It started at the beginning of the game when Eli Manning completed nine consecutive passes to start the game.  Manning completed passes to Jake Ballard, Henry Hynoski, D.J. Ware, two passes to Bear Pascoe, two passes to Hakeem Nicks, and two passes to Victor Cruz.  The record streak of consecutive completions ended with a two-yard touchdown pass to Cruz that gave the Giants a 9-0 lead.

The second record set was by the Patriots offense. With 4:03 remaining in the second quarter, Tom Brady led the Patriots from their own four yard line 96 yards to score the go ahead touchdown.  The 96-yard drive tied the record for longest drive in a Super Bowl.  The drive included ten completions and four runs.  The Giants were called for two penalties on the drive with one being declined and that Patriots were called for one penalty.  The drive ended with a four-yard pass from Brady to Danny Woodhead splitting two defenders in the end zone to give the Patriots a 10-9 lead going into halftime.

Tom Brady’s second record set during the Super Bowl was 16 consecutive completions passing Joe Montana who held the previous record of 13.  The record stated on the last offensive play before the Patriots 96-yard touchdown drive when Brady hit Wes Welker for six yards.  Brady then went 10 for 10 on the Patriots 96-yard touchdown drive.  The record was set with a five-yard pass to Wes Welker early in the third quarter.  The final completion of the streak was Brady’s second touchdown pass of the game, this one a 12-yard pass to tight end Aaron Hernandez.  The streak ended on an incomplete pass attempt to BenJarvis Green-Ellis on the second play of the next drive.

In a game that will be remembered for one big catch by Mario Manningham and many big late drops by Patriots receivers, both Brady and Manning were the stars of the game.  And they both have altered the record books with their performance.

Bill O’Brien became a member of the Patriots coaching staff in 2007 as an assistant coach.  Since then, he’s held the posts of wide receivers coach, quarterbacks coach, and offensive coordinator.  But on January 7, he was introduced as the fifteenth coach in Penn State football history taking over for Joe Paterno.

Being a college football coach between the BCS National Championship and the first Wednesday in February takes a large commitment.  The head coach has the responsibility of making sure all of the committed recruits stay committed their school until national signing day.  That’s a job that was handed to O’Brien in January.

But O’Brien also had another responsibility.  While his new Penn State position demands his attention, the New England Patriots won their last nine games of the regular season to take the number one seed in the AFC playoffs.  They then defeated the Denver Broncos and Baltimore Ravens to advance to Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis.

Just O’Brien’s luck, the most important day of the college football offseason comes on the same week as the most important game of his coaching career.  To make matters worse, Penn State is coming off possibly the ugliest scandal in sports history.  With that scandal, about half a dozen recruits that had committed to the school decommitted to go to other schools.  Furthermore, many alumni and fans of Penn State made it known they didn’t want O’Brien as coach due to his lack of connections to the university.

To his credit though, O’Brien did a very nice job handling both jobs in their most time consuming weeks.  With the help of his assistant coaches at Penn State, O’Brien was able to secure a 19-member recruiting class ranking anywhere from 39^th to 50^th nationally and in the middle of the Big Ten.  He was also able to keep focused on preparing the Patriots offense for the Super Bowl Sunday night.

While O’Brien certainly has a tough job ahead of him at Happy Valley, nothing will ever compare to this past week.  We’ll see how much his duel commitments actually affected him on Sunday night when the Patriots take on the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLVI.

Both quarterbacks are playing with a major chip on their shoulder once again.  Who wants it more?  That seems to be the million dollar question that the mainstream media wants the answer to.

Eli Manning was drafted #1 overall in 2004.  Manning already has 1 Super Bowl ring.  He still trails Ben Roethlisberger another quarterback drafted in 2004 who has 2 Super Bowl Rings and 3 Super Bowl appearances.

Eli Manning would have more Super Bowl Rings than his older brother Peyton Manning with a Giants win on Sunday.  Its sort of ironic that Eli has to play in Peyton’s stadium to surpass his brother.  It will be intense to see how the Giants respond to that.

