Team History: Giants endured early financial struggles and have won four Super Bowls
Team History: Giants endured early financial struggles and have won four Super Bowls
The Giants were not professional football’s first franchise in New York. In 1921, the New York Brickley Giants played during the second (and final) season of the American Pro Football Association. The team was shutout in their only two league games.
When the NFL wanted to establish itself in the nation’s largest city, league president Joseph Carr decided to talk to Billy Gibson, a boxing promoter and former Brickley Giants owner. Gibson turned Carr down but suggested he talk to Tim Mara, a newsboy who later became a successful bookmaker (a legal business at the time).
Mara didn’t know much about football, so he turned to his friend, Dr. Harry March, a former physician for the Canton Bulldogs, a professional team in Ohio in the pre-NFL days. In 1925, Mara paid a $500 franchise fee. He called the team the “New York Football Giants” so it could be distinguished from the baseball team of the same name.
One of the main problems with the early NFL was that fans had a higher opinion of colleges compared to professional teams. The Giants suffered from low attendance and Mara lost $40,000 in the team’s first season. He tried to tap into the college game’s popularity by signing running back Red Grange, but the Bears had already snapped him up. Instead, the two teams played an exhibition game at the Polo Grounds. The gate receipts totaled $143,000, allowing Mara to make up for what he had lost.
Despite winning records in their first two seasons, the Giants were not in the hunt for a title until 1927. The team went 11-1-1, but it took a late-season victory over the Bears to cement their first championship. New York registered 10 shutouts and allowed only 20 points all season.
Even though the Giants enjoyed success on the field, they still had to contend with the college game. Looking for ways to boost morale and money for the city’s Unemployment Fund after the Great Depression hit, New York mayor Jimmy Walker suggested an exhibition game. In 1930, the Giants faced off against Knute Rockne and a team of Notre Dame all-stars, including the legendary Four Horsemen. The game raised more than $115,000, and the Giants won, 22-0, legitimizing professional football in the eyes of fans.
Mara hired All-Pro tackle Steve Owen as a player-coach in 1931. He played one more season before focusing on coaching, although he did come back in 1933 to help the Giants reach the NFL Championship Game, which they lost to the Bears, 23-21. Replacing Owen was Mel Hein, who would quickly become the league’s best center.
The following season, New York fell to 8-5 but reached the title game again. This time, the Bears led, 13-3. Both teams had to deal with an icy field on a nine-degree day. To counter the slick field conditions, Mara sent equipment manager Abe Cohen to find as many pairs of sneakers as he could. He returned with nine pairs from the Manhattan College basketball team. Using their new footwear, the Giants scored 27 points in the fourth quarter, pulling off a 30-13 win in what is now called the “Sneakers Game.”
New York returned to their third straight title game in 1935 but fell to the Detroit Lions, 26-7. After two down years, the Giants played for the NFL Championship five times over the next nine seasons. However, they only won once, a 23-17 victory over the Packers in 1938. Green Bay shut out the Giants for the title the following year and also defeated them in 1944. The Bears knocked off New York in 1941 and ’46.
The Giants made the playoffs only once in the next nine seasons following that last title loss. They finished 10-2 in 1950, but fell, 8-3, to the Browns in a defensive struggle in a division tie breaking game. Owen retired after the 1953 season with a 153-100-17 record. The victory total is still the highest in team history. He spent his entire 23-year career coaching without a written contract, working on handshake deals with Mara.
The tough task of replacing Owen was given to Jim Lee Howell, a former Giants receiver and head coach at Wagner College. The team went to three title games in seven seasons under Howell. They ravaged the Bears, 47-7, in 1956 for their third championship, but fell to the Colts in overtime two years later in what is known as the “Greatest Game Ever Played.” In 1959, the Giants went 10-2 but lost again to Baltimore.
Howell helped develop star players and coaches. The offense was run by Vince Lombardi, who would go on to lead the Packers to multiple championships. His weapons included quarterback Charley Conerly, running Frank Gifford, wide receiver Kyle Rote and tackle Roosevelt Brown. Converted player Tom Landry coached the defense. He went on to lead Dallas for nearly 30 years. His charges included three future Hall of Famers, defensive end Andy Robustelli, linebacker Sam Huff and safety Emlen Tunnell.
Tim Mara passed away at age 71 in February 1959, with ownership of the team passing to his two sons, Jack and Wellington. Mara was honored for his contributions to football four years after his death when he was elected as one of the 17 original members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Howell left after the 1960 season, and he was replaced by former Eagles player and Giants offensive coordinator Allie Sherman. New York went to the championship game in his first three seasons, but the team failed to capitalize, losing to Lombardi and the Packers twice and their old nemesis the Bears in 1963.
The Giants unloaded most of their talented players after that loss. A team made up primarily of aging veterans stumbled to a 2-10-2 record in 1964, and New York failed to make the playoffs over the next 17 years, a period known as the “Wilderness Years.” The era also saw the end of the team playing in baseball stadiums. After sharing the Polo Grounds with baseball’s Giants (for 31 years) and splitting time at Yankee Stadium (18), the team would be getting a new football-only building. They spent two years at the Yale Bowl and one at Shea Stadium before moving into Giants Stadium in 1976.
