhile highlight came Drew Brees attempted the rarely-seen drop kick extra point late in the 4th quarter, only to miss it badly [VIDEO here]

(via mocksession.com)

Cam Rodgers (Photo: Dan Hicks via Twitter)

In case it slipped your mind (it almost did ours), the NFL’s finest players – minus the Giants and Patriots, of course – have gathered in Honolulu for a week of golf, beach time, goofing off and some half-assed preparation for the 2102 edition of the Pro Bowl.

Everyone knows the Pro Bowl is a joke as far as professional sports all-stars games go, since nobody – including the players – cares about the outcome, and therefore nobody really tries. And ever since they got rid of the NFL Skills Challenge in 2007, there’s even less of a reason for fans to tune into the week-long all-star festivities. I mean, has anyone ever gotten a decent explanation for why they stopped doing skills competitions? Instead of a half-speed football exhibition, wouldn’t it be far more compelling to watch these all-stars compete for the title of NFL’s fastest man, strongest leg, best hands, biggest arm, etc? Does anyone genuinely think there’s any more risk of injury here than with the game itself? Hell, I even tuned into the NHL’s All-Star skills competition yesterday just to check it out, and I don’t watch hockey at all.

But I digress. If you’re so inclined, the game itself starts at 7pm ET tonight, and you can watch all the non-action live online.

In the mean time, here are a few Pro Bowl links that caught our eye this week:

• Our banner pic (above) is Aaron Rodgers rocking his Cam Newton look earlier this week in Hawaii, from NBC’s Dan Hicks’ Twitter. Oh, and these are the shoes Cam is rocking this week
• The Jared Allen Experience gives you some insight into a Pro Bowl practice through the eyes of one of our favorite NFLers. Allen was not only mic’d up, but wearing a helmet cam for the day, and has plenty of fun with his fellow NFC elite while making sure not to work too hard. Best moments: Allen imitating the “Wide Nine” stance of Eagles DE Jason Babin, and jokingly asking Clay Matthews “How’d that Super Bowl run work out for you?” Matthews reply: “Shut up.”
• Nike released their brand new Vapor Jet gloves just in time for the Pro Bowl, and also in time to leak the Panthers new logo
• In an effort to increase the social profile for the game (and in stark contrast to their regular season policy), the NFL will allow players to use Twitter during the Pro Bowl game … but only from computers located in designated areas on each team’s sideline. 
• Speaking of the NFL Skills Challenge, here are Ben Roethlisberger (2005) and Ken O’Brien (1991) competing in the QB Challenge from back in the day. This wasn’t actually a Pro Bowl week event, but was cancelled at the same time as the Pro Bowl Skills Challenge in a sweeping ban of all skills-based competitions by the league back in November of 2007. Yeah … after watching those, I guess it wasn’t that exciting after all. Even with the dramatic music.
• And last but not least, here is the biggest hit in the history of the Pro Bowl: Washington’s Sean Taylor destroying punter Brian Moorman on a fake punt:

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We’re not likely to see any hitting like that tonight.

Paula Abdul reportedly did the choreography for this video (Image via Youtube.com)

Wow. I’ve been a Giants fan for as long as I can remember, but I don’t ever recall seeing this video before yesterday … and it’s absolutely, awesomely & hilariously awful.

Back in the ’80s – fresh on the heels of the Bears’ “Super Bowl Shuffle” sensation – getting sports teams to sing terrible songs and make even worse music videos became the cool thing to do. And during their own run toward Super Bowl XXI in 1986, some members of the New York Giants apparently couldn’t resist the seductive allure of the music biz either.

This video for the creatively titled “We’re the New York Giants” was shot in the old Giants Stadium on a budget of approximately $42, featuring a random collection of just eight Giants players with stars in their eyes, dancing (awkwardly) and lip synching in street clothes to a super-sweet electro/pop synth beat. And holding a deflated football.

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It appears that the song was credited to “Manuel, Headen & Roberts”, which means that WR Lionel Manuel (in the blue baseball cap), backup LB Andy Headen (in the cowboy-meets-pimp hat), and OL William Roberts (in the shades and brown jacket) were the masterminds behind this track. The token white guy is DB Herb Welch, and we spot CB Mark Collins (checkered jacket) in there too, but otherwise we have no idea who the rest of these dudes are … and we desperately want to know who the guy in the white jacket and blue sweatpants tucked into his socks is. If you have any leads on any of the unidentified Giants, please post them in the comments.

We are the New York Giants
Don’t you know we’re great
Football is our business
Pasadena we can’t wait

The New York Giants is our name
Football is our game
Winning we proclaim
And drugs are not our thang …

That’s why we’re winners!
THAT’S WHY WE’RE WINNERS!

Weighty stuff. And as you can see from the pic of the original 12″ (available online for just $9.24!), it was the visionaries at A-1 Creative Records who thought it was a wise investment to put it on wax … I somehow doubt they recouped on this one.

(Image via Youtube.com)

There has been a trend sweeping YouTube in recent years of fans recording themselves watching live sporting events unfold, and then uploading their reactions for all the world to see. This has provided us with all kinds of tremendous sporting moments caught on camera from the fan’s point of view, like this remarkable compilation of fans watching Landon Donovan’s game-winning goal in the 2010 World Cup.

And as you might guess, last week’s AFC Championship game between the Patriots and the Ravens provided all kinds of fodder for superfans everywhere to freak the eff out, with their cameras rolling. Between both Lee Evans’ near-game-winning-TD that wasn’t and Billy Cundiff’s field goal shank that lost it for Baltimore, the final few minutes were an emotional roller coaster for fans of both teams.

So that’s what makes this compilation of fan reactions to the game (aptly titled “The Agony of Defeat and Thrill of Victory“) – which features both ebullient celebrations and soul-crushing collapses from Pats and Ravens fans alike –  just so fantastic. You really get to feel the win/loss from both perspectives, and get a sense of just how much this game means to people everywhere. And of course it includes this guy.

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This week 14 block effectively saved the Giants season (Photo: NYPost.com)

There are thousands of fan-made highlights packages to be found on YouTube, but this one of the New York Football Giants 2011-12 regular season stands out from the pack for its incredible editing, high quality footage, and of course, the tasteful use of  ”Run This Town” by Jay-Z (feat. Rihanna) as the backing music.

And even though the Giants barely squeaked into the playoffs as a Wild Card after finishing 9-7, with guys like Eli, Cruuuuuuz, and JPP having breakout seasons, there were still plenty of explosive and memorable plays from this year’s campaign … even before they were able to put it all together just in time for a stunning playoff run.

So if you’re a Giants fan looking for something to keep you fired up during the off-week before Super Bowl XLVI, you’ve come to the right place.

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