Giants' Devon Kennard on rivalry game with Jets: 'This is our home. It brings that edgy play'
New York Giants linebacker Devon Kennard #59 looks on during training camp at the Quest Diagnostics Training Center in East Rutherford, N.J., on Sunday, Aug. 2, 2015. Credit: Brad Penner
LANDOVER, Md. -- Devon Kennard knows what it's like to play a home game in which the opposing team also feels a sense of entitlement to that title. He spent four years at USC, where he faced UCLA in an annual game for Southern California bragging rights.
Next week, he'll do it again, but in the NFL and on the opposite coast.
The Giants will host the Jets on Sunday at MetLife Stadium in a game that not only will be for bragging rights but could affect the playoff hopes of both teams.
"There's that pride," Kennard said Sunday. "Both teams are going to want to say: 'This is our home.' It brings that edgy play. I know both sides of the ball will be ready to go because we both want to be able to say that we run New York."
Unlike college rivalries and division rivalries in the NFL, the Giants and Jets meet in meaningful games only once every four years. The last time was on Christmas Eve in 2011. The Giants won and went on to win a Super Bowl; the Jets lost their final two games after that and have not been back to the playoffs since. Only a handful of current Giants players were on that team.
"Obviously, that's a rivalry within itself," said running back Rashad Jennings, one of the ones who will get their first taste of a Giants-Jets game. "Both teams feel like they're the home team, so it's going to be a good matchup . . . I'm excited for the challenge."
Not everyone is embracing the hype. Cornerback Prince Amukamara said he hopes the team can ignore the rivalry aspect of the game and focus on the significance for the Giants, not Giants fans who want bragging rights over family, friends and neighbors.
"I don't know if anyone is going to buy into the rivalry," Amukamara said. "From a fan point of view, it's an in-state rivalry, but I don't think we should look at it like that because that adds more unwanted pressure. We should just look at it as a game that we need to win . . . We just need to relax and breathe and play the way we know how to play next week."
Jennings agreed. Especially after a humbling 20-14 loss to Washington.
"There won't be any extra incentive needed," he said. "Right now, we're going to go put on the tape and figure how to not let this happen again."
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.
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