You never forget the sights and sounds of a ride up the Canyon of Heroes, and Giants general manager Jerry Reese already has been in two of them with Eli Manning and coach Tom Coughlin.
But in the cutthroat world of the NFL, you also never forget the anguish of a season ending without an invitation to the Tournament and watching others play for the Lombardi Trophy three times in the past four years. You never forget watching an underachieving team that forgets how to Play Like Giants, especially down the stretch.
In and around the Quest Diagnostics Training Center, it is no longer merely a goal to push long and hard for a Super Bowl championship. It is now a mandate. A playoffs-or-bust mandate.
“I got a couple of numbers that have been bouncing around in my head,” Reese said in a State Of The Giants Address. “The No. 1 number is 190 —that’s 190 days ‘till the Super Bowl is played in MetLife Stadium over there. That makes me think about the sense of urgency for our team. And the other number is the number 1. And that is, we’ve been to the playoffs one time in the last four years. That’s really not acceptable for us. That’s below our standards. That’s not what we shoot for.
“We want to put everybody on notice — myself, everybody’s on notice that that’s not our standards.”
The Giants have and will be made aware that it is 190 days and counting to Super Bowl XLVIII.
“We’re going to put up in the locker room a countdown, so guys can see how urgent it is to be ready to go every week,” Reese said. “You can’t let games get away from you and expect to make it to the playoffs. So we’ve got to have a sense of urgency going into this season.”
The Giants need no reminders their stadium, the one they share with the Jets, will play host to the first New York-New Jersey Super Bowl.
“It’s a great motivator,” Reese told The Post, “to look over there and say, ‘Let’s be the first team to go over there and play in your own stadium. We walk out here in practice every day, you look at that stadium, you know the Super Bowl is going to be there, so that’s a great reminder for us every day.”
During his first address to the 2013 Giants on Friday night, Coughlin brought up the site of Super Bowl XLVIII.
“He said that gives us added motivation, but you shouldn’t have to look at that as your only motivation,” one Giant said. “He even said, ‘Even if it’s on the moon, that should be where you want to be at the end of the year.’”
Coughlin showed a picture of Phil Mickelson holding his British Open trophy.
“He just had such horrible luck in the [U.S.]Opens, and he finally went out this past [British] Open and just took it,” the Giant said.
Defensive coordinator Perry Fewell talked about getting back to physicality.
“The NFC East has been known for heavy run-stopping football,” Fewell told his unit.
The inconsistency of the 2012 Giants was maddening to Reese, who added beef to the trenches by signing Cullen Jenkins and drafting Justin Pugh and Johnathan Hankins 1-2.
“At times last year we looked like a good football team, other times we looked like a bad football team,” Reese said. “I want us to be consistent every week and look like that good football team.”
It is not lost on Reese that so many Giants are on one-year deals.
“I think when guys are on one-year deals there is definitely a sense of urgency for them as well,” Reese said. “If you want to continue to play in this league you have to play well. It’s a high-performance business.”
Jason- Pierre Paul has a pain-free back following surgery, but isn’t certain he can be back for Week 1 in Dalllas.
“We think he can be a terrific player like he’s been in the past and we expect that from him,” Reese said. “But it’s not only one, it’s not a one-man team. We expect all of our defensive players to step up. Our defense has to get off the field. We didn’t have a lot of three-and-outs last year. We need to get on the field and get off the field and our offense needs to score points. We need to score touchdowns.”
Which means Hakeem Nicks has to stay healthy in a contract year for Manning to command an explosive offense.
“When you don’t score points in this league it’s hard to win,” Reese said. “You can’t score
17 points and expect to win and get into the playoffs. It seems like most of the rules are benefiting the offense. It’s a little tougher for the defensive players because it seems like the fans want scoring, the National Football League wants a lot of scoring and no more boring football games. They don’t want a slow soccer game. They want a lot of scoring. So all of the rules seem to benefit the offense. The number one thing the rules do is for safety, but the safety rules, they kind of benefit the offense the most when you look at them. At least from my perspective, it does.”
To Reese, winning Super Bowl XLVI seems like a distant memory.
“Really nothing takes away the sting except getting in the Tournament and having a chance to win the Super Bowl,” Reese said.
The 2009 Giants missed the playoffs with an 8-8 record. The 2010 Giants missed the playoffs with a 10-6 record. The 2012 Giants missed the playoffs with a 9-7 record.
“We’ve been close,” Reese said, “but close is not good enough.”
One hundred and eighty-nine days. And counting.
steve.serby@nypost.com