I want to preface my remarks that I never called for the Giants to trade Odell. And when I tuned into BBI on the night he got traded, my first response was "Holy (blank)... they traded him!"
But if there was one common refrain I saw from the past five years or so on BBI it was, "I hate this team!"
Fancy that... fans tend to dislike their team when it is not winning. But there seemed to be something deeper than that. BBI was around during other dark times during the 1990s and 2000s. Other than 2016, the team seemed largely dysfunctional. We drafted guys from winning collegiate programs who seemed to quickly become too comfortable with losing. It got to the point where something happened that I never thought I'd see as a Giants fan: Giants fans stopped watching. They stopped going to the games. They didn't watch on TV. Other than the last game or two of a losing season, I had never seen that before. And I can't imagine how empty the seats would have been had Saquon Barkley not been on this team last year despite the fact that these seats were already paid for!
"I hate this team!"
Some folks have mocked posters like Greg and bw who smelled the rot. I don't know if the Giants are turning a corner or not. I don't know if the rot has stopped (those who want Eli out of here yesterday obviously think it hasn't). But something has been "off" on this team for quite some time. Rightly or wrongly, Beckham got caught up in that. He may have contributed to the rot, or been a victim of it... everyone will have a different opinion.
But it is quite clear that Gettleman has smelled the rot. He's purging ALMOST EVERY player from this roster acquired by the previous regime. It's obvious now. Parcells did this after the 1983 season when there wasn't any free agency. He dumped half the team. Gettleman will have almost completely dumped the entire team in two years. Just wait until we compare the September 2019 roster with the September 2017 roster. Hardly anyone will be left.
Why is Odell gone? Right or wrong, Gettleman hated the old team too.
To my point the other day, the real rot is at the top. We may bring in some shit kickers who clean it up for a while, but it will always come back.
I worry that perhaps the rot is ownership (Tisch, Maras including Chris) and the FO. Hopefully it is not the repeat of the 70's when Rozelle finally had to step in and 'foist' (thank goodness) Young on the Giants.
Of course that is the rot. Who else made the choice to fire Coughlin and keep Reese? And who else has lacked the sense of honor or accountability to step forward and acknowledge blame? Maybe DG has what it takes, and maybe he doesn't. But whoever is the GM, ownership should get the hell away from football decisions. That is the basic thing they owe to the fans.