Robert Gallery is known for opening up holes, but the space he cleared for the Giants yesterday – when he was selected second overall by the Raiders in the NFL Draft – was big enough to drive Eli Manning and his whole family through in a truck . . . all the way to the Meadowlands.

By selecting Gallery, the 6-71/2, 323-pound offensive tackle from Iowa, the Raiders snapped up the player most likely to be taken by the Giants. If he were still available at No. 4, Gallery surely would have been drafted by the Giants, as weak as any team in the league on the offensive line.

“It didn’t really make a difference to me,” Gallery said of the possibility of being drafted by the Giants. “I had no idea what was going to happen. Lucky for me, I ended up where I wanted to.”

Since Gallery had already been selected, the Giants chose quarterback QB Philip Rivers of North Carolina State at No. 4 and traded his rights to the Chargers for the rights to Manning, the first pick of the draft who had refused to play for the Chargers if they took him.

After Gallery was taken at No. 2, Arizona selected wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald of Pittsburgh at No. 3, and the wheels were set in motion.

A week ago, Gallery was seen wearing a Raiders hat, possibly foreshadowing his being picked by Oakland yesterday. So the giant man was asked if he knew anything about that beforehand.

“No,” Gallery said, “I didn’t, because I had a Giants T-shirt on.”

And yesterday, because Gallery finally and officially donned an Oakland hat, it made it possible for Manning to get a Giants shirt of his own.