Manningham's Patience Is Rewarded in Critical Catch INDIANAPOLIS - Shortly after the Super Bowl ended, Marion Manningham went looking for her son. After a frantic search, she found him deep inside Lucas Oil Stadium, and before they could even get around to hugging, both burst into tears. She watched Sunday as her son Mario hauled in an improbable, game-changing reception, and she thought back to the beginning, to when she was a single mother in Ohio and she gave him the same name without the last letter and the speed she long showcased on the track. It was that speed that Manningham used late in the fourth quarter when he hauled in a 38-yard catch on the left sideline, his feet impossibly close to the boundary but just far enough inside. Mario Manningham had worn his ballerina shoes, she said, after he tiptoed into Super Bowl history with an indelible catch that brought back memories from four years ago. "My son," she said, biting her lip, searching for the right words. My son has been doing that his whole life. This has not been the easiest season for Mario Manningham, the third most celebrated receiver in a Giants" offense where the first two receivers garner much attention. Manningham is not a physical specimen like Hakeem Nicks, he of the big body and sure hands. Nor is Manningham the salsa dancer that Victor Cruz proved to be in his breakout season. There were times this season, Manningham said, when he was extremely frustrated. His mother told him: bite your tongue. Be patient. The ball will come to you. So it was in the fourth quarter when the Giants got the ball back with 3 minutes 46 seconds remaining in the game. They were trailing, 17-15. Nicks said the Giants recognized that the New England Patriots planned to cover Manningham with a single defender, allocating resources to stop the other Giants receivers instead. "Step up," Manningham said he told himself. Dig deep. Quarterback Eli Manning took the snap on first down from the shotgun. Manningham was not the first option on the play, but Manning seemed to know where he planned to throw the ball the entire time. Manningham said the Patriot who defended him gave him a cushion of 5 or 6 yards, that he started inside and worked outside, streaking up the left sideline. The ball arched high, went long and arrived over Manningham's shoulder, in the only place Manning could have thrown it with success. Manningham told himself to "freeze your feet," and he stomped them at the turf, conscious of the out-of-bounds line and his position relative to it. "That was clutch," Nicks said. We had to get the ball downfield. Someone had to make a play. Manningham had gone out of bounds at the 50, and suddenly, the field did not seem so long anymore. Manning went back to Manningham on the next play and the play after that. Nicks made a big catch of his own. Before the Giants knew it, there went Ahmad Bradshaw up the middle, toward the end zone. By the time he heard his teammates tell him not to score, in order to milk more time from the clock, it was already too late. He was in, and the Giants led, 21-17. Even Brady acknowledged it afterward. "It was a phenomenal throw and catch," he said. If it all felt familiar, well, it was, at least in part. Because the Giants and the Patriots played in the Super Bowl four years ago, and the Patriots led late in the fourth quarter, and a Giants receiver sparked the winning drive with a did-that-just-happen catch. Where David Tyree pinned the football to his helmet, where he used his head, Manningham used his feet. In both instances, the Giants were pointed the same direction on the field. In both instances, Manning made the throw. And in both instances, there were smaller, less celebrated plays that took place later in the drive. In 2008, it was the touchdown reception by Plaxico Burress that buried the Patriots. In 2012, Nicks's grab was nearly as important, as were his 10 receptions for 109 yards over the course of the game. Afterward, after Manningham found his mother, after he grabbed his championship hat and placed it atop his head, he strutted into the madness of post-game interviews, his skin flecked with the confetti that rained down on the field. His mother stood off to the side, near other family members, wearing her son's No. 82 jersey. She remembered the tough love she doled out in Warren, Ohio, when he was growing up, the way she made him finish his homework and come inside when the street lamps came on outdoors. She recalled one catch he made in high school, where the ball seemed 5, maybe 10 feet beyond him, and he somehow zoomed into place as if playing in fast forward. "But this is the Super Bowl," she said. This is the best. Manningham was still in college at Michigan the last time a Giants receiver secured a catch football fans will talk about for years. The cast is different, but the result was eerily similar. A large crowd gathered around his podium, reporters stacked behind each other, five, six, seven deep. He took no fewer than 20 questions about the catch. He answered all happily, his feet - and his catch - frozen in time, his mom behind him, same as always.