Jump to content

New York Giants

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 67.86.176.196 (talk) at 03:19, 23 January 2007. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

For other uses, see [[:the current National Football League team]].
New York Giants
New York Giants logo
New York Giants logo
Logo
Established 1925
Play in East Rutherford, New Jersey
League / conference affiliations
National Football League (1925–present)
  • Eastern Division (1933-1949)
  • American Conference (1950-1952)
  • Eastern Conference (1953-1969)
    • Century Division (1967; 1969)
    • Capitol Division (1968)
  • National Football Conference (1970-present)
Uniforms
Team colorsRoyal Blue, Red, Gray, and White
Personnel
Owner(s)John Mara (50%) and Steve Tisch (50%)
General managerJerry Reese
Head coachTom Coughlin
Team history
  • New York Giants (1925–present)
Team nicknames
Big Blue Wrecking Crew, Big Blue, G-Men, The Jints, The New York Football Giants, Jersey Giants
Championships
League championships (6)
Conference championships (9)
  • NFL Eastern: 1956, 1958, 1959, 1961, 1962, 1963
  • NFC: 1986, 1990, 2000
Division championships (14)
  • NFL East: 1933, 1934, 1935, 1938, 1939, 1941, 1944, 1946
  • NFC East: 1986, 1989, 1990, 1997, 2000, 2005
Home fields

The New York Giants SUCK MASSIVE BALLS AND LIKE DICK!!!!are a professional American football team based in the New York City metropolitan area. The team is headquartered, trains, and plays its home games at Giants Stadium at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in the suburb of East Rutherford, New Jersey. They are currently members of the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL). The Giants were one of five teams that joined the NFL in 1925, but the only one admitted that year that still exists.

The Giants have won a total of six NFL titles -- four pre-merger NFL Championships(1927, 1934, 1938, 1956) and 2 Super Bowls(1986, 1990).

To distinguish itself from the professional baseball team of the same name, the football team was referred to as the New York Football Giants. Although the baseball team moved to San Francisco in 1957, the football team continues to use "New York Football Giants" as its legal corporate name.

With such a long history, the team has gained additional unofficial names. Fans and sportswriters have given the team a number of nicknames, including Big Blue, the G-men, the Big Blue Wrecking Crew, Jersey Giants, and the Jints, a name seen frequently in the New York Post and presumably making light of the classic New York accent's take on the word giant. Though technically not a nickname, one may stress the football when saying the team's full name, as in New York Football Giants.

The Giants conduct summer training camp at the University at Albany.

Franchise history

Further information: History of the New York Giants

The Giants were founded in 1925 by original owner Tim Mara in the five-year-old NFL. Mara owned the team until his death in 1959, when it was passed on to his son Wellington.

In just its second season, the team finished with the best record in the league at 11-1 and was awarded the NFL title (the championship was determined by record in that era; it wasn't until 1933 that the NFL had a championship game). In a fourteen year span from 1933 to 1946, the Giants qualified to play in the NFL championship game 8 times, winning two of them.

They did not win another league title until 1956, aided by a number of future Pro Football Hall of Fame players such as running back Frank Gifford, linebacker Sam Huff, and offensive tackle Roosevelt Brown. The Giants 1956 Championship team not only consisted of players that would eventually find their way to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but it also had a Hall of Fame coaching staff. Head coach Jim Lee Howell's staff had Vince Lombardi coaching the offense and Tom Landry coaching the defense. When the Dallas Cowboys entered the league in 1960, Wellington Mara recommended that the Cowboys hire Landry as head coach. From 1958 to 1963, the Giants played in the NFL championship game 5 out of those 6 years, but failed to win.

From 1964 to 1980, the Giants suffered losing seasons and were never able to advance to the playoffs. But from 1981 to 2005, the team qualified for the postseason 11 out of those 25 seasons. During that period, they won Super Bowl XXI (1987) and Super Bowl XXV (1991), and lost Super Bowl XXXV (2001). The team's success during the 1980s was aided by head coach Bill Parcells, quarterback Phil Simms, linebacker Lawrence Taylor, and linebacker Harry Carson.

Current head coach Tom Coughlin started his career as the coach for the football program at Rochester Institute of Technology, before moving on to coaching duties at alma mater Syracuse University and eventually the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Logos and uniforms

The Giants have had numerous uniforms and logos over the decades. For most of the team's history, Giants uniforms have been primarily royal blue, with red, white and gray featured as accent colors. Traditionally, Giants home jerseys are predominantly blue.

