Super Bowl XLII was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion New York Giants and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for the 2007 season. The game was played on February 3, 2008, at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. This Super Bowl was a rematch of the final game of the regular season, in which the Patriots won, 38–35. The Giants defeated the heavily favored Patriots by a score of 17–14, widely considered one of the biggest upsets in the history of professional North American sports. Giants quarterback Eli Manning, who completed 19 of 34 passes for 255 yards with two touchdowns and one interception, was named Super Bowl MVP.
The Patriots entered the game as 12-point favorites after becoming the first team to complete a perfect regular season since the 1972 Miami Dolphins, and the only one since the league expanded to a 16-game regular season schedule in 1978. The Giants, who finished the regular season with a 10–6 record, were seeking to become the first NFC wild card team to win a Super Bowl, and were also looking for their seventh NFL championship and first since they won Super Bowl XXV seventeen years earlier.
The game was tight throughout, with both teams' defense dominating the competition until near the end of the game. The game featured five total lead changes (New York took it three times and New England twice) and the fourth quarter saw a Super Bowl-record three lead changes. After David Tyree's 3-yard touchdown reception at the beginning of the quarter, Patriots wide receiver Randy Moss made a 6-yard touchdown reception, making the score 14-10 with 2:42 left in the game. The Giants started their subsequent drive on their own 17-yard line with 2:39 left. On the drive's most memorable play, Tyree made the "Helmet Catch" on 3rd down, a leaping one-handed catch pinning the football with his right hand to the crown of his helmet for a 32-yard first down conversion. After a second first-down conversion by Steve Smith on 3rd and 11, wide receiver Plaxico Burress scored the game-winning touchdown on a 13-yard reception. The Patriots then proceeded to turnover on downs on their final drive as the Giants ran out the clock. The game became one of the lowest scoring Super Bowls since Super Bowl IX 31 years earlier; it would be followed by Super Bowl LIII in 2019, a game that also involved the Patriots. This game was also the first, and as of the 2025 season, only, Super Bowl with three fourth-quarter lead changes.
Super Bowl XLII is often considered the greatest Super Bowl of all time in retrospect by several media outlets. The Giants' victory is remembered as one of the greatest "Cinderella" stories in professional sports history, and their game-winning drive is regarded as one of the greatest of all time. Several outlets and sports publishers have also considered the game to be a moment that defined sports in the 2000s. Super Bowl XLII was ranked fifth on the NFL's 100 Greatest Games list, the highest ranked Super Bowl game, while Tyree's catch was ranked third on the NFL's 100 Greatest Plays. The game's broadcast on Fox broke the then-record for the most watched Super Bowl in history with an average of 97.5 million viewers in the United States.
The Giants and Patriots would once again meet in Super Bowl XLVI four years later, where the Giants would win again 21–17.
Background
Host selection process NFL owners voted to award Super Bowl XLII to Glendale, Arizona during their October 30, 2003 meeting held in Chicago. Four cities were initially part of the bid process: Glendale (University of Phoenix Stadium), Tampa (Raymond James Stadium), New York/New Jersey (Giants Stadium), and Washington (FedEx Field). It was the second Super Bowl in the Phoenix area, after XXX at Sun Devil Stadium in nearby Tempe, and the first of multiple Super Bowls at University of Phoenix Stadium.
In early 2002, during his annual "State of the League" press conference, NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue publicly floated the idea of awarding a Super Bowl to New York City, contingent on a renovation of Giants Stadium. If selected, it would be the first outdoor Super Bowl in a cold-weather locale. Hosting the game at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, New Jersey was conceived in-part as an effort to boost economic recovery in the wake of 9/11. As such, Washington, D.C. was also invited to submit a bid. Tagliabue stated at the time that hosting the Super Bowl only in warm-weather cities (or in domed stadiums) was considered "passé in our league" and directed the Super Bowl Advisory Committee to study the feasibility of hosting it outdoors in a northern city.
Both the New York/New Jersey and the Washington, D.C. contingents made special presentations during the NFL's fall owners meeting in New York on October 30–31, 2002. The NY/NJ group included representatives from both the Giants and the Jets, and had support from Senators Chuck Schumer and Robert Torricelli. The Jets at the time happened to be in the early planning stages of West Side Stadium, though the league noted that the proposed stadium's status would not be a factor in the decision. Instead, substantial renovations to Giants Stadium would be the driving issue. The D.C. group included representatives from the Redskins. The effort was tentatively aimed towards XLI. Following the meeting, however, the bids for both NY/NJ and Washington were tabled, and instead reassigned and refocused towards XLII.
