Brandon Jacobs

INDIANAPOLIS - You want to meet a real, live football player? Say hello to Brandon Jacobs, who will summarize happily what he loves about participating in this rather violent expression of manhood. "It feels great to run over a grown man that doesn't want you to," he explains. Subtlety is not a featured aspect of Jacobs's game. At 6 feet 4 inches and a listed 265 pounds, he is among the larger men who have ever carried a football for a living in this league. As such, he would rather run over three men than attempt to run around one. He isn't even the certified feature back...

Brandon Jacobs was released Friday by the New York Giants after he could not reach agreement on a restructured deal. The running back spent seven seasons with New York, winning two Super Bowls. Jacobs, 29, ran for 571 yards and seven touchdowns last season as a backup to Ahmad Bradshaw. He is the fourth-leading rusher in franchise history with 4,849 yards, but saw his role diminish with the emergence of Bradshaw. "Brandon helped us win two world championships," Giants coach Tom Coughlin said.

Seventh in a collection of eight memorable Patriots-Giants games Feb. 3, 2008, at Glendale, Ariz. > Giants 17, Patriots 14 Patriots fans consider the result one of the biggest upsets in NFL history. Giants fans consider it the product of impeccable game-planning and execution. Either way, Super Bowl XLII is seen as one of the marquee games of all time. Even after the teams' regular-season thriller, the wild-card Giants were 12-point underdogs. After a tight first half (7-3 Patriots lead, a combined 220 total yards)

The story about Gisele Bundchen's controversial post-Super Bowl comments has longer legs than the supermodel herself. Now, Giants players are being asked for their opinions. New York running back Brandon Jacobs said Tom Brady's wife shouldn't be talking about football. "She just needs to continue to stay cute and shut up," Jacobs told reporters. Responding after Sunday's game to a fan who criticized TB12, Bundchen said, "My husband cannot [expletive] throw the ball and catch the ball at the same time.

The story about Gisele Bundchen's controversial post-Super Bowl comments has longer legs than the supermodel herself. Now, Giants players are being asked for their opinions. New York running back Brandon Jacobs said Tom Brady's wife shouldn't be talking about football. "She just needs to continue to stay cute and shut up," Jacobs told reporters. Responding after Sunday's game to a fan who criticized TB12, Bundchen said, "My husband cannot [expletive] throw the ball and catch the ball at the same time.

GREEN BAY, Wis. - With their own star quarterback and a dominating defense, the New York Giants exposed the Green Bay Packers for what they now are - former Super Bowl champions. The Packers dropped passes, fumbled the ball, and simply couldn't stop Eli Manning and his receivers in the Giants' shocking 37-20 NFC divisional playoff victory yesterday. To the Giants' delight, a Green Bay team that had a real shot at an undefeated season less than a month ago is heading home. And that the win came at Lambeau Field, well, that was just as sweet.

Running back Ahmad Bradshaw missed the New York Giants' Super Bowl practice Friday because of a sore right foot. Coach Tom Coughlin listed Bradshaw as probable for Sunday's game, and said he expects him to play. Bradshaw has a broken bone in his right foot and it was sore after two days of practice at the University of Indianapolis' practice bubble. He has dealt with the injury for months and usually only practices once a week for games. "But he's OK," Coughlin said after the 70-minute afternoon practice.

PITTSBURGH - The Pittsburgh Steelers, stretched thin by injuries and their own mistakes, repeatedly kept the New York Giants out of their end zone. Then, a game the Steelers were controlling turned dramatically when they couldn't stay out of that end zone themselves. Eli Manning threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to Kevin Boss with 3:11 remaining for the Giants' only touchdown after they tied it several minutes before on a bizarre safety. Emergency snapper James Harrison snapped the ball out of the end zone to give New York 2 pivotal points, and the Giants rallied...

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Halfway through the season, it's safe to say the Super Bowl champion New York Giants are the team to beat in the NFC, and the injury ravaged Dallas Cowboys - the preseason favorite - will need to make a run after their bye just to make the postseason. Eli Manning threw three touchdown passes, Brandon Jacobs rushed for 117 yards and a score, and the Giants' defense took advantage of the continued absence of the injured Tony Romo to intercept three passes in a 35-14 victory yesterday.

