Victor Cruz will never forget the moment.
President Obama did not break out the “Silk City Salsa” on the South Lawn outside the White House, although he did mention Cruz’s iconic touchdown dance during the ceremony Friday afternoon honoring the Giants’ Super Bowl XLVI championship.
Yet as the president made his entrance with coach Tom Coughlin at his side, the longtime Chicago Bears fan scoured the crowd of assembled Giants players, coaches and officials before he found Cruz and pointed to him, greeting the Paterson native with a smile.
That, to a record-setting wide receiver from North Jersey, was another sign — the most memorable yet — of just how far he and this team had come.
So was the sight of numerous blue No. 80 jerseys spotted in an audience of luminaries.
“This whole day makes me think about that, how much I’ve grown not only as an athlete but as a person,” said Cruz, who sported a maroon tie as a tribute to the school colors of Paterson Catholic and Massachusetts, his high school and college. “To be here and to shake hands with the president, to be here with a [Super Bowl] ring on at the White House, it ranks up there in my moments, the best I’ve ever had.
“These are moments in my life that I get to cherish and take with me forever.”
Cruz and the Giants approached their well-earned visit to the White House and their time in the presence of the president with the same mind-set that produced success last season.
Following Coughlin’s lead, once again providing plenty of meaning to the two phrases that defined their Super Bowl quest, the Giants went all-in and ultimately finished with a grand finale to a remarkable season to remember.
The president praised two-time Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning for proving he was an elite quarterback and joked sports writers should never doubt him again. He spoke of Justin Tuck’s resiliency and Big Blue’s ability to get after opposing quarterbacks, gave Cruz a shout-out for his emergence as a star and lauded Mario Manningham for getting both of his feet down in-bounds on the big game’s biggest catch.
“The Giants took a whole bunch of hits this season, but they never went down,” the president said. “From Day One they followed a simple motto: Finish. Finish the play. Finish the game. Finish the season.”
Coughlin later referenced the president’s hope to finish in November and win re-election.
“I hope this is not a twice in a lifetime experience,” the coach said. “We both have a goal to get back here next year.”
The president applauded Coughlin when, in talking about the Giants’ teamwork, the coach joked: “Wouldn’t it be nice if Congress operated the same way?”
In his second trip to the White House, Manning is getting familiar with the place and its history. He arrived two hours earlier than his teammates and met with Vice President Biden; the two filmed a public service announcement against domestic violence.
Manning also got a more complete tour, including a stop in the Oval Office.
“I’m starting to figure it out a little bit. I kinda know, ‘Take a right, take a left,’ ” Manning said. “It’s just special to be here … Just to hear all the stories about paintings, and desks, and chairs. You hear all the president’s chairs are a little elevated in all the meeting rooms, little things like that you’d never know unless you were here and someone told you.”
As for having the quarterback’s chair elevated in the Giants’ meeting room, Manning joked: “I’m going to start doing that. It’s a good idea.”
Manning even let the Giants snap a photo of him behind the lectern inside the James S. Brady press briefing room – the one the president speaks behind so often.
The quarterback insisted it was not taken to foreshadow his future in politics.
“I sent [the photo] to my buddies and said, ‘A glimpse of the future. FYI,’ ” Manning said with a laugh. “But I was joking. That would be scary, a nightmare.”
On the heels of a dream season, the Giants turned the page with a promise to return to the White House as champions as quickly as they can.
“I definitely want to be able to come back to this place and have us talk about another Super Bowl that we won,” Cruz said. “Hopefully that can happen more sooner than later.”
The players talk about the experience
David Diehl got to shoot the breeze with someone from his hometown on Friday. They talked about their neighborhoods, the breakfast spot where they’ve enjoyed many meals and their favorite baseball team.
What made the conversation so cool for Diehl was that it was with the President of the United States.
Diehl, the Giants’ 10-year offensive lineman, and Barack Obama are both from the South Side of Chicago. After Obama honored the Super Bowl XLVI champions in a White House ceremony, Diehl had an opportunity to speak to Obama as the president shook hands and chatted with the team’s players and coaches.
“I grew up a little more than a mile away from where he grew up – he grew up in Hyde Park, I grew up in Gage Park,” Diehl said. “It was great to be able to talk and meet him. We went to the same breakfast spot, Valois – they have an Obama special there - that I’ve been going to since I was a kid. It was cool to meet him and talk and meet someone else who’s successful from where you grew up who’s now the president. We also share the same love for the Chicago White Sox. All in all, it’s a great experience but even more so, it’s great to meet someone who has the same roots as you.”
