John Delach

The Giants 2008 Improbable Playoff Season

John Delach

November 2025

TicketRESERVE e-mailed us almost as soon as the NFC Championship game ended confirming that we were entitled to buy tickets for Super Bowl XLII and how the process would take place.

“Do you really believe this worked and we’re going to the Super Bowl?” Dave asked, my son, Michael and me while we were celebrating.

“Unbelievable,” I replied. “Simply unbelievable. I bought the options as a lark. It was like walking into a big casino with a single silver dollar, picking a slot machine at random and hitting their monthly jackpot.”

“Who knew,” Mike said, “Who knew!”

Our improbable journey continues.

Giants NFC shirts and hats went on sale as soon as the sporting goods stores opened on Monday morning, the national holiday in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Mike, his two boys, Drew and Matt and I drove to Roosevelt Field and purchased every article we desired between Modell’s and Dicks. His boys send the tickets rode a merry-go-round before we left the mall. Mike and I wore our new NFC Champion hats while we watched and waited for them. An anxious young man in a regular NY Giant cap asked us where we bought them. “Right in Dicks. There’s a table full of them when you go inside. If you want a shirt, they’ve got a ton of those, too at the other end of the store.”

We stopped at Dave’s house on the way home to drop off two hats and two tee shirts.

During the week leading up to the Packer game, my old pal, Steve Beslity sent me an e mail asking if any of our tailgate buddies were going to that game. I replied, “Not that I know of, but Dave and I had options for the Super Bowl and, if the Giants were going, so were we.”

This message put into motion a dynamic that I didn’t anticipate, our tailgate friends were coming to the game. I never thought to tell them about the options. Damn, it was a lark, something crazy to do. But the world flipped; the Giants were going to the Super Bowl and they wanted in.

The hunt began. Steve, (who resides in London and was traveling to the States on business) made plans to fly into Tucson. His brother, Jamie worked on securing tickets and our fellow Port Washington fan, Joe Minadeo also signed on. They all booked rooms in the same Best Western and Joe booked the same flights we were taking. Jamie bought four tickets through a scalper and by the end of the first week we had put the trip together. There would be eight in our band, Dave and Tim, Mike and me, Steve, Jamie and Jamie’s son, Justin and Joe.

There being eight of us, we agreed not to drive to the game and rented a Korean Church style van and driver to pick us up at the hotel at 9 a.m. on Sunday. I went on line to the University of Phoenix Stadium and purchased two parking passes. We would use one and sell one. Jamie discovered when he booked the van that Arizona had recently passed a stiffer DWI law mandating a 45-day jail term for a first offense.

On Thursday, January 24, we received an e mail from TicketRESERVE stating that they weren’t going to send the tickets by FedEx until the following Thursday for overnight arrival on Friday, February 1^st  Talk about cutting it close. At least now I knew what I was going to be doing next Friday; anxiously waiting for the tickets to arrive.

The parking passes arrived on Monday, but my anxiety level continued to climb waiting for Friday and FedEx to arrive with our game tickets. Joe Sharkey wrote in his weekly “On the Road” column in The New York Times that Arizona was crazy with Super Bowl fever and airline tickets were out of control. US Airways was charging $3,309 for a round-trip coach ticket from New York to Phoenix for Super Bowl weekend. United’s fare was $2,450.99 and American’s, $1,857.

By Wednesday, another issue raised my level of anxiety. When Dave’s travel agent booked our flights on American, she didn’t have seats for Mike, Joe and me on the leg from Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) to Tucson. Dave and his son were the only exceptions. I feared       overbooking was in progress, especially after I called American and discovered that seats on three of the four later flights from DFW to Tucson were also closed out except for airport seat assignment.

The alternatives to reach Tucson from DFW bordered on the ridiculous. We could possibly take a Taxi to Love Field in Dallas and switch to a flight on Southwest Airlines to Tucson or transfer to an alternate American flight to El Paso, Texas and drive four hours to Tucson.

There was a force at work here that was truly testing us. Dave called me on Thursday morning. “You’d better open your e mail. We have a big problem with the tickets. The weather in Chicago and Memphis has screwed up delivery.”

