Tom Rock: Giants aren't the biggest show in town right now, but could be on their way
Former Giants Lawrence Taylor and Harry Carson pose with head coach John Harbaugh during minicamp at the Quest Diagnostics Training Center on Monday. Credit: Noah K. Murray
There’s no doubt what the hottest sports ticket in town is this week. That’s not open for discussion. But the second-most coveted team to catch in action may be an even bigger surprise than the Knicks being in the NBA Finals for the first time in a generation.
Still three months away from their regular-season opener and merely going through the first day of their spring minicamp, the Giants still managed to draw a “celebrity row” of their own on Monday. Two Hall of Famers, Lawrence Taylor and Harry Carson, stopped by to watch the team go through its workout.
The reaction to their presence ranged. There was awe such as from head coach John Harbaugh who had never met either and was “star-struck,” unsure if he should introduce himself to them when he saw them in the cafeteria nevermind ask for autographs. There was some playful sizing up as from tight end Isaiah Likely, who said he thought he could win a few reps against them… but only because he is 26 and they are now 72 and 67 years old. And there was recognition, too, as from linebacker Brian Burns who has been here long enough now to have seen the two legends from time to time.
“They’re usually just giving us ‘The Giants Way,’ how they played back in the day,” Burns said of the special guests who addressed the team after the practice. “Just trying to give us pointers on how it was back then.”
That was the general basis of the stump speech on Monday, too.
But there was something else. Something different than those previous encounters.
The Giants usually trot those guys out to be seen by the current players, to show them what champions look like. This time it felt more like Taylor and Carson came because they wanted to see the current Giants, to catch a glimpse of what’s been going on here during a transformative past few months.
That “Giants Way” they have preached and personified for the better part of four decades still exists, but there is clearly a new version of it. A Harbaugh-led vision of it. And ol’ 56 and 53? They wanted to see in person how it is coming together.
“I feel like that’s why they came out to practice,” Burns said. “I definitely think they are curious and excited for what is to come.”
That’s been the theme of this offseason and why the Giants are one of the buzziest teams in the league. Were it not for the steady beat of dribbled basketballs emanating from Midtown they might even be the talk of the city these days. Yes, it is still early June, and yes, there are a lot of things that have to occur between now and that Sunday night opener against the Cowboys in September. The overall vibe, however, is only going to keep intensifying as we move through the summer and toward those milestones.
Taylor, who had spent time in the hospital dealing with a stomach issue recently, was lighter but instantly recognizable by the lightning bolt LT earring that still dangles from his left lobe. He was led onto the practice field by Chris Mara. At one point Taylor strolled away from the practice field to puff on a cigar.
Carson, wearing his Hall of Fame cap, looked like he could still stop a subway train if he were given a pair of shoulder pads and a helmet. They walked close by each other, sometimes arm-in-arm, a brotherhood forged through many victories many years ago.
They took turns delivering their messages to the team, their “good football wisdom” as Harbaugh called it, then broke down their position groups — Taylor with the edge rushers and Carson with the inside linebackers, naturally — and posed for a few keepsake pictures. Harbaugh even got one.
They still are the ideals when it comes to the Giants’ identity. Yet the process of getting to where they got, not to mention the process that made the Giants one of the worst teams in the NFL for most of the past decade, has been completely revamped. That is what drew them to what should have been a sleepy, uneventful, routine practice on Monday and turned it into an event.
The Giants still have a way to go before the excitement around them reaches Knicks-level hysteria. And as for attending any of the games at the Garden this week, few on the team were holding out much hope.
“Tough ticket to get, man,” Harbaugh said, suggesting that in New York he is too far down the celebrity food chain to receive any invitations. “I’m not expecting a phone call.”
Just wait until the Giants season starts and folks who haven’t been as lucky as Taylor and Carson to catch the show in previews are suddenly scrambling to score seats at MetLife Stadium and see this thing Harbaugh is building, see the new New York Giants.
His phone will be ringing then.
Not with offers but with requests.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
