Few sports rivalries are as deeply connected as that between the Giants and the New England Patriots.
For nearly 40 years, these two teams have clashed in unforgettable Super Bowl showdowns, shared legendary coaches, and recently pursued the same promising young quarterback to lead their franchises.
In their head-to-head encounters, including playoff games, the teams are evenly matched with a 7-7 record. The Giants claimed victory in their latest confrontation in 2023.
This week, the Giants (2-10) and the Patriots (10-2) will reignite their rivalry in Foxborough, Mass., under the bright lights of “Monday Night Football.”
As we approach this highly anticipated game, let’s take a moment to reflect on the storied past of the Giants-Patriots rivalry.
BILL AND BILL
Bill Belichick, long before becoming synonymous with the Patriots’ dynasty, gained notoriety as a defensive mastermind with the Giants under the leadership of Bill Parcells.
Belichick was part of the Giants’ defensive coaching staff from 1979-90, including being their defensive coordinator from 1985-90.
Parcells was there for almost all of those years, including as the Giants’ head coach from 1983-90.
Together, Parcells and Belichick helped lead the Giants to victories in Super Bowl XXI after the 1986 season and Super Bowl XXV after the 1990 season.
Lawrence Taylor, Carl Banks and Harry Carson were among the all-time greats to thrive under the pair.
Notably, Tom Coughlin was the Giants’ wide receivers coach from 1988-90 and was therefore also part of the staff that won Super Bowl XXV.
Parcells briefly retired after his second Super Bowl win, only to return as the Patriots’ head coach in 1993.
Belichick also left the Giants after the 1990 season, serving as the Cleveland Browns’ head coach from 1991-95 in what was largely an unsuccessful tenure.
He reunited with Parcells in New England for the 1996 season as the Pats’ assistant head coach and defensive backs coach. The duo helped bring the Patriots to Super Bowl XXXI, where they lost to the Green Bay Packers.
And while Parcells and Belichick both left after the 1996 season to join the Jets, Belichick’s one-year stint as a Patriots assistant helped him land their head coaching job in 2000.
“When Parcells left after the Super Bowl, we decided to clean house, and I met with Bill [Belichick],” Patriots owner Robert Kraft told Sports Illustrated in 2017. “Now, we had just started this era of the salary cap a couple years earlier, and to understand the salary cap was to understand value.”
Kraft continued, “The one thing he said to me when he left was, ‘You should sign [wide receiver] Troy Brown. Great value there.’ I remembered that. Here was a guy on the other side of the ball, and Bill knew how important he was. And he turned out to be right.”
SUPER BOWL XLII
By 2007, the Patriots had long been the class of the NFL.
They won three Super Bowls under Belichick and Tom Brady from 2001-04, but the 2007 team was different.
After a busy offseason headlined by the acquisition of superstar receiver Randy Moss, the Patriots quickly established themselves as a superteam with a chance to deliver the NFL’s second undefeated season — and the first since the league switched to a 16-game schedule.
Brady became the first quarterback to throw 50 touchdown passes in a season. Moss set an NFL record, too, with 23 touchdown receptions.
The Pats were 15-0 when they visited the Giants for the regular-season finale. The Giants, then coached by Coughlin, were locked into the NFC’s fifth seed, but they played their starters anyway.
While the Patriots emerged with a hard-fought 38-35 victory, capping their perfect regular session, the slugfest proved to be the jumping off point in Giants’ run to the Super Bowl.
Super Bowl XLII marked a rematch of that game, but this time, the Giants’ swarming defense held New England’s historic offense in check. A pass rush led by Michael Strahan, Osi Umenyiora and Justin Tuck sacked Brady five times.
Still, the Patriots took a 14-10 lead with 2:42 left in the fourth quarter on a Moss touchdown.
That set the stage for Eli Manning to lead the Giants on an epic game-winning drive, highlighted by David Tyree’s famed helmet catch and Plaxico Burress’ game-winning touchdown reception.
The underdog Giants won, 17-14, and Manning was named Super Bowl MVP, while New England finished 18-1.
“Now that I reflect and look back, it would’ve been a great accomplishment because of how hard it is to do something like that,” Moss told the Daily News in 2018. “I still wish that we could’ve done it.”
SUPER BOWL XLVI
The Patriots got their chance for revenge when they met the Giants in Super Bowl XLVI after the 2011 season, but that game played out eerily similarly.
The Giants pass rush proved disruptive from the start. On the Patriots’ very first offensive snap, Brady was flagged for intentional grounding in the end zone — resulting in a safety — after Tuck provided pressure.
But once again, the Patriots led late in the fourth quarter. They were up 17-15 when receiver Wes Welker committed a costly drop with 4:00 remaining, ultimately forcing the Patriots to punt.
That, again, set the stage for a Manning game-winning drive.
After Belichick urged his defense to not let Hakeem Nicks or Victor Cruz beat them, Manning opened the possession with a perfect 38-yard completion to Mario Manningham, who tapped his toes along the sideline before going out of bounds.
That was the first of three completions to Manningham on that nine-play, 88-yard drive, which ended with Ahmad Bradshaw falling into the end zone for the game-winning score.
The Giants won, 21-17, and Manning was named Super Bowl MVP again.
COACHING CAROUSEL
The Giants haven’t approached that level of contention since that Super Bowl victory, though the Patriots ties continued in years that followed.
As the Giants searched for a new head coach after the 2019 season, Belichick gave them a strong recommendation for Joe Judge, then the Patriots’ special teams coordinator & wide receivers coach.
The Giants hired Judge, but he went just 10-23 in the role and was fired before the end of his second season.
Brian Daboll also came from the Belichick coaching tree, having worked for the Patriots in a variety of roles from 2000-06 and again from 2013-16.
After the Giants fired Daboll this month, Belichick — now the head football coach at the University of North Carolina — released a statement saying he would not pursue an NFL return.
FOR DRAKE’S SAKE
The last time the Giants and Patriots faced each other, the Tommy DeVito-led Giants eked out a 10-7 win at MetLife Stadium in Week 12 of 2023.
That proved to be consequential, as the Pats finished 4-13 and with the No. 3 pick in the 2024 draft, while the Giants finished 6-11 and with the No. 6 pick.
The Giants wanted to draft quarterback Drake Maye out of UNC, and they offered the Patriots a haul that included the No. 6 pick and a 2025 first-rounder in order to move up three spots.
But the Patriots decided to stay at No. 3 and take Maye themselves, and that decision keeps looking better and better.
After an up-and-down rookie season, Maye is the driving force behind the Patriots’ resurgence this year. With a 71% completion percentage, 3,130 passing yards and 23 total touchdowns, Maye is squarely in the MVP mix.
The Giants, meanwhile, now have a promising young quarterback of their own in rookie Jaxson Dart. They would certainly welcome a trajectory like Maye’s — progress in year one, winning in year two.
Monday’s game marks the Giants’ first time facing Maye, who did not play in the teams’ preseason meeting in August.
Dart started that game before giving way to DeVito, who impressed so much with three touchdown passes that the Patriots claimed him in August after he failed to make the Giants’ roster.
That’s right — even Tommy Cutlets holds a place in the Giants and Patriots’ storied mutuality.
