Even if I didn't want to see it, I couldn't help it. Walk by the yellow boxes of that cute little tabloid newspaper in Boston, and you're immediately confronted by it.

"Sissy Giants should just shut up," screamed the Page One headline.

Of course, the folks at the Hub's tabloid are only responding to what's been spit out by their Gotham cousins since the Super Bowl matchup between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots became fact last Sunday. Of particular note were the New York headlines calling Patriots' quarterback Tom Brady a "girlie man" after photographers captured him wearing a protective boot on his injured right ankle while bringing a box of flowers into the apartment of his galpal, Gisele Bündchen.

"Girlie man?" With one of the world's most coveted supermodels on his arm? Really!

That is but one of the many reasons why I intend to ignore one of the most prevalent storylines of this Super Bowl - the premise that the New York-vs.-Boston rivalry has been renewed and stoked up another level because it's the Patriots and Giants in the Super Bowl. Let's dismiss, at least for the time being, the fact that neither team plays in the city that wants to claim ownership of it. The Patriots were booted out of Boston ignominiously in 1970, in part by an uncaring city government that had no idea what the value of a successful football franchise in the growing NFL would be to it in the future. If not for the generosity (or naïveté) of the town of Foxboro, there would be no "New England Patriots" today.

As for the Giants, they play in a sports complex that was carved out of the smelly swamps called the New Jersey Meadowlands, just north of the garden spot of the universe that is Newark. New York? That's that bunch of tall buildings on the other side of the river.

The days of the Giants playing in Yankee Stadium have been gone for nearly 40 years - and that's how it's going to stay for another 40. The Yankees are building their own new stadium in the Bronx, across the street from the old one, and the Giants' new stadium is going up right next to their old one, which may put to rest once and for all the question of whether Giants Stadium was actually Jimmy Hoffa's final resting place. In either case, neither the twain will meet, and the only thing "New York" about the Giants will continue to be that venerable "ny" logo on the side of their helmets.

As for the Patriots-Giants rivalry, all I can say is, "What rivalry?"

The two teams have played in regular-season games only eight times since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970. The Patriots have won five and the Giants three. The Giants are 2-1 in Super Bowls and the Patriots 3-2 in theirs. And, as noted in our last column, perhaps the most meaningful meeting of the two teams didn't even count - the 1971 opening night for Schaefer Stadium in Foxboro, a preseason game in which the Patriots' destiny was established once and for all.

It's very tough to stoke up a rivalry when the rivalry just doesn't exist. Yes, the Giants were "New England's team" in the era of black-and-white TV and tail fins, but getting bent out of shape over them now is roughly the same as being angry at Grandpa for leaving his false teeth on the kitchen table. You can't really be angry at Grandpa.

But that doesn't stop those who would crank up the Boston-vs.-New York storylines. They cite the intense rivalry between fans of the Red Sox and Yankees, and automatically assume that it must carry over to all things between the two cities.

Yet they forget that in the case of the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry, it's decidedly one-sided. Bostonians are clearly the wannabes here, angrily coveting the same sort of success enjoyed by the Yankees over many decades, while New Yorkers disdainfully look down upon Bostonians as the nouveau riche that can't put their two World's Championships of the past four years in perspective.

As for the other teams? The Celtics and Knicks had a rivalry back when the Knicks were relevant, about 30 years ago. Right now, it's just pity for the state of affairs in which the Knicks find themselves. And the Bruins and Rangers are both irrelevant, although the Bruins are a little less so these days.

I don't include Major League Soccer in this brief comparison because I don't really care about anything in that league. But again, it's not like those teams actually play in Boston or New York. No, if there really is a football rivalry between the Patriots and a New York team, it's with the similarly New Jerseyized Jets. The two teams have played 97 times and the series is tied right down the middle, 48 wins apiece and one tie. They've also stolen each other's best players and coaches a few times, and there's this little thing called "Spygate" to consider. The Giants and Patriots haven't produced a "-gate" controversy to call their own.

It's even worse when one or both of the teams attempt to get involved in the nonsense. That seems to be the case with Giants' defensive end Osi Umenyiora, who has tried repeatedly to call Patriots' left tackle Matt Light a "dirty player" for some of the by-play that went on between them in the Dec. 29 regular-season finale.

Maybe Umenyiora hasn't noticed, but the Patriots are Team Teflon. A lot of people have tried to cast aspersions upon them for various reasons during this 18-0 season and before, and absolutely nothing sticks because of the cocoon that Bill Belichick builds around them.

You'd think that Umenyiora and all of the Giants would know better, anyway. Their coach is Tom Coughlin, a member in good standing of the Bill Parcells Coaching Tree, and as we all know, the Tuna invented the method of shutting out all outside distractions and refraining from motivating opponents with "bulletin-board material" that Belichick uses to the Patriots' advantage in every game.

One gets the feeling that Coughlin will call a halt to the foolishness once the Jersey Jints arrive in Phoenix on Monday.

But then again, this is the Super Bowl - and that means super-sized silliness on the part of headline writers and broadcast outlets that will seize upon anything to add to the hype as the big game nears. They'll do everything possible to stoke up the regional loyalties, and far be it from them to allow the facts to confuse a good storyline.

It's the Patriots against the Giants, yes - more than enough reason to be excited about the game next Sunday without having to build a contrived tower of babble under it. So, if you don't mind, I'll leave that topic behind for the rest of the week … and leave it to the tabloids to beat into the ground. They're much better at it, anyway.

MARK FARINELLA may be reached at 508-236-0315 or via e-mail at mfarinel@thesunchronicle.com