2007 Holiday Bowl
The 2007 Pacific Life Holiday Bowl was a college football bowl game played December 27, 2007 in San Diego. It was part of the 2007 NCAA Division I FBS football season and one of 32 games in the 2007–2008 bowl season. It featured the Texas Longhorns against the Arizona State Sun Devils. Texas won 52–34 and set Holiday Bowl records for the earliest score and for most points scored in the first quarter. Texas also set a school record for most points scored in a bowl game. A bizarre play involving Chris Jessee, a member of the Longhorn football operations staff and the stepson of the Texas head coach, has been cited as one of the strangest plays of the season.
2007 New York Giants season
The 2007 New York Giants season was the 83rd season for the New York Giants in the National Football League. The Giants finished the regular season 10–6 and in second place in the NFC East, improving upon their 8–8 record in 2006 in which they finished third in their division. They qualified for the playoffs as a wild-card team as the #5 seed, and beat the #4 seed Tampa Bay Buccaneers (9–7), the top-seeded Dallas Cowboys (13–3), and the #2 seed Green Bay Packers (13–3) to become the National Football Conference representative in Super Bowl XLII. There, they defeated the heavily favored and previously undefeated 18–0 New England Patriots and spoiled their perfect season. The 2007 New York Giants became the 9th wild card team in NFL history to reach the Super Bowl and the 5th wild card team to win the Super Bowl, and the very first NFC wild card to accomplish the feat. They were the third team in history to win three road playoff games en route to a Super Bowl and set a league record for most consecutive road wins in a single season (11), though the Super Bowl is played on a neutral field rather than an opponent's stadium. It was the 7th league championship season for the New York Giants and their first since they won Super Bowl XXV in 1991. This season would also mark the end of defensive end Michael Strahan's NFL career as he retired following the Giants' Super Bowl victory. After playing 14 years for the Giants and appearing in 2 Super Bowls with them (the other being Super Bowl XXXV), Strahan became a media personality, becoming a host of Fox NFL Sunday and co-hosted ABC's Live! with Kelly and Michael with Kelly Ripa from 2012 to 2016.