Giants logos have centered around three distinct concepts: a "giant" football player poised to throw a pass, variations on the initials for New York in lowercase ("ny") and simply the team nickname (GIANTS) written out in bold italicized capital letters.

The "giant quarterback" logo is a testament to the evolution of both the Giants and the sport that they play. Initially, the giant quarterback towers above the New York City skyline, then Yankee Stadium (the team's home from 1956-1973), and finally the Meadowlands. Also, in the four earlier giant quarterback logos, note the outstretched non-throwing arm. The current giant quarterback prepares to throw as most professional quarterbacks do, without the stiff-arm as part of the wind-up and release.

Both the "ny" and "GIANTS" logos have been featured on the team's uniforms over the past 45 years, though currently the "GIANTS" logo appears nowhere on the team's uniforms.

Giants Uniforms, 1961-1974

1961 heralded a new era for the team's uniforms, as the club debuted a white lower-case "ny" logo decorating the sides of the previously solid blue helmet, which retained its single front-to-back red stripe and gray facemask. For home games, the Giants wore a solid royal blue jersey with solid white block numbers without trim, gray pants with a black belt and thin red-blue-red triple stripes on the sides, solid blue socks and black cleats. For away games, they wore a solid white jersey with solid red block numbers without trim and triple red stripe just above the hem of the sleeves. The away uniform's pants were the same as those worn at home, but the socks were solid red.

The template for the 1961 home and away uniforms would undergo minor changes over the next 13 years. In 1962, the pants striping was changed from three unconnected thin stripes to three connected thicker stripes, still colored red-blue-red. In 1964, the away jersey lost its sleeve stripes. 1967 saw a flurry of minor changes, as the pants striping became blue-red-blue, away socks changed from red to blue-red-blue, the away block numbers became blue, and stripes returned to the sleeve with a thin blue-red-blue pattern, albeit now bordering the hem in a different layout than the sleeve stripes last seen in 1964.

1968 marked the first major change for the uniform, as the gray pants were retired in favor of white ones. Additionally, the striped away socks became solid blue, matching the home versions.

In 1969, the Giants along with the other teams in the NFL wore a special commemorative patch to honor the league's 50th regular season.

Giants Uniforms, 1975-1979

1975 would see unquestionably the most radical re-design of a Giants uniform in the second half of the 20th century. The 1974 descendant of the 1961 uniform was shelved in favor of a design that emphasized striping and the accent color white. Almost everything was changed, from the helmet to the cleats.

The helmet's red stripe was now flanked by two thin white stripes, and a white facemask replaced the traditional gray one. The home blue jersey gained red trim around its block numbers, and red-white-red-white-red stripes on its sleeves. The white pants introduced a blue belt and a new side stripe pattern (thin red-thick blue-thin red). The socks, while still technically blue, now mirrored the sleeve stripe pattern.

The away uniform had the same design as the home version, except the colors were largely swapped: the jersey was white with blue numbers trimmed in red, the sleeves had red-blue-red-blue-red stripes, the pants were blue (with a blue belt) with a thin red-thick white-thin red side stripe. White socks with the away jersey shoulder stripe pattern were used. Finally, amidst the wide-reaching changes, the team's cleats became white.

Perhaps even more radical than the uniform redesign was the team's swtich from the classic lowercase "ny" logo to an uppercase "NY" as its primary logo. Echoing the 1975 uniform's affinity for stripes, the logo pattern itself is composed of stripes.

One year later, a new logo was introduced and the uppercase "NY" disappeared: an italicized and underlined GIANTS became the team's primary logo. The abrupt change was prompted by the franchise's move from New York to East Rutherford, New Jersey.

The blue away pants would survive four seasons, lasting until the end of the 1978 season. In 1979, the away uniforms used the same white pants as the home uniforms while keeping the same blue belt and away socks.

Giants Uniforms, 1980-1999

The design experimentation begun in 1975 did not last into the new decade. The 1980 season witnessed a serious re-design of the uniforms and a general abandonment of the excess of striping: the new uniforms combined elements of several past uniforms from the 60's and mid-70's and would be the uniforms worn by the team in their victories in Super Bowls XXI and XXV.

