Here’s a little Tom Coughlin talking about yesterday’s practice and the mood of the team.

Enjoy.

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Ciao for now.

Stopped in at the pregame festivities press conference, where Alicia Keys and American Idol winner Jordan Sparks spoke. Sparks is singing the national anthem. But more germane to this blog, she’s the daughter of former Giants cornerback Phillippi Sparks.

Phillippi wasn’t in attendance, but he’s been around town Super Bowl week because he and the family live right in Glendale, where the stadium is. Wanted to ask him if his daughter’s given him the business about being the only one of the two to actually make the Super Bowl. But Jordan took care of that in the question and answer period, anyway.

“My dad played and I grew up around football, so I’m a huge fan,” Jordan said. “When I told him, ‘Hey, dad, I’m going to do this thing at the Super Bowl,’ he said, ‘Well, at least one of us made it.’ Sorry!”

Maybe it was a just a bit of solidarity for young Jordan, but Keys shouted “Go Giants!” as she was introduced, even though she later admitted she knows little about the game.

And so begins the celebrity season at Super Bowl XLII. ESPN has this huge stage set up outside the press center, where hundreds flock around to see the talking heads do their show. I saw one woman chasing Jerry Rice across the street for an autograph he refused to give her. And there’s the requisite soap box preacher at the corner, urging people to repent for their sins. He’d have probably been better off up in Scottsdale, yapping at Bill Belichick and his camera man.

Still no Cameron Diaz, though. No sighting. No phone messages. I’m bummed.

Back to work.

Ciao for now.

The Pats and Giants present two different views as far as rookies go. The Pats have just one drafted contributor, first-round DB Brandon Meriweather. But the Giants have had significant contributions from seven of their eight draft picks, most prominently from first-round CB Aaron Ross, second-round WR Steve Smith, and seventh-round RB Ahmad Bradshaw.

Gotta admit, general manager Jerry Reese did a good job picking these guys.

“These are the most, biggest amount of rookies I’ve ever seen contribute to the success of a team that I’ve been on,” Strahan said.

Bill Belichick noted that three of his drafted rookies were on IR, and some others were cut. But he did have to trade two picks to get WRs Wes Welker from Miami and Randy Moss from Oakland.

Giving up a No. 2 for Welker and a No. 4 for Moss looks pretty good right now.

Ciao for now.

There’s always going to be dumb questions at the Super Bowl, and here’s one from today. Apparently one reporter wasn’t aware that, unlike other levels of football, the team that wins the coin toss can’t defer. So Tom Coughlin was asked if there was any chance that the Giants would be the first team in 42 Super Bowls to choose to kick off if they win the toss.

“Uh, uh … We’re going to give the Patriots the ball one more time? That’s what we’re setting out to do. They don’t do well enough with their drives. Obviously in pro football you don’t get the right to receive it at the start of the second half (if you choose to kick off to start the game,)” Coughlin said, drawing some laughs from the media gathered around. “I don’t mean to belittle the question, but you’re not going to give someone else the ball.

“That’s why you see in a gale or in a hurricane people take the ball, because, quite frankly, you don’t have enough opportunities. You’re only going to get an average of 11 drives a game.”

The NFL did not fine Plaxico Burress for arriving to his media access session more than 30 minutes late yesterday. The league recognized that Burress stayed overtime and accommodated all the reporters who had questions.

“Did everybody get everything they needed?” said team public relations director Pat Hanlon. “Case closed.”

He could have been fined up to $25,000.

Tom Brady was reflecting today about how he had to battle for a starting job that he didn’t get until his junior season at Michigan and how he arrived in New England as a fourth-string quarterback “eating nachos before the game.” 

Brady, who was glad that he doesn’t have to speak to the media again until after Sunday’s game, was asked if he thinks this is the biggest game of his life.”I think this is the biggest game of all our lives, to tell you the truth. My life, the entire team, the coaches. We’re going to be remembering this game for as long as we live, win or lose. We’re either going to have great memories of this experience or we’re going to look at it truly as a missed opportunity. Not too many teams in the history of the NFL—none as a matter of fact—have been 18-0 going into this game.”

He went on to praise the Giants as a team that gave the Patriots all they could handle four weeks ago.

When asked how he thinks he’ll play in the biggest game of his life, Brady responded “Great … I’m not looking for a mediocre performance. I want you to know that.”

