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N.Y. Giants Lead Parade As Super Bowl Champs

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

The New York Giants are the toast of the town. The team celebrated its second Super Bowl victory in four years with a parade through Lower Manhattan's Canyon of Heroes today.

As NPR's Joel Rose reports, tens of thousands of people jammed the narrow streets around Broadway for a glimpse of the NFL champs.

JOEL ROSE, BYLINE: In the city that claims to have invented the tickertape parade, it doesn't take much to lure people down to Lower Manhattan.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHEERING CROWD)

ROSE: Anthony Cioffi(ph) and Carmine Dente(ph) played hooky from their trucking business in Newark, New Jersey to watch the parade.

ANTHONY CIOFFI: I mean, in the past I never had a chance to go. I was always out at work. Today, I took my boss with me.

(SOUNDBITE OF A CHEERING CROWD)

ROSE: So you're the boss.

CARMINE DENTE: That's what they called me.

ROSE: Is your whole office here with you?

DENTE: Just about.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHEERING CROWD)

ROSE: Gina Black and a friend brought 10 kids with them this morning, from Spring Lake Heights, New Jersey.

GINA BLACK: Yeah, no school today, not for us.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE)

BLACK: But you know what? It's an experience. They'll never forget it.

(SOUNDBITE OF A HORN)

ROSE: Black and her kids didn't wait for an afternoon celebration across the river at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. That was organized at the urging of Governor Chris Christie, who says the Garden State doesn't get enough credit for supporting the team.

For a while, it didn't look like the Giants would be celebrating anywhere this season. A few months ago, the team was a mediocre 7 and 7, and looked like a long-shot just to make the playoffs. Even diehard fans like Paul Lamantia(ph), of Long Island, were worried.

PAUL LAMANTIA: I never pictured this to happen. It's just, you know, I never felt the Giants were - even until they got the Super Bowl, I was very skeptical because the way they played in the beginning of the season, they just didn't show us anything that made you think that they were going to win the Super Bowl.

ROSE: But Lamantia was there to see it when the Giants pulled out a come-from-behind victory over the favored New England Patriots on Sunday night. It's the same team the Giants beat in the Super Bowl four years ago, as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg noted.

MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG: You know, are you feeling deja blue all over again?

ROSE: At a ceremony outside City Hall, Bloomberg presented the team with the keys to the city. The loudest cheers might have been for quarterback and Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning.

ELI MANNING: To win six-straight games to finish the season, and to finish the final game, taking home the Super Bowl trophy - that's what I'm talking about.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHEERING)

ROSE: But it was defensive captain Justin Tuck who captured the mood of the moment, as he led some of the other Giants players in a call-and-response chant.

JUSTIN TUCK: We got a ring!

UNIDENTIFIED FOOTBALL PLAYERS: We got a ring!

TUCK: We got a ring!

UNIDENTIFIED FOOTBALL PLAYERS: We got a ring!

(SOUNDBITE OF CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TUCK: Yay!

(SOUNDBITE OF CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TUCK: Hey, guess what? I got two.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

ROSE: After what they saw this year, no one here would be surprised to see Tuck and the rest of the Giants add to that total next season.

Joel Rose, NPR News, New York.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Joel Rose is a correspondent on NPR's National Desk. He covers immigration and breaking news.

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