Illinois grad Diehl, Giants feed on doubters

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By Craig DeVrieze | Saturday, January 26, 2008 |

The role of major Super Bowl underdog more than works for a New York Giants team that has won an NFL record 10 straight games in hostile environs.

That’s according to David Diehl, the former University of Illinois offensive lineman who has started every game of his five-year Giants career, including all 18 at the anchor left tackle position this Super Bowl season.

“It is hard to explain,” the Chicago native said of the Giants’ road success, which includes the last seven of the regular season after a season-opening loss at Dallas, plus playoffs wins at Tampa Bay, Dallas and, then Sunday, in the frigid cold at Green Bay to claim the NFC championship. “When you play on the road, in an opposing stadium, the whole crowd is booing you, and our team just feeds off that energy. As a football team, there is nothing better than silencing a whole stadium.”

Unless, perhaps, it is silencing an entire nation of doubters.

For the same reasons they have taken so willingly to the road, Diehl said the Giants welcome the role of heavy underdog as they prepare to try and stop the New England Patriots’ bid for a perfect 19-0 season on Super Sunday in Glendale, Ariz.

“Go ahead, let them,” Diehl, 27, declared of bettors who have made his 13-6 Giants 12-point underdogs. “That is fine by us. We don’t care what people say, what the point spread is. We go play, lay it all on the field and everything takes care of itself.”

Diehl’s chief assignment is taking care of Eli Manning and making sure the Patriots’ pass rushers are unable to rattle a young quarterback who has grown leaps and bounds in the postseason.

The 6-foot-5, 319-pound Diehl took over the job of protecting Manning’s backside with two games remaining last season and ably has handled the job ever since.

A fifth-round pick in the 2003 draft, Diehl credited his years playing multiple positions in Ron Turner’s pro-style Illinois offense with helping him start all 80 of his NFL games, playing every position on the line save center in the process.

He earned his first start in his third preseason game and, from there, he said, he never has sweated his mid-round draft status and credited his success to a commitment to being accountable to his teammates.

“Rookie or fifth-round guy, I wasn’t going to let those guys down,” he said. “I was going to know my assignment and sell-out every game.”

Selling out, Diehl said, is what the Giants plan to do on Feb. 3 at University of Phoenix Stadium.

He is well aware of the hoopla that surrounds sports’ biggest spectacle and said the team has discussed how to deal with demands and distractions.

“Plain and simple, we are there to win the football game,’’ he said.

Craig DeVrieze can be contacted at (563) 333-2610 or cdevrieze@qctimes.com