New York/New Jersey was the "sentimental favorite" to host XLII going into the bidding process. However their prospects diminished when renovation plans to aging Giants Stadium hit a stalemate. By the summer of 2003, the Jets had exited the project, electing to focus on a separate bid for West Side Stadium for a future Super Bowl. The Giants and the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority sparred over the funding of $250–300 million for stadium upgrades. By September 2003, the Giants made a tentative agreement to cover nearly all of the costs of the renovations. By this time, however, the NY/NJ bid had largely fallen out of favor, and was facing several logistical complications. Arizona, with a new state-of-the-art stadium already under construction, emerged as the clear front-runner. On October 16, the NY/NJ hosting committee officially withdrew their bid. Washington recruited former senator Fred Thompson, and by some accounts, had a "superior" presentation. Redskins owner Daniel Snyder touted FedEx Field's larger seating capacity, but the prospects were still slim due to the uncertainties of the cold weather. Tampa, despite warm weather and a relatively new stadium, also faced some long odds. Tampa hosted XXXV, five years more recent than Arizona's previous hosting duties (XXX), and the state of Florida was already scheduled to host XLI in Miami.
With just three cities remaining (Glendale, Tampa, and Washington), the vote amongst the 32 owners was scheduled for multiple rounds. A bid receiving of the ballots would automatically win. If no city had won after three rounds, the vote would revert to a simply majority. Just days before the scheduled vote, the Phoenix area received positive compliments of their handling of a last-minute scheduling change; the game between the San Diego Chargers and Miami Dolphins was moved to Sun Devil Stadium due to the Cedar Fire. The Arizona hosting committee won the hosting duties on the first vote. In subsequent years, Tampa was chosen as the site for XLIII and NY/NJ would ultimately host XLVIII at new MetLife Stadium.
Venue
The kickoff for the game took place at 4:32 p.m. MST (23:32 UTC). This was the first Super Bowl played on a retractable natural-grass field surface. At the time, the University of Phoenix Stadium's roll-in grass field was unique among American sports venues. Another similar roll-in field has since been installed at Allegiant Stadium (LVIII).
XLII was also the second Super Bowl played in a retractable-roof stadium (the first was XXXVIII at Reliant Stadium in Houston). During the regular season, the home team decides 90 minutes prior to kickoff whether the roof will be open or closed; an open roof must remain open unless weather conditions deteriorate. However, as a neutral site, the NFL controls the option to open or close without any restrictions. During XXXVIII, the roof was open for pregame and halftime shows but closed during the game itself. Because there was rain in the forecast for XLII, the decision was made to keep the roof closed for the entire day's activities.
During a February 6, 2007, ceremony with Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, the NFL and the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee unveiled the slogan "Who Wants It More?" along with its mascot "Spike the Super Ball" (an anthropomorphized football with sunglasses and sneakers) and a large "Super Bowl XLII Countdown Clock" at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. The Super Bowl XLII logo was also unveiled. It features the shape of the state of Arizona in red and two horizontal white stripes in the middle to represent the vertical lines on University of Phoenix Stadium. The turquoise Roman numerals represent the Native American culture of Arizona. The red star represents the AFC and the blue star represents the NFC. This was also the last Super Bowl with the league's previous logo painted at midfield; the following season, the league redesigned its primary logo.
Teams
New York Giants
The Giants began the season with low expectations after star running back Tiki Barber retired. The Giants had lost in the NFC Wild Card round in each of the previous two seasons and had not won a playoff game in seven years. Quarterback Eli Manning, the younger brother of Super Bowl XLI MVP quarterback Peyton Manning, had struggled to find consistency. In his three seasons as a starter, he had completed less than 54% of his passes with a career passer rating of 73.4. While generally regarded as a solid quarterback, Manning had been unable to achieve the same level of success as fellow 2004 draftees Philip Rivers (for whom he was traded) and Ben Roethlisberger, the latter of whom had already won a Super Bowl (Super Bowl XL). By the 2007 season, many sports writers were starting to question if Eli would ever live up to the expectations that accompanied being selected with the first overall pick in a draft.
The criticism of Manning intensified as the Giants lost the first two games of the regular season. The Giants recovered, though, notching six consecutive wins and finishing the year with a 10–6 record. The Giants were able to secure a wild card bid in the playoffs, despite the loss of running back Derrick Ward, defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka, and four-time Pro Bowl tight end Jeremy Shockey to injury. In the final game of the regular season, the Giants played at home against the undefeated New England Patriots. Although the Giants had already earned a playoff spot and had nothing to gain by winning the game, Giants head coach Tom Coughlin decided to play his starters throughout the game. The Giants, clearly playing to win against the league's best team, narrowly lost 38–35. But the effort seemed to rejuvenate the Giants and prepare them for a difficult playoff run. Manning led his team to three road playoff wins against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers respectively, without throwing a single interception. The Giants' three playoff wins gave them an NFL record 10 consecutive wins on the road. They finished the season with a franchise-low 77 penalties, after setting a franchise record two years before with 146.