Sometimes this entire ride that the Giants have been on for the past month feels a bit like a dream – feeling like you should have woken up after the Divisional and Conference playoff rounds to find out that Tony Romo really ended up completing a pass on that final play or that Lawrence Tynes missed that overtime field goal. Just getting to this point in the playoffs, for the Giants, is a huge victory that everyone can feel good about – but the job is still not done. The road that lies ahead on Sunday evening in Glendale is the equivalent of the autobahn – fast, aggressive, and will eat you if you can’t control it.

The Super Bowl is a uniquely American experience, an excuse for hundreds of thousands of drunken football fans to converge upon some normally quiet warm weather city for a week and rub elbows with NFL heroes being paid to hawk products like a three wheeled motorcycle or a diet sports drink. The media coverage is just as gaudy, this year’s Super Bowl pre-game show will last an excessive four hours, so to go over the quotes and storylines of this year’s Super Bowl in this space would be a huge waste of time. Instead, we present to you five reasons to root for the New York Giants in this year’s Super Bowl.

Reason 5: They aren’t the Patriots
No matter what team ended up being in the Super Bowl with against the Pats this season, there was almost certainly going to be backlash against the most successful modern day dynasty – even more so than predicted thanks to the self entitled attitude the marquee players and their coaches have had this season. The Patriots team that takes the field this Sunday will have a markedly different feel than the one that upset the St. Louis Rams in 2002 -- instead of a group of players buying into the ultimate team concept, they will come out a bunch of stars with gaudy stats and big paychecks who took pleasure in slaughtering teams all season long. Then of course there is the mess that was spy gate that has been re-opened by congress this week and could cause potential problems for the Pats and the League as long as Matt Walsh ends up being more like Kirk Radomski than Greg Anderson. And as if Bill Belichick wasn’t prickly enough, adding cheater (literally, not that messing adultery situation) to his various qualities would make him the most universally hated person in the NFL. Rooting against the Patriots is like rooting against corruption and evil.

Reason 4: Underdogs
America loves an underdog – Rocky Balboa, Taylor Hicks, anyone who faces the Yankees. The Giants are the ultimate underdogs, historic underdogs even. Ostensibly, few teams have taken the road the Giants have to get to this point – written off from the start with a lame duck head coach (we’ll touch on this later) but ultimately coming together to not only make the playoffs but upsetting three teams that no one expected them to beat. Two of said teams rolled the Giants in regular season meetings; the other one was quarterbacked by a player who had been to the Giants what Lex Luthor is to Superman. But what not many people don’t seem to realize is that the Giants have made history in a couple of different ways in this crazy season – becoming only one of two modern day NFL teams to start a season with two straight losses only to win the next six straight; and of course there is the legendary road record of this team, going 10-1 on the road this season, becoming the first team ever to win 10 consecutive road games in a single regular and playoff season. Rooting for the Giants is your duty as an American.

Reason 3: Tom Coughlin
I know what you’re saying, “Tom Coughlin? Mr. ‘My teams don’t get injured’? Mr. ‘Five minutes early is on time’?” Forget the common perception of Tom Coughlin, much like the Giants players, Tom Coughlin is a completely different person than the man who took control of the team and tried to rule with an iron fist. Coughlin is the NFL’s answer to Ebeneezer Scrooge – waking up one morning and turning into a personable, player friendly person whom his players swear by. Everyone – ownership, the players, the media, the fans, Coughlin himself – thought that he was a lame duck head coach heading into the season, that John Fox or Bill Belichick or Bill Cowher would be hired after this season. Now Coughlin stands to get a pretty hefty extension and has gone from universally hated by the media to somewhat of a media darling. Never in the history of the NFL has a coach transformed from one extreme so quickly and with such success, magically winning over his players and the media. Rooting for the Tom Coughlin is like hoping for the addict to reform on an episode of Intervention.

Reason 2: Eli Manning
Admit it; you thought he was a bust too. Coming off of his worst statistical season to date, Manning was a lock to throw multiple picks against the Bucs’ secondary. But he ended up picking apart the best secondary in football. Against the Cowboys he was supposed to pressured all game and forced into bad decisions. Manning did take three sacks, but also threw for two touchdowns and manufactured quite possibly the best drive of his career with seconds left in the first half. Against the Packers he was supposed to be out of his element and out quarterbacked by a Hall of Famer. Instead he tore Al Harris a new sphincter and had his best passing performance of the post season. Watching Eli Manning this postseason has been something to behold, going from timid little brother to calm and collected super star. Rooting for Eli Manning is like voting for the shy, awkward kid in high school to beat out the captain of the football team for prom king.

Reason 1: The Veterans deserve it
The Giants have three players who will go down in Giants history as all time greats at their positions: Michael Strahan is the best defensive linemen in the history of the New York Giants and his generation, Amani Toomer is statistically the best receiver Big Blue has ever seen, and Jeff Feagles is arguably the best punter of his generation. All three players are entering the twilight of their careers – Strahan narrowly returning this season and having a huge impact on the youngsters, Toomer losing his speed and having to realize he’s really a possession guy now, and Feagles basically being begged to come out of retirement. If the Giants are able to win this Sunday, they will be able to send those three players off into the sunset with the kind of good bye that they deserve. There’s nothing quite like watching a player who has toiled for years finally win the Super Bowl (see White, Reggie or Elway, John). So I guess you could say rooting for the Giants to win is like rooting for someone to realize their life long dream.

Win or lose, this Giants team has nothing to be ashamed of, they have been called the worst Super Bowl team of all time and just a team in the way of perfection – but in the end the Giants are a team that proves that a healthy dose of cohesiveness, a handful of talent, and a hint of luck can go a long way. So if your team is playing golf right now, if you tune for the commercials, or if you’re new to the sport and looking for a team to root for – root for the Giants this weekend. Root for them for all the reason mentioned and simply because they are a true team, a group of guys who genuinely enjoy hanging around with each other.