TOP 10 REASONS WHY THE NY FOOTBALL GIANTS ARE GANGSTA!

10. We invented the "endzone celebration."

Wide Receiver Homer Jones had seen players such as Giants teammate Frank Gifford celebrate touchdowns by throwing the ball to fans in the stands and wanted to come up with his own post-touchdown maneuver. In a 1965 game, he scored a touchdown and threw the football down hard into the end zone. He called the move a "spike" thus spawning the modern "endzone celebration."

The original "Spike" Jones


*Forty-three years later a young RB named Brandon Jacobs would take the concept of the to a whole new level!

9. We invented the "Gatorade-Shower"

The tradition began in the mid-80s. According to several sources, including Jim Burt of the Giants, it began on October 28th, 1985, when Burt performed the action on Bill Parcells after being angered over the coach's treatment of him that week. The phenomenon gained national attention in the 1986 Giant's season. Parcells was doused after 17 victories that season (count 'em!), culminating with Super Bowl XXI.

The "Shower" done correctly, complete with
Harry Carson in Security "disguise."

8. We were the first to Disney World.
Disney began a new campaign for the Walt Disney World and Disneyland resorts on January 25, 1987. Immediately after winning Super Bowl XXI @ The Rose Bowl, MVP Phil "22-for-25" Simms was asked what he planned to do afterwards. His reply, "I'm going to Disney World!" remains a Super Bowl MVP tradition to this very day.

7. Then we flipped it on 'em!
Super Bowl XXV MVP Ottis "Uppercut" Anderson was the first to deviate from, what was by then, the conventional script . When asked,"OJ, You've just won the Super Bowl. What are you going to do now?" Anderson replied, "I'm dedicating this one to our troops," referring to Operation Desert Storm which had begun a week and a half before the game. (This was also the Super Bowl featuring Whitney Houston's classic "National Anthem" rendition)

6. We brutalize Super Bowl QBs (Pt 2: aka "Steve Young should be kissing our collective hairy asses")
During the 1991 NFC championship game vs The Giants, Joe "Big Sky" Montana was hammered by DE Leonard Marshall, knocking the future Hall-of-Famer out of the game. The Giants went on to win one of the greatest Super Bowls ever played, while Montana missed the entire 1991 and majority of the 1992 season with an elbow injury. In the ensuing years Steve Young revealed himself to be "the Super Quarterback from Planet Mor-Mon" and manhandled the NFL for the next 8 years (whoops!). Joe, "The #1-Stunna", having lost his starting job in San Francisco went on to play his remaining years, productively for the Kansas City Chiefs.

Leonard Marshall excuses himself to go participate in the Super Bowl
while Young Steve begins "flowing futuristic."

5. We brutalize Super Bowl QBs (Pt 1: aka "I never blamed LT")
Redskins QB Joe Theisman had his career come to an ignominious end on November 18, 1985, when he suffered a gruesome compound fracture of his leg while being sacked by LT and Harry Carson (shudder) during a MNF game telecast. The Redskins had been trying to pull flea-flicker and, of course, the defense was not fooled. As they blitzed, Taylor sandwiched Theisman into Carson and inadvertently landed his hip on the QB's lower right leg, fracturing his tibia and fibula and bending the entire lower leg in a reverse-L or "flamingo formation." Video footage of the play remains one of the most famously gruesome injury clips ever. Theisman never played football again.

Ironically, his "thigh" was left undamaged.

4. The DBs can get it too!
a. During the 2008 NFC Championship Game, on 1st & 10 from his own 18, Brandon "Big Baby" Jacobs ran right off-tackle. Five yards later Charles Woodson squared up to make a solo-tackle (stupid). Big Baby lowered both head AND shoulders to deliver a bruising blow to the former-Heisman Trophy winner, leaving him flattened on the 23yrd line ("That's the spot!"). Check out this link for "Big Baby's" account of the play!

