On Tuesday afternoon, as Donnie Baseball tried on his old number 23 pinstriped jersey, I was delegating my number two Derek Jeter uniform to the back of the closet. I have finally made my peace with the 2003 baseball season, and now officially turn my attention to the best league in sports: the National Football League. It is time to trade in the Evil Empire for Big Blue. I truly believe that baseball is the greatest sport ever invented, but I must admit that the NFL season is the most fun to watch.
The gaze of many Bostonians, however, continues to be on the Red Sox. Despite, or maybe due to, their many failures, the Red Sox will always remain the favored child in this great sports town. The Patriots are 7-2, yet many Boston sports fans would rather read about the latest chapter in Managerial Search 2003: Search for the Next Scapegoat.
For us transplanted New York fans, our Super Bowl dreams lie in the hands of one team that is dead in the water and one team that delights and tortures its fan base all in the course of a game. Last weekend, the New York Giants defeated the New York Jets, 31-28, in an overtime contest that was symbolic of both clubs’ seasons. Both teams fought as hard as they could to lose the game, but unfortunately there had to be a winner. The Giants, my team, now stand at the crossroads of this football season with a record that truly represents their season four wins versus four losses.
I should have seen this coming when I first played Madden 2004 in early September. The brilliant people at EA Sports have this magical power over the New York Giants. It is fact that the team rating assigned to the Giants in a Madden football game will determine the type of season the squad is destined to have. Last year, in Madden 2003, the Giants had a measly 72 rating. They proceeded to go 10-6 and earn an unexpected playoff appearance. The year before that, the team had a more respectable 79 rating. The result? A 7-9 record that capped an incredibly mediocre season. This year, as I eagerly scrolled through the teams to find the Giants, my heart sank. An 85 rating! The kiss of death! Such a high rating would certainly spell doom for Big Blue. And so it has.
As we stand at the midway point of the NFL season, no team better represents the parity of football better than the New York Giants. The Giants are fighting for their playoff lives against themselves. These Giants should be 8-0. These Giants should also be 0-8. Therefore, it is a fair compromise that Big Blue holds a 4-4 record for the third straight season.
Kerry Collins, the team’s quarterback, epitomizes the Giants’ struggles. On one hand, Collins has the second-most interceptions in the NFC (10). On the other, he leads the NFC in completions (194), attempts (333) and passing yards (2185). The last Giant to accomplish such a feat played before there was such a thing as the Super Bowl. Now, the Giants will have to virtually run the table in the second half if they want to have a chance at the postseason.
The tools are certainly there. Collins has already led this team to the Super Bowl, during its Cinderella run of 2000/2001. Tiki Barber, Ike Hilliard, Amani Toomer and Jeremy Shockey lead an offense that is a juggernaut at its peak. Michael Strahan is once again among the most dominant defensive players in the NFL, as his team-leading nine sacks will attest to. Two words, however, will spell doom or glory for the Giants as they enter the final half of the season special teams.
Do not be fooled. There is nothing special about the special teams squad for New York. I might as well be running back punts for Big Blue, as the team is averaging a porous 4.8 yards per punt return – the worst in the conference. Punting average? Worst in the conference. The special teams will have to prove their mettle if the Giants are going to sniff the cold air of January.
I was able to steer the New York Giants to the postseason in Madden 2004 despite their 85 rating. Whether coach Jim Fassel can once again motivate his troops to a strong second half remains to be seen. They are the not the best team in the league, nor are they the worst. They are the perfect balance of success and failure; they are the squad that truly represents parity in the NFL. As Fassel told Newsday, ‘When it all shakes out, we are all about equal. That’s the way it is in the NFL.’
Josh Stern, a senior in the School of Management, is a weekly sports columnist for The Daily Free Press.
