ProFootballTalk.com is reporting that the Steelers are close to a extension with Ben Roethlisberger worth $36 million in guaranteed money.

The deal is a six-year extension of the two years remaining on Roethlisberger’s rookie deal. He is now under contract through 2015.

Roethlisberger threw a team-record 32 touchdown passes this season and led the Steelers to an AFC North division title and a third trip to the postseason in his fourth season as quarterback.

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Recently I had the chance to interview Ralph Vacchiano, Giants beat writer since 2001 for the Daily News.

Ralph maintains the Giants blog, ‘The Blue Screen.’

Jared Blank, giantsfootballblog.com: One word to describe the journey of the 2007 Giants?
Ralph Vacchiano: Unbelievable.

JB: How would you rate the city’s/tri-state’s reaction to the Giants compared with ‘86 and ‘90?
RV: I’m not really the best judge of that. I was 16 in ‘86 and I don’t recall the reaction. In ‘90 I was up in Syracuse at school, so I wasn’t around for it. I find it hard to believe the reaction to either of those two were bigger or better. The ‘86 championship was sort of expected. Even the ‘90 one wasn’t completely out of nowhere. This was. No one in their right mind thought in November that this was a Super Bowl team. Very few thought they’d ever beat the Patriots. The reaction was the rare mix of shock and euphoria that you get during those once-in-a-lifetime miracle runs or moments. And while I was in Phoenix for a few days afterwards, I’ve heard the stories of Giants fans pouring out into Times Square, of people honking their horns everywhere or just opening their windows and screaming. It must have been wild back here. Add in the ticker tape parade (which neither the ‘86 nor the ‘90 team got) and the 20,000 or so who then showed up at the stadium for that celebration … well, I find it hard to believe the reaction was anywhere near this during the Giants’ first two championship celebrations.

Read the rest of the interview after the jump.

Read more…

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Eli Manning has made large strides since his entry into the NFL in 2004. Once outshined by other alumni from the 2004 draft such as Ben Roethlisberger and Philip Rivers, he has come into his own, and now finds himself leading the Giants to their first Super Bowl in eight years.

In an article in the Toledo Times, Dave Hackenberg looks at Manning and the 2004 draft class, and what they’ve accomplished since entering the league. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune focuses on Eli and how he’s stepped out of the shadow of his older brother.

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