Thinking Out Loud Online
Posts tagged football
Start of the Defense
Sep 7th
The start of the football season had threatened to take me by surprise. Between the Carlos Delgado revival show, the trip to Pittsburgh for both matters of family and baseball, and just the general mayhem that is summer time, I was mildly surprised to note that last Thursday was going to be opening night.
It’s not that I had been ignoring my Giants. I had kept abreast of the latest news, whether it be the draft, Michael Strahan’s retirement, Osi’s season-ending injury, Strahan’s possible return…..oh…..and the trade of Jeremy Shockey. It’s just that my Mets had made this a much more interesting baseball season than I could’ve hoped for after the blase` first half.
Still, with the Mets having an off day ahead of the showdown with the hated Phillies (yes, they’ve reached that status), and having come off a great stretch of baseball, I was able to turn my attention to Opening Night.
These Forever Giants
Feb 11th
Jumbo, Burt, Martin, Bavaro, Banks….
The names are engraved on the minds of every Giants fan, whispered across the years of this Super Bowl era.
Morris, Anderson, Oates, Carthon, Manuel…..
There have been many others who have played for the team during these 42 seasons. Some served much longer tenures as Giants. Others were much more talented or even statistically dominant at their given position.
Marshall, McConkey, Pepper, Hoss, Meggett…..
Their names that would become synonymous with Giants pride. Mere mention of them brought a wistful smile to any Giants fan’s face, for they had brought home football’s ultimate prize, a Super Bowl Championship. A good number of them had brought home two, the first in a rout, the second in a glorious upset.
Landeta, Banks, Carson, Simms, Taylor……
The list is not complete, simply some of the most notable. There are others who share their glory who go unmentioned here; these gridiron warriors, these champions, these forever Giants. For seventeen years they have stood alone much as the last set of champions before them had, a team that predated the Super Bowl era.
They are alone no longer.
They might be…..nay, they are Giants!
Jan 20th
I’ve been faced with something of a conundrum over the past few years. Anyone who knows me knows how loyal I am to the teams with whom I place my rooting allegiance. It is my place in the fandom of New York Giants football that has been the source of that conundrum.
Seeing Red Over Big Blue
Nov 8th
The halfway point of the NFL season finds my Giants holding a 6 wins to 2 losses record. That fact is even more impressive given that they began the season dismally having lost their first two game while giving up over 80 points over the course of the losses. They’ve righted the ship, avoided the traps, and took care of business. There isn’t a useful cliche` for playing well that hasn’t been used to describe them. Going into Sunday’s NFC East showdown with the despised 7-1 Dallas Cowboys, one of the two teams to have already beaten them, I should be a very happy man. Instead, I’m seeing red……as in the color of the jerseys the Giants will be wearing while facing their divisional nemesis on Sunday.
Things From England or A Tale of Two Football Games
Oct 28th
Yesterday was one of those real bad sports days where I was concerned in terms of the results. As I’ve already chronicled, the Devils fell to the Senators. To add to it, my two favorite college football teams, Penn State and Rutgers, lost by large margins. Today, I’m happy to report, was a much better day.
The daily double started off with a team from London and ended with a team playing in London. Yes, London…..as in England…..where the royals are…..no, not the Kansas City Royals. Alright, I’ll get back to the sports.