Their perfect ending belonged to us.

Eighteen wins. No losses. One more game to finish the perfect season.

New England had a hell of a team. Give them that. Then remember there was another team on the field, and our guys hadn’t come all that way to stand politely in somebody else’s championship picture.

The 2007 Giants gave us one of the great pleasures available to a sports fan: watching everybody’s certainty run directly into your football team.

By the end, the Patriots were 18–1. We were the champions. I remain very comfortable with that arrangement.

This didn’t begin with anybody planning a parade.

The Giants opened 0–2. Tiki Barber had retired. Michael Strahan had missed training camp while considering retirement. Tom Coughlin was under pressure. Steve Spagnuolo was a new defensive coordinator trying to get his defense working together.

They finished 10–6 and entered the playoffs as a wild card. Nothing about the record entitled them to an easy January.

Before that came the regular-season finale against New England. The Giants already knew their playoff position, but Coughlin played to win. They lost 38–35 after holding a twelve-point lead in the third quarter.

A loss stayed a loss. It also gave them evidence that they could play with that team. There is a difference between hoping you belong and having spent an evening making the other guys deal with you.

Tampa Bay. Start the run.

The first stop was Tampa Bay on January 6, 2008. The Giants won 24–14. One road playoff game down, with no promise that the next one would be any easier.

Every game in this run is among the best Giants football I have ever watched. I don’t want the Super Bowl to swallow the rest of them. You have to win this one before you get to have the next one.

Watching Eli in these playoffs, I saw a quarterback giving us what the game required. The throws, the decisions, the willingness to keep competing. That is the Eli I want in the conversation.

Dallas. In their house.

Dallas went next, 21–17, with Amani Toomer scoring twice and R.W. McQuarters intercepting Tony Romo in the end zone to close it.

Beating Dallas in Dallas to end their season is already a substantial contribution to human happiness. These Giants still had more to do.

That is a playoff win I can enjoy all by itself. Take away the knowledge of what happened a few weeks later and I would still want to watch our guys go into Dallas and do that. Knowing the ending makes it even better.

Green Bay. One more kick.

At Green Bay, Plaxico Burress kept winning against Al Harris in the bitter cold. In overtime, Corey Webster intercepted Brett Favre. Lawrence Tynes, after two fourth-quarter misses, made the 47-yard field goal that sent the Giants to the Super Bowl, 23–20.

Think about what it takes to walk back out for that kick after the chances you already had. This whole run was full of players having to make the next play with the season sitting on it. They kept doing it.

Three road games. Three wins. The Giants had earned the rematch.

Make Brady feel every possession.

The helmet catch belongs in every telling of this game. So does the defensive front that kept the game close enough for that catch to matter.

The Giants had led the league with 53 sacks during the regular season. In the Super Bowl, they sacked Tom Brady five times and hit him nine times. Justin Tuck had two sacks and forced a fumble that Osi Umenyiora recovered.

Strahan. Tuck. Osi. Fred Robbins. Barry Cofield. Jay Alford. Spagnuolo could keep bringing people who made New England’s passing game uncomfortable.

The Patriots still found a late touchdown. With 2:42 left, New England led 14–10. The Giants had eighty-three yards to go and needed a touchdown.

After everything the defense had done, the offense had to finish the job.

Stay up. Get it there. Hold on.

Eli Manning should have been sacked on the play we will keep watching for the rest of our lives. The rush got to him. Hands got to his jersey. Somehow, he stayed on his feet, got clear, and threw.

David Tyree went up with Rodney Harrison contesting the ball and pinned it against his helmet. Thirty-two yards. A catch you can watch knowing the outcome and still wonder how the hell he kept it.

The catch kept the drive alive. The Giants still needed the end zone.

Eli found Burress for a 13-yard touchdown with thirty-five seconds left. New York led 17–14. The defense went back out and finished the game.

There is your perfect ending.

Everybody had a part in this.

Eli was the Super Bowl MVP. Tyree gave us the image. Burress caught the winning touchdown. The defense spent the evening making sure Brady never got to have the comfortable game an undefeated record seemed to promise.

You can have whatever argument you want about regular-season Eli. I watched this postseason and the one four years later. In those runs, he played as well as I could ask a quarterback to play. Those players competed. Every round gave us another reason to love them.

That is why I want the whole season on this shelf. The difficult start. The decision to compete in the finale. The road wins. The defensive line. You lose too much if you reduce the championship to a single impossible catch.

The Giants kept giving themselves another play. Then another possession. Then another game. By the time New England got its final chance, our guys had earned the right to take everything.

They took it. We get to keep it.