LIVE MIKE – by Mike Smith
Rightly or wrongly, I like to think of myself as a pretty intelligent guy. I’m a rational human being, more than capable of objectively looking at a situation
and basing a decision off of facts, figures and observations.
So why, then, do I let the Giants continue to toy with my emotions?
On Nov. 2, the one-win Giants tangled with Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Bucs on Monday Night Football. On paper—and to anyone that’s watched more than a half of NFL football games this year—the result of the game was a foregone conclusion; Brady would make mincemeat of Big Blue, dropping the Giants’ record to a woeful 1-7 on the year. I planned to watch the first half, turn off the television and get to bed early in order to vote before work on Tuesday morning.
Yet there I was at 11:30 p.m., yelling at the screen, exhorting Daniel Jones to get rid of the ball during a fourth quarter drive that nearly sent the game into overtime. Why? Because I can’t help myself.
The Giants played the Bucs tight in the first two quarters and headed into halftime with a 14-6 lead; nothing to get excited about, I told myself. The Giants have
been prone to second half collapses all season long. But as the game dragged on and the Giants refused to go away, I began to forget all the negative things that
I’d said—and written—about the team in recent weeks. Sure, Daniel Jones was still missing open receivers and making frustrating decisions, but he was also making a few throws that made you take notice. Sure, Big Blue’s offensive line hasn’t been anything to write home about this year, but here they were, with a pair of rookies up front, pushing around a good Tampa defense. And yes, maybe Evan Engram’s inability to catch the ball had cost my team in big spots this year, but against the Bucs, he was channeling Kellan Winslow Sr., almost living up to our high expectations from draft night.
By the time the Monday Night Football crew tossed up the graphic that showed that the Giants still had a path to winning the NFC East, I was all in, back
aboard the Giants bandwagon I had professed to jump off almost as soon as the 2020 season began.
Of course, we know how it ended.
The Giants marched down the field to score a touchdown with 30 seconds left but another bad decision by Jones on a two-point conversion—and a flag picked
up by the officials—doomed the home team to a 25-23 loss.
I went to bed fuming, not angry at the Giants for falling short, but ashamed at myself for having been suckered in once again.
But that’s sports, isn’t it? Rooting for any team—even the good ones—is a constant test of one’s loyalty, patience and sanity. Rooting for a bad team, like
the Giants, just seems to magnify that fact. But as badly as the night ended, it was still fun to be invested in a game, if only for a few short hours.
But when you root for the Giants, those hours can often seem like an eternity.
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