Can you have a rivalry if one side never wins?

Rivalries are always fun to talk about. From June 29-July 10 our friends at SB Nation are conducting what is loosely being called ‘Rivalry Week.’ I say ‘loosely’ because, yes, that time period is longer than a week.

Anyway, that’s not the important part. Here at Big Blue View we will posting a few things about New York Giants rivalries past and present during the course of ‘Rivalry Week.’

The first thing I thought about was ‘which team is the Giants’ biggest rival?’ Which, of course, led me to thinking about the NFC East. Which led me to a problem.

It is easy, and obvious, to think of the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles (sorry, Washington Redskins fans!) as the Giants’ biggest rivals. Yet, there is a problem.

Can there truly be a rivalry when one side never — or almost never — wins?

Truth is that for years now the NFC East has really been two divisions. With rare exceptions in recent seasons the Cowboys and the Eagles have fought for supremacy while the downtrodden Giants and Redskins have competed mostly to see which team would be the least embarrassing.

Cowboys fans and their long ago tiresome ‘America’s Team’ entitlement are sometimes hard to handle. Yes, Giants fans can throw the fact that the Giants have won two Super Bowl titles and appeared in the game three times since the Cowboys last won a title in 1995.

The Cowboys, though, have won the last six meetings with the Giants. Dallas also has three NFC East titles to one Giants’ wildcard appearance since 2012. So, it’s been a while since this has been a real rivalry.

It’s even worse when you look down the highway to Philadelphia. Eagles fans are intolerable, but the Giants don’t have much to argue about. The Giants are 1-11 against the Philadelphia Eagles since 2014, and the Eagles won their only Super Bowl title in 2017. Again, Eagles-Giants certainly hasn’t been much of a rivalry lately. I have sat through a number of late-season games at MetLife Stadium attended by far more Eagles than Giants fans. Until the Giants win some games against Philly, and Giants fans take back their own stadium (when anyone is actually allowed to sit in it to watch games), this is only a wannabe rivalry from the Giants side.

You want a sign of progress from the Joe Judge Giants? How about a victory over the Cowboys or Eagles in a game that means something? A victory that would at least show that the Giants, if they aren’t yet a major factor in the NFC East are at least climbing toward that perch?

From where I sit it would be nice for Giants-Cowboys and Giants-Eagles to really feel like rivalries again. Because that really hasn’t been the case for a while.