WPCNR VIEW FROM THE UPPER DECK. By Bull Allen. January 20, 2008: Congratulations are in order tonight to Eli Manning for quarterbacking the Giants to the National Football Conference Championship.  But also my admiration goes to Mr. Manning for the awesome poise he has shown under the scorn and criticism heaped upon him by the underachieving vultures of the New York sports press which only five weeks ago were saying the jury was out on him "in a big spot," that he has not shown he can lead and that the Giants needed to go in a different direction. They killed him for clock management, interceptions, not calling timeouts. Well we want to hear from those "experts" tomorrow. It is time for them to eat big time crow -- but crow is not good enough -- a whole turkey is in order.

Mr. Manning now has the last laugh on  all the experts, the armchair coaches  the babble-heads who have made fun of him in print and on the air since he arrived in New York. As Cole Porter wrote, who has the last laugh now? I admire that kind of inner strength.

Kudos to the kid for his cool handling of adversity Sunday night in Green Bay. His precise Quarterbacking performance -- and too, for Plaxico the Magnificent who lit up the Packer Al What's His Name? for a zillion acrobatic catches all BIG.  Mr. Burress snagged 11 catches for 154 yards. The Weapon!  

 Hat's off to to the New York Giant defense that exposed an overrated Packer offense as unimaginative when a game plan did not work. But mostly it is Eli Manning who should be pointed to by mentors everywhere as how to react and work through adversity: believe in yourself and play and work on to the prize.

 Last night the ghosts of Huff, Svare, Lynch, Patton and Tunnel  were in those Giant whites.

The Packers kicked away break after break. The Giants found a way to try and hand the game to the Packers, thanks to the incredibly lousy officiating, and Mr. Favre threw the rookie mistakes tonight, not Mr. Manning. I mean the Packers had no plays! No answers. The Packer coaching staff did not make adjustments in the second half. You had to double team Plax and they did not. You had to stop the run and they did not. They could not overpower the Giant line which gave Mr. Manning protection beyond the call of duty. One sack the entire game.  

The only drawback to the game was as usual the uneven NFL officiating which had Favre not thrown the pick in overtime -- would have been excoriated for all time. You know the one I'm talking about -- the hold on a Giant that took away the winning touchdown from the Giants in the last minute of regulation. That was an astounding bad call -- as if the officials were trying to give one back to the Packers.

The Giants got the benefit of two key penalties too that helped their third quarter drive to take the lead. One was reasonable; the late hit on Manning was very disputable.

But despite the amateur NFL officiating -- and it is amateur -- always has been, without which the Giants would have won this in regulation -- the night belonged to young Mr. Manning.

Mr. Manning has been treated  the way the jackels of  the NY sports "press" treated Phil Simms in the Parcells era here in New York. Simms was blasted until he won. Then he became brilliant.

I have never seen the scorn heaped on anyone the way the talk show guys and the writers have slammed Manning for courage, lack of game sense etc. Mr. Manning was, week after week, subjected to dripping, superior invective from scribes, talkshow hosts and color analysts. He  treated like the Ed Whitson of football.

But Eli Manning was stronger than the critics were. What a magnificently brought-up and prepared young man.  (Updating this piece on Tuesday -- not one writer or talk show host has apologized or admitted they were wrong,  that I have heard -- the mark of the cowards and underachievers, the parasites of the press box.)

Well, they can never say  Eli Manning cannot win again after last night. Eli Manning ate up the clock, moving the ball steadily against a Green Bay defense that could not adjust. The Giant ball control was dominant. Manning made no mistakes.

I believe the way Mr. Manning comported himself under the onslaught of character assassination, physical criticism and downright meanness that he had to take from the press since being in New York is a valuable lesson.

When you're criticised, your best effort is to ignore it and try and do better. It is what a professional does. Every writer every loudmouth talkshow host  who has written and said on air how Eli Manning cannot get it done, owes him a personal handshake and thank you since they can now free load to Glendale on his achievement and the Giants' achievement last night.

No team has been criticised as more underachieving than the Giants the last several years and they answered that in the last six weeks.

Mr. Manning has such class and poise. A lesser man could have broken under the scorn.

Believe me criticism really hurts and it makes you hard because you can never answer it except by being right all along.

Mr. Manning did that last night.

Did he gloat?

No.

Was he satisfied?

Oh yes. He has earned the right to feel good.

Because the press has made him the scapegoat for so long.

Eli Manning showed what a real winner is last night.

Class. Poise. Focus on the next play.

Last night made up for 49 years of overtime heartbreak.

Thank you Mr. Manning and Mr. Burris and all those guys.

Now it is time to burst the bubble of the New England Cheat Squad.

(Does anyone know whether New England had to turnover the last 5 years of secret sideline tapes?)

If ever a team needed beating it is New England which has been cheating for years before the Jets exposed them.

They need to be taken out so they can be forgotten and go down in infamy for the cheaters they were.

 Their coach could possibly have had foreknowledge of plays in previous Super Bowls New England has won, thanks to his cheating system of stealing signals. My colleague Denny Hatch has raised this very possibility.

The press has not written about that aspect of New England's vaunted defense as just possibly why they were so successful in those Super Bowls.

So it is up to the New York Giants to stand up for truth justice and fair play and take New England off the glory pedestal the sports press is so eager to place them on. Miami would kill them.

And one final word on officiating: there is no other professional sport where the officiating is so egregiously bad and such a factor in the game. Game after game is decided by flags thrown inconsistently and killing or aiding big drives. It needs to be addressed.

I have to apologize myself for thinking the Giants should have been out to Green Bay earlier to get used to the cold. Just trying to help out, guys.

Now if there is any justice we will run into a monsoon in Arizona -- it's getting to be monsoon season in Arizona, isn't it?

Congratulations, Mr. Manning.

Thank you for showing who and what  a real winner is.