The Super Bowl Champion New York Giants Visit the White House

It's another personality-switch day with the front pages of the city's two tabloids. The Post chooses to highlight the New York Giants' White House visit, while the Daily News plays up the CCNY hostage incident from yesterday.

You'd think that the News would be all over the Super Bowl champs' meeting with the president, especially after their seemingly around-the-clock coverage of quarterback Eli Manning's wedding in Mexico. The News constantly touted the impending big game with its "5 DAYS TO GO" countdown. (You may remember that history-thwarting victory that got in the way of the New England Patriots' pesky perfect season.) Instead, they devote most of page 2 to the visit, providing two color photos—one of Eli Manning and President Bush and another of "dignitaries applaud[ing] Lt. Col. Greg Gadson, and injured Iraq vet who gave stirring speech to Giants before their upset victory."

The Post splashes coverage across two pages—one with stories and another with full-color pictures—and plays up the "in the shadow of the brother" angle. Both papers include Bush's quip that he can identify with Eli Manning because "Eli has a father and a brother in the same business he's in, and the press is sometimes skeptical." The Post goes a little further, implying that the younger Manning did not want to hear about big brother Peyton:

"Comparisons aside, Manning didn't relish the opportunity to chat about his QB brother Peyton, who led his Indianapolis Colts to the Super Bowl championship the previous season.

"Asked whether he got any brotherly advice for his trip to the White House, Eli said, 'I didn't really talk to him about it.'"

Receiver Amani Toomer, on the other hand, said what many cynical folks probably were thinking when asked if he was nervous about meeting the president in this photo op. "All I had to do was take a couple of steps and hand over the jersey. Hard to screw that up."

We're sure it has been screwed up before.