Why The 2007 New York Giants Are My Favorite Team of All Time

I happen to live in the New York area, but I don’t consider myself to be a typical New York sports fan.

I’m a Mets fan but I don’t despise the Yankees like most other Mets fans.

I’m a Jets fan but I don’t dislike the Giants in any way.

I consider myself to be New York sports fan more than a fan of a particular team and in all my years of following sports in New York, I cannot remember a team I enjoyed watching more than the 2007 New York Giants.

The entire season was a five-month roller coaster ride with different twists and turns every Sunday.

One week the Giants would look as if they were a legitimate Super Bowl contender while just seven days later they could easily look like the worst team in the NFL.

It was difficult for most casual Giant’s fans to jump on the band wagon until the playoffs because up until the final game of the regular season, when they nearly squashed New England’s hopes of a perfect season, there wasn’t much of a band wagon to jump on.

When the Giants made their way through the NFC playoffs and eventually defeated the Patriots in the Super Bowl, they overcame a seemingly insurmountable feat.

But, the Super Bowl win alone is not why the 2007 New York Giants are my favorite team of all-time.

A win only goes so far. 

Sure, highlights of David Tyree’s catch, now simply known as ‘the catch’, will be shown for years to come,  and the 2007 Giants will be the answer to countless sports trivia questions about the biggest Super Bowl upsets of all-time.  

But, wins inevitably wear off as the ‘what have you done for me lately’ attitude returns.

What is not easily forgotten, however, is the way a group of men were able to band together and overcome a challenge that most saw as all but impossible.

In this day and age of multi-million dollar contracts, massive endorsement deals and players constantly holding out for bigger and better contracts, more and more fans are beginning to question the true desire the modern day athlete.

But, the 2007 Giants demonstrated that sports can still be pure and good when you have the right mixtures of players and coaches in the locker room.

Following two horrific looses to open the season, the Giants could have easily began turning on each other and on head coach Tom Coughlin who was already on the hot seat before the 2007 season even started.

But, that didn’t happen.

Instead, the team somehow found a spark and strung together six consecutive wins over the next month and a half.

This point of the Giants’ rollercoaster season could be considered that part of any rollercoaster ride where you have slowly ascended to the highest point of the ride.  You can look around and see the entire amusement park below you, a comfortable breeze is blowing on your face and all your worries have disappeared for but a brief moment. 

What usually comes next on any rollercoaster ride experience is the free fall drop followed by a series of vicious twists and turns that have you thinking you might be headed to the hospital with a severe case of whiplash.

Well, something similar happened to the Giants in 2007.

The Giants didn’t really experience a free fall at any point during the season, but the final eight games of the season were certainly a series of vicious twists and turns.

The Giants went 4-3 over the next seven games, and despite clinching a playoff birth with a win over the Bills in the second to last game of the season, the Giants appeared to be limping into the playoffs.

But then, on a freezing cold night in December, the Patriots came into Giants Stadium for the final game of the 2007 season.  What transpired on that frigid night in New Jersey would change the course of the Giants’ season, and NFL history for that matter.

The Giants didn’t foil the Patriots perfect season on December 29^th, 2007, but, they came within a hair of doing so which was the single most important event in the Giants’ season.

I cannot recall a loss that had a more significant positive impact on a football team than the Giants’ loss to the Patriots in the final game of the 2007 season.

The way in which the Giants went head-to-head with the mighty Patriots and very nearly came out on top gave them the one thing they had been missing for the all year – confidence.

Heading into the playoffs, the Giants truly believed that if they could perform that well against the so-called unbeatable Patriots, that they could beat anyone.  It was this belief and confidence that the team rallied around during their road to Super Bowl XLII.

The Giants plowed through Tampa Bay and Dallas before defeating the Packers in overtime of the AFC Championship in sub-zero temperatures at Lambeau Field which had many people comparing the game to the 1967 ‘Ice Bowl’.

Although the Giants had clearly rallied around the confidence gained from their battle with the Patriots five weeks earlier, very few people gave them even a glimmer of a chance in the Super Bowl against the far superior New England Patriots.

Well, everyone had severely underestimated just how powerful a team can become when they are full of confidence and band together for a common goal.

As we all know, the Giants pulled off arguably the biggest upset in Super Bowl history with their 17-14 win over the Patriots out in Arizona.

But, more important that just the astonishing upset that the Giants pulled off, were the lessons that we can all learn from their road to the Super Bowl.

First and foremost, the 2007 Giants taught us a thing or two about loyalty.

Every fan and so-called ‘expert’ was calling for Tom Coughlin’s head after the 2006 season.  But, the Giants remained loyal to Coughlin and gave him one more chance in 2007.  Now, Coughlin has a Super Bowl ring with the Giants and is one of the most respected, and highest paid, coaches in the NFL.

If Giants fans had seen Eli Manning on the streets of Manhattan after the 2006 season, they would have probably formed an angry mob and tried to chase him right out of town.

But, again, the Giants remained loyal to Manning through the bad times and stuck with their belief that he would one day break out and become a solid, if not great, NFL quarterback.

The second thing the 2007 Giants taught us was just how powerful any group of people can be when they unite together to accomplish a common goal.

Third, the 2007 Giants showed us all that no challenge in life is insurmountable.  When you truly believe in something and unwaveringly stick to that belief, anything can be accomplished; whether that’s on the football field or overcoming the challenges that life inevitably throws at each and every one of us at some time or another.

The Giants’ win in Super Bowl XLII was one of the most incredible things I’ve seen in sports, but it’s not the reason why the 2007 Giants are my favorite team of all time.

They are my favorite team of all time because of what they overcame to win the Super Bowl, and what they taught all of us about sports, and life in general.