HIS first instinct was to worry about the logistics, leading to the predictable concerns of a high-ranking executive.
“That in a sense would be a nightmare, to have a Giants-Jets Super Bowl,” John Mara yesterday said to The Post. “You know how many angry ticket holders there would be, thinking, and probably rightfully so, that they were entitled to go to the game and you wouldn’t be able to have them at the game?”
Mara was then reminded that any all-New York Super Bowl ensured his Giants of making the big game for the second consecutive year.
“I’m amused by it, but I’m trying not to pay too much attention to it,” said Mara, the Giants co-owner. “But that’s all anybody wants to ask you about.”
Every time Mara tries to get out he gets dragged back in. Last season for the Giants was made for dreamers. The reality they are fashioning this time around is a true-to-life depiction of a powerhouse team infused with confidence and the spirit of togetherness, a tough combination to beat.
So far the Giants have done everything right. They were lousy the past two years at home and rectified the situation by going 6-0 at Giants Stadium. They dispelled any fear of a Super Bowl hangover by rushing out to a 4-0 start. They ensured there would be none of that “Can they go unbeaten?” talk that burdened the Titans with a clunker in Cleveland, the best kind of loss – against a non-conference opponent.
And now, with expectations soaring and praise running rampant, the Giants are in the desirable position of not being the city’s hot football story, a designation they gladly hand off to the Jets. The Giants are 10-1 and, incredibly, the buzz is louder about Brett Favre and the possibilities in the AFC than of the impending clinching of the rugged NFC East. That could come as early as Sunday with a victory over the Redskins – if the Seahawks upset the Cowboys on Thanksgiving.
Is it the Giants who after 11 games take the mantle of “Best team in the league” from the Titans, who were 10-0 before the Jets manhandled them in Nashville. What that gets the defending Super Bowl champions is not much.
“Everywhere I go [a Giants-Jets Super Bowl] is what people are talking about and people just have such short memories,” Mara said. “There’s so much that can happen over the last five weeks of the season. If we had even dared to talk about the Super Bowl a year ago today we would have been laughed right out of the stadium.”
Only it was no laughing matter. The Giants exactly one year ago yesterday fell to 7-4 after Eli Manning threw four interceptions – an absurd three of them were returned for touchdowns – in an embarrassing 41-17 loss to the Vikings that got the home team booed out of Giants Stadium.
“Everybody had doubts,” Mara said. “Listen, I had some doubts myself about what kind of team we could be after that game. I was praying we’d get into the playoffs.”
No one will ever forget what happened once they did, proving how suddenly fate and fortunes can change. That’s for the coaching staff and players to sort out while fans envision the Giants and Jets in February battling it out in Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa, which would shake up that American tradition like never before.
“I was in the city on Friday,” Mara said, “and a police officer recognized me and said ‘Hey, Giants-Jets Super Bowl, what do you think?’ I just said ‘We’ll see, we’ll see.’ Everywhere people are talking about that. There’s just too much that can happen. Every time that happens, too, something goes wrong, like the next week. That’s why I wish everybody would just shut up about it. To me the less said about it, the better.”
You don’t however, say “shut up” to His Honor.
“Even the mayor, I got invited to a dinner at [Michael Bloomberg’s] private residence last Tuesday, that’s what he wanted to talk about too,” Mara said, before adding “And that was before [the Jets] beat Tennessee!”