I'm Ready for Some Football

Nobody gave the Giants much of a chance this year. They lost their most dynamic playmaker in Tiki Barber, who basically said he would rather play a football player on TV (by going to the broadcast booth on NBC) than actually play the game of football. Tiki looked like he had plenty of years left, but he apparently hated the coach so much, he couldn't stand it.

Strike two against the Giants was their offensive line. It was a pretty solid group, but they didn't re-sign Luke Pettigout, their left tackle, believing he cost too much and was too injury prone. The left tackle is considered the premiere position on the offensive line, and while it's not bad to lose your left tackle, the Giants were going to depend on a largely untested late round draft choice David "The Real" Diehl to man the position.

Strike three against the Giants was their offseason. Instead of rushing out to get a bunch of free agents to fill roster spots, the new GM Jerry Reese, decided that he liked the talent on the team, and they were going to work with that. They cut LaVar Arrington, again because of injury concerns, and decided to convert one of their defensive lineman to the linebacker position to fill in. At cornerback, they drafted Aaron Ross, a rookie, but didn't do much else.

Strike four (ok, so I am losing my analogy here) was the pre-season, where the Giants were distracted by the contract talks with Michael Strahan. Strahan wanted a new contract, the Giants didn't want to pay him more after he missed lots of time in the two previous seasons. Strahan held out, but eventually came back. Still, it was a big distraction on a team already in need of some focus.

As the season started, the Giants lost their first two games (Dallas and Greenbay) and were down in the second half of the third game against Washington. Then something clicked and the Giants started playing well. Things looked shaky towards the end, but they were able to secure a playoff spot before the final week of the season, a game against the Patriots, that they didn't need to win.

Going into the Patriots game, the team faced a difficult choice. The Patriots were going for a perfect season, and the Giants, who had plenty of injury concerns, could rest their starters a little bit for the upcoming playoff game against Tampa Bay. Instead the Giants said they would play the game just like every other game.

Since that Patriot game, something about the team has changed. They hung tough with the Patriots, but eventually lost the game. They also lost three starters, but I think coach Tom Coughlin made the right decision. By going into that game and saying that his team wasn't going to back down no matter what any other people were saying has given this team confidence. They weren't supposed to have a chance against the Patriots, but the game was very close. They came into Tampa, who were well-rested, down three starters, but they closed the game out. The Cowboys were the best team in the NFC, had already beaten the Giants twice, but Giants won again, despite more injuries to their defense.

There are a lot of nice sports stories out there, but I am really going to enjoy the story of the NY Giants from this year. They are the underdog, playing with a chip on their shoulder, and have nothing to lose. That is they type of team nobody wants to play in the playoffs. Hopefully, we'll see them in the Super Bowl.