Over the past decade, the Giants and Jets have become the NFL’s twin paragons of ineptitude. And the pathway back to respectability for either has seldom looked more daunting
Professional football in the New York metropolitan area somehow has become even bleaker in the two-plus years that have passed since the Giants and Jets last played each other. The Jets (2-7) rallied to beat the Giants (2-8) that glum November day in the Meadowlands in the so-called Toilet Bowl, with tailgaters displaying toilet-seat lids with each team’s logo.
The NFL’s two NYC-based teams are each 4-11 heading into the homestretch of the 2021 season. It is likely that both will finish the season with 13 losses, which has never happened since New York added an AFL team in 1960. In the last 10 years, only the 2016 Giants reached the playoffs (and they were promptly blown out by Green Bay in the wild-card round). More recently, they have been pro football’s biggest losers: none of the other 30 teams in the NFL have posted a worse record than the Jets (21-58) or Giants (22-57) since 2016.
