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Watch Super Bowl XLII live on SBS on Monday February 4 at 10am EDST, when the NY Giants take on the New England Patriots, live from the University of Phoenix Stadium, Arizona

This is my final blog, written just before I wing my way to Sydney. For most of Sunday I'll have my head buried in New England Patriots and New York Giants minutiae so I don't make some absurd mistake on the air.

So far I've written about players, teams, entertainment, advertisements, and parties. But I haven't really addressed Monday's game, so I guess it's time to make a prediction.

The Patriots are 12-point favourites. If you're not familiar with American betting, that means if you want to pick the Patriots to win, you have to give the Giants a 12-point head start. It's not the biggest margin heading into a game; in 1995, the San Francisco 49ers were 18 ½ point favourites to beat San Diego. (Ed's note: San Francisco won by 23 points). Nevertheless, you can call New England a "prohibitive" favourite.

I'd love to tell you that the Vegas odds makers are wrong and that the Giants are going to pull a rabbit or two out of a hat and manufacture one of the biggest Super Bowl upsets in years. But I just don't think it's going to happen.

The Patriots are 18-0 and on the verge of history. They are a poised, disciplined team that rarely panics. They can throw the ball, they can run the ball and they can play defence. Their best wide receiver, Randy Moss, caught 98 passes and an NFL record 23 touchdowns during the regular season, but has only two catches (yes, two) in the playoffs. Has that stopped New England? No, they just utilised their other weapons, like receiver Wes Welker and running back Laurence Maroney. And don't forget who's playing quarterback. Tom Brady has already won three Super Bowl rings and two Super Bowl Most Valuable Player awards.

The Giants have played phenomenally well to get here. The defence has been strong, and much-maligned quarterback Eli Manning has been extremely consistent. But I think all of that ends in Glendale on Monday. I'm not a big prognosticator, but here goes...New England 31 NY Giants 17.

Watch Super Bowl XLII live on SBS on Monday February 4 at 10am EDST, when the NY Giants take on the New England Patriots, live from the University of Phoenix Stadium, Arizona

How To Throw A Super Bowl Party - February 3

So you're sitting there in Sydney or Brisbane or Hobart and you're wondering what's going on with this strange version of football. You know this is a big event but you don't really understand the sport. Don't worry, there are million of Americans just like you. Because more than 90 million viewers will tune into Monday's game, not all of them will be football fans. Many will be watching for the high-priced and high profile commercials, many will be watching for the halftime entertainment and many will be watching because their friends are watching.

Super Bowl Sunday in the US is a massive party day. The game kicks off about 3:30 pm on the West Coast, which is 6:30 pm on the East Coast, so it fits nicely into the "all day party" slot. Here in Australia, it's a little bit different. Monday at 10:30 am doesn't exactly scream tequila shots. But with a little creativity (and plenty of responsibility), you can host your very own Super Bowl party.

Watch Super Bowl XLII live on SBS on Monday February 4 at 10am EDST, when the NY Giants take on the New England Patriots, live from the University of Phoenix Stadium, Arizona

Here's what you need:

*Big-screen TV for watching the game AND the commercials.
*A weak, watery American beer like Budweiser, Miller of if you REALLY want to party like an American, Coors Light.
*Lots of salty, cheesy snacks.
*One or two hardcore snacks like Pork Rinds.
*Chicken wings smothered in spicy barbecue sauce.
*Some strange-looking dip that tastes really good.
*Paper and pen to take bets on quarter scores, final scores and whether or not Tom Petty plays "Even The Losers."

Other tips:

*Pay attention to the first part of the game, so you at least have a sense of what's going on. And at least know who's playing. Bonus points if you can name a player or two (Tom Brady, the Patriots quarterback, is a good place to start).
*If there's an American (or in a pinch, a Canadian) around, feel free to ask questions. Most Americans love talking about football. Ok, let's be honest, we love talking about anything.
*Don't say "if these guys are so tough, why do they wear pads?" That's a clichéd, over-asked question and to be honest, the padding actually allows them to hit with much more ferocity.

