Giants have turned New York into Big Blue heaven
Giants defensive end Leonard Williams talks to safety Julian Love during practice at the Quest Diagnostics Training Center on Thursday in East Rutherford. Credit: Corey Sipkin
Tony Jefferson has been on playoff teams before. Three times before, with two other teams.
He’s been in the stands for NBA games, too. He’s a fan of the game.
On Monday this week, those two experiences converged to provide him an awakening to something he’d only heard about.
He and two teammates attended the Knicks-Raptors game at the Garden, and at one point, their images were up there on the scoreboard. Just three anonymous, unrecognizable guys, really, not much different from anyone else in the arena. Until they were identified as Giants players.
That’s when they got a standing ovation.
“That was pretty eye-opening seeing how much people really love the Giants winning,” Jefferson told Newsday on Thursday. “The hospitality everybody was getting, has been getting, not just there but around the city now, it’s a great time.
“It doesn’t matter who you are. If you are a Giant, in their eyes, you are everything to them.”
Winning is great. But winning in New York, for these players who are here from 21 different states and four different countries, is a whole different experience.
And they haven’t even won anything but a playoff game yet! If they can string a few more victories together, they’ll find themselves forever embraced by the region.
Terrell Burgess, a practice squad cornerback who was with Jefferson and safety Jason Pinnock at the Garden, said the feeling is completely different from the one he had last season when he was with the Rams for their Super Bowl run.
“You realize how different it is to be in a different city and see the fans enjoy and like the team,” Burgess said. “In L.A., the Lakers and Dodgers are a way bigger team. Here the Knicks and the Nets are big teams and the Jets are a big team, and the Yankees and Mets are big during their seasons, but the Giants?”
They’re the biggest story in town, and so even those who are attached to their peripheries get caught up in the excitement.
You don’t have to be as recognizable as Daniel Jones or Saquon Barkley to be cheered and fawned over. Last week, several of the offensive linemen attended an Islanders game at UBS Arena and received a huge ovation when they were shown on the video board . . . even though it’s a safe bet that less than a few dozen of the fans in the stands could have identified any of them by name.
Korey Cunningham, a practice squad tackle, at least made it a memorable moment by pulling off his Islanders sweater and swigging a beer bare-chested; he said most of the beverage spilled all over him.
“I went with it,” he said. “It definitely got the fans going. It was a fun experience. They went absolutely crazy.”
Cunningham had a much more peaceful experience this Monday, the day after the Giants’ win over the Vikings. He popped in his AirPods, walked around Manhattan and went to a nice sushi restaurant. No one knew who he was, but he could sense that there was a buzz in Big Town. Everywhere he looked, folks were wearing Giants jerseys, sweatshirts, hats, jackets.
“Seeing the New York fans and how happy they were, I was like, ‘Man, it’s great to be a part of this,’ ” Cunningham said. “This is a place where you want to win for this city. They deserve this. It’s been a while. That makes people want to keep going. You can feel it here in the locker room.”
Many of the high-profile Giants received a crash course in how passionate fans here can be. Jones, in his first professional sporting appearance after being drafted in the first round, was booed at Yankee Stadium (a derision stemming more in defense of Eli Manning and frustration with the general manager who selected him where he did, no doubt, than a personal attack on Jones himself).
And last spring, when Brian Daboll and Joe Schoen were putting the first pieces of this team together, they often elicited roars of support whenever they were shown in their seats at Rangers playoff games.
“Our fan base is awesome,” Daboll said. “They’ve been awesome all year. We appreciate their support . . . They’re an important part of our team.”
That was then. Now that the Giants are actually winning, it’s becoming even more obvious how meaningful it is to succeed in New York as opposed to Buffalo, Baltimore or even Los Angeles.
“This is like some movie-type stuff, that’s what it feels like,” Jefferson said.
“It was cool to be there and get a standing ovation with T.J. and Pinnock,” Burgess said. “It was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it.”
Then he reflected.
“It stunk that the Knicks lost,” he said.
That’s part of the New York fabric, too.
Oh, well. One franchise turnaround at a time.
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.
