How I Pocket My Giant Super Bowl Win

Donkey Boiler 2nd Ave & 87th Street with ny

In 1964 when I was 10 years old, I needed no Farmers Almanac to tell me the season or what temperature to expect. My year revolved around sports. Baseball pitchers and catchers were due to report to spring training around February 20th. I knew the baseball season would start around April 6th, the same time the NHL hockey season would be winding down and my best hope for the Rangers were they’d finish 5thahead of the Boston Bruins and once again miss the hockey playoffs that was always over in April, same with the NBA playoffs missing the last place Knickerbockers. Football camp opened in July, the season opened around Sept 20th two weeks into the school year and the NFL Championship game fell during the Holidays.

Not anymore. They finish baseball in November, hockey and basketball playoffs can be watched at the beach on summer break and football ends in February. This must freak kids out. It was important to me to know the seasonal connection to sports schedules and how every year I could count on each sport happening exactly when I expected it to. But TV money changed professional sports forever, major college sports, too. I’ve lost my interest in following big time sports, but still have one candle lit.

Here I am beginning the 4th quarter of my life and looking for one thing, one single thing I can invest all my emotional eggs in. The New York Giants are that basket. Every year I go to the coop, visit all my chickens collect their eggs and put them into my Giant basket. Win or lose, they are my kids and I love them unconditionally. I still love football with all my heart. What do I get back? A rollercoaster ride where the ups are exceptionally high because of the deep disappointment in between.



I waited 21 years for the Giants to win a Super Bowl in 1987 and since than they’ve won 3 more. Having won 4 championships they are in an elite group of NFL teams with more than 3 each. A few teams have never won one. The tangible values of my team winning the Super Bowl are vast. For the following year, girls are prettier, food & music taste and sound better, people that piss me off don’t piss me off as much, getting a bill in the mail doesn’t make me scrunch.

Best of all, if you are a Giant fan, for the next year if you see someone wearing a Cowboy hat or shirt you give them a look and a quick finger point with a giggle that crushes their spirit and reminds them that they have a bad haircut and absolutely no reason to live rooting for Dallas. Feel free giving this reaction to anyone wearing Eagle stuff.

Sometime in July, I’ll be at the beach and a good song with come on the radio and my feet will be the sand and I’ll remember the Giants won the Super Bowl and that day no matter how good it is, that day will get better.

Our next City Stories: Stoops to Nuts storytelling show at Cornelia Street Café is Valentine’s Day, Tuesday, February 14th @ 6 pm.

I promise a great show with these artists: Steve Northeast, Jana Peri, Thomas Pryor, Daniela Schiller, Katherine Wessling & Nick Zaharakos.

Admission is $7 and that includes one free drink.

Ali Loves Eli ~ Go Giants!

I have no words, so I asked yogurt eating Alison in her Giant cap to say a few, “ Last night the Giants won their fifth consecutive Seventh Game of the World Series, Jets, Dallas, Atlanta, Packers & 49ers. Eli Manning stood in against a terrific defense and made the third downs, threw it away when he needed to, and shoveled a few to backs to avoid a couple of sacks. I have to finish my yogurt but later I’ll have more to say on the matter.”

21 years later, Alison continues to wear the Giant snow hat I found on the football field at Yankee Stadium in 1968 after the last game of the year when they let the fans run free in a steady snowfall.  Tommy McNamara and I had the time of our lives that day.  

In 1987, I had a few drinks with Carl White from Channel 5 after the Giants beat the Broncos at a hotel bar in California. I met Carl again at the 1987 draft in New York and he interviewed me when the Giants drafted Mark Ingram. Dad taped the interview on the VCR.

Back to Alison for a final word, “On Manning, let me leave you with this:  He threw a bullet 17 yard TD to Manningham on a third and fifteen, against a relentless 49er’s D. Terry Bradshaw and Joe Buck you can eat Eli’s socks.”

Lladro Figurines Hop for the New York Giants

Yesterday's Giants victory over the Patriots takes its place as one of the greatest regular season wins ever. Eli’s 5th fourth quarter comeback this year, lifts him up to the special room reserved for Giant Quarterbacks who’ve proven their mettle: Benny Friedman, Charlie Conerly, Y.A.Tittle & Phil Simms.

