Want an early indication as to what sort of expectations there are, at least nationally, about the upcoming Giants season? Look no further than the NFL schedule, which was released yesterday. Scan as long and as hard as you want, but you won’t find the Giants playing on Monday Night Football during the 2000 season.
That slight, more than anything, shows that the Giants, despite playing in the largest media market in the country, are not deemed worthy of a Monday night game. The last time they were left off that exclusive dance card was in the 1996 and 1997 seasons, when the feeling was that the Giants would be a bad team. Apparently, that feeling is present again this season.
The Giants will play three nationally-televised Sunday night games, so it is not as if they were completely left off the prime-time schedule.
The season opener for the Giants is Sept. 3, when they face the Cardinals at Giants Stadium, which will be the first regular-season game on the new grass field. It will be the eighth time in the past 10 years that the Giants have opened at home.
There is a chance for the Giants to get off to a fast start, as their first three games (Cardinals, at Philadelphia, at Chicago) come against teams that failed to make the playoffs last season. Of course, the Giants also failed to make the playoffs.
Four of the Giants’ first six games are on the road, their bye week comes Oct. 22 after seven games, they face old friends Roman Oben and Percy Ellsworth when they visit Cleveland on Nov. 5 and they play host to the Super Bowl champion Rams on Nov. 12. The Giants close out their regular season with a Dec. 23 game against the Jaguars at Giants Stadium. They close out in December with three out of four games against teams that qualified for the 1999 playoffs.
“I knew our schedule would present a challenge, just the way it does each season,” Jim Fassel said. “I knew the teams we were going to play months ago. Now I see that we begin the season with four or our first six games on the road. I think we are capable of accomplishing a lot of our goals, but it not only boils down to who you play, but when you play them.”