NEW YORK — After the hype, the bragging and the cheesecake-for-chowder bets comes the actual game: New York Giants vs. New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI.
The last time the teams met in the big game in 2008, the Giants upset the undefeated Patriots 17-14 in one of the most exciting Super Bowls ever. Two days later, massive crowds cheered the Giants as they paraded up Broadway’s Canyon of Heroes.
Will this year’s team get the same party if they win?
“Not if,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg corrected a reporter who asked about a parade Friday.
But he wouldn’t answer the question however it was worded.
“We can’t talk about the future,” Bloomberg said. “We only take it one play at a time.”
Bloomberg spoke at an Upper East Side bar that is changing its name in honor of the Giants. The tavern, owned for 50 years by a family named Brady, is called Brady’s. But the name of the Patriots’ star quarterback happens to be Tom Brady. So Bloomberg and owner Dan Brady unveiled the bar’s new name: Manning’s, as in Giants quarterback Eli Manning.
Bloomberg said he would fly to Indianapolis for the game but urged New Yorkers who can’t go to the Super Bowl to watch it at Brady’s/Manning’s, already decked out in blue and white balloons Friday.
“Nobody is going to become inebriated, right?” Bloomberg asked, adding, “I’m going to be in Indianapolis and I probably will be inebriated.”
But about the parade: The Giants play in East Rutherford, N.J. If they win Sunday, shouldn’t they celebrate there?
No, say New Yorkers. A Quinnipiac University poll released Friday found that 75 percent of New York City adults believe the victory celebration should be a parade in the Big Apple. Just 14 percent favored a Garden State bash. Conducted last week, the poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie did not comment Friday. But he told the “Today” show on Jan. 18 that the Giants should hold any Super Bowl parade in New Jersey.
“They play in New Jersey,” Christie said. “They train in New Jersey.”
Christie likes to call the team the New Jersey Giants. Many New Jerseyans agree with him, according to another poll released Friday, but not all of them.
The Monmouth University Poll found that 40 percent of New Jersey residents said the team should be called “New Jersey” while 34 percent said it’s OK stick with “New York.” It doesn’t matter either way, said 22 percent who responded to the poll, which had a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
Wherever the parade, the celebration is sure to spill over state lines. State troopers in New Jersey are bringing in extra patrols on the state’s highways to target drunken drivers, speeders, texters and those who aren’t wearing seat belts.
In 2008, the last time the Giants played in the Super Bowl, there were 176 drunken driving arrests in New Jersey, said state Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa. That’s the second-highest total in New Jersey for a Super Bowl Sunday.
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