FOXBORO - Last week, America was robbed of "Brady vs. Manning" ... or so we thought.

The New England Patriots and their reigning MVP quarterback, Tom Brady, will be facing a Manning after all, but this time it won't be his legendary counterpart in Indianapolis, Peyton Manning. It will be his kid brother, Eli Manning.

Three weeks after their historic regular season finale at Giants Stadium, in which the Patriots finished the regular season with a perfect 16-0 record, the Patriots and Giants will go at it again.

But this time, there is much, much more at stake - a Lombardi Trophy.

That's right, the Patriots and their nearest NFC neighbor to the south, the Giants, will play for all the marbles in Phoenix on Super Bowl Sunday.

There wasn't much drama in the opener as the Patriots defeated the San Diego Chargers, 21-12, to win the AFC championship, leading from the first quarter.

Nearly four hours later, the Giants defeated the Green Bay Packers, 23-20, in a wild NFC championship overtime finish that could have gone either way.

The storylines are many over the next two weeks:

Brady vs. the other Manning; Boston vs. New York; Bill Belichick vs. Tom Coughlin, who coached together when the Giants last won a Super Bowl in 1991 under the tutelage of Bill Parcells.

The Patriots have regrouped to continue a "dynasty" that started at the turn of this century, only to be waylaid after a pair of disappointing losses to the Broncos in January 2006 and the Colts in the AFC championship in January 2007.

The Giants have been giant disappointments since going to the Super Bowl after the 2000 season (they lost to the Baltimore Ravens, 34-7), with three losing seasons, three winning seasons and one at 8-8.

At one point this season, Coughlin's job was deemed "on the line" when the Giants struggled after a 6-2 start, including a disappointing loss in December to Washington, 22-10, on their home field in East Rutherford, N.J.

Coughlin, who coached at Boston College from 1991 to 1993, made a controversial decision to play his starters in the finale against the Patriots, eventually losing three starters to injury and the game, 38-35.

But that changed in January as the Giants, a wild card entry into the playoffs, beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (24-14), the No. 1 seeded Dallas Cowboys (21-17) and then last night, the Green Bay Packers.

While the Patriots and Giants franchises are not known as bitter rivals - that belongs to the Pats and Jets - they have been fighting for fans for more than four decades, or about the time the Boston Patriots were born in the old American Football League in 1960.

To this day, many fans from northern New England, including and especially Dennis Drinkwater of Giant Glass (based in North Andover), still root for the Giants over the new kids on the block from Foxboro.

Former Giants star tight end Mark Bavaro, a resident of Topsfield, played on Giants Super Bowl championship teams in 1986 and 1990. He still has a relationship with Belichick and has stopped by summer workouts in Foxboro.

In fact, a small chunk of New England, south of Hartford, Conn., is still considered "Giant Country."

So keep your seat belt close by and get ready for the hype. It might not be Sox-Yankees, but it might seem that way over the next 13 days.

You can e-mail Bill Burt at bburt@eagletribune.com.