Nobody’s perfect... yet

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Fans of the New York Giants affectionately refer to their team as the G-men.

Today, the Giants are closer to Gee-Whiz-men.

They’re playing in their first Super Bowl since the 2000 season and 12-point underdogs to the mighty New England Patriots, who could become the first NFL team in 35 years to win every game. Whereas New England has 43 players who already have Super Bowl rings, the Giants have one, backup center Grey Ruegamer -- and he won his playing for the Patriots.

Sound hopeless?

Longtime New England players, guys such as quarterback Tom Brady and linebackers Mike Vrabel and Tedy Bruschi, understand. They were key players on New England’s 2001 team that got off to an 0-2 start before getting its act together, marching through the postseason that included an overtime victory over the Oakland Raiders in blizzard conditions, then stunning the football world with a Super Bowl victory over heavily favored St. Louis.

That upset of the Rams -- who, like this season’s Patriots, led the league in scoring -- was clinched with a 48-yard field goal by Adam Vinatieri as time expired.

Remembering that, Vrabel said these Patriots aren’t putting any stock in the fact so many people are picking them to win.

“We understand that one play can make the difference in this game, just like one play made the difference in that game,” he said.

Still, confidence abounds. The New York Post reported Saturday that the Patriots have already applied for trademarks on “19-0” and “19-0 The Perfect Season” -- and those papers were filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office three days before New England played San Diego in the AFC championship game.

Upon learning this, the Post paid $375 to patent “18-1.”

These Giants are the first team since New England to overcome an 0-2 start to reach the Super Bowl. The Giants’ postseason, too, was marked by a dramatic overtime victory in the bitter cold, theirs coming in the NFC championship game at Green Bay. And now comes their chance to shock the world.

“We’re very familiar with this role,” Giants Coach Tom Coughlin said. “We’ve been the underdog for most of the season. That hasn’t changed, and we’ve used the motivational tool of having something to prove pretty much all year long. New England is an exceptional football team, a historical team, a very talented and well-coached team. But, by the same token, we look at this as a tremendous challenge and our energy level is very high.”

But the most experienced of the Giants are trying to keep those supercharged emotions in check, and have urged their teammates to do the same. For first-timers, the head-spinning excitement of Super Bowl week, with the glistening Lombardi Trophy so close they can almost feel it in their hands, can be overwhelming.

Defensive end Michael Strahan remembers that from 2000, when the Giants lost the Super Bowl to the Baltimore Ravens, 34-7.

“The game itself to me was a blur,” Strahan said. “I don’t even remember playing in the game -- haven’t watched the tape since we played. You kind of wake up the next morning and you are thinking, ‘Man, we played in the Super Bowl?’ I remember picking up the paper in front of the hotel room door and it said, ‘Ravens Win.’ I’m like, ‘We played?’

“So it let me know that when you get here, you slow down, you enjoy it, and you take everything in. At the same time, you are here for business. You are here to win. . . . You lose, what is there to remember? You make it this entire way and no one remembers the second-place person, and we were that second-place team.”

The Patriots have even more at stake. If they win, they will become the first team in NFL history to win 19 games in a season, and they will join the 1972 Miami Dolphins as the only “perfect” teams in the modern era.

“Being 18-0, I’m incredibly proud of what we have accomplished thus far,” said Brady, who won his first most-valuable-player award this season. “We have talked as a team that for the rest of our lives we’ll all remember this week, win or lose. We are all going to do our best to hopefully make that one of the weeks we all remember for all of the great reasons, and not a week we’d like to forget.”

The Patriots are looking to become the third team in history to win four Super Bowl titles in the same decade, matching the accomplishment of the Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970s and San Francisco 49ers of the ‘80s.

To do so, New England will have to beat a team that nearly derailed its quest for perfection in a regular-season finale. Even though the game meant nothing in terms of playoff seeding for the Giants, New York played with passion and built a 12-point lead over the visiting Patriots in Week 17 before losing, 38-35.

So stirring was that effort from both teams, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell called it one of the high points of the season.

Asked if there’s one word to describe the Giants, receiver Plaxico Burress said: “Perseverance.”

Then, he explained: “We started out 0-2. Everybody was ready to chop the head off the coach,” and critics said “the defense was horrible and quarterback wasn’t doing his job.”

But as the Giants began to stockpile victories -- including their current streak of 10 in a row on the road -- the ranks of believers grew.

“We are a confident bunch,” Burress said. “Why not be? We were a 10-6 regular-season team and now we’re in the Super Bowl. We got here the hard way. We had three road [postseason] games. We played against the No. 1 defense in Tampa. We played against the Dallas Cowboys, who had the whole offense and defense make the Pro Bowl. Then we played the Green Bay Packers. Look at us.”

Maybe that’s why Burress took the bold step of predicting a 23-17 victory by the Giants today.

But you won’t hear that from Eli Manning. Unlike another famous quarterback from a New York team, he isn’t making any predictions.

“Joe Namath was a great, confident man,” he said of the quarterback who made good on his brash guarantee that his New York Jets would beat the favored Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III. “That was then, this is now. I am not going to guarantee anything.”

sam.farmer@latimes.com

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YOUR VIEW: L.A. TIMES

The Times selected the top 32 Super Bowl winners, seeded them into a tournament and asked readers online to cast their vote. Results from the final (540 votes cast):

1989 San Francisco 49ers: 64.4%

d. 1984 San Francisco 49ers: 35.6%

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Boston vs. New York

How Boston and New York compare, and who has the advantage in the comparisons, according to The Times sports staff:

*--* Red Sox X Yankees Fenway Park X Yankee Stadium Celtics X Knicks Harvard X Columbia Boston Common -- X Central Park Mitt X Rudy Cheers -- X Seinfeld Beantown -- X Big Apple Johnny Damon X Johnny Damon New England Clam Chowder -- X Manhattan Clam Chowder Cape Cod X -- The Hamptons Charles River X -- Hudson River *--*