Category: Uncategorized

I’d like to thank the great people at WordPress for making this blog a reality, but I’ll be moving on to create my own format for posting thoughts and opinions (on everything!) in the very near future for this website. Until then, I will keep this conglomeration of content online for posterity  marked as “ARCHIVE”, which covers much of the 2007 through 2009 seasons in-depth.  To first time visitors, enjoy. And to repeat offenders, it’s a great chance to rehash one of the truly great seasons, namely 2007, in Football Giants history. – BK

I regretted missing the victory parade back in 2008. I wasn’t going to miss this one. This photo was taken from my camera phone right outside of City Hall, the end of the parade route. That’s Justin Tuck holding the Lombardi.

I haven’t posted in over two years, but now seems as good a time as any. Eli Manning was, in my mind, clearly the MVP of the league from Game One through the Super Bowl. I’m not talking Player of the Year or any other made up award, I’m taking M-V-P in its truest sense. Whenever the Giants needed Manning to make a big play, he was front and center. Countless fourth quarter comebacks and the unquestionable leader of that football team. When I think “most valuable”, where would the Giants be without #10? Certainly, not Super Bowl Champions for a second time in four years. Way to go, kid.

row 35, seats 13-14. Lots still to be determined this year, but I am so looking forward to 2010 in the new stadium!!!

People assoicate that phrase “frozen tundra” with the famous Ice Bowl game between the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys, and even more so with the late John Facenda of NFL Films. Everyone imitates it, but as I found out last night in an interview with Steve Sabol, Facenda never actually spoke those words. Here’s the true story:

Steve Sabol wrote those very words while working on the Packers’ highlight film for that season. Vince Lombardi, an English major, wanted to review the script before it went to production. Lombardi first informed Sabol that “frozen tundra” is redundant (Wester’s defines it as a level or rolling treeless plain that is characteristic of arctic and subarctic regions, consists of black mucky soil with a permanently frozen subsoil). Secondly, Lombardi told Sabol that because they had installed a heating element under the field, the field was actually never frozen, and he would not allow those words to be used!

Interestingly enough, the Cowboys did have “frozen tundra” in their highlight film that year because GM Tex Schramm wanted it that way, blaming the loss on the elements. John Facenda did not narrate that film.

So, next time someone jokes about the “frozen tundra of Lambeau Field”, politely correct them.

That was my number on the Giants’ season ticket wait list, and I finally got the email a few weeks ago informing me that I was next in line to purchase season tickets. Amazingly, on the list since only 2001, I am now officially a New York Football Giants season ticket holder.

I had speculated when PSL’s were first introduced by the Giants last June, I would probably need about 15-20% of current season ticket holders to decline on a PSL to actually have a shot. That estimate has been shattered. Early sales figures had fans renewing in the 95th percentile, but as the affordable upper tier and mezz filled, sales hit a snag. Apparently, wait list members in the 20,000’s are getting the call for seats. Certainly the concept a personal seat license, and even more so the current economy, have played a large part in the Giants needing to reach deep into the wait list.

At $5K a pop, I purchased two seats. The only area left in the stadium remotely affordable is called Field 3, or endzone seating (fingers crossed for coffin corners). A bit steep in price, I’m looking at it as an investment, as selling the PSL for a profit in the future is always an alternative. But the chance to have my very own tickets and be part of a unique club, as well as helping to open a brand new stadium in 2010, was just too tempting to pass up.

I finally was able to NFL Films’ America’s Game on the 2007 Football Giants last night. It was originally broadcast on NFL Network last September before opening day, but I missed it while on vacation and foolishly didn’t DVR because they tend to play this stuff over and over. Surprisingly, I hadn’t seen it aired since then but was finally was able to catch it. I was not disappointed. As always, NFL Films tells a story, and this one hour documentary follows a familiar script. Establish the main characters in dire straits, then show them overcoming obstacles to achieve their ultimate goal.

The concept behind America’s Game is not the typical highlight film, but rather to chronicle the season of the Super Bowl champion as seen through the eyes of three key persons. In the Giants’ case, these three individuals were a no-brainer: Michael Strahan, Tom Coughlin, and Eli Manning. Strahan was his usual entertaining self. The funniest moment was his imitation of Tom Brady, who spoke in disbelief about Plaxico Burress’ prediction of the Pats scoring only 17 points. Manning had a smile on his face the entire time, and showed his more comical and lighthearted side. One particular snip had Manning describing half time of the Packers playoff game, in which he didn’t hear a word his coach said because he was focusing on whether Coughlin’s cherry red face had frost bite. Coughlin also presented a side that, until that 2007 season, many Giants’ fans didn’t know he had. All three beamed of victory throughout the show.

The thing I probably liked best about it was some non-NFL Films clips, which I am sure were rarely seen. The first which really hit me was Coughlin’s first speech to his team in 2004, and if his tone and directness didn’t get your attention, you didn’t have a pulse. Wow! During the 2007 training camp, they show a changed Coughlin taking the Giants out for bowling night rather than having meetings. During Super Bowl week in Arizona, there is a shot of the Giants’ team bus stopping at In-N-Out Burger to grab a team meal. They also give a 30 second shot of Coughlin’s Saturday night pregame speech to the team before the epic game. And seeing David Tyree dropping ball after ball during the last practice before the game added an interesting twist of things to come.

I’ve seen all three America’s Games on the Giants, and the 1986 version remains my favorite, and the only one I’ve watched multiple times. The 2007 team is probably 1A and the 1990 team 1B. I think a lot of the allure with the ’86 story is the three participants (Parcells, Taylor, and Simms) were talking about their season some 20 years later. While watching the 2007 version, we find ourselves only a year removed from the moment which I won’t say takes away from it, but it would be more nostalgic to see these three talk about it in about 10 years. Alas, there is an roundabout solution to this: wait 10 years and view it on DVD (or whatever medium we have then) and enjoy it all over again.

Just got word that Chris “Mad Dog” Russo is leaving WFAN after what I think is 20 years of teaming with Mike Francesca on the Mike and the Mad Dog Show. There had been rumors swirling about these two no longer seeing eye-to-eye and that one or both were going be leaving the ‘FAN. The latest buzz has Russo going to Sirius radio with Francesca going solo.

While I have bitched and complained about both these guys (mainly in the context of Giants’ football), I will miss listening to the duo. I’ve been tuning in for all 20 years at various times depending on what job I was working, despite what I consider some obvious dislike toward the Giants since about the middle of the Jim Fassel era. They openly showed their dislike for Strahan, Shockey, and Tiki, with some of it warranted. But Russo, in particular, would go out of his way to root against the Giants and really bring a negative context when talking about the team. Sure he hates the Yankees too and even had a band of callers who backed him, but that was done in a much different tone. With the Giants, you got the impression he really didn’t like the players. In fact, in the last three Super Bowls that the Giants played in during his time on WFAN, he predicted blow out losses for the Giants in each. Enough said.

Good or bad, after a Giant win or loss, I would always make time to tune in to see what these guys were saying. They just didn’t take calls, but had top personalities on and did great interviews. The show was always entertaining, whether you agreed or disagreed and that’s why I listened. Missed pronunciations of words, twisting of names, and uncontrollable rants aside, I will miss Russo, and the show as a whole.

In my best Russo impersonation, “Goooooooooooooooooood night, everybody!!”