It’s widely anticipated that the Giants will face defeat on Sunday. Everyone understands that a loss could position them to clinch the No. 1 pick in the draft, provided the Raiders overcome the Chiefs—a feasible scenario unless the Raiders decide to underperform again. However, given the Raiders’ unpredictability, distinguishing between a genuine effort and another flop is challenging.
Despite this, I am rooting for the Giants to triumph over the Cowboys. A victory would undoubtedly send the Draft Enthusiasts into a frenzy, not just among Giants supporters but also Jets fans who dream of Fernando Mendoza as their forthcoming quarterback hero, the long-awaited successor to Namath.
I wish for the Giants to experience a day reminiscent of their remarkable evening against the Eagles at MetLife Stadium, a moment when they reignited hope in a promising season, fueled by Jaxson Dart’s electrifying performance on that memorable Thursday night. I hope for a day that instills genuine belief in Giants fans that the next season holds brighter prospects, especially against the Cowboys.
There are several reasons to hope for such an outcome in the Giants vs. Cowboys matchup. Above all, I desire a high note to conclude the season for John Mara, who has endured a challenging year, compounded by his ongoing battle with cancer. No one—neither his father, mother, nor the visionary grandfather who founded the franchise in 1925—has cherished the Giants as deeply as John. My long-standing acquaintance with him, dating back to his Boston College days when he shared a room with one of my closest friends, assures me of this.
I sincerely hope Dart delivers another standout performance, simply because his spirited play has been a joy to watch. Yet, more importantly, I wish for John to experience a triumphant day, perhaps signaling a promising start to a better season ahead. He, more than anyone, is eager to leave the past behind.
In light of the Giants’ struggles in recent years and the series of poor football decisions following their last Super Bowl win against the Patriots, it’s crucial to remember the Maras’ century-long legacy with Giants football, even after the Tisch family became co-owners. The only comparable legacy in American sports is the Halas-McCaskey family ownership of the Chicago Bears.
There was Tim Mara, who started it all on a shoestring, and then passed the team down to his sons, Wellington and Jack. Jack’s son was also named Tim Mara, and was John’s first cousin. And even though John Mara became a lawyer after B.C., the Giants truly have been his whole life, all the way back to his first real memories of glory days at Yankee Stadium when he was a boy. And later, when he was in college, we always knew where John was on Sundays in the fall, whether the Giants were playing home or away.
His father was a gentleman for all times in New York sports. One of the most beautiful and emotional big city days I can remember was his funeral at St. Patrick’s, the son of the legal bookmaker his old man had been getting a sendoff like that, with all the trimmings.
I was with an older cop outside on the steps when it was over and he said he’d volunteered to be at St. Pat’s that day.
“I grew up with the Giants like Mr. Mara did,” he said.
And, oh my Lord, John’s mother Ann was one of the truly delightful characters I have ever encountered in this business, the grand dame of New York sports, really, until the Super Sunday when she tragically died after a slip on the ice while getting the Sunday papers. I used to call her on the phone sometimes around big Giants games — certainly those playoff games against the Packers — and have her tell me all over again about the days when Vince Lombardi slept on hers and Wellington’s couch.
She always called him “Vinny.”
I will always remember her on the podium that night in Glendale, Ariz., after the Giants beat the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII and kept them from being 19-0 that year. She acted like she was one of Seven Blocks of Granite and not Vinny when she saw someone reaching for the microphone before John Mara could get his hands on it.
That was the moment right before John talked about “the greatest moment in the history of this franchise.”
Have there been awful times for the Giants, just over the past two seasons? We all know there have been, and nobody I know — and certainly not somebody who grew up a Giants fans in upstate New York the way I did — took any pleasure in seeing the Giants become part of the NFL’s underclass. But no one has taken it all harder than John Mara has. He’s a Mara, after all. Part of that line. The son of Wellington Mara, who used to answer even the angriest mail from Giants fans by hand.
So, yeah, I would love this to be a good ending on Sunday not just for John, and his family, but for all the Giants fans who have gone the distance. After all the dreary, losing Sundays of these past two seasons, it would be a terrific thing to have MetLife be full of Giants noise on the last Sunday of this regular season and not noise from those annoying Cowboy fans descending on the stadium again from New York and New Jersey and Connecticut. It would be a terrific thing to see the Giants put one on them, no matter who the Cowboys run out there, put one on the Cowboys the way they did last Sunday in Vegas against the pathetic Raiders, who probably will curl up into the fetal position against the Chiefs so they can draft Mendoza in April.
The Giants have already fired a head coach this season and a defensive coordinator and might yet fire their general manager, Joe Schoen, even as Schoen is doing everything behind the scenes to run for office except finally hire skywriters of his own to fly above MetLife. There’s never been a Giants-Jets season that looked and felt any worse than this one.
The Giants aren’t a good bet to win this game, by any means. It’s just nice to think that Dart, who is the future, could light things up one final time before this season becomes next season, and make his fans believe the future is finally bright again.
Nice to think it’s the Giants being the ones to ring out the old with a big day in Jersey, right before they do everything they can to bring back the good old days.
ABOUT THAT ENDING IN THE SUGAR BOWL, A LITTLE DEFENSE FOR THE KNICKS & MAYE IS THE MVP …
There are a lot of really lousy neighborhoods in sports, but there is none lousier than the transfer portal.
And just in college basketball, John Calipari is right:
You get to transfer one time and not have to sit out.
You try it again and you can take the next year off to focus on your studies.
Just kidding on the last part.
Every time Indiana scored another touchdown against Alabama, I imagined Lane Kiffin watching and already wondering when there might be a job opening for him in Tuscaloosa.
That game Mississippi won over Georgia in the Sugar Bowl was one of the best bowl games I’ve seen in a long time, and not just because of the stakes.
Even if those last few seconds should have been sound-tracked with Benny Hill’s old theme music.
By the way?
I know Georgia was trying to win the game at the end, and keep their hopes for a national title alive.
But by throwing that incompletion on third-and-goal and stopping the clock, they gave Trinidad Chambliss, the Ole Miss quarterback, 40 more precious seconds to take his team down the field for the field goal that ultimately won the game.
If Georgia runs the ball, even if it doesn’t score, the Bulldogs could have kicked the short field goal to tie with around 20 seconds left.
The worst-case scenario would have been overtime, unless their kicker missed the chip shot.
Worse-case scenario?
That was Chambliss on that last drive, highlighted by that dream 40-yard completion to De’Zhaun Stribling.
At this point, Mike Brown talking about how little defense his team plays didn’t exactly qualify as breaking news.
I think I can carve out some time for Ravens vs. Steelers on Sunday night.
Dan Lanning was the latest to say something I’ve been saying for a while, about how the college football tournament needs to end on Jan. 1.
I get confused: Is Mendoza really supposed to be the Jets new savior as QB 1, or is it supposed to be Arch Manning in a year?
One more thing about Alabama:
I’m frankly waiting for the Crimson Tide to be the latest team to blame things on Joe Biden.
I promise to get to “Alex vs. A-Rod,” that documentary about you-know-who, right after I finish rereading “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey.”
Love Matthew Stafford and the way he’s playing in the late innings.
But he can’t be MVP this season because Drake Maye is.
Can the Rangers play all their games outdoors?
The Yankees and Mets are aware that it’s supposed to be the “hot” stove season, correct?
