New York Giants

▪ American football team

 American professional gridiron football (football, gridiron) team based in East Rutherford, N.J. The Giants won three Super Bowls (Super Bowl) (1987, 1991, and 2008) and four National Football League (NFL) championships (which predated the Super Bowl era). The Giants are noted for their early successes and for their dominant play in the 1980s and '90s under head coach Bill Parcells.

      The Giants were established in 1925 in New York and played their first three decades at the Polo Grounds in upper Manhattan. The franchise was purchased for $500 by Tim Mara, whose family retained an ownership interest in the team into the 21st century (in 1930 he split ownership between his two sons, Jack and Wellington). Although the Giants lost their first contest 14–0 to the Frankford Yellow Jackets, they quickly distinguished themselves as one of the great teams of early professional football, winning NFL championships in 1927, 1934, and 1938. The 1934 championship was won 30–13 over the Washington Redskins in the famous “Sneakers Game”; the Giants trailed at halftime but switched to basketball shoes to gain better traction on the icy field. During the next decade the Giants continued to enjoy success, advancing to (though losing) four NFL championship games (1939, 1941, 1944, 1946). In the late 1940s the team endured hardship on the field, posting consecutive losing seasons in 1947, 1948, and 1949 before enjoying success again in the 1950s.

      In 1956 the Giants moved from the Polo Grounds to Yankee Stadium and, behind the legs of legendary running back Frank Gifford and the grit of linebacker Sam Huff, captured their fourth (and last) NFL championship. During this period the team included defensive back Emlen Tunnel (Tunnell, Emlen), who played 11 seasons (1948–58) with the team and became the first African American player to be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The 1950s team was also notable for its coaching staff, with Vince Lombardi (Lombardi, Vince) in charge of the offense and Tom Landry (Landry, Tom) the defense. Both coaches went on to be legends of the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys, respectively. The 1958 NFL championship pitted the Giants against the Baltimore Colts in what is viewed by many as one of football's greatest games. With a national television audience watching, the Colts beat the Giants 23–17 in a dramatic contest that ended in sudden-death overtime. The game marked the beginning of the NFL's tremendous popularity in the United States.

      The Giants, led by quarterback Y.A. Tittle, advanced to the NFL championship game in 1961, 1962, and 1963 but then struggled for many seasons, posting only two winning records between 1964 and 1980 (1970, 1972). In that period the team also moved from New York to New Jersey, beginning play at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands in 1976 (the team played seasons in the Yale Bowl in Connecticut and Shea Stadium in Queens, N.Y.). During this stretch the Giants suffered one of their most stinging defeats in what was called the “Miracle at the Meadowlands” or “The Fumble”; on Nov. 19, 1978, against the Philadelphia Eagles, the Giants led 17–12 and needed only to run out the clock to secure victory, but an errant handoff from quarterback Joe Pisarcik to fullback Larry Csonka allowed the Eagles' Herman Edwards to recover a fumble and run 26 yards into the end zone to win the game.

      Bill Parcells became the Giants' head coach starting in the 1983 season. Parcells assembled teams that included linebackers Lawrence Taylor (Taylor, Lawrence) and Harry Carson, quarterback Phil Simms, and tight end Mark Bavaro. The Giants won Super Bowls following the 1986 and 1990 seasons, maintaining success through the majority of Parcells's tenure. After capturing the second Super Bowl, Parcells left the team, and afterward the Giants had a mixed record, with four winning seasons between 1991 and 2000. In 2000 they advanced to the Super Bowl, losing 34–7 to the Baltimore Ravens.

      In 2004 Tom Coughlin joined the franchise as its head coach, and, though he sometimes encountered criticism for his style, the Giants performed well under his leadership. In Super Bowl XLII in 2008, led by quarterback Eli Manning and defensive lineman Michael Strahan, the Giants managed one of the greatest upsets in NFL history, defeating the previously undefeated and heavily favoured New England Patriots.

* * *