Origin of the name
(By Raúl Cancio) Not always the connections between a nickname and a franchise are so evident. The Giants of the Mara family do not reflect the gigantic vertical architecture of New York. In 1925, when Tim Mara acquires the franchise for $500, he borrows the nickname from the homonymous baseball team in the city. Once, coach Mutrie said to his players, "My big fellows! My giants!", and from then on they were known as Giants. In other words, Giants because they are great, not because of the Empire State Building.
Owner: John Mara *****
John's grandfather, Tim Mara, founded the New York Giants in 1925. Since then, and for three generations, the family has been in charge of leading the giant team of New York. They are one of the top owners in the league, those who are heard as soon as they open their mouths, and a key piece of the current health of the competition. The Maras are indissolubly linked to the NFL and their mere presence must be interpreted as a sign of stability and prosperity.
General Manager: Jerry Reese ***
Reese has been with the Maras and the Giants since 1994, and was promoted to general manager in 2007. Therefore, he is directly responsible for two Super Bowl victories. However, although these successes are indisputable, they were also unexpected and punctual. He has never been able to put together teams that were consistently and continually at the top of the league, so his work should be seen as full of ups and downs.
Head Coach: Tom Coughlin ****
Tom Coughlin has already completed a decade as head coach of the New York Giants, and seeing his resilience in the position, it could be said that we are talking about his "first" decade. And that's because he has been questioned as a coach on numerous occasions. The problem for his critics is that he has responded to every tough moment with nothing less than victories in a couple of Super Bowls. He gives off the appearance of an older gentleman who should retire, overwhelmed by young coaches who come with new ideas, but at the end of each season he insists that he wants to continue, and at this point, it is very difficult to imagine that he will be fired considering what he has given to the franchise.
STADIUM: MetLife Stadium, private and shared ****
(By José Villelabeitia) The Giants, after decades of playing in the sacred temples of New York, The Polo Grounds and Yankee Stadium, decided to move to neighboring New Jersey. In the 1980s, they started sharing their stadium, the Giants Stadium, with the Jets, which led to that field becoming where the most NFL games have been played. With the fever for new stadiums instead of renovating that one, which was 33 years old, both teams agreed to co-finance a new stadium with private funds that was more in line with the NFL's new requirements, which even allowed a Super Bowl to take place there.
FAN BASE: A veteran and well-earned fan base ***
(By José Villelabeitia) The Giants' fan base is much larger than the other NFL team, the Jets. This is not only because the team is older, it was founded in 1925, but also because the Giants enjoyed sole ownership of the football fandom in a state where there is hardly any college football until 1965. The Giants have had to compete against the numerous other sports franchises that the city has enjoyed, such as the NHL's Rangers (since 1926) and the NBA's Knicks (since 1946), and especially against the three baseball giants, the Yankees, who remain in the city and continue to be its sports icon par excellence, and before they migrated west in 1957, the Giants (from which they took their name) and the Dodgers.
The fan base is less noisy, and above all less strident, than that of the Jets, with whom they also get along quite well, which is quite a rarity in the world of sports regardless of the city being evaluated. Their hated teams are their traditional division rivals, Philadelphia and Washington. It is also said to be a fan base with much more weight and pedigree, eight championships.
CHEERLEADERS
(By José Villelabeitia) The Giants have not decided to take the same step as their stadium neighbors and still do not have cheerleaders. The Maras seem too rooted in old traditions to consider something like that.