The white stripes on the helmet disappeared, and the sleeve stripes were replaced with a more conservative red-white-red thin striped pattern for the home jerseys and a blue-red-blue version for the white away jerseys previously worn in 1974. A similar matching thin-striped pattern was added around the collar for both jerseys. The pants lost the blue belts (replaced with white ones) and the side stripes returned to the blue-red-blue contiguous stripes of equal thickness last seen in 1967. The socks returned to their 1974 solid-blue standard for home and away versions.

Not all the 1975 elements were discarded: the redesign did retain the 1975 trim around the block numbers, and the facemask and cleats remained white.

This template would be largely untouched over the next 19 seasons. In 1982, the collar striping became "pointed" at the base of the neck to form a "V", and in 1985 the block number font was altered to have a slightly more robust appearance. In 1991, the Giants and all other franchises added the NFL shield below the "V" on the jersey collar and to the upper left thigh of the pants.

Giants Uniforms, 2000-2004

In 2000, the team introduced a new "throwback" uniform design influenced heavily by the Giant's look in the 1960s. The lowercase "ny" logo returned as primary logo on the side of the team's helmets, replacing the italicized "GIANTS", which was relegated to the front of both home and away jerseys in a small logo just beneath the neck of the jerseys. Owner Wellington Mara commented on the change, saying "We are not attempting to make a political statement. Many people have remarked over the years that the "ny" logo is the greatest logo not being used. We happen to agree. We represent, and always have, the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area. We did when we played at the Polo Grounds, Yankee Stadium, Shea Stadium and the Yale Bowl, and we have since we moved to New Jersey. We are proud to represent this region, and we're proud of our heritage."[1]

Although the uniform change was based on Giants home uniforms from the 60's, there were subtle differences. The royal blue in the home jersey was darkened slightly to a shade known as dark royal blue, while the helmet closely matched its precursor (down to the front-mounted player block numbers on either side of the central red stripe), but added a metallic appearance. Another notable change is on the old 1960s helmets, the "NY" on the helmets was slightly more vertically elongated and was a little rounder. Additionally, a red triangle containing the NFL shield was placed at the tip of the collar's "V" for the home jersey.

The white road jersey had less to do with the 60's variants and more with the 80's and 90's designs, keeping red colored trim around the jersey's blue block numbers, a solid blue collar and thin blue-red-blue striping near the hem of the sleeves. Player names appeared in blue.

Both home and away jerseys had their TV numbers (i.e., the numbers on the sleeves) shifted from the sleeves to the top of the shoulders. Gray pants with gray belts returned as standard design for both home and away uniforms, with the side of the legs adorned with a single thick red stripe directly bordered by two blue stripes of equal thickness. Finally, blue socks accompanied the home uniforms and red socks returned for the away uniforms.

For the 2002 season, the away socks again became blue and would remain that way until the end of the 2004 season.

In Week 12 of the 2004 season, the team introduced an alternate solid red jersey with white numbers in a game against the Philadelphia Eagles. This variant simply swaps the blue of the regular home jersey for red and retains the same design. The original alternate was paired with blue socks, but the current template (pictured below) indicates the Giants would wear red socks if the alternate was worn again.

Giants Uniforms, 2005 -

In 2005, the Giants unveiled road uniforms that are exact replicas of the ones worn by the 1956 Giants Championship team. The uniform highlights red as an accent color, as almost all dark royal blue is removed. The white away jersey has three horizontal red stripes added to the sleeves, with the central stripe thicker than the other two. This pattern is known as the Northwestern stripe pattern, named after the college that is believed to have originated it. [2]

Further changes include removal of the blue collar, removal of the blue trim from the red block numbers, and the switch of name plate lettering from blue to red. The blue socks are replaced by red ones, and the gray pants have a different striping pattern, with a thin blue central stripe (the only blue remaining in the uniform save for the helmet) flanked by thin, parallel red stripes.

Two final, subtle alterations affected both the home and away uniforms at the beginning of the 2005 season. The first change was the replacement of the "GIANTS" logo below the neck of the jersey with the "ny" logo, with a white logo on the home and home alternate jersey and a red one on the away version. The second change was the switch from white to black cleats, a change not reflected in the official uniform templates pictured above.

