OK. I have calmed down.
I promised myself I wouldn’t get angry or agitated. I told myself that this isn’t a great Giants team, so just accept that the playoffs may not happen and wait until next year because they’ll be better. I told myself that there’s no use getting aggravated with Big Blue, that it was OK to spend so much on free agents and on what has turned out to be so little return so far.
And then I got aggravated, agitated and angry. I go back with the Giants a long way, back to YA Tittle and Del Shofner, Sam Huff, Ron Johnson and John Mendenhall. I suffered through some of the worst football ever seen for over a decade. I still hate the Cowboys for rubbing the Giants’ faces in it for so many years. Anyone recall the Yale Bowl? I saw The Fumble. It still haunts me every time I see Herman Edwards on TV or think of Larry Csonka or Jersey Joe Pisarcik, (not that I make a habit of it. But how could you call a running play when…)
Yes, I was in my glory in the Phil Simms – Joe Morris – LT era and reveled with the greatest linebacking corps probably ever. And for much of the Eli era. But this season is different.
So I promised I wouldn’t get upset and suddenly my aggravation and agitation and anger is back. Not from losing. OK, to be fair, not largely from losing. It comes from watching a lack of effort, lack of stamina especially at game’s end, and poor, utterly predictable play calling.
Yes, I know they are banged up. This is football. Every team is banged up. All the time. But the Giants seem to make a habit of never having the depth to compensate for those injuries, regardless of year, regardless of opponents, regardless of schedule. And that’s a management issue.
So what is a Giants fan to do? Sports loyalties rarely change, and while I openly admire successful franchises, especially those that overcome adversity to stay consistently at or near the top, I’m not about to abandon Big Blue. Not with a vault full memories of the hustlers and overachievers like Joe Morrison, Spider Lockhart, Gary Reasons, Phil McConkey, Zeke Mowatt, Amani Toomer, Jason Sehorn, etc. No, I’m sure I will root just as strongly, just as vociferously. Agitation and aggravation are small prices to pay for the continuum of memories that is football. After all, it could be worse. The Giants could be the Browns. Or the Chargers. Or…