Brandon Jacobs and Muhammad Wilkerson turned a snoozer into a slugfest. The New York Giants running back and Jets rookie defensive end were ejected from the teams' preseason game Monday night — a 17-3 win by the Jets — after taking swings at each other. After Mario Manningham's 7-yard catch with 8:37 left in the third quarter, Wilkerson and Jacobs shoved each other. The two yelled at each other several yards away from where Manningham caught the pass as players from both teams rushed over to separate Jacobs and Wilkerson before things...

Seventh in a collection of eight memorable Patriots-Giants games Feb. 3, 2008, at Glendale, Ariz. > Giants 17, Patriots 14 Patriots fans consider the result one of the biggest upsets in NFL history. Giants fans consider it the product of impeccable game-planning and execution. Either way, Super Bowl XLII is seen as one of the marquee games of all time. Even after the teams' regular-season thriller, the wild-card Giants were 12-point underdogs. After a tight first half (7-3 Patriots lead, a combined 220 total yards)

INDIANAPOLIS - You want to meet a real, live football player? Say hello to Brandon Jacobs, who will summarize happily what he loves about participating in this rather violent expression of manhood. "It feels great to run over a grown man that doesn't want you to," he explains. Subtlety is not a featured aspect of Jacobs's game. At 6 feet 4 inches and a listed 265 pounds, he is among the larger men who have ever carried a football for a living in this league. As such, he would rather run over three men than attempt to run around one. He isn't even the certified feature back of the New York Giants,...

INDIANAPOLIS - You want to meet a real, live football player? Say hello to Brandon Jacobs, who will summarize happily what he loves about participating in this rather violent expression of manhood. "It feels great to run over a grown man that doesn't want you to," he explains. Subtlety is not a featured aspect of Jacobs's game. At 6 feet 4 inches and a listed 265 pounds, he is among the larger men who have ever carried a football for a living in this league. As such, he would rather run over three men than attempt to run around one. He isn't even...

Running back Ahmad Bradshaw missed the New York Giants' Super Bowl practice Friday because of a sore right foot. Coach Tom Coughlin listed Bradshaw as probable for Sunday's game, and said he expects him to play. Bradshaw has a broken bone in his right foot and it was sore after two days of practice at the University of Indianapolis' practice bubble. He has dealt with the injury for months and usually only practices once a week for games. "But he's OK," Coughlin said after the 70-minute afternoon practice.

INDIANAPOLIS - On most days, when he walks into the Giants practice facility, Ahmad Bradshaw looks like he's shaking off a car collision or two. At this point, after suffering stress fractures in both feet the past three years, he's practically walking on gravel. He's been listed on the Giants' injury report every week since Week 9, after suffering another stress fracture in his right foot in October. But he's played in all but four games this season, leading the Giants in rushing (659 yards)

Tom Brady felt the power of the New York Giants' pass rushers when he was sacked five times in their first Super Bowl confrontation. Four years later, the New England Patriots' offensive linemen expect another fierce attack on their quarterback in the championship rematch on Feb. 5. The Giants will indeed have plenty of strong, speedy pass rushers zeroing in on Brady. "This year, they're definitely the best defensive line in football," Patriots right guard Brian Waters said Friday.

GLENDALE, Ariz. - Eli Manning insists he never flashed back to his previous game in Glendale. Everyone who watched him yesterday probably did. Manning threw for three touchdowns in his return to the scene of his Super Bowl MVP performance and the New York Giants beat Arizona, 37-29, to snap the Cardinals' seven-game home winning streak. "It's just a totally different feel, it's just a different time," Manning said. "You never really compared it to the last time we were here.

Brandon Jacobs was released Friday by the New York Giants after he could not reach agreement on a restructured deal. The running back spent seven seasons with New York, winning two Super Bowls. Jacobs, 29, ran for 571 yards and seven touchdowns last season as a backup to Ahmad Bradshaw. He is the fourth-leading rusher in franchise history with 4,849 yards, but saw his role diminish with the emergence of Bradshaw. "Brandon helped us win two world championships," Giants coach Tom Coughlin said.

The idea that the Patriots want revenge on the Giants is one that will be a prominent story line as Super Bowl XLVI creeps closer, but for the majority of the players involved in the game, it won't be much of a factor. NFL coaches like to say that every year is different, and a look at the rosters for New England and New York bears that out: Just four years after they met in Arizona for Super Bowl XLII, they are vastly different. Of the 106 players who were on the active rosters for the Giants and Patriots on Feb. 3, 2008, only 23 are still employed with the same team...