Warning:

The game goes on for a very long time. There are lots of stoppages for timeouts, injuries and two million dollar advertisements. Don't whinge about this. In fact, revel in it. Realise that this is more time to send a text, chat up that girl or guy, use the toilet or keep your fluid intake at a reasonable level.

Finally, at least know who won. You don't have to know any details, just be able to say something like "How about those Patriots?"

American football is perfect for advertisers - unlike the World Game or the AFL - because there are so many breaks in the action.

More than 90 million people will watch Super Bowl XLII, making it the most-viewed television program of the year in the United States. So it makes sense that corporations want their advertisements placed somewhere within this heavily watched broadcast. Of course, that's also why networks charge millions of dollars - literally - for a commercial during the Super Bowl.

This year, thirty-second commercials will cost approximately (US) $2.7 million, giving broadcaster Fox Sports a nice return somewhere in the neighbourhood of $170 million.

Companies take different approaches to selling themselves during the big game. Some, like Anheuser-Busch (makers of Budweiser) routinely purchase more than one ad, while smaller companies spend their entire yearly advertising budget on one commercial.

Does it work? Hard to say, although one survey found that 58% of Super Bowl viewers would rather miss part of the game than any of the commercials. When I was living in Seattle and hanging out with people in the advertising biz, we used to watch the Super Bowl and grade the commercials, leading to a post-game discussion that had more to do with quick edits than long touchdowns.

On Monday's SBS broadcast, we'll show some of the new, very expensive US ads at halftime. Here are a few memorable ones from the past:

Bud Bowl: In 1989, Budweiser and Bud Light first squared off in a game of football, with animated bottles of beer as players.

Budweiser "Frogs": Animated frogs in a Southern swamp croak "Bud...wei...ser" in this 1977 classic.

Apple Computer "Big Brother": A groundbreaking ad directed by Ridley Scott. It aired in 1984 and used an Orwellian theme to explain how Apple would break the computer mould. Considered by many to be the best Super Bowl commercial ever.

Xerox "Monks": This 1977 ad featured "Brother Dominic" who painstakingly writes a large manuscript by hand. When the head monk tells Dominic he needs 500 more copies of the manuscript, it's off to the copy machine.

McDonald's "Showdown": NBA superstars Larry Bird and Michael Jordan match each other shot for improbable shot, in this 1993 commercial.

Giant steps - January 31

The other day I wrote about the New England Patriots, a team that first graced American football fields in 1960. By that time, the New York Giants had already been in existence for thirty-five years. The Giants are one of the oldest franchises in the NFL and one of the league's most storied. But that doesn't mean it's always been easy.

Looking back in history, it's difficult to imagine a time when pro football wasn't the most popular sport in the US, yet in the 1920s, it trailed baseball, boxing and college football in terms of fan support and media awareness. The Giants came on the scene in 1925 when Tim Mara bought an NFL franchise in New York City for a reported $500. Though the team had early success on the field, winning NFL championships in 1927, 1934 and 1938, times were often tough off the field. The Great Depression hit Mara hard financially, and to keep creditors at bay, he offloaded day-to-day responsibility for the Giants to his two sons, Jack, 22 and Wellington, amazingly only 14 years old!

World War II was another brutal time for pro football. With most able bodies men shipped off to combat, the NFL continued with older and less capable players. Attendance dropped and some teams folded. The Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers actually combined forces (as the "Steagles") to survive the lean years. The Giants managed to make it through those times relatively unscathed, earning berths in three championship games.

The 1950's were a banner decade for the Giants, introducing US sports fans to such legendary players as Kyle Rote, Frank Gifford and Sam Huff. The team only won one title (1956) but was involved in arguably the most famous game in NFL history. That was the 1958 title game, a loss to the Colts, which was on national television (rare in those days) and was the first title game to go into "sudden death" overtime.

