Hats, T-shirts and other gear bearing the team's logo flew off shelves and racks at sporting goods stores around the New York metropolitan area beginning early today, and the NFL estimated the total sales of official Super Bowl merchandise could surpass a record set more than a decade ago.

The buying frenzy began not long after Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress hauled in a 13-yard touchdown pass from Eli Manning with 35 seconds left to secure the 17-14 win.

At a Sports Authority in Clifton, a few miles west of Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, fans bought up 1,000 items immediately after the game, then snapped up about 1,500 more by mid-afternoon after the store reopened at 6 a.m., according to co-manager Angelo Rizzo.

In Princeton, Dick's Sporting Goods had closed at 7 p.m. Sunday, but reopened shortly after the game ended. Five customers were already at the door, according to store manager Dan Fisher. The store stayed open until 1 a.m., then reopened at 6 a.m. Monday.

Fisher said he had been at home watching the game and talking with store employees on the phone to figure out whether to put out the Super Bowl paraphernalia.

"Because it was going down to the wire, it was like, 'Do you set it up or not?"' Fisher said. "It was quite a surprise to see New England lose."

The game's seesaw nature — the lead changed hands three times in the final quarter — presented league officials with a similar dilemma.

Reebok, the NFL's official apparel and uniform provider, printed 300 hats and T-shirts for both teams as it normally does, according to league spokesman Brian McCarthy. With the outcome in question until the final seconds, the boxes containing the gear sat just off the field, waiting to be distributed after the final whistle, he said.

Meanwhile, in New York, New England and Phoenix, screen printers for the league's licensees were poised to start churning out products. It wasn't clear how many jumped the gun and started printing Patriots championship gear.

"We tell them not to begin preproduction, but it's at their own risk," McCarthy said. "We don't want to have a 'Dewey Beats Truman' situation," he added, referring to the Chicago Tribune's infamous headline trumpeting the wrong winner in the 1948 presidential race.

At least one New England retailer took a cautious route. City Sports Inc., a Wilmington, Mass.-based chain with seven of its 14 stores in the Boston area, stuck with its buying policy of only ordering a team's shirts and hats if that team ends up winning a big game.

"Going into the game, with a chance to be 19-0 on the line, it was a big letdown," said Michael Lewis, the chain's equipment and license buyer. "That's the kind of vibe we're getting today not only from our stores, but here in our corporate offices as well. We're fans, too."

The record for Super Bowl merchandise sales is $125 million set in 1997, the year Green Bay defeated the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI, according to McCarthy. Judging by sales at the game site and the size of the New York market, he said the league expected this year's haul to surpass that.

Each NFL team receives an equal share of the revenue from official Super Bowl merchandise sales, McCarthy said.

The rest of the world benefits as well, thanks to a partnership developed in 1994 between the NFL and World Vision, a global relief organization. By next week, World Vision will deliver the preprinted (and incorrect) Patriots Super Bowl champion gear to underprivileged children in Nicaragua.

Last year, the league donated Chicago Bears merchandise to children in Zambia after the Bears lost to the Indianapolis Colts, according to World Vision spokeswoman Anne Duffy.

"A lot of these people have never owned a new piece of clothing, so it's great to see how happy they are when they get these shirts," Duffy said.

Closer to home, Giants fans reveled in the opportunity to show their colors.

Fred Siegel, 68, a longtime Giants fan from Marlboro who works in New York, tried on T-shirts at the Modell's store in Herald Square, where store manager Niguel Gregory said customers were waiting when the store opened at 6 a.m.

"It's like something that I may never see again in my lifetime," Siegel said. "The Giants played great, the defense was fabulous, Manning finally came of age; you can't ask for anything else."

Even in southern New Jersey, where most fans support Philadelphia sports teams, Giants fans were coming out of the woodwork — and into the mall.

Betsy Atkinson, 49, from the Philadelphia suburb of Cinnaminson, bought a T-shirt proclaiming the Super Bowl champion Giants as a birthday gift for her husband.

"I was hoping they'd lose so the stuff would be half off," she joked.

In contrast, few shoppers appeared interested in buying half-off Patriots gear celebrating the team's AFC title at a City Sports store in downtown Boston.

Abraham Ho, a 19-year-old Suffolk University student from Quincy who was shopping for snowboarding gear, had been counting on a Patriots victory to justify his plans to buy replica jerseys honoring Adalius Thomas, Rodney Harrison and Wes Welker, to complement a Randy Moss jersey he already owns.

After the Patriots' loss, Ho couldn't get enthused to spend $100 on another jersey.

"I was real disappointed," said Ho, who wore a $35 Boston Red Sox cap honoring the team's World Series victory last fall. "But if I see a Patriots hat design that I like, I'll still probably get it."