New York Giant football is a Yorkville family tradition going back to the late 1930s. As a boy my father’s favorite football player was the Green Bay Packers receiver, Don Hutson, because the best football team on the eastside was the Yorkville Packers and Dad was a receiver who aimed to play for them. When the Giants begin to form their core championship team in the mid 1950s and moved to Yankee Stadium from the Polo Grounds, Dad went from being a fan to a card carrying nyg football nut.



My grandmother spent her last 8 years in Jewish Home on the Westside. During that period I watched countless New York Giant games in her room, Frank 510. I was targeted by the nursing home staff as a fall Sunday afternoon problem. I once got so worked up during a Cowboy game I jumped over my grandmother’s bed with her in it. As I passed over, her arm went up and nearly took me down by my trailing leg.

Yesterday's Giant game brought back this New York Giant regular season memory.

November 1986, 12th game of the year, Broncos versus the Giants. Dad and I were watching the game in his Mom's railroad flat on York Avenue. It was a tight game and late in the contest with the Giants down and the Broncos driving George Martin intercepted a John Elway swing pass and ran it back 80 yards to the end zone where he was tackled by Lawrence Taylor. The play unfolded slowly giving Dad & I a couple of opportunities to step up our excitement.

When the ball was tipped by Martin we leapt to our feet, when we knew Martin had it and was running the right way we started jumping up and down, when we saw he scored we continued jumping up and down on the linoleum hugging each other. Unfortunately, my grandmother’s floor was not entirely flat and declined towards one wall. As we celebrated Nan's two prized Lladro porcelain figurines started hopping from left to right across the top of the TV set.




Dad & I were making like Ruth & Gehrig, screaming, hugging each other, jumping and these things are near the edge of the TV ready to go off. I think the cat & dog’s mouths were open watching this.

Just before one of the expensive knick-knacks went airborne, I heard “Holy Shit!” And saw my grandmother’s big hands come through the doorway. She swooped both figurines up into the skirt of her housedress. She looked at us and said, “Son of bitches,” and returned to the kitchen until the game was over.
Giants won 19-16.

Pryor Offers Burress A Ride to Giant Camp

Over the last year and a half, Plaxico and I have had several conversations about life and coming back to the ball when the quarterback under throws it.

It came to light, Plaxico is nuts about Dart Swingers, and come June, on the day he's released from prison, I'm picking him up in the Dart you see here and driving him directly to the New York Giants Football Club. Eli Manning firmly supports this arrangement.

"Nobody adjusts to the ball like Plaxico."

photo taken by Andrew Gardner

Burress to Leave Prison in June

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The former Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress will be released from prison in June, after officials agreed Friday to shave about three months off his sentence in a gun case. A committee of prison-system staff members decided Burress, 33, was eligible for time off for good behavior, so he can be freed after serving about 21 months of his two-year sentence, a system spokeswoman, Linda Foglia, said.

With Burress’s release date now set for June 6, his agent and his lawyer said he was looking to return to football. He went to jail as a result of an incident in 2008 when he shot himself in a nightclub.

“He’s counting the hours,” the lawyer, Peter M. Frankel, said. “He’s extremely positive.”

N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell has ruled that Burress will be reinstated and eligible to sign with a team once his sentence is complete.

While the league and players are locked in negotiations that have cast a shadow of uncertainty over next season, Frankel and Burress’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus, said several teams had expressed interest in signing him.

Giants General Manager Jerry Reese has said the team will keep its options open with Burress.

Eli, Handoffs ~ Lots of Handoffs

Dear Eli, please hand the ball off 60 times today. Throw as a last resort. Do not, I repeat, do not play catch with the Eagle cornerbacks.

It's a playoff game, no doubt. Been up since 6 am. First thought, seven hours to kickoff.

That's Rory and me in the Yankee Stadium bleachers in 1967 watching a New York Giant game. Rory & I were in the Go-Go Giants Fan Club, I wore my card out carrying it everywhere in my pocket year round. I still have Rory's, see.

I miss football at the old Yankee Stadium, that was heaven for me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYVj-7Wfdeo&feature=related

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No Sacks, No Turnovers, No Romo

Dateline: Sept. 20, 2009
Let's Call It Nothing At All Stadium, Texas
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No Sacks, no turnovers, no Romo!
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Despite the Cowboys dirty pool move with the hurried timeout call as Tynes kicked, the Giants lined up and did it again.
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Giants 33 ~ Cowboys 31

Best half birthday present ever.

How bout those Boys?
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