Patriots coach Bill Belichick just coached a quarterback who threw 50 touchdown passes in a season, but he says he’s seen better than Tom Brady. Belichick named the late Johnny Unitas as the best quarterback he’s ever seen.

“Unitas was very impressive,” Belichick said. “I grew up in Annapolis (Belichick’s father, Steve Belichick, coached Navy) and Baltimore was my team. Unitas was pretty good and a great team leader.”

Belichick also put former Giants quarterback Phil Simms, former Jets quarterback Vinny Testaverde and Colts quarterback Bert Jones on the list.

“As a pure passer, you can’t put anybody ahead of Bert Jones,” Belichick said.

They don’t have roosters in downtown Phoenix, but if they did I’d be up with them. Getting ready for the last go-around with the players. Can’t wait till it’s over, and I’m sure they’re weary of it, too. See, the thing about Super Bowl week is that they’re bombarded with the same questions over and over and over again. Can’t blame the media—the whole world is here, and the whole world hasn’t written their stories yet. Just the hometown crowd. But, geez, I haven’t heard one question this week, except the one on Michael Strahan’s teeth, that I hadn’t either asked or been around to ask during the season.

That’s just the nature of this week. No problem. It’s almost over. Heard a rumor that there’s a game at the end of all this, but I’ll believe that when I see it.

Funny story. Got a writer friend from San Diego who covers every Super Bowl. He just got out here last night. So what’s the first column his paper assigned him to do? The FBR, the golf tournament that starts today in Scottsdale. Should be a good story. They say it gets crazy over there, with 150,000 fans crowding a stadium built around three holes. Some people come with computer printouts of the golfers’ backgrounds and shout things and sing to them—while they’re swinging. Pretty cool.

So here’s today’s setup. Tom Brady’s in good shape. The Giants are getting close to full strength. And I still haven’t spotted Cameron Diaz, though I’m expected her to leave me a message at any moment.

Good luck to me.

Ciao for now.

Good news on the Giants injury front. CB Kevin Dockery (hip flexor) and G Rich Seubert (right MCL) took about half the snaps as the Giants conducted a two-hour practice at the Arizona Cardinals’ facility.

WR Plaxico Burress (ankle) was also in pads, but was held out of drills. But Tom Coughlin said he expected Burress will practice tomorrow.

And the flu bug that swept through the team the last couple of weeks appears to have subsided. CB Aaron Ross, who caught it from S Michael Johnson last week, practiced fully. “Today, we had no new incidents,” Coughlin said. We have some guys with head colds. As far as anybody being ill or having a temperature, we didn’t have any today.”

Coughlin was delighted with the condition of the Cardinals’ three practice fields, which were inundated by more than an inch of rain Monday. “Ideal,” he said. “This is great to be able to practice on this. Guys are excited about practicing on nice grass and playing on nice grass.”

And now, for the news everyone’s been waiting for—TA-TA-TA-DAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!—Tom Brady went through a full practice showing no ill effects from that supposedly sprained ankle he had Giselle Bundchen nursing over the off week. Nothing like some good rehab, right? Brady’s ankle wasn’t even listed on the injury report.

That doesn’t mean he wasn’t on there. Belichick has listed him every week the last four seasons as probable with a bad right shoulder. And today was no different. Under Full Participation at Practice, there was QB Tom Brady (right shoulder).

One more go-around with the players tomorrow morning. Until then,

Ciao for now.

I keep thinking about how stupid it is, all this reaction and overreaction to Plaxico Burress answering a reporter who asked him for a prediction by saying “23-17.”

So he’s predicting a Giants win. It wasn’t a guarantee. It wasn’t anything other than an answer by a confident football player. But Burress should have known better, especially since only a day earlier he was admonishing a reporter because his paper had taken someting and “blown it out of proportion” and adding that his editor should be ashamed.

Burress, in that instance, was referring to the story last week when he said some of the Giants’ receivers do some things as well or better than some of the Patriots’ receivers, and the headlines blared that Burress claimed the Giants’ receivers to be better than the Pats’ receivers.

He also should have known that anything mumbled during Super Bowl week, a week completely bereft of news, is more than likely to be blown out of proportion because of the sheer number of reporters and news outlets here, and the dearth of anything worth reporting.

I wrote a column on this topic for The Journal News and LoHud.com tomorrow.

Fire away with your responses.