After years of waiting, the first Super Bowl in the city of Indianapolis is finally set. While the hometown Colts have long pointed toward this Super Bowl as a chance to become the first team to play a Super Bowl in its home stadium that won't be the case. Instead, the Colts will have to watch their long-time rivals, the New England Patriots, face the New York Giants in a rematch of Super Bowl XLII. In that Super Bowl, of course, the Giants denied New England of a perfect season.
The Patriots earned their way here with a fortuitous final few seconds in the AFC Championship game, as Billy Cundiff missed a game-tying field goal wide left with less than 15 seconds left, disappointing legions of Baltimore Ravens fans.
The NFC championship game was even more entertaining, as the New York Giants and San Francisco 49ers battled to overtime, where the Giants benefited twice from Kyle Williams mistakes on punts. A muffed punt in regulation led to a touchdown pass from Eli Manning to Mario Manningham, while his fumbled punt with 9:32 left in the overtime set up a game-winning field goal by Lawrence Tynes, giving New York a hard-fought 20-17 win.
So it is the Colts' main rivals against the brother of Colts quarterback Peyton Manning. Let the week building up to the Super Bowl begin!
For more on the New England Patriots, check out Pats Pulpit. For more on the New York Giants, check out Big Blue View. You can also head over to SB Nation's main NFL hub at SBNation.com/NFL.
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After years of waiting, the first Super Bowl in the city of Indianapolis is finally set. While the hometown Colts have long pointed toward this Super Bowl as a chance to become the first team to play a Super Bowl in its home stadium that won't be the case. Instead, the Colts will have to watch their long-time rivals, the New England Patriots, face the New York Giants in a rematch of Super Bowl XLII. In that Super Bowl, of course, the Giants denied New England of a perfect season.
The Patriots earned their way here with a fortuitous final few seconds in the AFC Championship game, as Billy Cundiff missed a game-tying field goal wide left with less than 15 seconds left, disappointing legions of Baltimore Ravens fans.
The NFC championship game was even more entertaining, as the New York Giants and San Francisco 49ers battled to overtime, where the Giants benefited twice from Kyle Williams mistakes on punts. A muffed punt in regulation led to a touchdown pass from Eli Manning to Mario Manningham, while his fumbled punt with 9:32 left in the overtime set up a game-winning field goal by Lawrence Tynes, giving New York a hard-fought 20-17 win.
So it is the Colts' main rivals against the brother of Colts quarterback Peyton Manning. Let the week building up to the Super Bowl begin!
For more on the New England Patriots, check out Pats Pulpit. For more on the New York Giants, check out Big Blue View. You can also head over to SB Nation's main NFL hub at SBNation.com/NFL.