The Giants. The freaking Giants.
This hurts more than anything. That deep-down sick feeling in your gut that a couple Flyers and Sixers wins just wont cure.
Maybe Dallas would hurt more. But Dallas doesnt go to Super Bowls anymore. And while Eagles fans might hate the Cowboys as much or even a little more than the Giants, you dont really have to worry about them making a run. And the Redskins? Yeah, you hate em too, but theyre irrelevant these days. Have been for a couple decades.
So yeah, a Giants run is an Eagles fans worst nightmare. A Giants championship ... it just doesnt get any worse.
This is the worst imaginable scenario for Eagles fans because we all know Giants fans. They walk among us. They live among us. They get their turkey hoagies at the same WaWas as us. They buy their groceries at the same Genuardis as us. They drink beer and eat wings at the same Chickie and Petes as usand if you dont believe that, watch an Eagles-Giants game at Chickies in Bordentown or Egg Harbor sometime.
Because Giants territory swings south perilously close to usMercer County, N.J., for crying out loud, is 50 percent Giants, 50 percent Eaglesmost of us work with Giants fans, a lot of us live near Giants fans, and all of us know Giants fans.
Were surrounded by them.
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And theyre not like the fraud loser Dallas fans who grew up in Collingswood or Collingdale, who have never set foot in North Texas and only became Cowboys fans because of the Emmitt-Irvin-Aikman run of the 1990s and the typically misguided belief that by becoming Cowboys fans they could snag a few easy Super Bowl titles to call their own.
No, most of these Giants fans are from Lawrenceville and Bridgewater and Toms River or somewhere not too far away, and they live down here now. They grew up watching L.T., Mark Bavaro and Pepper Johnson win a couple Super Bowls in 1986 and 1990, then a generation later they got to see Eli and Jeremy Shockey and Steve Smith, for crying out loud, win another one in 2007-08, and now theyre sitting there watching Eli and Victor Cruz and Jason Pierre-Paul one game from delivering East Freaking Rutherford a fourth Super Bowl championship since Buddy Ryans first year as Eagles head coach.
We had Randall, they had Phil Simms. They won. We didnt.
We had Reggie, they had L.T. They won. We didnt.
We had Donovan, they had Eli. They won. We didnt.
We have DeSean, they have Victor Cruz. Theyre one game away. Were not.
How does this happen?
It just happens. Thats why its so dang infuriating. And so dang sickening.
Are the Giants really that much better than the Eagles? Since 1986, when the Giants went to their first Super Bowl, the Eagles have been to the playoffs more often than the Giants (15 times to 11 times). Theyve won more games than the Giants (234 to 232). They have a winning record head-to-head over the Giants (27-25).
But the Giants win Super Bowls, the Eagles win nothing.
In 1990, the Eagles crushed the Giants, 31-13, at the Vet in late November. Randall threw a couple TDsto Calvin and FreddieEric Allen and Byron Evans picked off Phil Simms, and Seth Joyner and Reggie had sacks. Crushed em.
Within two months, the Giants had won the Super Bowl, and the Eagles had hired Rich Kotite.
This year, two months ago for crissakes, the Eagles went into the Meadowlands and outgained the Giants by more than 100 yards, shut down Brandon Jacobs, forced a couple turnovers, and won 17-10 behind Vince Young of all people.
The Giants lost to Vince Young. And in two weeks, theyll play in another Super Bowl.
None of it makes sense.
Thats why its so disturbing and upsetting and frustrating. Its not like the Giants are some powerhouse team. If they were, maybe this would be easier to take. But they were 7-7 a few weeks ago and 1-5 in their last six games, and they had just lost to Rex Grossman for the second time in two months.
Theres your NFC Super Bowl team.
Theres really no apparent difference between the Eagles and Giants. If you look at the two rosters and youre honest with yourself, the Giants dont have more talent. Of their four Super Bowl runs in the last quarter-century, 1986 is really the only time the Giants were measurably better than the Eagles.
Tom Coughlin and Andy Reid? Andy actually has a much better winning percentage than Coughlin.609 to .555. Andy is also 16-13 head-to-head with the Giants, 2-1 vs. the Giants in the playoffs and 11-7 vs. Coughlin.
Only one tiny, little difference. The Giants figure out how to get to Super Bowls and win them, and the Eagles dont. Or cant. Or wont.
The difference between an 8-8 Eagles team going nowhere and a 9-7 Giants team on its way to the Super Bowl is no more than one play here, one play there.
If Jason Avant doesnt fumble in Buffalo. If Jeremy Maclin hangs onto that 4th-down pass from Mike Kafka in Atlanta. If Alex Henery kicks a 33-yard field goal against the 49ers. If Nnamdi didnt jump offsides on a John Skelton incomplete pass on third-and-10 in the fourth quarter against the Cards.
If. If. If. If. If.
One more play in any of five or six games would have changed the Eagles fortunes and knocked the Giants out of the playoffs.
Those crucial plays at crucial moments that make the difference between a failure and a Super Bowl teamincredibly, it could be just one play in an entire seasonthe Giants have made those plays. The Eagles havent.
The Eagles are now at 51 consecutive years without a championship, and the Giants are one win from their fourth in 26 years, their second in five years.
And Giants fans, man, they love reminding Eagles fans of that. The ones they see every day at WaWa, at the gas station, at the grocery store, at dinner.
That theyre just better than us.
What hurts the most, what makes every Philly native sick to their stomach, is that deep down, we know theyre right.
E-mail Reuben Frank at rfrank@comcastsportsnet.com