Mike Tirico, the play-by-play announcer for Sunday Night Football, probably planned to fill five to 10 minutes of airtime with how much the Giants raved about the addition of tight end Darren Waller, the former Pro Bowler of the Raiders.
Instead of wasting those notes, Tirico dropped his first Waller nugget with the Giants down four scores to the Cowboys with less than six minutes remaining in the second quarter, one play after $40 million-per-year quarterback Daniel Jones recorded his first passing yards of the game.
It was an embarrassing start for the Giants, who were booed off the field by their home crowd at MetLife Stadium at halftime. Tirico likely never expected to force a positive note about Waller, and Giants fans probably never imagined this kind of a beatdown—a 40–0 loss in the season opener, the biggest shutout in this NFC East rivalry’s history.
