It’s been a long time since the New York Giants had a decent run in the postseason. The last time was back when Tom Coughlin was in charge.
There have been other appearances, but he was the last one to win a Super Bowl. Not only that, but he managed to beat the New England Patriots twice, something no other coach has done in the Bill Belichick era.
One of Coughlin’s best players was former defensive end Michael Strahan. He didn’t take part in the 2011 victory but was part of the 2007 team that earned Eli Manning his first Super Bowl ring.
Strahan recently appeared on the Let’s Go! podcast with former Patriots quarterback Tom Brady to discuss that particular game. During the conversation, Strahan revealed that he didn’t think the Giants could have defeated the Patriots in a series of games.
“Beating you guys in the Super Bowl, I’ve never been that exhausted in my life. Ever. When they say leave it on the field, it was nothing left,” said Strahan. “That last pass rush I had, that was like, not even fumes in the tank. You guys were so good, and we were just a bunch of guys who were just happy not to be home because we didn’t want our story to end.
“We didn’t want our togetherness to end because we loved being around each other so much. I always say, the great thing about football, you just got to win one. You don’t have to win one out of three, one out of five, one out of seven. There’s no way we would have done that against you guys. No way.”
There’s a reason football games are one-and-done, though. It would be incredibly taxing on the players to have a series of games to play in the postseason. And it’s clearly a good thing that they don’t play series’ in the NFL, or the Giants might not have those Super Bowl wins at all.
The good news is, they do have those wins and Tom Coughlin remains one of the greatest Giants’ head coaches of all time. And the Giants got to ruin the Patriots’ season on two separate occasions — including that not-so-perfect run in 2007.
