Giants Fans’ Super Bowl LV Dilemma

Someone will win Super Bowl LV, but it won’t be the Giants. Unfortunately, this blog is becoming an annual thing because of the Giants’ inability to reach the postseason.

Here’s the list of playoff teams in order of who I want to see win the Super Bowl to who I don’t want to see win the Super Bowl.

1. Bills
If you don’t have a horse in this season’s race, or if your horse drops out of the race, how can you not root for the Bills? The removal of Tom Brady from the AFC East allowed the Bills to finally reclaim the division with a 13-3 record, and were a completed Kyler Murray Hail Mary away from being 14-2. I was heartbroken for Bills fans after they fell to the Texans last year, and I truly hope I don’t have to feel that way for them again in January … or February.

2. Washington
I’m not mad at the Eagles for me having to write this blog again this season. They didn’t prevent the Giants from reaching the postseason, the Giants did that all on their own. The Eagles just did everything they could to not help them, like Jim Halpert avoiding a falling Michael Scott as he went into the koi pond in The Office. Washington has a solid defense and a formidable front four, and that’s a recipe for disaster for Brady as he have learned in all of his other postseason defeats. Washington’s chances come down to what their offense can do, and if it’s anything like it was in Philadelphia in Week 17, their postseason will last one game.

3. Tampa Bay
A year ago, I would have been disgusted at the thought of Brady winning a seventh Super Bowl. But now, he’s a Buccaneer, and the Giants were eliminated and won’t be hosting the Buccaneers this Saturday, so why not bring some joy to this postseason and have Brady win a championship in his first season on a new team, causing chaos in New England?

4. Bears
The Bears have about as good of a chance as winning the Super Bowl as the Giants do, so even having them on this list is unnecessary.

5. Titans
A year ago, after upsetting the Patriots and outsmarting Bill Belichick with his fourth-quarter rundown of the clock, I was all in on Mike Vrabel. But now after watching his defense fall apart, and his offense at times forgetting they have Derrick Henry, the Titans have been a mess this season. Yes, an 11-win mess. Their regular-season finale against the Texans summed up this Titans team as they nearly lost a game in which they led by 16 points with 4:29 left in the third quarter and led by three points with 1:50 left in the game. The Titans have cost me a good amount of money this season, but they’re still a better option to win than most other teams.

6. Chiefs
Let’s be honest, the Chiefs are winning the Super Bowl. It would take a monumental upset for them to not win the Super Bowl. It wouldn’t bother me if Patrick Mahomes were to eventually put an end to the Peyton Manning-Brady debate of who the greatest quarterback of all time is if he keeps on his current trajectory. Winning a second Super Bowl at age 25 and a second in as many years would go a long way in him eventually winning the debate.

7. Colts
I never want Eli Manning to lose his title as the best quarterback from the 2004 draft class (which he undoubtedly is or was). That means Philip Rivers never winning a Super Bowl.

8. Browns
A Browns Super Bowl would give the Giants hope since the Giants have become what the Browns used to be in recent seasons. A Browns Super Bowl would also mean the team went on to win a championship without Odell Beckham. Beckham’s lone playoff game to date remans the game he and Sterling Shepard combined to lose for the Giants with their first-quarter drops five years ago. Beckham would be the Browns’ Jeremy Shockey.

9. Saints
The Saints avenged their non-pass interference call against the Rams two years ago by losing to Kirk Cousins and the Vikings a year ago. The Saints aren’t what they were over the last two years, but they’re still capable of winning the NFC and the Super Bowl. I just don’t want them to.

10. Ravens
Two postseasons ago, I bet on the Ravens to beat the Chargers. I still have no idea how John Harbaugh sat there and let a winnable postseason game fade away as Joe Flacco stood on the sideline while Lamar Jackson couldn’t register a first down. I also have no idea Jackson went from the quarterback in that game to league MVP in a single year. But I’m still not over that loss.

11. Steelers
I can’t stand the Steelers. A fraudulent team during the Patriots’ dynasty, the Steelers’ December home loss to Washington when they were still undefeated is more to blame for Washington winning the NFC East than the Eagles throwing the Week 17 game. (But yes, it’s still really the Giants’ own fault their season is over.)

12. Packers
If the Miracle at MetLife didn’t happen and the Giants didn’t blow a 21-point lead to the Eagles with eight minutes to play now more than 10 years ago, Aaron Rodgers is this generation’s Dan Marino. That Giants collapse allowed the Packers to reach the playoffs and eventually reach the Super Bowl. Without that Giants loss, the Rodgers Packers would have endured the following postseason defeats:

51-45 overtime loss at Arizona
37-20 loss at home to Giants after going 15-1 in regular season
45-31 loss at San Francisco
23-20 loss at home to San Francisco
28-22 overtime loss at Seattle after blowing 12-point lead with 3:52 left
26-20 overtime loss at Arizona
44-21 loss at Atlanta
37-20 loss at San Francisco

One Super Bowl appearance and win (which shouldn’t have happened) for Rodgers is too much for me.

13. Rams
After the Rams’ performance in Super Bowl LIII when they scored three points despite the Patriots trying to give the game away in the first quarter, it will be a long time, if ever, that I root for the Rams.

14. Seahawks
I will never get over what Pete Carroll did in Super Bowl XLIX. Never. I will also never root for him unless I absolutely have to, but since the Eagles, Cowboys, Patriots and Jets aren’t in the postseason, there’s no potential matchup where I would have to root for him and his team.