Through the 60's and 70's and early 80's the Giants struggled to make their mark. It wasn't until 1987 that they beat Denver 39-20 to win Super Bowl XXI and end thirty-one years of frustration. Four years later, the Giants did it again, this time beating Buffalo 20-19 in Super Bowl XXV. Stars from those Super Bowl winners, like Lawrence "L.T." Taylor and Phil Simms, could be joined by Eli Manning and Michael Strahan if this year's team can stun the world and beat the undefeated Patriots.


Meet Colin Scotts - January 30

There are currently three Australians playing in the NFL and they all specialise in kicking the football. Ben Graham, Mat McBriar and Sav Rocca are punters who come onto the field when the offence has failed to move the ball. They're a crucial part of an American football team, but they're not battling it out at the line-of-scrimmage in the mano-a-mano combat so prevalent in the NFL.

That brings us to Colin Scotts, one of my co-hosts on Monday's SBS broadcast of the Super Bowl. He's still the only Australian to have played a non-kicking position in the NFL, having spent five years as a defensive end. Colin is also the only Aussie ever drafted from the American college system into the NFL.

I would call Colin a trailblazer, but that would imply that others have followed in his footsteps. In reality, Colin is an amazingly unique Australian sportsman. Spotted by US college football scouts while he was playing on a schoolboy rugby tour, Colin was recruited by, and given a scholarship to the University of Hawai'i. Learning the American brand of football from scratch - and dealing with a myriad of cultural differences as well - Colin became one of the best lineman in all of college football.

He was taken in the 3rd round of the NFL draft in 1987, selected by the St. Louis Cardinals, and went on to have a five-year career, finishing up with the Houston Oilers. Colin now lives in Sydney where he runs a pub and works for the non-profit BluEarth Institute which, among other things, helps fight childhood obesity.

Colin wasn't the first Aussie to play in the NFL. That honour goes to the late Colin Ridgway who kicked in a few games for Dallas in 1965. Nor was he the best. That would be punter Darren Bennett, who made the "All Decade" team for his work with the San Diego Chargers in the 1990s. But Colin Scotts still retains a special place in Australian sporting history as an Aussie who mixed it in the trenches with the best and most physical football players America had to offer.

You can read a far more interesting version of Colin's story in his book, All Balls, which you can find on Amazon.com and in sports-oriented bookstores.

Ed Wyatt will host SBS's live coverage of Super Bowl XLII on Monday February 4 at 10:00 am (AEDT).

Two Become One - January 29

The first few Super Bowls brought together two different football leagues and helped forged the powerhouse we now know as the NFL.

The National Football League has been the benchmark of professional football in the US since the 1920s. Most early NFL teams were based in large Eastern and Midwest cities like New York, Chicago and Washington. California teams joined in the late 40s and early 50s, and Green Bay was - and still is - the exception, a small town team that is actually owned by the people of that Wisconsin town.

While a number of rival leagues tried to challenge the NFL in its early days, it wasn't until forty years on that one actually succeeded. The American Football League (or AFL) began play in 1960, with teams in cities like Miami, Kansas City and Houston. Although many AFL markets were smaller than those of the NFL, the marketing of the league - partly through television - was superb, and by 1967 the NFL was tired of fighting the AFL for fans, players and media attention. A merger was proposed and after much negotiation, both sides agreed.

As part of the merger deal, the two leagues continued to play separate schedules for a few years, with the champions meeting in a title game. That game, originally called "The AFL-NFL World Championship Game," would soon be referred to as the Super Bowl. Rumour has it that Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt coined the phrase after watching one of his kids play with a toy called a "Super Ball."

The first Super Bowl was played in 1967 and, the Green Bay Packers, the champions of the NFL crushed the AFL champs the Kansas City Chiefs 35-10. The following year, the Packers won again, blowing out the Oakland Raiders 33-14. Those two results had fans and media thinking the AFL was an inferior league and that the merger was a potential disaster.

