The sleep-deprived smiles were everywhere at the Giants' team hotel.

Not even 12 hours after their historic 17-14 win over the unbeaten Patriots in Super Bowl XLII, the Giants were still numb over what had happened.

"It's what you dream about as a kid, to win the Super Bowl," guard Rich Seubert said. "This is the greatest feeling in the world."

And if there were any lingering doubts about whether it actually happened — surely, Giants fans were pinching themselves to make sure it wasn't a dream — the Giants awakened yesterday morning to the realization that yes, the Super Bowl was really theirs.

"What an unbelievable feeling, to know you've done something that no one thought you could do," tackle David Diehl said. "Nobody gave us a chance, but we stuck together, and we got it done. We're world champions."

The Giants completed a meteoric rise from mediocrity. They beat only one team with a winning record during the regular season, the 9-7 Redskins, and their 10 regular-season victories were against teams with a collective record that was 40 games under .500. They went 0-4 against the Cowboys, Packers and Patriots in the regular season, giving up 149 points. But they beat all three in the postseason, allowing only 51 points, and became only the second team to win a Super Bowl with six losses, matching the 1988 49ers.

The Giants were still a giddy bunch the day after pulling off one of the biggest upsets in Super Bowl history and ruining the Patriots' dreams of a 19-0 season.

"Can you believe it?" defensive lineman Justin Tuck asked rhetorically to a reporter. "Can you believe we did this? What a feeling. What an unbelievable feeling."

Tuck said it first sunk in when he was in the shower after the game at University of Phoenix Stadium. "I'm like, 'This really happened.' "

Tuck said he was so pumped up during the game that when he finally started to calm down at halftime, he vomited in the locker room and needed intravenous fluids to continue playing.

"I hated (the Patriots) when I played the game," he said. "I don't know why, but some of the things they were saying, it just made me play with hate. I was out of my mind."

With cooler heads prevailing yesterday, the Giants could let the moment soak in before they flew home to New Jersey yesterday afternoon. It is another day of celebration this morning with a ticker-tape parade in the streets of New York.

"This is what you play for," said wide receiver Plaxico Burress, who caught the winning touchdown with 35 seconds left. "To say you're the best that there is, baby. This is what it's all about."

Even the unflappable Eli Manning was in overdrive yesterday.

"I'm fired up and I'm going to enjoy this moment," said Manning, the Super Bowl Most Valuable Player.

Giants coach Tom Coughlin, in line for a contract extension in the coming weeks, spent the morning doing interviews at a media briefing in downtown Phoenix before returning to the team hotel to be with his team for the trip home.

RATINGS

SUPER BOWL XLII WAS BIG HIT WITH VIEWERS

The New York Giants' thrilling win over New England was the most-watched Super Bowl in history with 97.5 million viewers, a total that is second only to the "M*A*S*H" finale audience, Nielsen Media Research said yesterday.

The game eclipsed the previous Super Bowl record of 94.08 million, set when Dallas defeated Pittsburgh in 1996. The final "M*A*S*H" episode, which drew 106 million viewers in 1983, is the only other show in American broadcast history watched by more people.

Sunday's game had almost all the ingredients Fox could have hoped for: a tight contest with an exciting finish involving a team that was attempting to make history as the NFL's first unbeaten team since 1972.

But the Giants ended New England's bid for perfection, 17-14. Throughout the game, the teams were never separated by more than a touchdown.

Giants quarterback Eli Manning, who appeared on David Letterman's "Late Show" last night, also won bragging rights over his brother: Last year's win by Peyton Manning's Indianapolis Colts was seen by 93.2 million people, now the third most popular Super Bowl.

Fox, a division of News Corp., charged $2.7 million for 30 seconds of advertising time on the game.

An eye-popping 81 percent of all TV sets on in the Boston area Sunday were tuned in to the game. In New York, the audience share was 67 percent.

The audience peaked between 9:30 and 10 p.m. ET — the fourth quarter — with 105.7 million people watching, Nielsen said.