The 2009 Giants started the season with Super Bowl expectations and ended it with their head coach saying, “I do think we tried. They all came to the stadium wanting to play.” Tom Coughlin seems to have lost his read on his players if he thinks his team tried. They may have come to the stadium wanting to play but once they stepped on the field, it was a different story. The Giants followed up their humiliating embarrassment of last Sunday with 60 minutes of even more humiliating embarrassment this week, if that’s possible. Maybe they wanted to do it twice in a row, and in different states, to get their point across. I’m just not sure what that point is.
Are there any possible reasons for mailing it in like they did the last two games? Were they just making sure Bill Sheridan gets fired? Maybe Kevin Gilbride, too? Did they catch the rerun of There’s Something About Mary the other night, and because Brett …

In the last game the Giants will ever play at Giants Stadium, the 2009 Giants decided to honor the team that ushered in the stadium, the 3-11 1976 Giants, by playing just like them. Actually they played worse. Craig Morton, Walker Gillette and John Mendenhall were nowhere in sight, but somehow their ghosts invaded Giants Stadium (and somehow they have ghosts even though they’re not dead yet), as this year’s edition played like a last place team. The final score was 41-9, but the game really wasn’t that close.

This game is probably beyond analysis, but we’ll try anyway. Tackling? Pathetic. Rushing? Pathetic. Defense? Pathetic. Offense? Pathetic. That pretty much covers it. With the season on the line, the Giants just didn’t show up, and now they’re as dead and buried as Jimmy Hoffa. And they closed out Giants Stadium in humiliating fashion, dishonoring all the teams that played before them. It was a sad and pitiful display of football, with the team showing no heart, …

Christmas is all about comebacks and overcoming adversity against all odds. Ok, it’s really nothing about comebacks and overcoming adversity against all odds but is about love, peace on earth, goodwill toward men, opening presents, then drinking all day long and passing out underneath the tree as an ornament falls and pierces one of your eyeballs, sending you screaming down the street bloody, naked and in horrifying pain. Ah, Christmas. One of the brightest, heartwarming stories of the week, though, is Jonathan Bender’s return to the world of basketball after not playing a game in four years. And on top of it all, he’s been productive. The Knicks, too, are on the comeback trail after starting out at 1-9. Bender’s return after a long absence brings to mind other great comebacks. So, without further ado, here’s a random list of notable returns over the decades (and even centuries).

Gordie Howe retired after the 1971 season, then came back in 1973-’74 to play with his sons, Mark and Marty, lasting …

After John Tortorella’s tirade heard round the world last Wednesday night, the Rangers have won three straight games. “No entitlement” is the new philosophy in Ranger Land. The first step was to scratch Wade Redden for two games. He took it like a man. Well, actually he didn’t. He took it like a four-year-old. “Why am I being singled out?” was his response. You’re not being singled out; you stink, is the answer. Ales Kotalik was also scratched, and Chris Drury was demoted to the fourth line. It’s a brand-new world for the Blueshirts. Maybe Madison Square Garden won’t be a graveyard for the rich and lazy anymore.
On the surface all the moves seemed to work, with the Rangers not having lost since the coach’s outburst. But the first two games were won thanks to the brilliance of Henrik Lundqvist. The team played solidly all around in Monday’s game against Carolina, though. And all three games were against subpar opponents, so it’s hard …

Last night, the Giants went back in time to the carefree, innocent, halcyon days of weeks one through five, when they romped and had their way with opponents and were looking like the best team in the NFL. Of course, they were playing against some of the worst teams in the NFL. And on Monday Night Football, the Redskins sure looked like one of the league’s dregs, making life easy for Big Blue. But at this time of year, all that matters is a win. But if it’s a 45-12 win, then that’s all the better.
The “good” Giants showed up for this game, and what did they do right vs. the Skins? How about everything. It was domination, annihilation, whatever fun word you want to use. The D pressured the quarterback, rattled the quarterback, sacked the quarterback (five times), injured the quarterback and generally made life miserable for the quarterback. They dominated the line of scrimmage. They played with three subs in the defensive backfield …

On Saturday night I was flipping between another Rangers loss and the Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life. Of course you can’t help but wonder, “What if George Bailey’s situation happened to me?” What if I were able to see the consequences of never being born? That thought lasted about a minute and a half, because everybody’s life would surely be better. My wife would have been able to marry a more successful, rich, interesting, well-rounded man instead of someone who has nothing but a monkey shooting a slap shot, a couple of empty beer cans and some old Rusty Staub highlights filling up his head. My daughter would have a normal father, one who doesn’t constantly quiz her on the proper French Canadian–accented way of saying the names Guy Lafleur and Gilbert Perrault. And nobody else’s life would be affected one way or the other.