But the next year, Joe Namath and the New York Jets beat the NFL's Baltimore Colts 16-7 in the biggest Super Bowl upset ever. That amazing result help legitimise the AFL, and in 1970, the NFL absorbed the old league. The new, expanded league kept the NFL name and split into two conferences, the NFC (mostly made up of old NFL teams) and the AFC (mostly made up of old AFL teams).

Ed Wyatt will host SBS's live coverage of Super Bowl XLII on Monday February 4 at 10:00 am (AEDT).

The Good, The Bad And The Ugly - January 28

If you have no barracking interest in the Super Bowl, you tend to hope for a good, competitive game.

When I was a kid, the Super Bowl had the reputation of being anti-climactic. The regular season and the playoffs would be superb, but the final game for all the marbles tended to be a stinker. I'm not sure why this was the case. Perhaps it was the American hype machine getting fans so worked up that the game could never meet expectations. Perhaps it's the cyclical nature of having two separate conferences, the NFC and the AFC. Sometimes the NFC is dominant (won thirteen straight Super Bowls between 1985 and 1997), sometimes the AFC is better (won the last four). Whatever the reasons, there's no debating that the Super Bowl has seen its share of the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

The Good

Super Bowl XXXVIII (2004) - New England 32 Carolina 29: The best game I've been part of on SBS. Adam Vinatieri kicked the winning field goal with four seconds left to give the Patriots the win.
Super Bowl XXXII (1998) - Denver 31 Green Bay 24: Who could forget John Elway's spinning, twisting helicopter jump for a first down, as the Broncos finally won the big one on their fifth try?
Super Bowl III (1969) - NY Jets 16 Baltimore 7: The Jets were massive underdogs, yet brash quarterback "Broadway" Joe Namath predicted - and delivered - a win. The biggest upset in Super Bowl history.

The Bad

Super Bowl XL (2006) - Pittsburgh 21 Seattle 10: The Steelers unlikely run to the title was a good story, but the game itself was a snoozer. Poor officiating and dropped passes killed the Seahawks.
Super Bowl XVIII (1984) - LA Raiders 38 Washington 9: Statistically, the game was relatively even. Realistically, the game was the biggest blowout since Super Bowl I sixteen years earlier.
Super Bowl VI (1972) - Dallas 24 Miami 3: Still the only Super Bowl where the losing team has failed to score a touchdown.

The Ugly

Super Bowl XXVII (1993) - Dallas 52 Buffalo 17: Buffalo fumbled eight times and gave up 21 points in the fourth quarter. It was the Bills' third consecutive loss in the big game.
Super Bowl XXV (1991) - NY Giants 20 Buffalo 19: The game itself wasn't ugly, but the ending was. Scott Norwood missed a potential game-winning field goal, starting Buffalo's run of four consecutive Super Bowl losses.
Super Bowl XXIV (1990) - San Francisco 55 Denver 10: The 49ers won back-to-back Super Bowls with an easy win. The Niners were so dominant, they had a 28-12 edge in first downs and gained 461 yards to Denver's 167.


Not Your Father's Patriots - January 27

The dominant New England Patriots team of the last seven years bares little resemblance to the franchise's turbulent early history.

The New England Patriots are one win away from finishing with a 19-0 record, the best in the history of the NFL. A victory over the Giants would also give the franchise a fourth Super Bowl title in seven years, a remarkable achievement right up there with other football dynasties like the Pittsburgh Steelers and the San Francisco 49ers.

But this "super team" has not always been so successful. In fact, futility was the name of the game for much of its existence. The team originally know as the Boston Patriots had trouble finding a home, playing in four different stadiums in its first ten years. The Patriots were rarely competitive, making it to just one championship game between 1960 and 1975.

In 1970, the name was changed to the New England Patriots in hopes of appealing to the entire region. The "new" Patriots did make Super Bowl appearances in 1986 and 1997, but lost both times. The off-field woes continued until the early Nineties, with unstable ownership the main problem.

