New York Giants fans are reeling after watching what unfolded at MetLife Stadium in a 28-6 loss to the Minnesota Vikings in Week 1, but it isn’t just fans going through a whirlwind of emotions.
Former players are frustrated too, including one of the franchise's legends.
The Giants wore their century red uniforms to commemorate the team’s 100th season, and several team legends were honored at the stadium among the franchise’s 100 greatest Giants.
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Among them were Lawrence Taylor and Carl Banks, two vital members of the Giants teams that brought home Super Bowl titles in 1987 and 1991. Taylor ranked first overall among the 100 greatest Giants ever, while Banks was 17th.
During an appearance on the "Bleav in Giants" podcast, Banks revealed that, after watching the first half the Giants played against the Vikings, Taylor wanted to put his pads back on.
"I can tell you when we were lining up to be introduced as the top 100 players, a guy who never really comments on games because he doesn’t watch many of them was Lawrence Taylor. He looked at me and — this is a true story, folks. If you want to know what we [the 100 greatest Giants] were thinking at halftime," Banks explained.
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"Lawrence looked at me at halftime and said, ‘Carl, I could pick 22 of us right now and go out and play better than these guys. We’d be in this game.’ The youngest guy in that line was probably 50 years old. Lawrence Taylor looked at me and said, ‘I can get 22 of us right now and go out there right now and whoop these guys’ a--.’"
The championship pedigree that was most recently seen during the 2011 NFL season hasn’t shined in East Rutherford, New Jersey, for some time. The Giants have only made the playoffs twice since then, the most recent coming in 2022 during head coach Brian Daboll’s inaugural season.
And it doesn’t look like a championship-caliber team in the Giants' locker room this season after the disaster that unfolded Sunday. Quarterback Daniel Jones and the Giants' offense were booed off the field after an atrocious outing that resulted in no touchdowns.
Jones has been the target of Giants fans after Week 1. He went 22-for-42 for 186 yards with two interceptions while getting sacked five times in the loss. Entering his sixth season, and, more importantly, the second year of the four-year, $160 million deal he signed before last season, Jones is expected to be leading the Giants back to the playoffs like he did in 2022.
Instead, in his first game after tearing his ACL midway through the 2023 campaign, Jones appears to have regressed.
The Giants have a chance in Week 2 against the Washington Commanders, a team that was blown out by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 1.
But the product Taylor and the rest of the sold-out crowd in MetLife Stadium witnessed has the former linebacker wanting to help his old team out because the grit and fight just wasn’t there.
"To start your season off looking the way you did on both sides of the ball … you look like you’re stuck in 2023," Banks said.
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