Don't forget, the Giants ARE the champs

by Ed Valentine on Jan 7, 2009 6:00 AM EST in News Comment 16 comments

The Philadelphia Eagles are on the cover of Sports Illustrated this week. Everywhere you turn you read that the Eagles are the hot team, they are dangerous, they might be the Giants of last season.

Yep, the Eagles bandwagon is growing. Swelling so quickly in fact that I'm not sure there are any seats left. From all the racket about the Eagles you'd think maybe the Giants should just lay down their crown right now.

Well, Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post has written a tremendous piece summarizing the frenzy, and why it might just be foolish.

Here is some of what Vaccaro wrote.

You know how this is going to go this week, right? The days will pass slowly - agonizingly, tantalizingly, excruciatingly slowly - and the more the time passes, the more people will allow themselves to be talked into backing the Eagles. ...

But here is what everyone should really remember:

The Eagles may be a wonderful story, they and the Chargers have no doubt brought a smile to Pete Rozelle's face in a smoking room somewhere in the Hereafter for ratifying his wish that all teams at all times should have an opportunity to dream big dreams. But the Eagles are also a team that tied the Bengals this year. The Eagles are a team that scored three points against the playing-out-the-string Redskins in an everything game just 16 days ago.

And the Giants are a team, the only team, with history in its gaze.

In the entire history of the NFL, which goes back 89 years, all the way to 1920, there have been 13 franchises that have won consecutive championships. Thirteen. The Canton Bulldogs did it first, the Patriots most recently. The Packers have done it three times, the Bears and Steelers twice apiece. Repeating is the holy grail in the NFL, because just winning once is a chore of almost epic proportions.

Winning twice?

Winning twice puts you in a permanent position of royalty. As storied as the Giants of the '30s and '40s were, as gloried as the Giants of the '50s were, and as stubbornly defiant as the Giants of the '80s were, no Giants team has ever repeated. There are 32 teams in the NFL; 20 of them have never done it. Most never will. Most would give just about anything to win once.

There are eight teams left in the NFL's postseason. Seven will be chasing a trophy. Only the Giants will be chasing history....

The champ is usually an awfully tough out.

And these Giants, by everything we have seen over the past two years, will be just that. They will be an awfully tough out.

There is only one thing that makes me mad about what Vaccaro wrote. That is that I didn't write it myself.

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I'm tired of the badwagon

but does it really matter? The experts did a very poor job predicting last week, so take all that crap with a grain of salt. Plus this stuff usually motivates Pierce and he really needs it right now.

As for the comparisons of the Eagles to 2007 Giants … it seems to me that the Eagles are pretty banged up. I don’t remember the Giants being too banged up at this point last year. Does anyone else remember? Going into that Dallas game Plax had practiced for the 1st time all year. There was Shockey, but the Giants were better off without him.

by potroast on Jan 7, 2009 6:46 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Giants were missing a few players on the offensive side

like Shockey and Ward. However, the big hurting unit was the secondary if you will recall, as Madison and Ross were both hurt, and I think one of the Safeties was also banged up. They signed Pope off the practice squad (and he played), so that indicates how things were sort of scotch taped together back there.

by brisulph on Jan 7, 2009 7:22 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

That's right

Ross messed up his shoulder, but tried to play with it against Dallas & couldn’t stay in. All that paved the way for Webster though right?

I guess Ward wasn’t a big loss at the time either, since they didn’t have him for the whole run.

by potroast on Jan 7, 2009 7:38 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Bradshaw was running differently (ie better) though last year

So Ward was not missed quite as much.

by brisulph on Jan 7, 2009 11:31 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

good point

by potroast on Jan 7, 2009 11:49 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

We were also missing

Kiwanuka

by cjmulrain on Jan 7, 2009 11:46 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Damn

A rested Giants team is different than rested Dallas team. I have a seen a method and mental focus from this team, going back to first week of regular season. These last handfull of games has thrown distractions their way. Now, with a bi and distractions in the rearview mirror, i expect Eagles are in for a spanking.

by johnd134 on Jan 7, 2009 7:00 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Sportscaster bandwagon

I can’t remember the last time those bantering morons at FOX picked the Giants. I pray to God every week that CBS will take the NFC (and drop Shannon Sharpe).
Meanwhile, one of my good friends (and a COWGIRLS fan) just got a new wall-mounted flatscreen with surround sound — and when you drop the center channel volume to -10 and maximize the outside sound channels, you get all crowd noise and almost ZERO commentary… now THIS is how to watch football. I’m almost tempted to watch NYG this Sunday at his house but that would be tempting fate… I’m really a crazed dog on Sundays and I can’t put up with any anti-Giants BS… I almost got into a fight with my wife’s cousin during week 17 because the ckskr cheered for the Giants missed FG. Sore loser…

You play to win the game!

by Simms-McConkey on Jan 7, 2009 7:32 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

That's great idea

I’m going to have to try that on my surround sound.

by potroast on Jan 7, 2009 7:40 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Personally, I love the direspect.

Talk about motivation. We were underdogs throughout the playoffs last year. That didn’t hurt us one bit.

by blue gonz on Jan 7, 2009 7:46 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Like I've been saying

Eagles are the sexy pick, and we’ll just be the ugly girls with the Lombardi.

Giants fan from the womb to the tomb

by Jim Schmiedeberg on Jan 7, 2009 8:18 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

What a pile of meaningless crap

I’m glad I didn’t write it. Vaccaro would be more useful if he did some actual reporting. Tell me what the deal is with Jacobs, which might give me some idea of what’s actually likely to happen on Sunday rather than just the storyline being made up by some journalist.

By the way, if “the champ is usually an awfully tough out” then why is repeating so rare? Oh, right, because you just made that first part up because it suits the point you want to make.

Don’t forget, this is exactly the same kind of fluff that was written about the Pats last year. “[H]istory in [their] gaze” and all that junk.

by JoshNY on Jan 7, 2009 9:08 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Yikes, Josh

All Vaccaro is saying is that the bandwagon jumpers shouldn’t be so fast to dismiss the Giants, the team that already has a title in its pocket.

by Ed Valentine on Jan 7, 2009 10:07 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I think

That it is hard to repeat because it is hard to even make the playoffs.

When the defending champs make the playoffs they probably tend to be a tough out.

by Woogie526 on Jan 7, 2009 12:27 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Thank you, SI

from this grateful Giants fan.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/inside_game/alexander_wolff/news/2002/01/15/wolff_viewpoint/

by django48 on Jan 7, 2009 9:47 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Yeah

I’m always amazed how like a disease certain ideas catch on in the sports media. How the hell did the Eagles go from a team on the brink of disaster as the media was saying to the most dangerous team? They’re not supposed to be here? What the hell is that? You know who shouldn’t be here, the Cardinals for going 9-7 in a crap division, the Chargers for going 8-8 in a crap division when there are 11-5 teams missing the playoffs by virtue of the divisional system. The Eagles are in the playoffs, that’s how the system works. What theyve been saying is that the fact they “shouldn’t be in the playoffs” has calmed the team down. The team’s not one cohesive unit, they’re not all calm… no one is calm traveling to the Giants house and trying to beat a brutal, physical team defending their superbowl title out of their first playoff game. Anyway, like blue gonz said, I love the disrespect, I hope Coughlin has all these dumb articles posted around the locker room. I respect the Eagles and what they can do enough to realize we CAN lose on Sunday, but 9 times out of 10 this giants team should beat this eagles team.

by mahmoodzaky on Jan 7, 2009 11:07 AM EST reply actions 0 recs