Peyton Manning is almost certainly getting into Canton with his one Super Bowl Ring and mind boggling stats.  Eli Manning has a chance to cement his status in Canton as well with a win against the Patriots. Defeating Tom Brady twice in a Super Bowl is pretty historic.

There will be debate about whether Eli gets into Canton when his career ends if the Giants lose Sunday.  Eli can put all of this debate to rest with another Super Bowl win against Brady.  Eli already was Super Bowl 42 MVP after ending New England’s run at perfection as the Patriots fell one game short finishing 18-1.

Tom Brady is already up for consideration as the greatest quarterback of all time.  Brady is tied with Joe Montana for most playoff wins of all time with 16.  Brady can surpass his childhood idol Joe Montana with a win Sunday.

Brady would have 4 Super Bowl Wins, 5 Super Bowl appearances, and one season where he won Unanimous MVP in 2010-2011.  This would clearly make Tom Brady the greatest NFL quarterback of all time.

The bottom line is someone will cement their legacy Sunday.  The question is who.  Will Eli solidify his spot to Canton?  Will Brady go down as the NFL’s greatest quarterback of all time?  Find out Sunday at 6:30 on NBC.

I think the pass rushes and pass defenses will play much better than their rankings.  The one team that is able to create play action passes by running the football will win.  I feel like the Patriots have the edge in that category.

The New York Giants run defense was thin at defensive tackle depth earlier this year.  Even with the depth at defensive tackle, I feel like the Giants defensive tackles will focus more on block shedding while pass rushing so Brady has less time to get to the football.

The Giants weakest linebacker is middle linebacker Chase Blackburn.  I feel like New England can keep Eli Manning off the field by running the football.  I am also confident that New England’s front 7 will have more success at stopping the run than the Giants.

New England’s run defense held Ray Rice to 7 yards on his first ten carries.  Stopping Ray Rice is a lot tougher than stopping Ahmad Bradshaw or Brandon Jacobs.  Jerod Mayo, Brandon Spikes, and Rob Ninkovich can make stops at linebacker.  Dane Fletcher can come in and rotate for Ninkovich on the strong side at left outside linebacker.

Running the football could go under the radar in this contest.  There has not been a Super Bowl MVP at running back since the 1997-1998 season when Terrell Davis won Super Bowl MVP.  Its been nearly 15 years since a running back has been Super Bowl MVP.  I feel like that will change.

I’ll recap why I’m more confident in Green Ellis than the Giants ground game one more time.

First, Green Ellis may not split as much carries as the Giants tandem of Ahmad Bradshaw or Brandon Jacobs.  Green Ellis will be out on plays where Danny Woodhead or Stevan Ridley is in.  BenJarvus Green Ellis can run the football.  Green Ellis had a few big runs against a Ravens run defense that ranked near the top of the league.

Second, New England’s front 7 is much better at stopping the run than the Giants front 7.  The Patriots would not have made it this far without their front 7 stopping Ray Rice against Baltimore.  Tom Brady did not throw a touchdown and New England still managed to win.  Brady threw 2 interceptions and 2 more that would have counted if Baltimore did not commit penalties on the plays.

Third, and finally look at who the Giants faced to get here.  The Giants defeated an undisciplined Falcons defense that could not tackle to save face in the wild card.  Next, New York faced a  Packers team that was more focused on run stuffing and interceptions than pass rushing and coverage.  Finally the New York Giants faced a 49ers team that showed great effort, but was too inexperienced to take the next step.  Go ahead and call Kyle Williams the goat.  First year coaches rarely get teams to Super Bowls.  Its amazing that Harbaugh got the 49ers to the NFC Title in the fashion he did straight out of Stanford.

New England faced two top notch run defenses anchored by the Denver Broncos and the Baltimore Ravens.  New England won both of those games and is facing a weaker run defense that is much stronger at pass rushing by getting to the quarterback.  New England has only surrendered 1 sack in two games to both Denver and Baltimore.  I feel like the Patriots can defeat the Giants considering the fact that the Ravens had 22 different starters and backups that could play on NFL rosters.