For week 15 of the 2006 season, the Giants wore their alternate jersey during a home game versus NFC East rivals the Dallas Cowboys. Contrasting with the official template for the design pictured above, the Giants wore their away pants with the red jerseys despite being at home, perhaps due to the equipment manager's decision to keep the away pants paired with the alternate jersey's red socks. The re-appearance of the red alternate jersey revealed that similar to the standard blue home jersey's red triangle just beneath the collar containing the NFL Shield, the red alternate has a blue "collar triangle" containing the shield. This appearance marks only the second time the team has worn the red jersey, and the first time the alternate jersey has been paired with their current away pants and red socks.

Although the home alternate uniform has not yet settled on a single design, the Giants currently have three complete uniforms: home, home alternate, and away.

Giants Fight Song

The Giants' fight song, "Fight, You Fightin' Giants!" was penned in 1960 by Herb Steiner, Cy Gillis, and Kyle Rote. The lyrics are as follows:

"Fight, You Fightin' Giants!"

Come on and fight you fightin' Giants,
Roll along, to a score;
Come on and fight you fightin' Giants,
Roll it up, more and more.
Go on and show your might, you Giants,
As you go, t'ward the foe;
Come on and go, go, go, go, go fightin' Giants,
Giants Go!

Marching along the road to victory,
Fight Giants fight, you're on the way.
Singing a song, another victory,
You're gonna win again today.
So rack 'em up, and stack 'em up,
And go, go, go, go, go, go, go!

Come on and fight you fightin' Giants,
Roll along, to a score;
Come on and fight you fightin' Giants,
Roll it up, more and more.
Go on and show your might, you Giants,
As you go, t'ward the foe;
Come on and go, go, go, go, go fightin' Giants,
Giants Go!

