Yesterday was a rare day for me where I had nothing I had to do and the wife was working, and the weather was awful. So I decided to stay in and YouTube clips from 2007 and 2011. Everything from live game broadcasts to the America’s Games, to the NFL Films season recaps.
I haven’t forgotten, but it was really nice to be reminded of just how fulfilling both of those runs were, and how they complimented each other, at least for me. I was born 2 weeks after Super Bowl XXI and was too young to remember XXV, so this era was for me what those runs were to my dad and older brother.
Just to recap everything we got to enjoy between both of those seasons:
2007
-Swept the Eagles
-Shut up Ronde Barber
-Made Terrell Owens literally cry like a bitch
-Ended Brett Favre’s Packer Career with an interception
-Won the second coldest game in history (think of all the toughest players in history who can’t make that claim)
-Beat the team who many people still agree was the most talented team to ever play a single season
-Earned bragging rights over the city of Boston (a little added bonus)
-Completed what is still widely considered the greatest play in football history
-Solidified Tom Coughlin and Eli Manning as serious professionals in their respective roles
2011
-Swept the Cowboys
-Shut up Rex Ryan (and the at-the-time unbearable Jet fans)
-Shut down Matt Ryan
-Beat another “unbeatable” team in the 15-1 Packers (people tend to forget how celebrated that team was, and they pounded them in their own house…again)
-Outlasted “the toughest defense in football” in SF, proving Eli to be the toughest quarterback of his era (I argue this point with people who say Roethlisberger, and I win, because fuck them)
-Beat the Patriots, and Tom Brady, and Bill Belichick…again
-More bragging rights over that God forsaken town
-Did it with a homegrown kid from Paterson (Victor Cruz)
I honestly don’t think Francis Ford Coppola could have written a better script and sequel. It was truly the happiest time in my Giants fan hood.
Just some positive thoughts on a big game Sunday morning. Here’s to a bright future with the current group of crazy fuckers.
In 2011 especially. Yeah, that was a fucking disgrace how hard they tried to give that game to Green Bay. Makes it even more impressive.
2007 Packers (13 -3): All Pro QB Brett Favre and a loaded team with home field advantage, beaten in OT in frozen Lambeau
2007 Patriots (16 - 0)!!: Headed for NFL immortality and a huge SB favorite, beaten with a last minute TD drive for the ages
2011 49ers (13 - 3): 9 Pro Bowlers and the best defense in football, beaten in OT at Candlestick
2011 Packers (15 - 1): Consensus best team in the NFL rolling towards back-to-back SB Championships, CRUSHED in Lambeau
2011 Patriots (13 - 3): Brady & Belichick with another loaded team, beaten AGAIN by a mega clutch Eli 4thQ comeback
Seriously, what other single team has wrecked that many great seasons? All as underdogs and on the road?
We still talk with regret about the 1989 and 2008 teams not going all the way (both 12 -4)... friggin' Eli and the Giants have ruined better seasons than that with heart-breaking losses.
"-Made Terrell Owens literally cry like a bitch"
and I forgot we swept Philly that year. I think we got swept by Dallas that year until I believe an RW McQuarters interception in the playoffs shut the door on them, made Jerry Jones go pout and shut up those fucking Dallas fans.