Antrel Rolle’s Super Bowl XLII Memories (From Brazil)

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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Antrel Rolle is not one of the 15 players on the Giants’ roster who played in the Super Bowl XLII victory over New England four years ago, but that does not mean Rolle – the Giants’ loquacious safety – does not have a good story from the game.

Asked Tuesday about his memories of that Super Bowl, Rolle launched into a tale about how he was traveling in South America at the time.

“I watched it in Brazil,” he said. “There was only one place where I was that was showing the game. I was standing on top of like two bar stools, and probably a midget was under me, who knows. I don’t know. It was extremely crowded. Everyone was stacked on top of each other. It was a small place in Brazil no bigger than a rest room, and there were a million people in there. It was the only place showing it and I had to watch the game.”

Rolle’s only firsthand experience with the Super Bowl came when he was with the Arizona Cardinals, who lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLIII. That game featured Santonio Holmes making a game-winning touchdown catch for the Steelers though Rolle said that if Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger had thrown to his side of the field on that play he believes he would have intercepted the pass.

“That play is a crazy play,” Rolle said. “I was actually on the opposite side, and the guy that Ben Roethlisberger was targeting first was actually the guy I was covering. I kind of bumped him, and he fell down. Ben Roethlisberger went to cut back, and he was going there and I was like, ‘This is a pick, and I’m taking this to the house,’ because there was no one in front of me. He just turns the other way and chucks the ball. You can’t be mad at that play. You have to take that one. You have to live with that one.”

Rolle spoke for about 15 minutes Tuesday and was his typically entertaining self, furthering the notion that he will be a highlight of the Giants’ session at next Tuesday’s media day in Indianapolis. Among other notable quips, Rolle said, “I don’t know man – I’m not looking at his body!” when asked about Eli Manning having any bruises from the San Francisco victory, and he smiled when asked about Ann Mara, wife of the former Giants’ owner Wellington Mara, who had scolded the Fox analyst Terry Bradshaw last Sunday for picking against the Giants in the N.F.C. championship game.

“When I say ‘all hands on deck,’ I don’t just mean the men in the locker room,” Rolle said. “We’re all one here, we’re all one in this organization.”


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(fifthdown.blogs.nytimes.com)
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