​As we noted last night, singer Whitney Houston died yesterday at the age of 48. She was found dead of unknown causes in her hotel room at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Beverly Hills police Lt. Mark Rosen told the Associated Press that "there were no obvious signs of any criminal intent." The death of the woman with the unbelievable voice also rattled our area. Last night, the Apollo in Harlem saw mourning and memorials. The New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, where Houston sang as a child, remembered Houston in a small early morning memorial service. Jennifer Hudson and Chaka Khan will perform in Houston's honor at tonight's Grammy ceremony. [AP, CBS, Star-Ledger, NBC NY]

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​Football, our coaches always told us, is a game of inches. Yesterday, that fact was demonstrated with startling clarity by two plays, both of which will be remembered and argued about for years.

The first, of course, was the play that won the game, or at least was key in the game-winning drive. From his own 12, with a shade under 3:50 to play, Eli Manning made a spot-on pass to Mario Manningham at the 50-yard line for a 38-yard gain. (Admire it.)

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​We heard many of you screaming about the Giants on the streets and in bars last night -- but only 500 of you lucky fans will get to celebrate tomorrow afternoon at City Hall. For the rest of you, though, there's a parade!

Late last night, the mayor's office announced plans for football festivities, which include a ticker-tape parade starting at Battery Place and Washington Street at 11 a.m. tomorrow. It will continue up the Canyon of Heroes (or, y'know, Broadway, as most of us like to call it), and end at Worth Street. At 1 p.m. at City Hall Plaza, the mayor -- who loves the Giants -- will present the team with "Keys to the City."

The city is conducting a public giveaway right now -- and is using the win as a chance to boost its social media presence! Follow them on Twitter, guys!

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​This blogger doesn't like football. If she's going to watch a sport it's going to be baseball and she's going to root for the Yankees. Therefore, this Super Bowl Sunday, this blogger is not going to tell you which players to watch. In fact, the only ones she really feels qualified to even mention are Eli Manning and Gisele Bündchen's husband. (Just kidding, she totally knows that his name is Tom Brady.) That said, she is going to care about the Super Bowl outcome, and New Yorkers, you should too.

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​Bronx residents rallied last night to protest the death of Ramarley Graham, an unarmed 18-year-old that was shot and killed by a police officer Thursday in the bathroom of his own apartment. According to the New York Times, the officer that killed Graham has been "stripped of his gun and badge." NBC New York reports that the officer and his sergeant, also relieved of his gun, have been put on desk duty. In response to the shooting, community leaders are scheduled to meet with NYPD today. [NY1, NYT, NBC New York, WABC]

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​If you're looking for a reason to believe as the Giants prepare to face the Patriots on Sunday -- that is, besides Madonna's preference for Eli Manning over Tom Brady -- don't look back to the 17-14 Super Bowl victory over New England four years ago.

The Giants started the year not knowing how they would replace a swarm of excellent receivers and wound up with better ones than they had last year. In fact, in Victor Cruz and Hakeem Nicks, the Giants may have the two greatest deep threats ever to play alongside each other in team history. Cruz caught 82 balls for an 18.7 average; Nicks wasn't bad either, with 76 and 15.7. The Patriots, meanwhile, became pretty much the first team in NFL history to succeed with what is basically a tight end-oriented offense: Rob Gronkowski made 90 catches this year for a 14.7 average and Aaron Hernandez had 79 at 11.5.

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​It goes without saying that New York baseball fans are classier than those of New England -- we see evidence of that every time the Yankees and Red Sox play, whether in New York or Boston. As the Super Bowl approaches, it should be just as obvious that New York football fans are classier than their northern counterparts.

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​A 28-year-old Michigan man named Yonjo Quiroa has been arrested and charged with criminal copyright infringement for running nine websites that streamed, among other things, licensed content from the NFL. Quiroa is the lastest in a string of highly public copyright-related arrests, following the extradition of Megaupload founder Kim Schmitz and six of his coworkers from New Zealand earlier this month.

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​Joe Paterno has now been gone a week, and it would be nice if we could simply honor his memory without reservation.  I can't. And frankly, it troubles me that so many want to bury Paterno's faults along with the man.
 
Maybe it isn't the time to talk about such things so close to his death, but when exactly will the right time be?  Anyway, there's the story by Sports Illustrated's Tim Layden in the current issue. Paterno, he writes, "sought to transform the phrase student-athlete from an increasingly belittled oxymoron to the essential truth of his program. Football success would only come hand-in-glove with academic excellence."

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​Why was there so little support for Jorge Posada as a Hall of Fame player in this week's sports press? The most common phrase was "borderline HOFer," which, as I recall, I've even used in this space over the years. But let's say it: Posada is a Hall of Famer, though perhaps he won't make it on the first ballot. But he'll make it.

Because he deserves it. Georgie was the second best catcher in baseball for most of his career, only behind Pudge Rodriguez -- if you factor in overall value, probably behind both Pudge and Mike Piazza for several years. But what's wrong with being the third best player at your position, especially when your position is the hardest to play and the hardest to find a good player for?

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