Growing up in San Mateo, California, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was one of those kids.  Now Tom Brady sits in New England where Joe Montana did in San Francisco.  He’s won four AFC Championships, three Super Bowls, two Super Bowl MVPs, and two NFL MVPs.  If Brady and his Patriots beat the New York Giants on Sunday in Super Bowl XLVI, Brady will pass Montana’s 16 playoff wins mark and equal his four Super Bowl rings.

As Montana answered questions on radio row in Indianapolis Friday, he seemed pleased that it would be Brady passing him.  “Oh yeah, it’s always great to have somebody you know do it,” Montana said, “It’s better that way.”

Montana surely knows of Brady’s feelings toward the hall of famer.  Brady was after all in the stands for “The Catch” when Montana hit Dwight Clark in the end zone of the 1981 NFC Championship game at Candlestick Park.  Brady’s talked openly about how he would go to 49ers games and would wear Montana’s number 16 or Steve Young’s number 8.

He remembers fondly of the games he saw with his father back in northern California and understands the meaning he has for the kids that travel to Foxborough.  “We’d go sit down in the end zone about 10 rows from the top of the stadium in Candlestick,” Brady said. “It’s cool to think as NFL players that there are some kids looking down at us who are going to have some special memories of us.”

A win Sunday and Brady will achieve his fourth Super Bowl victory which would tie him with his idol Montana and former Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw.  Montana sees even more success in Brady’s future.  “He’s still got enough age on him that he can get back here another time or two,” Montana said. “It’ll be fun to watch him.”

No one has more fun after scoring a touchdown than Chad Ochocinco.  The former Cincinnati Bengal has spent the majority of his career thinking of new ways to celebrate following a score.  Over the last few years, we’ve seen the receiver river dance, putt the football with a pylon, propose to a cheerleader, put on a jacket with “Future H.O.F 20??” on the back, and hold up a sign that read “Dear NFL, PLEASE don’t fine me AGAIN!!!!!!”  So you would think that if he scored a touchdown in the first and possibly only Super Bowl appearance of his career he’d have something special in mind.

However, on December 18 of this year, in a game against the Denver Broncos, Ochocinco scored his only touchdown of the season and did something that shocked everyone.  He dropped the ball to the ground and jogged off the field.  No props, no dances, no special messages for Commissioner Roger Goodell.   Then on media day Tuesday morning, Ochocinco, who usually embraces the spotlight, casually wandered around only answering questions when asked.  So you would have to forgive people if they thought this was a new Ochocinco, a more team oriented Ochocinco.

Not to worry though, Ochocinco spoke to reporters on Thursday and assured them he has something planned. “Normally, everybody knows I have crazy celebrations that I do all the time. I’ve been kind of quiet on the celebrations and the production this year (a bit of an understatement), so if I score this Sunday I might do something,” Ochocinco said. “It’s the biggest stage.”

There were no hints from the touchdown celebration extraordinaire but it seems, at least for a day, the old Ochocinco is back.  Of course, he also would have to get in the end zone.  Through the two playoff games New England won to reach the Super Bowl, Ochocinco was only on the field for one play.  Whether or not there will be a new touchdown celebration from 85 we’ll have to wait and see but it’s just one more thing to watch at Super Bowl XLVI.

The Patriots under Bill Belichick have become masters at not letting anyone outside of the organization have any idea of what is going on inside the organization.  Patriots’ injury reports often have more than a dozen players on it with unspecified injuries.  Gronkowski seems to have taken to this way of doing things quite well.  During the Patriots media day Tuesday morning, Gronkowski didn’t let slip any information on the ankle even when being grilled on the topic.

Last week Rob’s father, Gordy Gronkowski, told a local Buffalo television station that Rob had a high ankle sprain.  If that’s true, then the day-to-day status that the Patriots have Gronkowski listed as would be misleading.  High ankle sprains usually take weeks or even months to heal and Gronkowski only has a matter of days until the big game.

