As summer began to fade, the New York Giants turned up the hype on their 100th-season celebration.
Brand new throwback uniforms, designed to honor teams of the past, were introduced, documentaries and podcasts were created, a list of the top 100 players in franchise history was revealed, and several other events were planned.
However, through 13 weeks, what’s happened in East Rutherford feels like anything but a celebration.
The team is 2-10, there are calls to fire general manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll, captain Daniel Jones has been released, fellow captains Dexter Lawrence and Andrew Thomas are out for the season, and several of the team’s former stars are dominating the league.
It’s more of a funeral and less of a party.
For co-owner John Mara, things could not have gone worse. The Giants are a doormat; a laughingstock and the butt of every joke. It’s been a humiliation.
They are setting records, but not of the positive variety. They recently became the first team in NFL history to go 11 straight games without an interception — an active streak they’d very much like to end.
Unfortunately for Mara and these Giants, things may only get worse as Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post lays out.
Losing the final five games — as underdogs in each — would mean a .118 winning percentage that would be the franchise’s second-worst — ahead of the 1966 team that went 1-12-1 (.107) and behind other two-win outfits in 1947, 1964, 1973 and 1974.
Winless in the NFC East for the first time. Since permanently joining the division in 1970, the Giants have finished in last place 14 times, but never faced what would happen if they lose to the Eagles in Week 18 to go 0-6 against their three rivals.
Winless at home for the first time since 1974, when they were playing at the Yale Bowl while waiting for their first Meadowlands home to be built. The 2003 and 1983 teams both went 1-7 at Giants Stadium.
The fewest points scored in the NFL for the first time since 1953, when there only were 12 franchises.
As the late Billy Mays would say, “But wait! There’s more!”
The current seven-game slide is tied for the seventh-worst mark and is creeping up on the three-time record of nine in a row (1976, 2003-04 and 2019).
The Giants already own the modern record (since 1933) for consecutive games without an interception at 11 and counting. The 2018 49ers set the record for fewest single-season interceptions with two, and the Giants haven’t had a team with fewer than six (2022) since the statistic was first tracked in 1940.
It’s important to remember what Mara said about the 100th-season celebration before the year got underway.
“We’re all excited about it. A little nervous because we want to make sure that the 100th season, you’d like it to be a successful one,” Mara said, via Giants.com. “You’d like every season to be successful, but particularly this one. A lot of history behind those 100 years.”
How the mighty have fallen.
Leave it to the Giants to celebrate the century mark with arguably one of the worst seasons in franchise history.
