Alright, so let’s talk about that 2017 New York Giants season. Man, oh man. I decided, heading into that year, I was gonna really document my journey as a fan. Like, keep a real informal log of my thoughts, the highs, the lows. My own little practice in fandom, you could say.
Getting Started: The Pre-Season Hype
I remember kickin’ off my whole process for that 2017 Giants season with a ton of excitement, you know? We’d just come off a pretty decent 2016, made the playoffs. So, my “practice” started early. I got myself a new jersey – Brandon Marshall, thought he was gonna be a game-changer. Big mistake, in hindsight. I mapped out my Sundays, told my buddies we were gonna have a regular thing. My notes from August were all sunshine and rainbows, stuff like “Super Bowl aspirations!” and “Offense looks stacked!” Looking back, it’s almost funny.
The “Practice” Takes a Turn
Then the actual season started. Week 1 against Dallas. Oof. My “practice log” for that day just has “Painful. Offense MIA.” written in big, angry letters. I tried to stay positive, told myself it’s just one game. My process involved watching every snap, trying to see the adjustments, the game plan. But as the weeks rolled on, the L’s just kept piling up. Lions, Eagles, Buccaneers… My meticulous note-taking practice started to get a bit… looser. More one-word entries. “Ugh.” “Again?” “Why?”
The injuries were just brutal. That was a whole section in my “practice” notes:
- Odell’s ankle. Gone.
- Marshall. Gone.
- Dwayne Harris. Gone.
- Even Richburg, our center.
It felt like every week, another key guy went down. My notes from October basically read like an injury report mixed with pure frustration. The whole “practice” of trying to analyze the games just became an exercise in figuring out who was even left to play.
The Infamous Benching and the Bottoming Out
And then came the Benching. Ben McAdoo deciding to sit Eli Manning for Geno Smith. GENO SMITH! I remember sitting there, watching that news break, and my “practice log” for that week? I think I just drew a giant question mark and then threw the notebook across the room. That was it for me. The season was a total dumpster fire. My meticulous “practice” of following the team had devolved into hate-watching, mostly.
I had this whole system, right? I’d review the game Monday morning, look at key plays, update my little spreadsheets I made for fun. By November, my “practice” was just me staring blankly at the TV, wondering how it all went so wrong. I stopped inviting people over. It was just too depressing. My “practice” became a solo mission into the heart of football darkness.
What I “Recorded” from That Mess
So, what did my grand “practice” of documenting the 2017 Giants season teach me? Well, for one, it taught me that expectations can be a real kick in the teeth. I also learned that sometimes, no matter how much you analyze or hope, a team can just completely implode. It was a masterclass in Murphy’s Law: anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.
I still have that notebook somewhere. It starts off all neat and optimistic, and by the end, it’s just angry scribbles and coffee stains. That season, man, it wasn’t just a losing season. It was an experience. A really, really bad one. My “practice” of being a dedicated fan was truly tested. I almost quit, not gonna lie. But hey, I’m still here. I guess that’s the real takeaway from my 2017 Giants season “practice”: resilience, or maybe just stubbornness.