The Patriots were originally owned by the Sullivan Family, but they were ruined by - of all people - singer Michael Jackson and his brothers. The Sullivans sank millions of dollars into the Jackson's ill-fated "Victory" tour, a move that sent them broke. They sold the Patriots for $87 million to Victor Kiam, who made his money with the Remington Shaver. Kiam, who died in 2001, was famous for being his own TV pitchman, using the slogan "I liked (the razor) so much I bought the company." After more financially shaky years under Kiam, the Patriots were sold to James Busch Orthwein, part of the Budweiser family, who talked about moving the club to St. Louis.

Then Robert Kraft stepped in. Kraft, Boston born and bred, paid what was then an astounding price of $172 million for the Patriots in 1994. A brilliant businessman, Kraft also owned the land around Foxborough, Massachusetts and eventually built Gillette Stadium there in 2002. So not only did he own the football team, he controlled the stadium, the parking and the food and drink profits.

Football fans know what coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady have been able to do on the field. Kraft has managed to resurrect the franchise off the field with his marketing savvy and business nous; a recent Forbes magazine survey estimated that the franchise is now worth $1 billion dollars. So as you watch the most dominant team of the last ten years, keep in mind where it all started and what the franchise has been through. Even if you don't like them, you can admire their perseverance.

Click here for the article on the NFL forcing Sullivan family to sell the Patriots.

Click here for the article on Robert Kraft.


Hosts With (And Without) The Most - January 25

This year's Super Bowl takes place in state-of-the art University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. It's the second time the Phoenix metropolitan area has hosted a Super Bowl.

Unlike the AFL and NRL Grand Finals, the Super Bowl is held in a different city every year. The process of deciding where to hold the game is a political process, but it's made easier because of two "ready-made" Super Bowl cities. Miami and New Orleans have hosted the big game more than any other place - nine times each - and that's because both cities know how to party. The weather is usually good, there are plenty of hotel rooms to handle the influx of visitors, and the corporate fans who attend the game are more than happy to hang out at South Beach or in the French Quarter.

After Miami and New Orleans, the process gets a little trickier. Cities like San Diego and Tampa work well, but don't get the call as often as the aforementioned two. The NFL also rewards cities for extracting large sums of money from its citizens to build brand new shrines to American football. Houston in 2004, with its spanking new Reliant Stadium, and Detroit in 2006 with Ford Field, are prime examples of this quid pro quo arrangement.

Other cities have hosted because they're NOT in warm climates. After the first fifteen Super Bowls were held in warm weather places, some politicians in the in the colder Midwest felt slighted and began to campaign for a Super Bowl of their own. The NFL caved in, but realising that no one would want to see the biggest game of the year played in a snowstorm, insisted that its first cold-weather Super Bowl be held indoors. So in 1982, the Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan was the venue for Super Bowl XVI.

Finally, there's Jacksonville. The northern Florida city hosted in 2005 and is usually mentioned as the worst-ever Super Bowl city. Even our own fun-loving SBS reporter Mieke Buchan admitted she couldn't find much excitement. Jacksonville does have the record for smallest city by population, but largest city by area to host the Super Bowl.

As for the future, the next three Super Bowls are scheduled for Tampa (2009), Miami (2010) and the new Dallas Cowboys stadium north of Dallas (2011).

Super Bowl cities and the number of times they've hosted:
9 - Miami, New Orleans
5 - Pasadena
3 - San Diego, Tampa
2 - Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles
1 - Detroit, Jacksonville, Minneapolis, Pontiac, Stanford, Tempe


Ed Wyatt will host SBS's live coverage of Super Bowl XLII on Monday February 4 at 10:00 am (AEDT).


The surprise stars - January 24

The Super Bowl has been a showcase for some remarkable performances by NFL superstars. It's also had its share of unknowns grabbing the spotlight.

The Super Bowl is American football's biggest stage, and through the years a number of superstars have made their reputations in front of nearly a billion people around the world. Names like Joe Montana, John Elway, Emmitt Smith, and Lynn Swann roll off the tongue of any NFL fan when talking about great Super Bowl performances. But what about the unexpected heroes, the unknowns who've risen from anonymity to make their mark on the biggest game of the year?

