The National Football League has got a major problem in one of their major markets. Football in New York with both the Giants and Jets is at an all time low.
And that is saying a lot, because there have been a lot of lows for these two long-suffering franchises.
It wasn’t always that way.
The Jets won professional football one of their most important games in Super Bowl III. The NFL had negotiated a merger with the upstart American Football League, and they were set to begin play as one league in 1970. The formation of two conferences with three divisions in each one required three NFL teams move over to the newly established American Football Conference. Those three teams were the Baltimore Colts, Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns.
There was little debate that the NFL had more talent and that appraisal was verified when the two leagues, the NFL and AFL, met in a head-to-head championship game to complete the 1966 season. In that first game between the two leagues, before it was even dubbed the Super Bowl, the Green Bay Packers blew out the Kansas City Chiefs. Same result in the second of these head-to-head contests between the soon-to-be merged leagues when Vince Lombardi’s Packers dominated the overmatched Oakland Raiders.
While the merger of the two leagues was going to be completed for the 1970 season, the powers to be did not want to go into the 1970 season with either the perception or reality that the American Football Conference was inferior. That was the case until the New York Jets pulled off the biggest upset in NFL history with a win over the 19-point favored Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III. The following season, 1969, the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Minnesota Vikings in the Super Bowl, and the 1970 merger now had two conferences that had each won a pair of titles when the two competing leagues had head-to-head battles.
The Jets have had little to cheer about since Joe Namath led that historic victory 57 years ago.
The Giants, conversely, have bobbled up from time-to-time. They have won four Super Bowls and featured some of the best players in the league. Bill Parcells, one of the most successful head coaches in NFL history, pumped life into both New York franchises. He won a pair of Super Bowls with the Giants and led the Jets into an AFC Championship Game in 1998.
This year, the Giants got some early season hope pumped into their organization when quarterback Jaxson Dart led an improbable win over the defending Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles and a highly competitive one-point loss to the Denver Broncos in the Mile High City. But, since that brief breath of success, the Giants have returned to the bottom of the league, fired another head coach, and suffered enough injuries to fill a hospital ward with men they hoped would be in their locker room.
Today, the Giants host the Minnesota Vikings, who have also struggled through a season they entered with high hopes. Last year, the Vikings collected 14 wins with Sam Darnold running their offense, but he was only the starter because their projected first-string QB, rookie J.J. McCarthy, suffered a season ending injury in August.
Now, the Vikings have gotten a lot of heat for allowing Darnold to leave town while recommitting their organization to McCarthy. The Vikings are struggling though a losing season and McCarthy has missed multiple games with injuries.
Meanwhile, Darnold has taken his talent to Seattle and has the Seahawks perched atop the NFC West with a potential number one seed come playoff time. But, before you criticize the Vikings for investing their future in their first-round draft pick and allowing Darnold to take his winning ways elsewhere, know this, it was business.
Darnold’s success in 2024 priced him out of the market for the Vikings. They were committed to McCarthy and couldn’t afford two high priced quarterbacks while looking to develop their young player. Darnold did not leave Minnesota in a huff and the feeling of disrespect, he appreciated that with the Vikings he got a chance to revive his career and is now enjoying the benefits of backing up his outstanding season in 2024 with another sterling campaign this year.
As for the Vikings today, well they come calling on the Giants following back-to-back wins and looking at a pair of divisional games against the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers the next two weeks to complete their 2025 season. Off two wins, and two division games to follow, against a Giants team looking to snap an eight-game losing streak that began with blowing a big lead in Denver, this is the perfect spot for a home team surprise.
It will not yet revive football in New York, but it will give the Big Apple fans one afternoon to cheer a win.
Qoxhi Picks: New York Giants (+2½) over Minnesota Vikings