San Francisco 49ers vs. New York Giants: A Tale of Two Cities

New York.  

San Francisco.

East Coast.

West Coast.

It's an all too inherent rivalry that breeds excellent trash talking and magical moments.

It's a rivalry that transcends sports on some level but for all intents and purposes is further cultivated by sports.

No case was more evident than the heated battles between the New York Giants and the San Francisco 49ers.

Both franchises are representative benchmarks for their respective sports.

The New York Football Giants, exemplified by their ownership, the Mara family, have represented a class of football and sports for the nation that has been hard sought by other franchises.

The San Francisco 49ers, exemplified by the DeBartolo's and their offshoot, the Yorks, created another level of success that most franchises hope to emulate.

Both teams have had their down times.  Both teams have had their up times and now, once again, they meet for all the proverbial marbles.

The New York Giants and the San Francisco 49ers have a long history of playoff matchups.

They have met seven times with San Francisco winning four out of the seven.

The most recent matchup having been the now famous Wild Card Game following the 2002 NFL season.  The 49ers came roaring back from a 38-14 deficit at halftime to win, 39-38, after a botched, last-second Giants field goal.

About 10 years earlier, in the 1994 playoffs, the 49ers crushed the Giants, 44-3, in the divisional round after Ricky Watters ran for an NFL playoff record five touchdowns.

These two wins by the 49ers, however, did not heal the wound left from the 1991 NFC Championship Game when the Giants stripped 49ers running back, Roger Craig, of the ball with 2:36 left to go in the fourth quarter.  The fumble ultimately led to a Matt Bahr, game-winning field goal.  The Giants went on to win the Super Bowl on a missed kick by the Bill's Scott Norwood.

In 1986, the game was in New York and the Giants demolished the 49ers, 49-3, in the NFC divisional round.  Again, the Giants ultimately went on to win the Super Bowl.

In 1985, the Giants avenged their loss to the 49ers in the 1984 playoffs in San Francisco which lead to the second 49ers Super Bowl, by beating the 49ers, 17-3, at home in Giants Stadium.

But it all started after that improbable 1981 Super Bowl season for San Francisco, when the 49ers beat the Giants at home in Candlestick in the divisional round, 38-24.

At the time, the Giants were just getting back on the map after a decade or so of losing.

This now forgotten first matchup was clearly the start of things to come for two great franchises with two completely different styles of play.

In San Francisco, the "Genius," head coach Bill Walsh and his West Coast offense, used a stylistic passing approach for his teams while Giants head coach, Bill Parcels, used a more traditional smash-mouth, ball control approach.

Both teams were successful and as a result, both coaches' coaching trees spanned across the NFL for years to come.

Now, this Sunday, January 22, 2012, the rivalry is renewed after a nine-year hiatus.  

In that time, the Giants had rebuilt their team to win one Super Bowl and appear in another.

In that time, the 49ers had struggled with a coaching carousel, finally landing on Jim Harbaugh, who in his first season has brought the 49ers back to the NFC title game for the first time in over a decade.

However, this time, the two teams' philosophies are mildly similar.

Both aim to control the ball with the run and both rely on ferocious defenses to make plays and stifle offensive game plans.

The X-factor in this Sunday's game appears to be the weather as it's scheduled to rain all weekend prior to the game and during the actual game itself.

This benefited neither team in the long run and really just adds another dimension to what is already shaping up to be an exciting matchup.

East versus West.

New York versus San Francisco.

One great franchise versus another.

This is what the NFL playoffs are all about.