By C. Jake Williams with contributions from Cameron Salony

February 4, 2008 | 4:25 - Welcome to the diary. Lets start this off with a few predictions and proposition bets.
Final score: NE 31 NY 17
Eli Manning interceptions, over/under 2: I'm taking the over.
First Peyton Manning commercial appearance, over/under 25 minutes: The under.
Sack sum by Giant DE's Michael Strahan and Osi Umenyiora, over/under 2: The over.
First mention of Tom Brady's apparently injured right ankle, over/under 7 minutes: The under.

4:29 - Injury update: Tom Brady's ankle is reportedly fine for today's game. I'm 1-0 on prop bets, not a bad start. It's time for kickoff.

4:31 - The Giants get the ball first with Eli Manning under center. According to ESPN.com's player profile, his full name is "Elisha Nelson Manning." A shortened first name was logical but I can't possibly root for an Elisha. Or a Manning.

4:37 - Audi wins my heart with a spoof of the Godfather's Mr. Waltz, screaming-in-bed scene. Solid commercial, terrible-looking cars: Audi!

It's worth noting that nobody in my Super Bowl entourage got the commercial. I need new friends.

4:38 - We have a Peyton Manning sighting and he looks more nervous than his brother Eli. He's also alone in the corner of his box seat. I guess it's not easy to have friends when you lack emotion and are constantly filming TV commercials.

4:40 - The Giants look hungry and the Patriots look comatose. I'm ready to take 14 points off New England's side of my pregame final score prediction.

4:45 - New York settles for a field goal on its opening drive and Fox scrambles to recover ad revenue. That 10-minute drive by New York means we're going to have a ridiculous number of commercial interruptions the rest of the way.

4:46 - The Nice Try Award goes to Diet Pepsi Max for busting out a Night at the Roxbury parody. What is love?

4:47 - The Most Racist Award goes to the salesgenie.com portrayal of an Indian - dot not feather - as having seven children. His accent was stereotypically sound though.

4:58 - New England TE Ben Watson draws a pass interference penalty in the end zone. It's 1st-and-goal from the 1 for the Patriots.

5:02 - Touchdown, Maroney! Two seconds into the second quarter and the score is now 7-3 New England. I still say they look flat and uninspired. The Giants ' defensive line owns the line of scrimmage thus far, despite the score.

5:04 - Peyton makes his first commercial appearance of the night 34 minutes into the game. I'm now 1-1 on the prop bets.

5:07 - My entourage erupted in response to the cars.com 'Gondor stone-circle death match' commercial. "You should definitely step outside the circle" is hands down the best one-liner of the game.

5:08 - Gisele Bundchen is at the game. I can't fathom how the Patriots didn't arrange for her to be outside the country today. Tony Romo will laugh his ass off if New England loses today. Someone should hide all lengths of rope within 10 miles of Bill Simmons.

Also as the game are Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy. One has to wonder if Carrey is over his fascination of '23.' I want to see footage of him eyeballing each team's #23: Willie Andrews of the Patriots or Corey Webster of the Giants.

5:13 - Eli throws his first interception of the game. WR Steve Smith scoop-tipped the pass into the waiting arms of Patriot CB Ellis Hobbs. The over looks safe; only two interceptions to go.

5:38 - CB Randall Gay drops an easy Manning interception. The Patriots didn't need it, per se, but I did for the prop bet push.

5:39 - Miami Heat guard Dwayne Wade finally made it into Charles Barkley's Fave Five. The best part is how realistic the pathetic portrayal of Barkley's life might be. "I am really bored," says Chuck.

5:42 - The Guilty Pleasure Award goes to the Doritos mouse trap commercial. Setting up a chair to witness the carnage absolutely killed me; my jaw is still on the floor. The frequency of commercial breaks is hurting my Super Bowl experience.

6:08 -- Are you ready for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers? I want to tell Petty that, in the words of comedian Daniel Tosh, "I'm not honest, but you're interesting."

Females everywhere wonder how Petty keeps his hair so smooth and pretty.

Tom Petty once famously said, "I want to give rock and roll back to the kids." You have to respect the unselfishness of the 57-year-old, who is now giving rock and roll back to their grandkids.

He's as entertaining as he is relevant.

I did love his cameo in Kevin Costner's The Postman. How does Costner get these movies funded?

6:10 - Petty seems to have a sense of humor though. His second and third songs were I Won't Back Down and Free Fallin. I'm not suggesting he's foreshadowing a Giants upset. Yes I am.

