The not-so New York Giants

I could not tell you the last time the New York Giants started an NFL season this badly. What I can tell you is that since Eli Manning has taken over the starting Quarterback job, we (yes, the Giants and myself) have not had a losing regular season record. How is it possible that a professional football team who won the Super Bowl twice in the past five years starts this season with zero wins and six losses, and finally get their first win in the ugliest of fashions against arguably a bigger laughing stock in the league, the Minnesota Vikings? We are used to winning, not getting ripped on by late-night television hosts such as Jay Leno.

Yet through the toughest six football weeks I have ever experienced, one thing has remained constant. That is this: Dallas Cowboys fans make life harder than it has to be. Coming from New York, where the Giants are clearly the best football team in the state, and now going to school in Texas, where everybody within state boundaries but outside of the Houston area is a fan of the Dallas Cowboys feels like the hardest thing I have had to deal with. It has become part of my daily routine to accept a criticism of the Giants. Just the other day, in fact, I was tossing a football at a nearby park with a bunch of my friends when I happened to make a bad throw. "Good throw Eli," said one of my "friends," kicking me while I was already down.

Eli Manning after throwing one of his 15 interceptions this seasons. A face too familiar to Giants fans across the country (photo: Charlie Reidel). 

Of course this is not a plea for sympathy, as I will admit it is arguably the saddest sports-team meltdown  ever. This is to offer fans like myself who have been "driving the struggle bus" for one too many stops a way to get off. Pump the breaks and look at the bigger picture. The football season is not over. To date, the New York "Football" Giants are still the same Giants, just a little smaller. With a big win against our arch-rivals the Philadelphia Eagles this coming weekend, the ball could start rolling.

Eli Manning is Eli Manning, a high risk-high reward quarterback who will win you some super bowls, but also start a season with six straight losses. Crazier things have happened, such as "The Helmet Catch" in the 2007 Super Bowl, or the Manning-to-Manningham catch that won us the 2011 Super Bowl. We have reached a fork in the road as fans; should we lose games to get a good draft pick, or should we try to turn this season around? As a wise New York athlete named Yogi Berra once said, "when you come to a fork in the road, take it." There is still time to play good football.