After a game he never will forget, Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo is having a day that will be just as memorable.
Spagnuolo started Tuesday going through New York's first championship parade in more than seven years, getting showered with confetti.
After the parade, Spagnuolo was whisked to an airport, where Redskins owner Daniel Snyder's private plane was waiting to pick him up. Spagnuolo is scheduled to interview with Snyder on Tuesday night and, after spending the night at the owner's home, again Wednesday morning.
Spagnuolo has support primarily because of his performance in the postseason, when the Giants defense held each of its opponents to fewer points per game than they averaged during the regular season. But there also is history.
No NFL team produces head coaches quite like the New York Giants.
The Green Bay Packers hired former Giants offensive coordinator Vince Lombardi in 1954. The Dallas Cowboys hired Giants defensive coordinator Tom Landry in 1960.
After Lombardi and Landry, there were others. Bill Parcells went from Giants defensive coordinator to their head coach in 1983. Bill Belichick went from Giants defensive coordinator to Cleveland Browns head coach in 1991.
Later, in 2002, Carolina hired Giants defensive coordinator John Fox as its head coach. And former Giants offensive coordinator Sean Payton was offensive coordinator in Dallas before moving on to become the New Orleans Saints head coach in 2006.
Then there is former Giants defensive assistant Romeo Crennel, who went on to become head coach of the Cleveland Browns, and former Giants offensive assistant Charlie Weis, now the head coach at Notre Dame.
Oh, and there's also a former offensive assistant from Parcells' Giants staff who joins his old boss as a Super Bowl-winning head coach: Tom Coughlin.
Meanwhile, New York also faces the prospect of trying to keep its other coordinator, offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride. After Sunday's Super Bowl win, Gilbride's contract expired. Had the Giants' season ended earlier, Gilbride very well might have gotten the head coaching job at Hawaii.
But Hawaii felt it couldn't wait for Gilbride to fill the position, and hired another head coach. Now the Giants must try to re-sign Gilbride, who had a superb postseason calling plays -- the best four-game stretch of his coaching career.
Deck the Hall
Whoever gets the Redskins job will have to prepare to be in training camp early, because Washington is expected to play in this summer's Hall of Fame game.
The Redskins would prefer not to play in it; they recently played in it and lost starting offensive tackle Jon Jansen to a season-ending injury. But when former Redskins Darrell Green and Art Monk were elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Washington had little choice but to begin making plans for Canton.
The Hall of Fame is expected to announce its game as early as Friday. But it would hardly be a surprise to see the Redskins in it.
The bonus baby
Not only was the postseason productive for Giants quarterback and Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning, but it also was lucrative.
Manning will collect a $500,000 bonus for beating the New England Patriots and winning Super Bowl XLII.
He already collected a half-million bonus for beating the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship Game, and quarter-million bonuses for beating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Dallas Cowboys in the playoffs.
All together, Manning will collect a cool $1.5 million worth of playoff bonuses -- and that doesn't include the money that each Giant made for his playoff victories.
For winning the Super Bowl, each Giant made $78,000; each Patriot made $40,000.
Manning hardly played for the money. But it's a nice perk for a man who is getting married next month in Mexico.
Gathering Moss
New England would like to re-sign Pro Bowl wide receiver Randy Moss. Unfortunately, it cannot do it until the start of the league's new calendar year, Friday, Feb. 29.
League rules stipulate that a team can restructure a player's contract only once in a calendar year. New England already re-worked Moss' contract when it traded for him in April.
Now, it can reach a contract agreement with him. But nothing can be signed until the new league year and the start of free agency on Friday the 29th.
The Patriots could opt to slap their franchise tag on Moss as well this month. But no deal will be signed.
Stat of the day
How improbable was the GiantsSuper Bowl win? Consider this:
Before this season, no NFC team since the NFL/AFL merger ever had defeated its conference's No. 1 seed in the playoffs and gone on to win the Super Bowl.
