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Giants Ticker Tape Parade Turns Downtown Blue

By DNAinfo Staff on February 7, 2012 9:37am  | Updated on February 7, 2012 4:21pm

A Giants fan Downtown Tuesday.
A Giants fan Downtown Tuesday.
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DNAinfo/Sonja Sharp

By Sonja Sharp, Trevor Kapp, Jill Colvin, Adam Nichols and Amy Zimmer

DNAinfo Reporters

DOWNTOWN — The Canyon of Heroes turned into a Big Blue party on Tuesday morning as beaming fans celebrated the Giants' stunning Super Bowl victory over the New England Patriots.

The crowd roared as quarterback and Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning carried the gleaming Vince Lombardi Trophy on a float next to defensive end Justin Tuck, who was clutching the George Halas Trophy from their NFC Championship victory.

Fans chanted "Let's go Giants," "Eli Manning" and, yes, even some anti-Patriots slogans as they packed the streets of Lower Manhattan. Many of the Big Blue faithful staked out prime spots hours before the festivities kicked off at 11 a.m. 

Spectators tried to get a view of the winning team any way they could, hanging from traffic lights, climbing on fences and parents hoisting kids on their shoulders.  

James Carroll, a retired firefighter from Bayport, Long Island, wearing a Giants hat and jacket, brought his 8-year-old daughter, Mikela, and a ladder for her to stand on.

''This is something she'll remember for the rest of her life," Carroll, 40, said of his daughter, who was sporting a white Eli Manning Jersey. "She's a straight-A student. She can afford to miss a day of school.''

The procession up Broadway finished off with a ceremony at City Hall plaza where Mayor Michael Bloomberg presented the team with keys to the city under a clear blue sky amid big Giants banners.

Before giving out the award, he asked the crowd, "Is anyone here ready to dance some salsa?" referring to star wide receiver Victor Cruz's touchdown dance.

Cruz broke out his fancy footwork along with former Giant Michael Strahan, who helped present the  keys, but the mayor did not join in.

"All things are possible for those who believe," Giants coach Tom Coughlin said. "We always believed. We always knew we could get here."

Co-captain Manning said that Coughlin wanted the team to "make it tough and make it possible," joking that the Giants certainly made it tough by falling behind after an early 9-point lead in the game and then making a fourth-quarter comeback to win 21-17.

Coughlin's other message for the season, Manning said, was to "finish." The team had eight fourth quarter comebacks, including the Super Bowl, Manning noted.

Co-captain Tuck said it was fitting to bring the Lombardi Trophy back to New York since "Vince Lombardi started right here in New York City," he said of the gridiron legend, who was an assistant coach for the Giants before becoming the Green Bay Packers' coach.

Tuck asked his teammate, Andre Brown, to perform the "I got a ring" song, which the team performed on their flight home from the Super Bowl and became a YouTube sensation.

After the Giants did a rousing rendition in front of the City Hall crowd, Tuck added: "Guess what? I got two."

Big Blue's big win in Indianapolis last Sunday marks the team's fourth Super Bowl win and the second against the Pats. 

Tuck, Manning and Coughlin were with the team when the Giants stunned the world by beating a then-undefeated New England in Super Bowl XLII four years ago.

Winners of the Bloomberg administration's contest to watch the post-parade ceremony from City Hall plaza began arriving before 7 a.m. for a chance to see the team up close.

"I'm still in shock and awe," said Flor Ruiz, 25, from Brooklyn, decked out in Giants gear from head to toe.

She's a die-hard Big Blue fan, who told her boss four weeks ago not to expect her to show when the Giants rode up the Canyon of Heroes to celebrate their win.

"I'm the happiest person in the world today!" her sister, Danielle Ruiz, 18, said.

Rapper and reality television star, Flavor Flav, was among those in the crowd.

"It feels so awesome," said Flav, who was in the stands in Indianapolis for the big game. "It feels like I just won the Super Bowl."

Yamiliza Soto, 27, and her 5-year-old son, Ayden Dickey, wearing a Victor Cruz jersey, got a spot on Broadway before sunrise.

"He's been up since 5 a.m.," Soto said. "All he's been saying is that he wants to see Victor Cruz. He was doing the Victor Cruz dance all over the house."

"I went to work at 9 last night, worked through the night and came straight here at 5 a.m.," said Emily Vail, 31, of Montclair, N.J. "There's a lot of excitement, a lot of energy."

Her mom, Bobby Vail, 61, got up at 4 a.m. "When things are tough in this world," she said, "you have one thing you can escape to, and that's our Giants."

Following the parade, Lower Manhattan was covered in strips of white paper and newsprint, which blanketed City Hall Park like snow. Toilet paper, which fans had thrown back and forth across Broadway, remained tangled in trees and news satellite trucks.

Several hours after it ended, Sanitation Department teams were still at work clearing the surrounding streets with leaf blowers and brooms.