The New York Giants

One of the two teams that reside in the Big Apple, known as New York City – is the New York Giants. The franchise has been around for nearly 100 years, playing its first season of professional football in 1925. There is a lot to know about the New York Football Giants, so let’s get to it. Here are some of the most important details when it comes to the franchise playing in the NFC East.

The New York Giants have made six venues their home since they started playing back in 1925. The first location was Polo Grounds. Known more for its baseball playing, Polo Grounds served the New York Football Giants for 30 seasons. Then, it was time to move to Yankee Stadium. Once again – more of a baseball location than football, it got the job done from 1956-1973.

Next, the Giants moved to the Yale Bowl for a season, Shea Stadium for a season, before heading to Giants Stadium in 1976. Giants Stadium was the home of, ironically, the Giants until 2009. In 2010 – MetLife Stadium opened up, and the Giants and Jets both arrived at their new home.

The open-air multi-purpose stadium located in East Rutherford, New Jersey, is home to both the New York Giants and New York Giants. When it was built, it was the most expensive stadium in the United States. The football record for attendance at MetLife Stadium is more than 82,000, as Super Bowl XLVIII was held there. There was also a College Football game between the Army and Navy that drew that kind of crowd as well.

MetLife saw its first Giants regular season game on September 12th, 2010. The Giants smashed the Panthers in the win. Over the years, many events have gone on at the venue. Many like the location because it’s not in the hustle and bustle of downtown New York City, but it’s really close. Even getting to MetLife Stadium can be a major hassle. Wrestlemania took place twice at MetLife Stadium. Many soccer games have gone on there, including a Lionel Messi hat trick in 2012. As we mentioned earlier, College Football, Ice Hockey, and numerous concerts take place at MetLife. The first concert held at MetLife Stadium was Bon Jovi, for three nights in late May of 2010.

The franchise wanted to make sure they were different from the professional baseball team of the same name, so when they started, they were called the New York National League Football Company. In 1937 they changed their name to the New York Giants. There have been several stories as to why they are named the Giants, but the story goes pretty simply put: they were called Giants because they got their name from all the giant buildings that made up New York City. If you have ever been there, you would understand why!

Heading into the 2023 season, the New York Giants had 715 franchise wins and 25 in the postseason. Eli Manning, with 366 career passing touchdowns, is the franchise record, and is in the Top 10 in NFL history.

Lawrence Taylor and Michael Strahan are both in the record books for sacks and sit in the Top 10 in career sacks.

Riki Barker finished his career with over 10,000 rushing yards and another 5,183 rushing yards, making him one of the best offensive players of all time for New York.

The New York Giants have won 8 League Championships. 4 of which were prior to the merger of the AFL and NFL in 1970. These championships were not known as Super Bowl titles, but they were indeed championships. Those winning seasons came in 1927, 1934, 1938, and 1956.

The first Super Bowl the New York Giants won was in 1986 at Super Bowl XXI. The Giants were coached by Bill Parcells, and the offense was flowing in this one. The Giants smacked the Broncos with 39 points and won the game 39-20. The Giants actually trailed at halftime 10-9 before scoring 30 second-half points. Quarterback Phil Simms was the Super Bowl MVP in front of over 101,000 fans in attendance in Pasadena, California, at the Rose Bowl.

The next season the Giants won the Super Bowl was the 1991 season when the Giants and Bills played in a 20-19 thriller. This game was held in Tampa and saw Ottis Anderson, their running back, won the Most Valuable Player award. Once again, the Giants trailed at halftime, this time 12-10. New York needed just 10 second-half points to win the game. The Giants broke a record, as they had possession of the football for 40:33 in the game. Anderson finished the game with 102 rushing yards and a touchdown.

It was 17 years later that the Giants won their next Super Bowl. This game is known as one of the biggest upsets in Super Bowl history. The Giants came into the game at 10-6, and the Patriots were 16-0. New York was a wildcard team and got hot at the right time. These two teams also played at the end of the regular season, with the Patriots winning that game. This game is also the David Tyree game, where he made the helmet catch to keep a drive alive. The Giants, under Tom Coughlin, came away with a 17-14 win in front of 71,000 fans in Glendale, Arizona. The Giants needed 14 fourth-quarter points to win the game. Eli Manning was named Super Bowl MVP.

Finally, the most recent Super Bowl title for the New York Giants was the 2011 season. Super Bowl XLVI saw the Giants beat the Patriots once again. This time it was the 9-7 Giants that beat the 13-3 Patriots. The final score was 21-17 in front of 68,658 fans in Indianapolis. This game broke the record for the most-watched television program in American History. Eli Manning was once again named Super Bowl MVP, and this was the second Super Bowl title for head coach Tom Coughlin.

The New York Giants have 11 Conference titles under their belt as well. 6 of them came before the merger, winning the NFL Eastern. The Giants have won the NFC one time in which they did not win the Super Bowl, and that was in 2000.

The Giants have 16 divisional championships. Originally, they played in the NFL Eastern, where they took the title 8 times. Now, as members of the NFC East, they have won it 8 times, with their most recent coming in 2011.

The Giants have been in the postseason for 33 seasons. New York had a run in the early 2000s where they made the postseason 6 seasons out of 9 years. The Giants made the postseason in 2022, which was the first time since 2016.

When talking about New York Giants quarterbacks through the years, there are a few guys that are musts on the list. The first is Eli Manning. Manning holds all the records for the Giants. In fact, his 4,895 competitions, 8,110 attempts, 57,023 yards, 366 touchdowns, and 244 lead them all.

Phil Simms is next on the list, as he finished with one touchdown shy of 200 in his career. The other two guys on the list with more than 100 passing touchdowns as the signal caller for the Giants were Charlie Coerly and Fran Tarkenton. Other guys on the list include Kerry Collins, Y.A. Tittle, and the most recent quarterback Daniel Jones. Jones needs 22 passing touchdowns to become 6th on the franchise list.

When it comes to postseason quarterbacks, Eli Manning finished his career with 8 wins in 12 starts for the Giants. That is the best in franchise history, with Phil Simms coming in second with 6 wins and 4 losses in his career.

The Giants have not had anyone other than Eli Manning or Daniel Jones start more than 4 games in a season since 2004, when Kurt Warner had a cup of coffee with the team.

The New York Giants have the second most members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It is quite a task to keep up with all the names on the list. The first two inducted were Tim Mara and Mel Hein. Mara was the founder of the organization, and Hein was the center on the team. They were inducted in 1963. Other guys in the 1960s inducted in were Steve Owen, Ken Strong, and Emlen Tunnell.

A few notable names of the years for the Giants include Fran Tarkenton in 1986. Lawrence Taylor in 1999, Bill Parcells in 2013, Michael Strahan in 2014, and the most recent inductee into the Hall of Fame was former General Manager George Young. He went in during the 2020 season.

Art Lewis was the first-ever draft pick for the New York Giants. Lewis spent just two seasons in the league before leaving to go serve in the Navy during World War II.

The Giants trailed at halftime in all five Super Bowl games they have played in.

The franchise was bought in 1925 for just $500.