Super Bowl XXXV the Indianapolis Colts, the Pittsburgh Steelers, and the Patriots would have a Super Bowl appearance more than once, with New England and Pittsburgh winning more than once. The only other AFC team to make the Super Bowl in that stretch were the Oakland Raiders, in Super Bowl XXXVII. Had the Giants won, it would have marked the first year since 1989 that a Super Bowl and World Series champion came from the same metropolitan area. The New York Yankees won the World Series during the Giants' season. Including the New Jersey Devils' win in the Stanley Cup Finals and the
Super Bowl XLII 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 third Super Bowl victory and first since they won Super Bowl XXV seventeen years earlier. This Super Bowl was also a rematch of the final game of the regular season, in which