Gronkowski and Belichick aren’t the only ones who are deflecting questions on the ankle either.  Offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien was interviewed for ESPNU’s National Signing Day Special on Wednesday afternoon about the recruiting class of his next job, head coach at Penn State.  At the end of the interview he was asked about the status Gronkowski’s ankle.  His reply was a simple and uninformative, “You’ll have to ask Bill Belichick on that one.”   A great answer for a question on injuries for a Patriots employee.

None of this would be an issue if it wasn’t a key player but that’s exactly what Rob Gronkowski is.  The key of the success of the Patriots offense is the mismatches created by their two dynamic tight ends, Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez.  This season, Gronkowski set a new NFL record for receiving yards by a tight end of 1,327 and touchdowns by a tight end of 18 (17 receiving, 1 rushing).  In the two postseason wins for the Patriots over the Denver Broncos and Baltimore Ravens, Gronkowski had 15 catches for 232 yards and three touchdowns.

Likely nobody outside of the Patriots organization will know Gronkowski’s true status until Sunday night at 6:00 when the Patriots kick off Super Bowl XLVI against the New York Giants.  Until then, the nation’s media will continue to get the run-around on anything relating to Gronk or his now infamous ankle.

On Tuesday there was plenty of craziness.  From a guy from Nickelodeon dressed in a superhero costume to a television crew from the Spanish language television network Telemundo holding up a disco ball and asking people to salsa.

Of course, the two most popular interviewees were head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady.  The normally low-key and monotone coach even got a few laughs out of the experience.  Some of the questions he just ignored like when someone from the Audience Network asked Belichick how he’d fix the Minnesota Timberwolves.  Others he actually entertained with an answer like when Vic (wearing a furry Russian hat, large sunglasses, and a robe) and Brick from Fox radio in Los Angeles asked him, “Are there forces beyond football at play with your team… Spiritual forces?”  To which Belichick just responded with “Possibly” before they informed him, “It’s the year of the Dragon.”  That’s the kind of questions you get at media day.  At one point, someone from VH1 Fan Jam, wearing an old-fashioned leather football helmet tried to get Belichick to put it on.  Unsurprisingly, he declined.

Tom Brady is always the most popular player at these events.  Everyone remembers four years ago when a “reporter” from Mexico’s TV Azteca showed up in a wedding dress and begged Brady to marry her.  There were no wedding dresses this year but Brady seemed a little more willing to comply with the crazy questions.  When Brady was asked about growing up with three sisters, he talked about how they would dress him up and even painted his nails once.  That’s not something you would usually hear from the two-time Super Bowl MVP.

Someone not making noise that you would expect was Chad Ochocinco.  The Patriots wide receiver is playing in the first Super Bowl of his career.  Usually Ochocinco is present at Super Bowl media day as the lead correspondent for the “Ochocinco News Network”.  However, as a participant in this year’s big game, you’d expect Ochocinco to be the ringmaster of this circus.  But this year he just sat in the stands (he wasn’t given one of the 18 podiums reserved for star players and coaches) and answered questions when asked.  At one point, Deion Sanders of the NFL Network asked him about not being at a podium and he responded by saying that he doesn’t need a podium when he was three million followers on Twitter.

This year, the NFL decided to add something new to media day by letting fans sit in the stands and observe the craziness for $25.  7,000 fans showed up listening to answers from the players on headphones.  Tom Brady got the biggest kick out of this change to media day and seemed very excited when he realized they could hear him.

One person not present at Patriots media day was offensive tackle Matt Light who was sick.  When the Giants took over the event later in the day, Deion Sanders for NFL Network asked Osi Umenyiora if he had a message for Light.  “Matt Light, please get well soon.”  He continued “I hope to see you on Sunday.  You are one of my greatest friends.”  Light and Umenyiora were in the news this week when the Giants defensive lineman told reporters that he wasn’t very fond with the man he’s had two altercations with during games.

It seems insane to pick a day out of the most important in a player’s career, stick in front of 5,000 media member, and have them pester them about topics that have nothing to do with football but Super Bowl media day has become a tradition of its own.  Wednesday the Patriots will get serious again as they prepare for Super Bowl XLVI on Sunday.  It signals the final stretch of two weeks of preparation for the chance to win football’s ultimate prize.