THE GIANTS FILE
Home field: MetLife Stadium
Coach: Brian Daboll
Offensive star: RB Saquon Barkley
Defensive star: SS Xavier McKinney
2021 Season: Failed to make playoffs
Super Bowls: 1986, 1990, 2007, 2010
Greatest Player: LB Lawrence Taylor
Factoid: Nickname Big Blue
By Lenn Robbins
There is a fraternity of NFL franchises that are held in higher regard than others for an assortment of reasons, but the one criterion for membership in this club, above all else, is winning.
There are some secondary factors as well – stability, professionalism, ties to the community, superstar players. Most NFL fans can rattle off those elite franchises:
49ers, Cowboys, Chiefs, Packers, Patriots, Ravens, and Steelers. And the New York Giants.
Which is why the franchise’s parched riverbed drought has been such an affront to fans, many of whom have had their season tickets passed down from generation to generation.
Big Blue has become a big joke. Over the last five seasons the Giants record of 22-59 is the worst in football.
They’re on their fifth coach since 2016 and their third G.M. since 2017. They’ve used round draft picks on players such TE Evan Engram, who turned out to be an enigma, CB Deandre Baker who turned out to be an embarrassment, and QB Daniel Jones who, we will learn this season, if he’s a bust.
Except for quarterback Eli Manning, there has been a dearth of star players. Certainly, no Lawrence Taylor has walked through the door. The last Super Bowl victory was 2011. They have appeared in one playoff game since.
It’s enough to make a Giants fan, perhaps in a drunken stupor, consider switching allegiance to the almost equally inept Jets. The two franchises call MetLife Stadium home.
The Giants break in a new coach, Brian Daboll, and a new GM, Joe Schoen, this season. Those two combined to give the Giants their best draft in years – potentially.
This is certain: The Giants have lost the fanbase. Team co-owner, John Mara, whose family has steered this franchise since its inception in 1925, has taken the first step – acknowledging that broken trust.
“Well, I haven’t given them any reason to believe that,” he said. “It’s up to [co-owner] Steve [Tisch] and I to make the right choices going forward and earn back their trust. That is not going to be an overnight process.”