You'll get more on this guy in tomorrow's dinosaur editions, but for now, here are a few extras from the story of Giants linebacker Mark Herzlich, who overcame Ewing sarcoma bone cancer to reach the NFL and, now, the Super Bowl:

* On how he took on cancer: "I think if you attack it like an opponent instead of like a disease, you have a better shot at it. Because medically there's nothing the patient can do besides trust your doctor and hope and pray. When you deal with it as an opponent, you say, 'All right, how have beaten other opponents in the past?' Well, I work hard I stay focused and I create goals."

* On the pain of the disease: "The physical pain was intense. The pain that I would get in my leg and in my lower back felt like knives being stabbed into my legs. It was just completely random. It didn't happen when I was running, necessarily. It didn't happen when I was just sitting down, necessarily. It would be on and off. I think that was one of the hardest parts about it."

* On the challenge of rehabbing a leg that was never supposed to be rehabbed: "I lifted and I did cardio while I was doing chemo just to keep my activity level up a bit, but in the recovery from the surgery my leg was stiff and sore and painful, and the radiation took all the muscles and kind of fused them to the bone with the scar tissue. So I had to do months and months of real tissue work to rip the muscles off the bone."

* On the contrast between then and now: "I say they're pretty much opposite ends of the spectrum. Going from that day in the doctor's office where all you wanted to do was just make it through the next couple weeks to being here saying this is gonna be the best week of my life ... They're opposites."

* First Matt Light got sick. Then it was Sebastien Vollmer. Suddenly, in the middle of Super Bowl week, the script from "Contagion" has broken out in the New England Patriots camp.

"Definitely," said offensive lineman Logan Mankins, when asked if he was trying to stay away from Light and Vollmer. "I stay away from those guys as much as possible anyway. It's made it even easier."

And then: "I'm just joking."

* Today's There He Goes Again Moment belongs, of course, to Tom Brady, whom the New York media tried to claim was guaranteeing victory when he told the crowd at the sendoff fan rally at Gillette Stadium that he hoped they could all come back next week and have a bigger party. He obviously hasn't learned his lesson, because on Wednesday, there he was again, talking victory.

"This is everything that you ask for as an athlete and as competitors," Brady said. "I said yesterday when you're not playing in this game it sucks to turn on the TV these days. Every channel you turn on is talking about this game and the players in this game. As a competitor you want to be here, you need to be here. This is why we've worked so hard over the years – high school, college, pros – to prepare for games like this.

"It's been a great season for us, and hopefully we can make it extra special with a win on Sunday."

A win on Sunday. You heard it here first.

* And finally .... lots has been made this week about the kinder, gentler Bill Belichick, a Belichick who jokes with the media and even breaks out a smile now and again, a Belichick who seems not nearly so uptight as the left-right-left drill sergeant of years past.

But even the new Belichick has his limits.

Late in the Patriots' hour at Media Day, a correspondent from VH1 -- dressed as either Red Grange or one of the Four Horsemen, complete with leather helmet -- asked if Belichick would mind putting something on, in the spirit of the day.

Then he produced a red tricorn hat.

"Nah, I'll pass on that," Belichick rumbled.