New York Giants

The legend tells us that Tim Mara, the first owner of the New York Giants wasn’t even interested in owning a football team, when he met with NFL president Joe Carr in 1925. Actually, the two met because Carr owed money to Mara that he wanted to collect. However, when Mara left Carr’s office, he had $500 less, but an NFL team in in his possession. It was an investment that should pay off.

A first attempt to bring an NFL team to New York in 1921 failed: The (first) New York Giants stopped their operations after just one season. The (new) New York Giants were much more successful and showed how valuable a franchise in “Big Apple” is: In their first season in 1925, the (new) Giants had record breaking 70,000 spectators on a cold December day who wanted to see their team in a game against the Chicago Bears.

Another fact shows how important New York was for american football: “Red” Grange – the biggest football star of the 1920s – and his agent CC Pyle founded a rival league in 1926 when the NFL rejected to found a second team in New York after Maras veto. The (first) American football league that was founded by Grange and Pyle had to stop their operations already after one season, though.

In their third season, the New York Giants already won their first NFL championship, mainly because of a strong defense which was led by tackle Steve Owen. In 1931, Owen took over the Giants as the head coach and created new tactics especially for the Defense. He reached the NFL championship game 8 times in 23 years and won two NFL titles in 1934 and 1938.

In the late 1950s, the New York Giants were at their height: Although they only won one more championship in 1956, the team with quarterback YA Tittle, wide receiver Frank Gifford, offensive tackle Roosevelt Brown and defensive end Andy Robustelli allowed the Giants to be a regular play-off contender and made watching New York Giants games very attractive.

After that, a 20-year losing streak followed and the team only belonged to the worse teams of the National Football Conference. Only Coach Bill Parcells was able to lead the Giants back to the top of the NFL: The “big tuna” – as Parcells was called – led the New York Giants to two Super Bowl wins. And his student Tom Coughlin who took over the New York Giants later, was able to win two more Super Bowls in 2007 and 2011.