George The Animal Steel
02-05-2008, 11:21 AM
Once again I needed to vent. After a painful two weeks, I finally got comfortable rooting for the Giants late last week. Afterall, they are an NFC team and I really cannot stand the Patriots. My 13 year old son [who is not as big of a sports fan as his old man] and I actually bonded during the exciting game and we were quite happy with the result.
Well, that was shortlived. I live in NJ and commute to NYC each morning and I was unpleasantly surprised this morning to discover that my commuter train was chock full of jersey clad Giants fans, making for a much more cramped ride than usual. No matter how high I turned up my ipod, I couldn't drown out their loud reliving of the entire season, game by game. So I had to suffer through recaps of both packer games, which was bittersweet...mostly bitter.
After arriving in Hoboken I jumped on a PATH train [essentially a subway connecting NJ and NY] for my trip to the World Trade Center. This train was also packed. I switched from watching TV on the ipod to loud music. By this point, the jints fans were loud and boisterous. I wanted to be happy for them, but I simply couldnt. Afterall, I think we were a better team overall. Though I do not believe we could've beaten the Pats, as I don't believe we couldve pressured Brady with anything remotely like the pressure that the Giants brought. [I, too, hold out hope that we might jettison Sanders and his predictable vanilla scheme...but I am not holding my breath].
Once at the WTC [which as you may guess is already a pedestrians nightmare due to major construction] I was met with an even larger throng of Blue, Red and White....Lots of Jacobs, Shockey and Tiki jerseys [the latter a bit tinged with irony]; a smattering of Tuck jerseys and Strahans. And even a few amusing Kerry Collins and Dave Brown sightings.
Part of me [the masochist] wished I had donned my Favre jersey in an act of defiance. But that would've been inviting more abuse than I care to endure on my already at times irritating commute. There were clusters of cute Giant fan girls and drunk obnoxious folks. There was a festive air that was not unlike St. Patricks Day, but less alcohol drenched and more family friendly.
The walk was complicated by police blockades and security, probably adding ten minutes to my usual 15 minute walk.
The last indignity I suffered was the insanely long snaking line at the starbucks in my building, and the fact that they were out of breakfast sandwiches....Oh well. I just needed to vent again. As I said, the whole thing was a quasi surreal and sad reminder to how close we were this year. I felt like an outsider looking at something transpire that I did not belong to.
Well, that was shortlived. I live in NJ and commute to NYC each morning and I was unpleasantly surprised this morning to discover that my commuter train was chock full of jersey clad Giants fans, making for a much more cramped ride than usual. No matter how high I turned up my ipod, I couldn't drown out their loud reliving of the entire season, game by game. So I had to suffer through recaps of both packer games, which was bittersweet...mostly bitter.
After arriving in Hoboken I jumped on a PATH train [essentially a subway connecting NJ and NY] for my trip to the World Trade Center. This train was also packed. I switched from watching TV on the ipod to loud music. By this point, the jints fans were loud and boisterous. I wanted to be happy for them, but I simply couldnt. Afterall, I think we were a better team overall. Though I do not believe we could've beaten the Pats, as I don't believe we couldve pressured Brady with anything remotely like the pressure that the Giants brought. [I, too, hold out hope that we might jettison Sanders and his predictable vanilla scheme...but I am not holding my breath].
Once at the WTC [which as you may guess is already a pedestrians nightmare due to major construction] I was met with an even larger throng of Blue, Red and White....Lots of Jacobs, Shockey and Tiki jerseys [the latter a bit tinged with irony]; a smattering of Tuck jerseys and Strahans. And even a few amusing Kerry Collins and Dave Brown sightings.
Part of me [the masochist] wished I had donned my Favre jersey in an act of defiance. But that would've been inviting more abuse than I care to endure on my already at times irritating commute. There were clusters of cute Giant fan girls and drunk obnoxious folks. There was a festive air that was not unlike St. Patricks Day, but less alcohol drenched and more family friendly.
The walk was complicated by police blockades and security, probably adding ten minutes to my usual 15 minute walk.
The last indignity I suffered was the insanely long snaking line at the starbucks in my building, and the fact that they were out of breakfast sandwiches....Oh well. I just needed to vent again. As I said, the whole thing was a quasi surreal and sad reminder to how close we were this year. I felt like an outsider looking at something transpire that I did not belong to.