On Sunday night when the Giants won the Super Bowl my first emotion was shock. The second was pure joy, which poured out of my eyes in the form of tears and then, soon after, I realized I HAD to be at the ticker tape parade in Manhattan.

So I took a day off from work, hopped on the train in Harriman and took the PATH from Hoboken to World Trade Center. From the very first moment I got to a train station, there was blue, white and red all over the place. I was in Giants Country and thereby, Heaven.

Once I arrived in Manhattan, police were everywhere and streets were closed over two hours before the parade was scheduled to start. My friend Jason and I found a spot about four people deep from a corner on Barclay and Broadway, right next to a giant screen (no pun intended) to watch the festivities and close to the street to see the players live and in person.

Two hours passed. People packed in. Four deep turned into 15 thanks to the NYPD and finally, around 1130, a float with Giants players went by and the madness began. However, long before that and long after, the ticker tape fell. Pieces of newspaper, shredded copy paper, full sheets, toilet paper - you name it and it was all over the street and my hat. It literally looked like it was snowing the entire afternoon.

When players came by on their floats, the crowd didn’t have much time to react. There were screams, chants, a million photos and then nothing as it slowly went by. The highlight, of course, was captains Eli Manning and Michael Strahan with the NFC and Lombardi championship trophies. The crowd went CRAZY for those two. But also, floats with the rookies, the offensive line, linebacking core, and even assistant coaches got huge applause and informed chants.

It was a day to just scream your lungs out in celebration of a Super Bowl champion. And even writing that sentence it’s hard to believe. My team, the NEW YORK GIANTS won the SUPER BOWL. Against the PATRIOTS (oh, the anti-Boston and 18-1 chants were prevalent). It’s incredible. And even the ticker tape snowstorm of February 5 hasn’t helped that fact sink in.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 5th, 2008 at 6:17 pm and is filed under All. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.