Super Bowl XLII featured the National Football Conference (NFC) champion New York Giants and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots in an American football game to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for the 2007 season. In one of the most significant upsets in Super Bowl history, the Giants (14–6) won 17–14, preventing the Patriots (18–1) from becoming the first undefeated team since the 1972 Miami Dolphins went 17–0. In doing so, the Giants became the first NFC wild card team to win a Super Bowl. They also became the fifth wild card seed from either conference, and the fourth in eleven years, to earn an NFL championship. The victory marked the franchise's seventh NFL championship and third Super Bowl win—New York's first title since Super Bowl XXV in January 1991. The Giants head coach was Tom Coughlin. The Patriots were coached by Bill Belichick. The tagline for Super Bowl XLII was "Who Wants It More?"

The game, held on February 3, 2008 at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, was a rematch of the final game of the regular season. In that contest, the Patriots won 38–35 to complete the first perfect regular season since the aforementioned 1972 Miami Dolphins team, and the first one since the league expanded to a 16-game regular season schedule in 1978. Thus, New England entered Super Bowl XLII as 12-point favorites.

The first three quarters of Super Bowl XLII were largely a defensive battle, as both teams combined for only 10 points, with the Patriots leading 7–3 entering into the final quarter. New York finally scored their first touchdown with 11:05 left in the game to take a 10–7 lead. New England eventually responded with a touchdown of their own to take a 14–10 lead with 2:42 left. Then came the defining play of the game: faced with third down and five yards to go from their own 44-yard line with 1:15 remaining, Giants quarterback Eli Manning avoided what looked like a sack and completed a 32-yard pass to wide receiver David Tyree, who made a leaping catch by pinning the ball on his helmet which put them at New England's 24-yard-line. Four plays later, New York wide receiver Plaxico Burress caught the winning touchdown with 0:35 left. Manning, who threw both of his touchdown passes in the fourth quarter, was named the Most Valuable Player.

The telecast was the most-watched Super Bowl of all time, with an average of 97.5 million viewers in the United States and 148.3 million total viewers watching some part of the game. The broadcast achieved the highest Nielsen ratings (43.3) for the game since Super Bowl XXXIV. It was also the second most-watched TV program of all time in the United States.