But on that subject, what if, more importantly, James Dolan had never been born? The Isiah Thomas era would never have happened. …

If only the Rangers could play against themselves. They could finally score more than two goals, what with their defense as soft and holey as Swiss cheese. They wouldn’t have to worry about being manhandled, as there would be no hitting at all in the game. The offense only occasionally crashes the net, so the defense wouldn’t have to contemplate clearing out the crease, which they never do anyway. It’s a win-win situation for the offense and defense. It would be a breezy, no-checking game, with the players not even working up a sweat.
Sure, the Rangers play a solid, hard-fought game once in a while, like they did on Monday against Atlanta, but the Thrashers aren’t exactly the Broad Street Bullies. They’re as soft as the Rangers. What we usually see is the Blueshirts getting outclassed, outhit and outplayed. So where does that leave them? They’re stuck with the bad contracts of Chris Drury, Michal Rozsival, Wade Redden and Donald Brashear, so there’s …

The expected smashmouth, defensive, low scoring NFC East battle never materialized in the Giants-Eagles game, as it looked more like an old AFL contest. It was George Blanda vs. John Hadl. Well, the Giants defense made it seem that way, because they can’t stop anybody. If the 82-year-old Blanda stepped on the field against them today, he’d pass for 400 yards. Sure, both starting safeties are injured and they have a corner playing safety, but last night’s performance was downright ridiculous.
Does it even matter what the Giants did well – Eli Manning threw for 391 yards and three touchdowns (with no interceptions), Brandon Jacobs was back to being his old physical self, dragging six defenders with him as he gains eight yards, Hakeem Nicks had a great TD reception, Domenik Hixon came up with an impressive TD catch and run, Ahmad Bradshaw had some nice runs and a few good blocks, Steve Smith broke the franchise single-season reception record – because it was …

Here are some of the highlights, lowlights, scandals, trades and car accidents of the past week in the New York sports world.

Nate-Gate: The surging Knicks have won three games in a row, they’re spreading the ball around on offense and playing solid team defense – yes, defense (somewhere Dave DeBusschere is smiling). They’re moving up in the standings, but Nate-Gate is in full bloom, with chants of “We want Nate” raining down from the Garden faithful while Nate Robinson is tethered to the bench. Whenever he doesn’t play, the Knicks win, so the erratic guard may never see action again. Shooting at the wrong basket, too much goofing around and breezily fraternizing with the enemy have done him in. After realizing that he’s getting paid $4 million to watch NBA games a few times a week and is getting front row seats to boot, he’s not complaining, and is settling into his role as the Knicks’ Little Bit o’ Luck guy. He’s starting to make …

Whether he likes it or not, the only chance the Rangers have of winning these days is if Henrik Lundqvist plays like Superman. The team has been offensively challenged most of the season, and defensively challenged as well, so with that going for them, they need Lundqvist to be perfect, which is, of course, impossible. Let’s look at the last three games.
They went up to Buffalo and tightened up their defense, and lo and behold, came out of the game with a victory. Yes, defense is important. “The Rangers weren’t going to let us play inside,” said Buffalo goalie Ryan Miller. “They closed off (the middle).” The team played a solid game, and Chris Drury had this to say about their effort, “There were a lot of things we did well, and we just played hard.” Yes, playing hard is important. Yet, they only scored two goals, and were 0-2 on the power play. Lundqvist shrugged off his slump and outdueled Miller, making …

The last Giants game will forever be known as The Year the Giants Ruined Thanksgiving. Every time I bit into one of my turkey sandwiches in the days that followed I tasted the Giants inept performance. When I dug into a meal of leftovers, all I could think of was the zombie-like, going-through-the-motions play of the Giants in Denver that night (do zombies go through the motions?). Would I ever be able to enjoy and celebrate Thanksgiving again? How could turkey taste so bitter? Things were not looking good for Big Blue (or my taste buds). In fact they looked dead and buried. But yesterday, they climbed out of their grave and defeated Dallas for the second time this season (does that make them zombies for this game, too? I’m really confusing myself here). They’re still trailing in the division and wild card races, but they’re still alive.
After digging themselves a 10-0 hole in the second quarter, the Giants showed some life, grit and fortitude …

Daniel Day-Lewis has a new movie coming out that’s a sequel of sorts to There Will Be Blood. It’s based on my experiences as a parent, and is called There Will Be Yelling. In honor of that soon-to-be-released film, we’ll look back at the New York week in sports with an Oscar-like Best Performance slant. This week we saw a record being broken, a coach getting fired, upsets, disappointments, a baseball manager coaching a football player, hot stove rumors galore, a middle linebacker put on season-ending IR, a Yankee legend dying, two Jet wins, no Giants game, a kaleidoscopic, injured quarterback and Meredith Baxter announcing to the world that she’s a lesbian, which pretty much changes my whole world view. I’m going to have to reevaluate everything that’s happened in my life to date. I don’t even know who I am anymore.

Record-Breaking Performance of the Week: The Nets – It’s official, they’ve broken the record for worst start in NBA history. Who knew clearing …