Bits & Pieces

Exciting Time To Be A Giant Fan

By Kim J. Harmon

 

The New York Giants are 8-4 and in first place in the NFC East. Who knows if they will actually win the division and who knows if they will able to get by Chicago or Seattle and make it to the Super Bowl.

But I’ll tell you one thing – it’s an exciting time to be a Giant fan and I have learned how to enjoy it all without suffering through the bitter losses.

My earliest memories of the New York Giants go all the way back to the 1969 season when Spider Lockhart was roaming the defensive backfield and Tucker Fredrickson was picking up a few carries behind Fran Tarkenton.

But those are spotty memories. I don’t think I really became a Giant fan for a couple of years until tight end Bob Tucker started catching all those balls and Ron Johnson became their No. 1 running back.

Remember, those were the days before cable television (yes, there was a time when we only got four or five channels and sometimes they didn’t come in all that well). I realize I became a Giants fan almost for the sole reason that they were the only team on television every week, right there on CBS out of New York.

So I watched. I remember when Craig Morton took over as quarterback in the middle of a mediocre career and when Doug Kotar became the leading running back and those were the days when the Giants really, really stunk and, yet, I still watched.

I never missed a game.

Then Joe Pisarcik took over as quarterback in 1977 and will forever – thanks in large part to The Fumble and the fact that he threw 24 touchdowns and 48 interceptions in an eight-year career – go down as the worst Giants QB ever.

Those were dark days, the mid to late 1970s.

But I still watched. And, even worse, I started getting all – well, nuts – about the Giants. Every time they won (which wasn’t often) I would feel great for two days and every time they lost (which was often) I would feel miserable for three days. The low point was 1983 when they went 3-12-1 under Bill Parcells and the dreadful Scott Brunner was quarterbacking the team ahead of a young Phil Simms (who was always hurt in those early years).

It was awful. I hated Brunner. I saw greatness in Simms and knew he would take the team to the Super Bowl and every year the Giants didn’t go was torture. But after going 10-6 in 1985 – and after being embarrassed in the playoffs by the Chicago Bears (remember Sean Landeta whiffing on the punt at the goal line) – the Giants had their greatest season ever.

In 1986, they went 14-2. The lost only to Dallas (31-28) and Seattle (17-12). I remember walking through New York City with my friends in December and listening to the game with the Green Bay Packers on the radio. I didn’t hear a single thing anyone said (I had the head phones on) but I was shouting so much (the Giants won 55-24) that strangers were tapping me on the shoulders asking me what the score was.

The Giants rolled through the playoffs. They defeated the Washington Redskins, 17-0, in the NFC championship game and a friend said to me, “Man – what a boring game,” and I had to restrain myself from punching him.

When they clobbered Denver, 39-20, in the Super Bowl all I could was sit in the recliner at my brother’s house and just smile. Other people were jumping up and down but I was simply relishing the whole thing.

It had it’s dark side, though. The following year was the big strike and the Giants started out 0-5 after playing with scabs and somehow that was so much worse than the dreadful years of the 1970s. The Giants missed the playoffs in 1988 and got beat by the Los Angeles Rams (yep – Los Angeles) in the 1989 playoffs and, boy, did that one hurt.

But the Giants were great again in 1990, finishing 13-3 as Simms went 10-0 before getting hurt. Jeff Hostetler picked up the pieces and led the Giants to a 20-19 win over the Buffalo Bills in the Super Bowl as Scott Norwood missed that last-second field goal.

Then came the Ray Handley years – without question the two most miserable years of my football fandom. And when the Giants went 6-10 in 1992 and forced Handley into hiding, I made a tough decision.

I was 30 years old and watching football was taking a brutal toll on my mental health. I couldn’t allow myself to live and die with the team anymore. It was too painful. So I decided to step back, watch the team, root the team on, but leave it all behind when the final gun sounded.

It was a great decision because after Simms was forced into retirement by Dan Reeves after the 1993 season, the Giants had to endure three seasons with Dave Brown at quarterback and two seasons with Danny Kanell at quarterback and, really, it doesn’t get much worse than that.

Sure, Kanell was 10-5-1 in 1997 but that had to be the worst 10-5-1 team ever to take the field in the National Football League.

Some life returned to the team in 2000 when Kerry Collins took over at quarterback and Tiki Barber became the No. 1 running back and the Giants went to the Super Bowl before getting waxed by the Baltimore Ravens.

I still kept my detachment, however. But one last year under Collins and head coach Jim Fassel (4-12) the Giants drafted Eli Manning and – wow – I found out I could no longer keep my detachment. Football was always pretty exciting on Sunday, but now it was exciting all week.

Sure, Manning did not have a good rookie season and this year he has been inconsistent and has thrown some bad balls, but who can’t see the greatness in him? What Giant fan doesn’t think Manning will be a star for the next 10 years? Who doesn’t think he will bring us back to the Super Bowl?

The good thing is, now that I’m 43 I have found a way to forget those miserable losses to San Diego, Dallas, Minnesota and Seattle and revel in the wins over Denver, Washington and Dallas.

Yes, it’s an exciting time to be a Giant fan.