Eli Manning: ‘I told Bradshaw not to score’

Did the Giants literally back their way into a Super Bowl win? This may have been the first NFL title that was butt-dialed. But as weird as Ahmad Bradshaw’s trust fall exercise touchdown was on Sunday, it wasn’t all his doing: Eli Manning said that he told him not to score. Los Angeles Times:

“As I’m handing the ball off I saw that their defensive line was just standing up and not rushing and I start yelling not to score,” Manning said. “Maybe you can get down to the six-inch line, make them use their last time out and then try to score on third down, hopefully score a touchdown to give yourself a bigger lead -– a four-point lead. And take it from there.”

Manning added: “I just yelled, ‘Don’t score, don’t score.’ And obviously he heard me, he thought about it. I know it’s tough for a running back to see a big hole right there going in for a touchdown. I think something almost must have been in the top of his head like, ‘This is a little bit too good to be true.’ But I’m yelling and he obviously heard me and he thought about going down but he didn’t know what to do and he thought, ‘I’ve got a touchdown, I’ll take it.’ And I’m glad he did.”

At least we know now that this wasn’t one of Tom Coughlin’s half-baked schemes.

Coaches are 0-2 in Super Bowls with this tactic, by the way. If you’ll recall, Mike Holmgren ordered his team to let the Broncos score a touchdown with 1:42 remaining in Super Bowl XXXII, and the Packers ended up losing, 31-24.

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Super Bowl: Eli Manning says he told Ahmad Bradshaw not to score [Los Angeles Times]