For Giants, no enemy territory quite like Philadelphia
Eagles running back Miles Sanders, left, is tackled by Giants linebackers Tomon Fox, center, and Oshane Ximines during the first half of an NFL game on Jan. 8 in Philadelphia. Credit: AP/Matt Slocum
PHILADELPHIA
At about 9:30 on Saturday morning, the Giants were waking up for the start of the biggest day of their season. But as they went about the routines of showering, brushing their teeth and other rituals, they were confronted with a dismal reality.
There was no running water.
A pipe had burst in their team hotel, rendering the entire building momentarily dry.
But the plumbing was restored, with the flow returning in some capacity very quickly, and within a matter of hours, the pressure was back to normal. So were the Giants’ routines. No one left in an unclean state (at least no one who didn’t want to), and everything else went smoothly throughout the afternoon.
It was, in the scheme of things, a very minor glitch, the kind that occasionally pops up on the road.
Just some bad luck.
Or was it?
This being Philadelphia, there was no way to actually know for sure. If ever there were a city where such sabotage could be imagined, it is this one.
No NFL facility is closer to MetLife Stadium than Lincoln Financial Field. Nor is there one that feels farther from home for the Giants.
Even though it is a 90-minute ride straight down the New Jersey Turnpike — such a straight run that there are barely any turns between the two locker rooms — right around Exit 7, things start to change. By the time the Philadelphia skyline comes into view, it’s as if a mystical portal has been transcended.
It’s enemy territory even under regular-season circumstances.
For the Divisional Round of the playoffs on Saturday night, it was revved up beyond hostility.
There was even a billboard just outside the stadium directed at one Giants fan in particular.
“Welcome back to Philly, Eli,” it read, a message for Eli Manning, who upon his retirement vowed never to return to the town that had treated him with such venom during his playing career. Manning, though, used this playoff game to rescind that travel ban.
“We salute you!” the sign read, with the image of two eagles between the first and second word.
In other words, a double bird salute.
The Giants knew what they were heading into from the moments after their Wild Card game in Minneapolis ended. In the locker room, they already were bracing for the rain of vulgarity that would await them.
“I told my mom she can’t come to the game because she’ll go back at them,” defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence said during the week.
Saquon Barkley sensed a thaw when the Giants came to town for their Jan. 8 game, the regular-season finale.
“It’s funny, when we were coming into the game last time, there was a little kid and his parent,” Barkley said. “I was just staring, and I was like, ‘I’m going to see if he’s going to flip us off.’ He didn’t, he just gave us a thumbs-down, and I was like, ‘OK, we’re going in the right direction here.’ ”
The playoffs erased such civilities. Saturday’s bus journey again was riddled with the traditional unprintable sights and sounds.
“Philly is Philly,” Barkley said. “Their fan base is crazy. They’re going to be loud, there are going to be cheers, there are going to be boos. There might be some double birds. That’s Philly, you know?”
“I’m expecting a great environment,” cornerback Adoree’ Jackson said. “Obviously, going down there, it’s a division opponent but it’s a playoff game, so I expect them to be fired up and rowdy like I’d expect any team at home to be.”
It did not disappoint. A professional indoor lacrosse game at the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday afternoon had a spike in ticket sales as fans purchased admission to that game not to see the dodges and goals but to get into the parking lots early and tailgate for the evening football game.
The Giants had hoped to use that energy for their purposes.
“Their crowd is brutal, and it helps when their team is as good as they are,” tackle Andrew Thomas said. “We’re looking forward to it, though. It’s nothing but us against the world, so that’s the mentality that we have.”
The last time the Giants had won at Lincoln Financial Field was 2013. No one on the current team had ever won a game in Philadelphia, not even Sterling Shepard or Landon Collins, the two players who most often were the last Giants to do just about anything of significance before this postseason run.
There have been blowouts and heartbreaks, terrible injuries (this was where Victor Cruz tore his patellar tendon) and ugly demonstrations.
All of it was against the backdrop of enmity Philadelphia has come to embrace.
So was Saturday’s win-or-go-home contest.
As the Giants came out of their tunnel and onto the field before kickoff, they were showered with boos and f-bombs.
Philadelphia made sure that shower had the appropriate pressure.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