Part VIII Preparing for Arizona continued:

I realized right away that, if TicketRESERVE  sent our tickets at the last moment, it could result in an enormous problem.

I opened my emails and found a message from TicketRESERVE marked URGENT advising that FedEx had declared “National Service Disruption” due to freezing rain and sleet at their Memphis hub. FedEx expected 5-7” of snow as did TicketRESERVE at their Chicago HQ.

TicketRESERVE decided to establish an onsite will-call in Phoenix, where we winners could pick up our Super Bowl tickets. This will-call would be open on Saturday (2/2) from 2:00 PM – 6:30 PM local time at the Comfort Suites at Metro Center, 10210 N. 26th Dr. Phoenix, AZ, 85021

They informed us that, if you cannot make it to the will-call on Saturday due to travel plans, please let us know immediately and we will work out an amicable solution.  Everyone picking up tickets will need to present a photo ID.

“Oh swell.” I replied to Dave. This phone call led to a number of e mails and phone calls that confirmed that their representative would also be available on Sunday up until noon at the same will-call located in the Comfort Suites Hotel We authorized them to take our tickets to Phoenix where we planned to pick them up between 11 a.m. and noon. Fortunately, Comfort Suites is located about ten miles from the stadium parking lot.

Attending this Super Bowl has become insane. When Steve, Jamie, Doc Michael Attubato and I ventured to Tampa for Super Bowl XXV in 1991, the face value of the tickets was $150. Ten years later, when we returned to Tampa for SB XXXV, the price on the ticket was $ 350. The face value of tickets for Super Bowl XLII is $700. Now that’s inflation.

Late on Thursday evening, TicketRESERVE advised that my two tickets were in the upper deck, Section 423, Row 23, Seats 13 and 14. I called Dave as we had asked them to coordinate our seats, and they did. Dave’s two seats were in the same section, Row 22, Seats 15 and 16. Good enough for government work.

NOBODY, BUT NOBODY, EXCEPT US DUMB-ASSES WHO SUPPORT THE NEW YORK FOOTBALL GIANTS GIVE OUR TEAM ANY CHANCE.

The Patriots were going into the game 18-0; the best team in professional football. The 1972 Miami Dolphins went undefeated and won the Super Bowl, achieving a record of 17-0. All the Patriots had to do to achieve immortally was quite simple, just beat the Giants. The odds makers listed the Pats as 14-point favorites. This betting line modestly retreated to 12 by Friday, still a fabulous endorsement of the new, yet still growing manifestation of an NFL dynasty. Who indeed, in their right mind would pick the Giants over the Patriots?

Even I had to admit that everything being equal, the Patriots should collect their fourth ring.

Bill Briggs, my son-in-law’s father telephoned me on Thursday, January 31^st. Bill and I enjoy sports. He’s a New England guy from a little town outside of Springfield, Mass and a good friend. Here’s what he told me, “I’ve done great this post season. I haven’t lost a game yet. I’m betting on the Giants on Sunday.”

I didn’t ask Bill if he was only relying on the point spread, figuring I’d let sleeping dogs lie.

Friday brought a ton of rain and another development. Mike Attubatto (Doctor Mike) called to let me know that he and another tailgate regular, Ahab Ali had bought tickets on E-Bay and were flying to Phoenix tomorrow. “Do you want me to pick up the tickets for you?”

I thanked Doctor Mike, but said we’d get them on Sunday. We decided that he and Ahab would meet us at the Comfort Suites and we would continue to the stadium together. “I also need a ride back to Tucson. I have a 7:45 a.m. flight on Continental to Newark.”

Fortunately, we rented a ten-passenger van that would accommodate all of us. I wondered if it still had the name of a Korean Church painted on the sides.

At 5:31p.m. WFAN’s premier sportscasters, Mike (Fatso) Francesa and Christopher (Fruit Loops) Russo made their Super Bowl predictions. Fatso picked the Patriots to win 35-17 and Fruit Loops, in an effort to be clever, picket them to beat the Giants 49-7 so that the point differential would be 42 as in Super Bowl XLII.

Perfect! Let the game begin.