Here's a shortlist of Super Bowl stars you may not know:

Max McGee, Green Bay Packers, 1967: McGee had only caught four passes during the regular season and didn't expect to play in Super Bowl I. In fact, the notorious partier spent much of Super Bowl week - including the night before the game - breaking curfew. But when starting wide receiver Boyd Dowler went down with an injury, McGee was forced into action. Shaking off any ill effects from the night before, McGee caught seven passes, two of them touchdowns, as the Packers crushed the Kansas City Chiefs 35-10. Tragically, McGee died last year when he fell from his roof while cleaning his gutters.

Larry Brown, Dallas Cowboys, 1996: A relatively unheralded defensive back, Brown helped the Cowboys win Super Bowl XXX with two second half interceptions. Brown parlayed that great game into a huge contract with the Oakland Raiders the next season, but he never lived up to the hype and was out of the NFL by 1999.

Timmy Smith, Washington Redskins, 1988: Similar to McGee, Smith had run for just 126 yards all season when he was called upon to fill in for the injured George Rogers in Super Bowl XXII. Amazingly, Smith racked up 204 yards - still a Super Bowl record - and two touchdowns as the Redskins blew out the Denver Broncos 42-10. Two years later his NFL career was over. Smith also spent time in prison for possession of cocaine.

Trent Dilfer, Baltimore Ravens, 2001: Dilfer was signed as the backup quarterback to Tony Banks, but took over as the starter during the season. Dilfer led the surprising Ravens all the way to Super Bowl XXXV where they thrashed the New York Giants 30-7. The Ravens released Dilfer the following season, the first and only time a Super Bowl-winning QB has been cut loose the next year.


NFL half-time entertainment no petty matter – January 23

Tom Petty will headline this year's Super Bowl halftime entertainment. Blogger Ed Wyatt hopes they'll be no malfunctions.

The late Sixties saw a profound change in cultural and artistic awareness, but that certainly didn't come across during halftime of the first few Super Bowls. In 1967, while groups like The Doors and the Jefferson Airplane were spearheading the psychedelic movement, the entertainment inside the L.A. Coliseum was provided by the marching bands from the Universities of Arizona and Michigan. In 1970, just five months after Woodstock, Super Bowl fans were treated to a halftime show by Broadway singer Carol Channing. In fact it wasn't until Super Bowl XXII in 1988 that anything remotely resembling rock and roll made an appearance. Never mind that it was Chubby Checker and he was forty-six years old, it was a departure from previous Super Bowls.

Three years later, the pop music marketing machine stuck its head inside the door, when New Kids On The Block (produced by Disney) put on the halftime show. The New Kids were followed by fellow Middle of the Roaders Gloria Estefan and Michael Jackson. Then came the next evolution in halftime shows, something I like to call the "Specific Themed Era." While the rest of the world was discovering grunge music and hip hop, Super Bowl audiences were treated to a country hoedown in 1994, a "Blues Brothers Bash" in '97, a Motown extravaganza in '98 and something called a "Celebration of Soul, Salsa and Swing" in 1999.

In 2002, things started to look up after U2 delivered a spectacular show, but it all came crashing down two years later, thanks to MTV, Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake. This was the infamous "wardrobe malfunction" incident, with Timberlake tearing Jackson's shirt at the end of the performance. While most Australians laughed, the more puritanical American viewers went ballistic, and the NFL put its foot down.

The next year, Paul McCartney got the gig, the league figuring (correctly) that a McCartney striptease was not on the cards. The Rolling Stones did the show in 2006 and last year Prince, although known at times for being provocative, turned in a stunning show which included a cover of the Foo Fighters' hit "Best Of You."

That brings us to 2008, and this year it's Tom Petty. A good old Southern boy who's been around the rock scene since 1976, Petty should continue the recent trend of delivering solid, professional and most importantly, controversy-free halftime entertainment. Unless the clothes start to come off during "Free Fallin'."