Season-by-season records

Season records
Season W L T Finish Playoff results
1925 8 4 0 4th NFL The NFL did not hold playoff games until 1932
1926 8 4 1 7th NFL
1927 11 1 0 1st NFL
1928 4 7 2 6th NFL
1929 13 1 1 2nd NFL
1930 13 4 0 2nd NFL
1931 7 6 1 5th NFL
1932 4 6 2 5th NFL --
1933 11 3 0 1st NFL East Lost NFL Championship (Bears) 23-21
1934 8 5 0 1st NFL East Won NFL Championship (Bears) 30-13
1935 9 3 0 1st NFL East Lost NFL Championship (Lions) 26-7
1936 5 6 1 3rd NFL East --
1937 6 3 2 2nd NFL East --
1938 8 2 1 1st NFL East Won NFL Championship (Packers) 23-17
1939 9 1 1 1st NFL East Lost NFL Championship (Packers) 27-0
1940 6 4 1 3rd NFL East --
1941 8 3 0 1st NFL East Lost NFL Championship (Bears) 37-9
1942 5 5 1 3rd NFL East --
1943 6 3 1 2nd NFL East Lost Eastern Divisional Playoff (Redskins) 28-0
1944 8 1 1 1st NFL East Lost NFL Championship (Packers) 14-7
1945 3 6 1 T-3rd NFL East --
1946 7 3 1 1st NFL East Lost NFL Championship (Bears) 24-14
1947 2 8 2 5th NFL East --
1948 4 8 0 T-3rd NFL East --
1949 6 6 0 3rd NFL East --
1950 10 2 0 2nd NFL AFC Lost American Conference Playoff (Browns) 8-3
1951 9 2 1 2nd NFL AFC --
1952 7 5 0 T-2nd NFL AFC --
1953 3 9 0 5th NFL East --
1954 7 5 0 3rd NFL East --
1955 6 5 1 3rd NFL East --
1956 8 3 1 1st NFL East Won NFL Championship (Bears) 47-7
1957 7 5 0 2nd NFL East --
1958 9 3 0 1st NFL East Won Divisional Playoffs (Browns) 10-0
Lost NFL Championship (B. Colts) 23-17
1959 10 2 0 1st NFL East Lost NFL Championship (B. Colts) 31-16
1960 6 4 2 3rd NFL East --
1961 10 3 1 1st NFL East Lost NFL Championship (Packers) 37-0
1962 12 2 0 1st NFL East Lost NFL Championship (Packers) 16-7
1963 11 3 0 1st NFL East Lost NFL Championship (Bears) 14-10
1964 2 10 2 7th NFL East --
1965 7 7 0 T-2nd NFL East --
1966 1 12 1 8th NFL East --
1967 7 7 0 2nd NFL Century --
1968 7 7 0 2nd NFL Capitol --
1969 6 8 0 2nd NFL Century --
1970 9 5 0 2nd NFC East --
1971 4 10 0 5th NFC East --
1972 8 6 0 3rd NFC East --
1973 2 11 1 5th NFC East --
1974 2 12 0 5th NFC East --
1975 5 9 0 4th NFC East --
1976 3 11 0 5th NFC East --
1977 5 9 0 5th NFC East --
1978 6 10 0 5th NFC East --
1979 6 10 0 4th NFC East --
1980 4 12 0 5th NFC East --
1981 9 7 0 3rd NFC East Won Wild Card Playoffs (Eagles) 27-21
Lost Divisional Playoffs (49ers) 38-24
1982 4 5 0 10th NFC Conf.+ --
1983 3 12 1 5th NFC East --
1984 9 7 0 2nd NFC East Won Wild Card Playoffs (L.A. Rams) 16-13
Lost Divisional Playoffs (49ers) 21-10
1985 10 6 0 2nd NFC East Won Wild Card Playoffs (49ers) 17-3
Lost Divisional Playoffs (Bears) 21-0
1986 14 2 0 1st NFC East Won Divisional Playoffs (49ers) 49-3
Won Conference Championship (Redskins)17-0
Won Super Bowl XXI (Broncos) 39-20
1987 6 9 0 5th NFC East --
1988 10 6 0 2nd NFC East --
1989 12 4 0 1st NFC East Lost Divisional Playoffs (L.A. Rams) 19-13
1990 13 3 0 1st NFC East Won Divisional Playoffs (Bears) 31-3
Won Conference Championship (49ers) 15-13
Won Super Bowl XXV (Bills) 20-19
1991 8 8 0 4th NFC East --
1992 6 10 0 4th NFC East --
1993 11 5 0 2nd NFC East Won Wild Card Playoffs (Vikings) 17-10
Lost Divisional Playoffs (49ers) 44-3
1994 9 7 0 2nd NFC East --
1995 5 11 0 4th NFC East --
1996 6 10 0 5th NFC East --
1997 10 5 1 1st NFC East Lost Wild Card Playoffs (Vikings) 23-22
1998 8 8 0 3rd NFC East --
1999 7 9 0 3rd NFC East --
2000 12 4 0 1st NFC East Won Divisional Playoffs (Eagles) 20-10
Won Conference Championship (Vikings) 41-0
Lost Super Bowl XXXV (Ravens) 34-7
2001 7 9 0 3rd NFC East --
2002 10 6 0 2nd NFC East Lost Wild Card Playoffs (49ers) 39-38
2003 4 12 0 4th NFC East --
2004 6 10 0 T-2nd NFC East --
2005 11 5 0 1st NFC East Lost Wild Card Playoffs (Panthers) 23-0
2006 8 8 0 3rd NFC East Lost Wild Card Playoffs (Eagles) 23-20
Totals 609 517 33 (1925-2006, including NFL playoffs)

* = Current Standing

+ = Due to a strike-shortened season in 1982, all teams were ranked by conference instead of division.

Players of note

Current players

New York Giants roster
Quarterbacks (QB)

Running backs (RB)

Wide receivers (WR)

Tight ends (TE)

Offensive linemen (OL)

Defensive linemen (DL)

Linebackers (LB)

Defensive backs (DB)

Special teams

Practice squad

Reserve


As of January 7, 2025. Rookies in italics.

53 active, 21 reserve, 9 practice squad (+1 exempt)

Pro Football Hall of Famers

Retired numbers

Other notable alumni

Head coaches

Current Staff

Radio and television

As of 2006, the Giants' flagship radio station is WFAN 660AM, the oldest all-sports radio station in the United States. Some games in August and September are moved to WFNY-FM 92.3 FM due to conflicts with the New York Mets baseball team. The play-by-play announcer is Bob Papa, brother of Oakland Raiders announcer Greg Papa. Preseason telecasts not seen nationally air in the area on WNBC, "NewsChannel 4."

References

  1. ^ "Giants unveil new uniform with a traditional touch". Retrieved 6 February. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ "New Road Uniforms for the 2005 season".


Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=New_York_Giants&oldid=102587788"