In 1929, an NFL team was incorporated as the “New York National League Football Company, Inc”. to distinguish itself from the New York Giants major league baseball team.
In 1937, the NFL team’s name became the “New York Football Giants, Inc.:which is the Giants’ legal corporate name. They could play in Iran and they would still be the New York Giants. Forget reality.
The New York Giants baseball team ceased to exist following the 1957 season. Owner Horace Stoneham, who, in one of his many “stoned” moments, had agreed to accompany Brooklyn Dodgers’ owner Walter O’Malley to California.
While Yankee Stadium was being renovated during the 193-74 seasons, the Giants played in the Yale Bowl. They returned to New York in 1975 when they played in Shea Stadium in Flushing.
The New York Football Giants ceased to exist following the 1975 season when they moved to Giants Stadium in New Jersey.
Most New Yorkers, especially those who cannot afford to attend Giants’ games, have a negative view of most corporations. Still, they refuse to recognize that the Giants’ haven’t been a New York team for many years because they use their corporate name.
In Jan. 1987, New York City mayor Ed Koch called the (New Jersey) Giants “foreigners”. They were not entitled to a ticker tape parade at the Canyon of Heroes because they were not New York’s team.
A Giants’ spokesperson, in 2001, said that about 49 percent of the teams’ season ticket holders lived in New Jersey. Most of the remaining 51 percent lived in New York State with a small number coming from other states.
New Yorkers are too accepting of those in authority, a trait that extends to most Americans.
“How dare anyone claim that the Giants aren’t the New York Giants.” Well, those fans are right. Legally, they are the New York Giants who play in New Jersey, have more fans in New Jersey than in New York and have no qualms about creating their own reality.
When the Giants still played in New York, there were two sets of sports fans. New York Yankees fans also rooted for the Giants, the New York Knicks and the New York Rangers.
New York Mets fans rooted for the New York Jets, New York Nets (who moved to New Jersey and had the honesty to change their name) and the New York Islanders.
That has changed to some degree with the passage of time. Many younger Yankees’ fans root for the Jets.
The fact that the Yankees play in the same division as the Boston Red Sox and the Jets play in the same division as the New England Patriots had contributed to the change in rooting interests.
Finally, only a handful of Yankees’ fans acknowledge that Yankee Stadium ceased to exist after the 2008 season.
Tell most New Yorkers that the Giants are a New York team. Tell them that the Detroit Tigers beat the Yankees at Yankee Stadium. Tell them that the depression is over.
No problem.