Meet The Mannings - January 22

New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning is trying to win the Super Bowl one year after his older brother Peyton. Can he succeed?

The Mannings. It sounds like an American television mini-series set around a fabulously wealthy, but constantly feuding oil family. In reality, the Mannings are a football family, Southern sports royalty specialising in star quarterbacks. From father Archie to sons Peyton and Eli, the Mannings have left their mark on college and pro football.

Archie Manning went to the University of Mississippi in the late sixties and early seventies, and was one of the most famous players in college football history. Believe it or not, the speed limit on campus is still 18 miles per hour, in honour of the number Archie wore on his uniform. In the 1971 NFL draft, he was selected by the New Orleans Saints with the number two pick, but the team was so bad during those twelve years in New Orleans, Archie's Saints never had a winning season.

Despite that lack of success, Archie's legacy was so great that his son Peyton had the national spotlight on him even during his high school years in New Orleans. Peyton didn't want to follow in his father's large footsteps, so he opted to travel "north" and play college football at the University of Tennessee. He was the number one draft pick of the Indianapolis Colts in 1998, and over ten NFL seasons has established himself as one of the league's premier quarterbacks. But it wasn't until last year's Super Bowl victory that Peyton finally emerged from Archie's shadow, and also put to rest the curse of never winning "the big one."

Now comes Eli. The youngest Manning brother decided to follow the old man's lead and play at Mississippi, and he too became one of the country's best college quarterbacks. In 2004, Eli was drafted number one by the San Diego Chargers, but decided he didn't want to play there. After much negotiation - some of it handled by Archie - a deal was struck that sent him to New York to play for the Giants. After three and a half not-so-consistent years, Eli finally found form towards the end of this season. He's led the Giants to three consecutive playoff wins, including the remarkable 23-20 defeat of Green Bay in the NFC championship.

Even if Eli's Giants lose to New England, as expected, in Super Bowl XLII, history will be made. Never before have two brothers started at quarterback in the NFL's biggest game. What's more amazing is that the Mannings are set to do it in consecutive years.


Two Ways of Getting To The Same Place - January 21

Two matches played in sub-zero temperatures decided the contenders for the NFL's big clash in two weeks' time.

Super Bowl XLII (that's 42 to all you non-Romans out there) will be played in the Arizona desert in a stadium with a retractable roof, so it's ironic that today's AFC and NFC title games took place outdoors in freezing weather. And when I say freezing, I mean freezing.

It was minus 12 degrees Celsius in Foxborough, Massachusetts, where the New England Patriots beat the undermanned but overachieving San Diego Chargers 21-12 to win the AFC title. The Patriots struggled on offence, and their superstar quarterback Tom Brady, uncharacteristically threw three interceptions. Still, New England had too many other weapons, including running back Laurence Maroney, to get past the Chargers, who had to play without their injured star runner Ladainian Tomlinson. It was the eighteenth win of the season for the Patriots, who are one victory away from American football's greatest season ever.

In two weeks' time, New England's Super Bowl opponent will be the surprising New York Giants, who stunned the Green Bay Packers on their home field, 23-20 in overtime. It was even more frigid at historic Lambeau Field today, a ridiculous 18 below, which made it the third-coldest game in NFL history. Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre, in his seventeenth season, was trying for a third Super Bowl appearance, but a bad throw in overtime was intercepted, and set up New York for a game-winning field goal. Lawrence Tynes booted it through from 47 yards out and the Giants won their ninth consecutive game away from home.

The Patriots are now back in the Super Bowl for the fourth time in seven seasons. They were victorious in 2002, 2004 and 2005. The Giants last made an appearance in the big game in 2001, where they lost to the Baltimore Ravens. The last Giants' Super Bowl win came in 1991 against the Buffalo Bills.

The two teams met four weeks ago, in the last round of the regular season, with New England winning a hard-fought contest, 38-35.


Ed Wyatt will host SBS's live coverage of Super Bowl XLII on Monday February 4 at 10:00 am (AEDT).