6:13 - Does anyone else remember the Michael Jackson halftime show? That was the last show I thoroughly enjoyed and it was 15 years ago. I was 8! Are entertaining entertainers really that hard to book these days? Someone call Prince for next year. . . .

6:18 - Local news asks the question: Will Utah ever have an NFL football team? Our guess is that's about as likely as Janet Jackson performing next year's halftime show. Michael Bolton has better odds.

6:21 - Cameras catch New England coming through the tunnel for the second half. Um, don't they look asleep? Shouldn't their epic chase of perfection make someone in Patriot blue look jacked-up? Has Bill Simmons ever seen The Eli Manning Face on Tom Brady before today?

6:25 - Laurence Maroney's kickoff return perfectly supports my last paragraph. This is bad.

6:40 - Kevin Faulk makes New England's first second-effort play of the second half, followed by a closeup of Brady. He looks like he ate a dozen hard-boiled eggs at halftime; he doesn't look happy.

6:42 -- The next play is a Strahan sack, setting up New England's failed conversion on fourth-and-13. This game will come down to either Manning getting a big play against the Patriot D or how well Brady recovers after inevitably hurling.

6:56 - Camera crews zoom in on a bunch of bananas. Giants players are complaining of muscle cramping so the team special ordered them. They look pretty old. Lets hope the Giants don't start mimicking Brady's demeanor.

7:06 - Ladies Love Cool James (LL Cool J) smooth talks the lady to his right while Frank Caliendo does John Madden impressions in the stands.

7:07 - After a 45-yard catch by NY tight end Kevin Boss, Fox shows the injured Jeremy Shockey in a bar. The announcer says Shockey seems to be down that he can't play today and neglects to mention he looks drunk off his ass.

7:10 - David Tyree catches a five-yard touchdown for New York. The score is 10-7, advantage Giants, and the 19-0 season is in some serious trouble. Someone get Brady a banana.

7:15 - Hey, did you know Fox has a new show coming out called Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles? After its 65th commercial of the telecast, I think it's cemented in my head.

7:25 -- New England gets the ball back with eight minutes left. You have to think they only have two, maybe three, more possessions today. Something needs to happen for the pride of Boston before the Yankees start getting ideas.

7:30 - Brady's rhythm is returning and New England is inside Giants territory after a first-down catch by Moss and two from Welker. It's 1st-and-10 from the New York 30 and the Patriots have a bounce in their step. It's also the first time since the first quarter that Brady has had time to consistently find his third option.

7:34 - Kevin Faulk is tackled at the 6 for a first down. Giants DE Justin Tuck gets a closeup on the sideline; he's a man among boys. I'd rather meet Mike Tyson in a back alley than Justin Tuck. Brady takes the snap on third-and-goal as Joe Buck tries to jinx him and. . . .

7:38 - Touchdown, Randy Moss! New York CB Webster fell down and Brady put the ball into Moss' open arms. 14-10 Patriots and the Giants still look more amped for the remaining 2:42 of the game.

7:42 - New York starts from its own 17. Eli trots onto the field. He looks calm. He looks confident.

7:47 - Witty banter goes out the window; this game is an instant classic no matter who wins. The Giants convert a crucial fourth-and-1 with 1:30 to go.

7:50 - Asante Samuel drops a gimme game-ending interception. It would have been Manning's second pick of the game and a prop bet push.

7:53 - New York calls its final timeout with 0:51 left, ball on the Patriot 25, after Manning is sacked.

7:55 - Touchdown, Plaxico Burress! Manning floats the ball over CB Hobbs and New York leads 17-14 with 0:35 left in this battle for the ages. Only a Brady-led offense with all three timeouts has a chance to avoid the upset.

7:59 - Brady is sacked with 0:19 on the clock. Timeout New England with third-and-20 coming up.

8:00 - Pass incomplete to Moss deep down the field. The Patriots call timeout with fourth-and-20, their last chance, pending.

8:02 - Pass incomplete and the game is all but over. Eli kneels the ball to become a Super Bowl champion!

8:04 - Burress asks, "Can somebody give our defense some credit?" He's right; the New York defensive line controlled the game from kickoff to kneel-down.

8:15 - Strahan had one sack today and Umenyiora had none, so I lost their prop bet. Coupled with Eli's lone interception, my prop bet record falls to 1-3 on the night. And I got the game's winner wrong. I suck.

8:16 - Winston Churchill said, "History will look favorably upon me for I intend to write it." That's exactly what Eli Manning and the New York Giants accomplished on this day. Congratulations and enjoy the after party.

MS
MS