b. During the 2002 Hall of Fame Game against the Houston Texans, Jeremy Shockey announced his arrival to the NFL by running over an entire defensive secondary. Turning a simple "5yd-out" from his own 35 into a 50yd-gainer, Shockey broke two consecutive solo tackles before turning up the sideline for a 1st down. DB Kevin Williams, in "hot pursuit" from across the field, was looking to intercept Shockey at the Houston 30yd line. Shockey, deciding against tiptoeing out the sideline or trying to juke it inside, slowed down, squared-up, and delivered a BOOMING shoulder-blast, leaving Williams sprawled out on the 30. Shockey continued for ten yards before finally being tackle by the two remaining Houston defenders. Here's the link. (Play it from the 1:45 mark.)

c. During the 3rd quarter of Super Bowl XXV, Ottis Anderson decided to cap a 24yd Giant run by winding up his right arm to deliver a punishing forearm uppercut to the face of Bills DB Mark Kelso. The entire Giants sideline, the thousands in attendance, and the millions of fans watching around the world all erupted in violent unison. At the conclusion of the run, play was stopped while Commissioner Tagliabue came out to award the Super Bowl MVP trophy to Anderson, though there was still 22 minutes left to play in the game.

3. Hall-of-Fame Coach Factory
Vince Lombardi: Offensive Coordinator 1954-59

Tom Landry: Defensive Coordinator 1956-59
Bill Parcells: Head Coach 1983-90
Bill Belicheck: Special Teams & Linebackers Coach, Defensive Coordinator 1979-90

2. The "All-IN"
Say what you will about Jim Fassel, the man coached his team to a Super Bowl and did so with one of the boldest proclamations since "Broadway" Joe Namath admitted to being a cross-dresser in the late 1960s. After losing back-2-back regular season games to the Rams and Lions, the Giants found themselves on the wrong side of the playoff bubble. Jim Fassel, having had his fill of all the negative media-talk, issued the following statement during the wk 11 post-game press-conference:

"I am raising the stakes right now, ... If this is a poker game, I am shoving my chips right in the middle of the table. I am raising the ante. Anybody who wants out, can get out. This team is going to the playoffs. OK? This team is going to the playoffs."

The Giants then proceeded to run the table, clinching the #1 seed in the NFC, then beating the Eagles 20-10 in the divisional playoffs and shutting out the Vikings, 41-0 for the NFC Championship.

1. #56

Murder. Mayhem. Chaos.

To put it simply, the man changed the game. An absolute terror at the OLB position, LT revolutionized pass-rushing schemes, offensive-line play and offensive formations, often requiring double and TRIPLE teams. LT produced double-digit sacks seasons consecutively from 1984 through 1990, including a career high of 20.5 in 1986...AS A LINEBACKER!!! He also won a record three Defensive POY awards and was named the league MVP in '86. LT is universally considered the Greatest Defensive Player of All Times. But between the cocaine use off AND ON the field, sending hookers to the hotel rooms of opposing RBs the night before a game, owning two rotweilers named "Kick" and "Ass", and the aforementioned extinguishing of a HOF QBs career, Lawrence Taylor is , in a word, GANGSTA!

Honorary Mentionable facts:

• Bill Belicheck's Super Bowl XXV defensive playbook is enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame (right where the Jim Kelly's "K-Gun" manual would have been).
• Giants fans invented the "De-Fense!" chant.
  
• Wellington Mara became a controlling owner of the Giants at the age of 14.
• Giants do not employ cheerleaders because Wellington once said, "It lacks class. This is a professional football organization not a tittie-show."
  
• Bill Parcells' real name is "Duane".
• Harry Carson, drafted out of South Carolina in 1976, was an animal who the Giants wanted to start immediately but they didn't know what to do with starting LB Andy Selfridge. So Carson ate him. True story.
  
• Not a single Conference Championship point has been ever scored against The Giants @ Giants Stadium.
• The Jets initially balked at moving into a stadium named after another NFL team but did so under the assumption they would negotiate naming privileges later. When the time came to renegotiate the Giants simply said: "Nah."
• The Jets are expecting that the proposed new stadium, scheduled to open in 2010, will bear a sponsor's name. It probably won't. It will most likely be called: Giants Stadium
• Oh yeah, one more thing. The future owner is pictured below.
  

Kate Mara: "WE MUST PROTECT THIS HOUSE!"