There’s no question the last several years have been rough. The Yankees haven’t ended their season on a good note since 2000, when they beat the other object of this area’s baseball affections, the Mets, in the World/Subway Series. The J-E-T-S have had a tenuous relationship with R-E-S-P-E-C-Tability, wowing us one year and supremely disappointing us the next. The Giants at least made it to the Super Bowl in 2001. But two years later, just as we started to forgive them for their embarrassing performance against the Ravens in that NFL championship, they allowed San Francisco to rally from 24 points down to end the team’s season at the January 2003 wild-card game. And they haven’t done much to be proud of since. As a Knicks fan, I don’t even know where to begin. Life is rough. (But I still love you, David Lee.) And Nets fans, I’m sorry… I know you’ve had some moments of glory, but two conference championships in 2002 and 2003 do not an NBA title make.
Those Philadelphia-area fans of South Jersey may have it even worse in the crushed-dreams department. The Sixers squandered Allen Iverson’s youth, and now sit third-to-last in the pitiful Eastern Conference standings. The Phillies had an amazing comeback last season… but then got swept by the Rockies. And Donovan McNabb can’t seem to find the right combination of health and team chemistry to make something happen for the Eagles since the team’s trip to the Super Bowl in 2005.
I know there have been some bright spots. For the seven people in the Garden State who watch hockey, the Devils have racked up a couple of Stanley Cups in the last decade. (I’m kidding, of course… I’ve been to Devils games, and I know they’re packed. But hockey needs to figure out how to translate the excitement of a live game to the TV screen.) And, of course, Rutgers—the football team and women’s basketball team in particular—makes us proud to be from the Garden State.
But the past several months have been particularly painful, due in part to failures of our own. (Knicks, Nets, Yankees, Mets, Jets, you’re all guilty. And even Rutgers football underperformed this year.) Even worse, though, has been the in-your-face success of Boston this past year. The World Series for the Red Sox, the 16-0 NFL regular season for the Patriots, the Celtics’ stellar start to the NBA season… what happened? Isn’t Boston supposed to be the city of bitter disappointment? When did we get cast for that role?
Enter the New York Giants. Like the Knicks of 1999, nobody expected them to do much. But with hard work—and some miraculous finishes—here they are, vying for the championship. Not only that, but along the way they beat the obnoxious Cowboys (take that, annoying fans I sat next to in Giants Stadium in December ’06) and the legendary Packers.
The Knicks, alas, didn’t make it happen in ’99 (and haven’t really made ANYTHING happen since). But maybe the Giants can start to turn the tide back our way.
At the end of the regular season, I kept saying the G-Men should put everything into their game against the Patriots, because there was no way they’d make the Super Bowl and it would be more impressive to end the Patriots’ undefeated season. They played superbly on December 29, but fell a bit short. Obviously I was wrong about the Super Bowl thing. So here’s another chance to exceed expecations. Let’s hope they can do it, and get the fanatic juices flowing in this part of the world again.
(And Knicks, if you could beat the Celtics today at 1 p.m., that would be awesome, too.)