NOTEBOOK \ Super Bowl XLII

Champagne party for ’72 Dolphins: New York Giants guard Chris Snee had a message for the 1972 Miami Dolphins, who remainED the NFL’s only undefeated team after the Giants shocked New England.

“Thanks for supporting us,” Snee said. “Your record stands for another year, I guess.”

By tradition, members of the ’72 Dolphins uncork champagne bottles every autumn when the NFL’s last remaining unbeaten goes down. This time, the party didn’t happen until Sunday night, when the Giants handed the New England Patriots their first loss — in their 19th game.

“Obviously, we’re proud to still be the only undefeated team in the history of the National Football League,” former Dolphins running back Jim Kiick said in a statement. “We’re proud of it. Why shouldn’t we be?”

The ’72 Dolphins cast a long shadow over this Super Bowl. Kiick, Garo Yepremian, Larry Little and Mercury Morris gathered Friday for a media briefing. And in many local bars it was easy to find an argument over who would go down as the greater team — the Dolphins or this year’s Patriots.

That debate is moot now. The Patriots’ inexorable march on the Dolphins died in the desert.

“We never were against the New England Patriots,” Kiick said. “We have our accomplishments.

“We’re not comparing ourselves to anyone else from other generations. We’re happy with our own accomplishments. The Patriots are a great football team. Unfortunately, they didn’t win this Super Bowl.”

Former Dolphins coach Don Shula watched from a suite, an unfamiliar vantage point for the Hall of Famer.

“What I learned today is how tough it is to go undefeated,” Shula said. “That’s why I’m even more proud of our ’72 team than I’ve ever been. It shows it’s a tremendous accomplishment. It hadn’t been done before we went undefeated and it hasn’t been done since.”

The man behind the upset: The blueprint was created by Jim Johnson, and executed to perfection by the defense of his protege, Steve Spagnuolo. To beat New England, Johnson figured earlier this season, you must harass, rush, hit and hurt Tom Brady.

The Giants did just that Sunday night, pulling off one of the biggest upsets in Super Bowl history with a suffocating defensive performance that punished Brady, the National Football League’s most valuable player, throughout the night.

It was as stunning a defeat for the Patriots as it was a victory for the Giants. And it happened because, when it most needed a stop in the final minute of the game, the physical, ferocious New York defense, coached by a man schooled in Philadelphia, did what it had done all night.

Their energy sapped by the humid conditions inside University of Phoenix Stadium but their adrenaline pumping thanks to a stirring go-ahead touchdown drive led by Eli Manning, the Giants made one final stand in the game’s last minute. With the Patriots inside their own 30-yard line facing second down with less than 30 seconds left, rookie Jay Alford did what Justin Tuck, Kawika Mitchell and Michael Strahan had earlier in the game.

Alford got to Brady. He barreled up the middle, through the Patriots’ offensive line, and slammed Brady into the turf for a crushing 10-yard loss. On the next play, Brady misfired on a deep pass for Randy Moss, who was covered. On fourth down, Brady again missed Moss, and after he did Spagnuolo pumped his arms into the air and removed his headset.

One season as a defensive coordinator, one Super Bowl victory for the 48-year-old Spagnuolo. “If it wasn’t for the defense,” Plaxico Burress said afterward, “we wouldn’t have even been in the game.”

Not a Brady booster: A bar named Brady’s in New York? Not on Super Bowl Sunday! The owner of an Upper East Side establishment called Brady’s changed his bar’s name to Manning’s, in honor of New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning. Dan Brady made the name change Thursday. He said he had gotten a call from city officials looking for ways the city could show support for the home team in its championship game against the New England Patriots and quarterback Tom Brady. Dan Brady, a longtime Giants season ticket holder, agreed to make the change, and now the signs on the outside walls of his bar read Manning’s. “It’s great, it’s been a blast for myself and my family,” he said Sunday. The bar was named after his father, the original owner.

Combined dispatches