New York Giants

Tim Mara purchased the New York Giants franchise for $500 in 1925, famously reasoning that "an exclusive franchise for anything in New York City is worth $500." That bargain investment would grow into one of the most storied franchises in professional sports. The Giants struggled financially in their early seasons, nearly folding before a late-season 1925 exhibition game against Red Grange's Chicago Bears drew a massive crowd to the Polo Grounds and put the franchise on solid footing.

The Giants became the NFL's first true dynasty in the 1930s, winning NFL Championships in 1934 and 1938. The 1934 title game—forever known as the "Sneakers Game"—saw the Giants trailing the Chicago Bears on a frozen Polo Grounds field before switching to basketball sneakers at halftime and rallying for a 30-13 victory. Coach Steve Owen built a powerhouse that attracted top talent to the league's biggest media market.

The franchise continued to compete through the war years, reaching the championship game multiple times while establishing the Giants as one of the NFL's cornerstone organizations. The Mara family's commitment to the sport helped stabilize the league during its most uncertain era.

The post-war Giants entered a golden age under coaches Steve Owen and later Jim Lee Howell, who assembled one of the most talented coaching staffs in history—featuring offensive coordinator Vince Lombardi and defensive coordinator Tom Landry. The 1956 team, led by Frank Gifford, Sam Huff, and Roosevelt Brown, captured the NFL Championship with a 47-7 demolition of the Chicago Bears, a victory that captivated the New York media market and helped propel professional football toward its eventual dominance of American sports.

The 1958 NFL Championship Game against the Baltimore Colts is widely regarded as "The Greatest Game Ever Played." Played before a national television audience at Yankee Stadium, the game went to sudden-death overtime—the first in NFL history—before Johnny Unitas and the Colts prevailed 23-17. Though the Giants lost, the game's dramatic finish is credited with sparking America's love affair with professional football. The Giants returned to the championship game in 1959, 1961, 1962, and 1963, but lost each time.

This era cemented the Giants as one of football's glamour franchises, playing in front of passionate crowds at Yankee Stadium and producing Hall of Famers who defined the sport. The groundwork laid by Lombardi and Landry on the Giants' staff would reshape the entire NFL as both went on to legendary head coaching careers.

After their sustained excellence of the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Giants fell into a prolonged period of futility that tested the patience of even the most loyal fans. From 1964 through 1980, the Giants managed just four winning seasons and made the playoffs only once. The decline was hastened by an aging roster and questionable front office decisions, including the controversial 1961 trade of Sam Huff to Washington.

The move from Yankee Stadium to the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Connecticut, and then to Shea Stadium before finally settling into Giants Stadium in the New Jersey Meadowlands in 1976 reflected a franchise in search of its identity. The 1970s were particularly bleak, with the Giants posting a combined record of 42-88-2 over the decade. Coaching changes came frequently, with Alex Webster, Bill Arnsparger, John McVay, and others unable to reverse the slide.

Yet the darkest hour often comes just before the dawn. In 1979, the Giants hired George Young as general manager, a move that would prove transformative. Young's first major decision was selecting linebacker Lawrence Taylor with the second overall pick in the 1981 draft—a choice that would alter the course of franchise history.

The Giants' return to prominence is one of the great resurrection stories in NFL history. It began with Lawrence Taylor, the transcendent linebacker whose combination of speed, power, and ferocity revolutionized the defensive side of football. When Bill Parcells took over as head coach in 1983, he found in Taylor the centerpiece of a defense that would become the most feared in football, coordinated by the brilliant Bill Belichick.

The 1986 season stands as the pinnacle. The Giants went 14-2, and their defense—featuring Taylor (who won the MVP award), Harry Carson, Carl Banks, and Leonard Marshall—was historically dominant. In Super Bowl XXI, Phil Simms delivered perhaps the greatest quarterback performance in Super Bowl history, completing 22 of 25 passes as the Giants crushed the Denver Broncos 39-20.

Four years later, the Giants returned to the mountaintop. The 1990 team, led by Jeff Hostetler at quarterback after Phil Simms was injured, won Super Bowl XXV in one of the most dramatic finishes ever—a 20-19 victory over the Buffalo Bills when Scott Norwood's potential game-winning field goal sailed wide right. Parcells retired after the game with two Super Bowl rings, having restored the Giants to their rightful place among the NFL's elite.

The post-Parcells years brought instability before a surprising Super Bowl run at the turn of the millennium. Ray Handley's disastrous two-year tenure (1991-92) was followed by Dan Reeves, who restored competitiveness but couldn't break through to a championship. Reeves did guide the Giants to a 10-5-1 season in 1997, but a Wild Card loss to the Vikings ended the year in disappointment.

The 2000 season under Jim Fassel brought unexpected magic. After Fassel boldly guaranteed a playoff berth midseason, the Giants ripped off a seven-game winning streak to finish 12-4 and steamrolled through the playoffs to reach Super Bowl XXXV. There, they were demolished 34-7 by the Baltimore Ravens' historically great defense, a humbling reminder of how far they still needed to go.

The early 2000s saw the Giants cycling through quarterbacks and coordinators without finding the right combination. The arrival of Eli Manning via a draft-day trade with the San Diego Chargers in 2004 was initially controversial—Manning had refused to play for the Chargers—but it would prove to be one of the most consequential trades in franchise history.

Eli Manning's tenure with the Giants produced two of the most improbable championship runs in NFL history. Under head coach Tom Coughlin, the 2007 Giants entered the playoffs as a Wild Card team and proceeded to beat Tampa Bay, Dallas, and Green Bay on the road before facing the undefeated New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII. What followed was the greatest upset in Super Bowl history—Manning escaped a near-sack and launched a pass that David Tyree pinned against his helmet for the legendary "Helmet Catch," and the Giants won 17-14, denying the Patriots a perfect season.

Four years later, lightning struck twice. The 2011 Giants, again a Wild Card team with a 9-7 record, ran the table in the playoffs and faced the Patriots again in Super Bowl XLVI. Manning was once again brilliant, and Mario Manningham's sideline catch in the fourth quarter was every bit as clutch as Tyree's catch. The Giants won 21-17, cementing Manning's legacy as one of the great postseason quarterbacks in history, despite his more inconsistent regular-season play.

After Coughlin's departure following the 2015 season, the Giants struggled to build a consistent winner around an aging Manning. Ben McAdoo's brief tenure (2016-17) included a playoff appearance in 2016 but unraveled spectacularly the following year. Pat Shurmur (2018-19) couldn't right the ship, and Manning retired after the 2019 season as the franchise's all-time leader in virtually every passing category.