New York GIANTS Forever!

by Joyce Junior

Being a Giants fan is more of a devotion than an "interest." Once you become a Giants fan, you are bitten for life -- whether you want to be or not. Maybe it's just a factor of when I became interested in football and the state the Giants were in at the time, and if I had become a Giants fan in 1986 things would be different and I would be more like a Cowboys fan. But it was 1972, at the age of 6, that I first said, "I like the Giants."  I had no idea what football was, except that my Dad loved the Giants, and he and a bunch of guys went down to a place called "Yankee Stadium" to watch the Giants play some team called "the Miami Dolphins," and I wanted to go with them sooo bad, but couldn't for some reason I could not understand.

Ron Johnson was my hero then. I don't really know why, but he was, and then the summer of the NFL players strike the Giants had training camp in my town, Fairfield, Connecticut. Twice a day my Mom drove down to Fairfield University so we could watch camp, and after both sessions, the players would come down and sign autographs. We were there every time, and became favorites. At that time, all the players had a few minutes for a young boy who wanted to talk to them and get their signature on a scrap of paper. And they graciously posed for pictures. I still have the photograph of myself wearing Brian Kelly's helmet when he was a rookie. And my hero finally came to town. First it was in street clothes carrying a picket sign. Then he came in to camp and I got to walk from the practice field to the locker room with him everyday. He let me carry his helmet, which was SOOO heavy, and he signed a Giants helmet my parents had bought for me. I still have it. For about a year or so after that, Ron Johnson corresponded faithfully with me. It was nice.

At that time, it took devotion to be a Giants fan. They were terrible. Absolutely terrible, and all their attempts to get better were afflicted with a pathetic comedy. They were a laughingstock, culminating in the infamous Fumble. My Dad remembered the glory days of the late 50s and early 60s, and he stuck with them. I guess I learned from him. For me, 1986 was the supreme reward.

Now, even in these days of high-priced players and luxury boxes, when huge contracts and free agency are everything and the game seems to mean less to the players and the owners than anything else, I remain a Giants fan. With Dan Reeves and George Young driving the franchise into mediocrity, and the Giants ownership showing a lack of interest in competing to win, it gets hard, but I lived through the late 70s, I can hope for better in the future.

But enough testimonial, on to the page. Most of the page is just links to sites with better features and more information. There are some really good Giants sites, some of which you may not have known about. For instance, the best media site about the Giants I have seen is on Nando.net -- from the Raleigh News and Observer (N & O or NandO) in Raleigh, North Carolina. Also, WOR radio has a live audio feed that you can listen to with Real Audio. You can follow a link to Real Audio's page to download the player, and listen to the Giants games over the net! A number of individuals have established Giants web sites, and some of them have some great stuff. So, on to the content.

My View on the Issue of the Day

Run With These Links:

The official NFL Giants Page

Kind of lame, but has some info, and the NFL plans to have live play-by-play of games, so their site may be worth checking out. You can listen to WOR on the RealAudio player while watching the play-by-play scroll by, or you can get a life!

Mass Media Links:

Nando.Net Giants Page

Of the media pages, this one is my favorite. They have all the basic information, and appear to run a lot of stories during the season. Plus they have a page of Giants photographs, which is where I got the picture above. Definitely bookmark this one and go to it each week.

FOX Sports Giants Page

Kind of lame like the NFL page, but they have the insider reports that are pretty good. The insider report is from Sports Exchange, which also has a Giants page (see below).

Sports Network Giants Page

Just another mass media Giants page. I think they have the insider reports too.

Giants-Only Media Links

Giants News

This is probably the most informative of the Giants-media links. Pat, of course, posts on the newsgroup a lot, and puts the same information here. I downloaded a sample issue, and the publication looks pretty good.

The Giants Newsweekly

One of the better Giants-only publications. I used to subscribe and enjoyed it, but got tired of receiving game issues after the following game. They have an email edition, but $100 for the season is real steep! The web page is pretty interesting.

Giants Digital Digest

Not a lot on the page itself, but this is where to get the Digital Digest. To be honest, I have downloaded one but not gotten around to looking at it yet. When I do, I'll update this mini-review.

Giants Fans Personal Pages

These are my favorites. Giants fans putting up a page because they love the team and the game, and with no motive of financial profit involved!

The Big Blue Home Page

My favorite so far. Absolutely no frills and no graphics that I found, but the most text and information. I still haven't read it all, but will. Looks like a place to check in often for analysis and discussion.

The Big Blue Wrecking Crew, Inc. Page

Adrienne the Giants Newsgroup Goddess established this page, and now it has incorporated (?). I guess it's rated, and I love Adrienne, but this isn't a place I visit regularly. It is very good if you want to see information such as roster, schedule and game summaries, press releases, and other resources. A very bread-and-butter site but not much for the analysis and discussion that I favor. Still, you should definitely bookmark it for the information value.

Brooksie's New York Giants Page

Another page I like. This one is real graphical, and has the complete schedule with team helmets in place of the text. Slick.

If you have a Giants web page that's not listed here, email me and give me the URL. If I think the page has something distinctive about it that makes it worth my time to mess with this stupid HTML editor, I'll add the link.

Training Camp Information

The people in central New York are understandably proud that the Giants will be having training camp in their area, and they have created a web site to provide information about the camp. Click on the logo or the words next to it for camp information.

The Giants Radio Network

WOR is on the web, and they are on Audionet. You can check out their Giants section by clicking on the logo. For a listing of the stations in The Giants Radio Network, click on the link next to the logo. To go straight to the Audionet page where you can listen to WOR live, click HERE.

Giants Mailing List!

There is now a mailing list just for the Giants. This is good news, as the Giants newsgroup has been inundated with spam and Cowboys posters. If you want pure Giants discussion, join the mailing list. Here's how:

Follow THIS LINK to send an email to the moderator. Make sure the subject title is:

subscribe nygiants-fans <your_email_address>

or for the Digest Format use:

subscribe nygiants-fans-digest <your_email_address>

The messages will then flow into your mailbox. Make your contributions worthy, because those posts found unworthy will be left out.

Giants Newsgroup:

I'm sure most of you already know about it and have subscribed, but if not, there is a Giants newsgroup on Usenet. The newsgroup is:

alt.sports.football.pro.ny-giants.

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