Play on the field began to pick up in 1981. Quarterback Phil Simms led the offense, and the defense featured All-Pro linebacker Lawrence Taylor, along with Wilderness Year's holdovers Harry Carson and Brad Van Pelt. The Giants went 9-7 and upset the Eagles in the Wild Card round before falling to Joe Montana and the eventual champion 49ers.
The team took a step back the next two years, but returned to the postseason under Bill Parcells, a well-traveled coach who spent the previous two seasons leading New York’s “Big Blue Wrecking Crew” defense, which he had changed from a 4-3 front to a 3-4.
New York fell to San Francisco again in 1984, but took out the 49ers in the Wild Card round the following year. However, the next week, the Giants were shut out by a Bears defense that is arguably the greatest ever.
In 1986, the Giants went 14-2 and beat the 49ers again before shutting out the Redskins, 17-0, in the NFC Championship Game to reach the Super Bowl for the first time.
The Broncos jumped out to an early lead on quarterback John Elway’s run, and Denver was in front, 10-9, at halftime. The Giants scored 17 points in the third, with Simms finding tight end Mark Bavaro with a touchdown and star back Joe Morris running for a score to give New York a 26-10 lead. Two more fourth-quarter touchdowns gave the Giants a 39-20 win in Super Bowl XXI for their first title in 30 years. Simms was named MVP. He finished 22 of 25 for 268 yards and three scores. His 88 percent completion rate is still the highest in Super Bowl history.
New York returned to the playoffs in 1989, but lost a Division round game to the Rams at home in overtime. The following year, they went 13-3 and beat the Bears in the Division game to set up another playoff tussle with San Francisco. Jeff Hostetler, who filled in for Simms after he suffered a broken foot late in the season, led two late scoring drives, and Matt Bahr kicked a 42-yard field goal as time expired for a 15-13 win.
In Super Bowl XXV, the Buffalo Bills jumped out a lead after a Don Smith touchdown run, and the Bills got to Hostetler for a safety and a 12-3 advantage. Hostetler found Stephen Baker to cut the deficit, and game MVP Otis Anderson gave the Giants the lead back in the third. The one-yard run was the culmination of a 14-play drive that took 9 minutes, 29 seconds off the clock. After a Thurman Thomas run put the Bills back in front, Bahr’s 21-yard field goal switched the advantage again midway through the fourth.
The final Buffalo drive began on the 10 with 2:16 left. Jim Kelly led the Bills down the field, and an eight-yard run by Thomas put his team in field goal range with eight seconds on the clock. Scott Norwood’s 47-yard attempt missed just to the right, giving the Giants a 20-19 victory.
The Giants faced several changes after the season. Parcells left the team to go to the broadcast booth, defensive coordinator Bill Belichick left to coach the Browns and wide receivers coach Tom Coughlin became head coach at Boston College. In addition, Timothy J. Mara, who took over a 50 percent interest when his father, Jack, died in 1965, sold his shares to Preston Robert Tisch. The owner of the Loew’s theater and hotel company, and a former Postmaster General of the United States Postal Service, was the first non-family member to hold a stake in the team.
New York had moderate success over the next 14 years, making the playoffs four times under Ray Handley, Dan Reeves, and Jim Fassel. The Giants knocked off the Eagles and shut out the Vikings in the 2000 postseason to reach Super Bowl XXXV, where they were trounced, 34-7, by another all-time great defense, the Baltimore Ravens.
Both owners passed away in 2005. Wellington Mara died of lymphoma in late October and “The Duke” was succeeded by his son, John. Bob Tisch died three weeks later, and his half of the team went to his son, Steve.
In 2004, the team brought Coughlin back as a coach and made a draft day trade for quarterback Eli Manning. Three years later, the franchise had a defining moment. After making the playoffs as a wild card team, the Giants won three road contests, including an overtime thriller in Green Bay in the NFC Championship game, to set up a date with the New England Patriots, who were 18-0 at that point.
The Patriots held a fourth-quarter lead in Super Bowl XLII, but Manning found David Tyree in the end zone to put the Giants in front. Tom Brady hooked up with his favorite target, Randy Moss, to give New England a 14-10 advantage with 2:32 left.
Manning led New York on one final drive. Tyree made what is arguably the greatest catch in Super Bowl history, pinning the ball to his helmet as he was going to the ground for a 32-yard gain. The play shifted momentum, and Manning found Plaxico Burress in the back of the end zone for a 13-yard score with 35 seconds left. A sack of Brady and a pair of pass knockdowns preserved the 17-14 victory.
In 2011, the Giants won the NFC East at 9-7, beat Atlanta and Green Bay, then edged San Francisco in overtime to set up another meeting with the Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI. Manning became a two-time MVP after throwing for 296 yards and a score in a 21-17 victory. New York has gone to the playoffs once in the seven years since the title. The Giants went 11-5 in 2016, but fell to the Packers in the Division round.
The team looks to get back to the postseason under former Rams, Eagles, and Vikings offensive coordinator (and Browns head coach) Pat Shurmur. Manning is joined in the twilight of his career by one of the best young backs in the league, Saquon Barkley, plus receivers Sterling Shepard and newcomer Golden Tate, and tight end Evan Engram.
On defense, veteran linebacker Markus Golden and safeties Jabrill Peppers and Antoine Bethea join first rounders in lineman Dexter Lawrence and cornerback DeAndre Baker.
-By: Kevin Rakas