Not every Giant had a story as personal as Diehl’s, but every one of them were thrilled to meet Obama and enjoyed the visit to the White House.
This, of course, was the Giants’ second stop at the president’s residence in five years. They were here on April, 30, 2008, soon after their victory over New England in Super Bowl XLII. George W. Bush was then president.
The Giants defeated the Patriots again on Feb. 3 to earn another opportunity to tour the White House and meet the president.
“It’s an honor to be here at the White House,” said quarterback, captain and Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning, who spent several hours in the place because he filmed a public service message about preventing domestic violence with Vice President Joe Biden. “You get to meet a new president, which is always a tremendous honor, to meet President Obama and get to speak with him for a brief second – to shake his hand and offer him a jersey with his name and No. 44 on the back is a special memory and something we’ll always remember.”
“It was pretty awesome, just the experience of having the honor and privilege of meeting the president and to come to the historic White House,” defensive tackle Chris Canty said. “You see it on television and dream about it, but you never realize you’re going to have an opportunity to do it. To realize that dream today was the culmination of a year’s worth of hard work. It’s a fitting end.”
Before the ceremony, the Giants toured the White House and met with wounded warriors in the State Dining Room.
“It was nice seeing all the pictures of former presidents, seeing the different portraits and the families,” said linebacker Michael Boley, who visited the mansion for the first time. “It was a memorable experience. Not many people can say they’ve been there and taken the tour of the White House.”
Diehl was with the Giants when they visited the White House after the Giants won their last Super Bowl.
“You have the same excitement – but it’s pretty crazy. You remember the pictures and remember what was in each room,” Diehl said. “That doesn’t happen too often when you’re talking about the White House.”
Four years ago, coach Tom Coughlin stood behind the podium with the team’s owners, general manager Jerry Reese and players as Bush arrived and strode to the podium. On Friday, Coughlin met privately with Obama before walking out with him to begin the ceremony. The two men were smiling like old friends sharing an inside joke. Who knows, maybe Coughlin has eaten at Valois.
“I didn’t know what to expect,” Coughlin said. “In President Bush’s administration, we kind of stood in one of the gardens and he came hurdling out of the office and he went down and shook hands with all of the owners. And on this one they said, ‘You’re coming with me and we’re going to meet the president.’ That’s pretty cool. Of course, he’s a sports fan and he goes right to it. It didn’t take me long to throw a Victor Cruz comment in there, because that’s his guy. It was a lot of fun. We just talked to him for a couple of minutes and walked in with him. He’s a very charismatic man. I did venture this to him. I said, ‘Mr. President, we take great comfort as coaches when we get a routine – don’t’ change the routine.’ I said, ‘You don’t even have one. You have no routine. You don’t know what’s coming next.' I give him great credit.”
Coughlin and Diehl weren’t the only Giants who chatted with Obama. Boley had a question ready when Obama came over to shake his hand.
“My fiancé is from Chicago,” Boley said. “She made me ask what his favorite pizza place in Chicago is. She loves Italian Fiesta pizza. It’s really good. He said it’s one of his favorites.”
Obama is clearly proud of his Chicago roots. After the Giants presented him with a No. 44 jersey (he is the 44th president) defensive captain Justin Tuck told Obama he look good in blue.
“He was like, ‘You’re right, but I’d rather have that Chicago Bears (jersey) on me,’” Tuck said. “He’s being true to it and he’s not being a politician when it comes to that. That’s something you have to have a lot of respect for him.”
Diehl was asked what Obama thinks of the White Sox, who are in first place in the American League Central.
“We were talking that under a new manager, Robin Ventura, we’re actually impressed with the way the players have reacted and responded,” Diehl said. “When you have a manager that’s a former player it adds instant validity. We’re hoping for another run like in 2005 (when the White Sox won the World Series).”
Even the players who got little more than a handshake and a smile got a memory to last a lifetime.
“It’s exciting,” guard Chris Snee said. “The guys were all excited this morning. Just to say you were in the White House and shook hands with the president is something you’ll be able to tell your kids and grandkids.”
“It was a great day,” defensive end Osi Umenyiora said. “It was an honor to meet the president. It was an awesome environment and I was happy to be around all my teammates. It was cool. You see the White House on T.V. all the time. I never had the opportunity to go (he skipped the 2008 trip) and it was an awesome experience.”
Canty perhaps best summarized the feelings of an organization that savored a very special day and would love to return again.
“Just to be able to shake the president’s hand and share a few words with him is awesome,” Canty said. “It’s a once in a lifetime experience – hopefully, it’s not a once in a lifetime experience.”
sources 1 2 3 and various twitpic/instagrams of the players