The 2021 NFL Week 5 Roundup | No, YOU Hang Up First!
Double Coupon Day
INTERESTING is the year 1957. The winning presidential ticket of Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard Nixon was inaugurated amid unusually warm 51 degree January skies just steps from the Capitol Rotunda. Elvis Presley appeared for the final time on the Ed Sullivan Show owing to his “provocative” nature and with his growing wealth buys Graceland for $102,000. The Civil Rights Act of 1957 was passed altering the trajectory of our Shining City on a Hill. A little known scrappy automaker began selling imported cars in the United States under the Toyota trademark. Katie Couric and Spike Lee were born. And by Autumn, BOTH the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants cancel the Big Apple. Much has been said about the Dodgers’ messy breakup with New York and their subsequent bold move out to Tinseltown, but what is unfortunately overlooked is the stormy plight of the NY Giants who set off for the West Coast simultaneously in an MLB-organized and blessed ALL-or-nothing deal. The Dodgers and the Giants were always raggedy bedfellows; a dynamic that continues to fuel an intense rivalry that survives intact to this day, 140 years strong. That the Giants have the Dodgers on the heels of their cleats in the 2021 NLDS is just the latest touchstone in their complicated past colored by animus, measured in generations and etched liberally with folklore. Just like no time has passed.
But time did pass for the NY Giants, who since 1890 can boast of the second most NL pennants (23 to the Dodgers’ 24, natch) and winningest record in all of Baseball to coincide with a turbulent plight all their own. But toward their rocky end-days in NYC, time would generally be regarded as unkind to the elite Team. Originally known as the NY Gothams, the team was re-christened the NY Giants in 1885 and even in their early day were blessed with rock star talent (Willie Mays sound familiar?), supportive Ownership with deep pockets and ruthlessly skilled management. Shake that all up with the Team’s esteemed winning pedigree and you have the stuff of legend. That winning success was met with their literal field of play, the Polo Grounds. Nearly 2 million Giants fans annually packed into the iconic 55,000 seat venue to see their Team pour on the points. Located perfectly and serenely in Upper Manhattan, the Team was showerd in the glamour and sophistication that made the island it called home famous. But time took a toll on the Giants. That all-star cast? They scattered to other teams or aged out of professional sports, replaced by bargain basement feeble replicas of a bygone era. The Giants began losing. Attendance slumped. The Team began hemorrhaging money. The neighborhood that welcomed the Polo Grounds so grandly in the hey day began to deteriorate as crime creeped in. And the Polo Grounds, themselves, were allowed to decay with zero investment offered up to a losing Team with shallow empty pockets. It was time for drastic change.
Meanwhile over in Brooklyn in the late 1800s, street-level trolleys-as-public-transportation laced and darted through the cityscape. Pedestrians were known to frogger these trolleys in an art known as trolley dodging. The Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers (later shortened to Brooklyn Dodgers) were born. Like their East River rivals, the Dodgers also endured the wild undulations of time. There would be those shimmery Winning years punctuated with supreme drought. They attracted a star-studded cast their very own (Jackie Robinson!) and for many years were the only Team in the League to actually turn a profit. But there was a small problem, at least to owner Walter O’Malley. The home of the Dodgers, Ebbets Field, was colloquially known as the Jewel Box. Quaint, forged with classical Baseball architecture (Boston’s Fenway Park is a contemporary) and built on a former dump affectionately nicknamed Pigtown, it was a Jewel Box in name AND metaphor. Hemmed in by a an ever-tightening city grid, Ebbets Field (capacity 35,000) could never welcome the throngs that Walter envisioned. Worse still, as the 1950s approached driven by the seminal impact of the automobile, there was ZERO parking on site. A foul ball considering the suburban sprawl of Long Island. And a non-starter for Walter. For him too, it was time for drastic change.
And this is precisely where the interwoven, intense dichotomy between the NY Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers tightened evermore. NY Giants owner Horace Stoneham in 1957 looked over his Books overflowing with red ink and arrived at the difficult and unpopular decision that playing in New York was simply infeasible. He couldn’t simultaneously afford stadium renovations (or even thought of NEW one) AND all-star salaries to field a winning Team who in turn would beget paying fans in stands. Back of the envelope math penciled out into the impossible. So Horace figured on a drastic change of locale, specifically the promise of the burgeoning Midwest with its mushrooming metropolises, thriving industries and moneyed populations. All this pie in the sky talk was shot down by the Commissioner due primarily to scheduling logistics posed by the plan. Over in Brooklyn, the Dodgers where making it rain for Walter O’Malley. Flush with cash, he was determined to erect a new home more befitting his World Series Champions. He had architects painstakingly render his proposal for a first-ever domed stadium — Dodger Dome — as an innovative entertainment mecca complete with a movie cineplex, a fully automated ticketing system, concrete seas of garaged parking and seating for 52,000 fans. All in downtown Brooklyn at the corner of Atlantic and Flatbush. And FULLY financed without the need for a single taxpayer penny. But again, the Devil is in the details. While Walter was all-in and ready with a giant blue ribbon and cartoonish Fiskars scissors, he didn’t quite own the land. And fatally, he didn’t have the capital to purchase it. So he pleaded arrogantly with city officials to condemn the land as blighted under an oblique provision of the Federal Housing Act. This would make the land much cheaper to acquire. If anyone with the clout to pursue such an unorthodox audacious ASK, it was Walter. But what Walter saw as the future, City officials dismissed as a scourge fueling future gridlock. Instead, they offered Walter an option to move to Queens (the future site of Shea Stadium). When Walter regained consciousness after receiving such an insulting counter proposal (Queens Dodgers?!?!), he cleared his toys of the sandbox and went home. Not even a last-minute salvage effort from the Rockefellers could repair the enormous damage done.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Such was the shared ethos employed by Walter and NY Giants owner Horace Stoneham in opting for the nuclear button in 1957. Driven into each other’s arms by necessity and yawning civic disinterest, the duo approached the Commissioner with an audacious plan. The plan was to take the Giants-Dodgers rivalry 3000 miles West to the Land of Dreams. They’d move at the same time to California where even bigger metropolises and opportunities beckoned. And it opened up vast populations to tap in the heralding of a new Golden Era for America’s Pastime. Further, the balanced proposal addressed the League’s planning, scheduling and logistical concerns. Even better were the terms California garnered their newly adopted Teams. San Francisco offered to built a state of the art stadium for the Giants to the tune of a cool $15M. Broke Horace couldn’t deny this bonanza and saw this Great Golden State Reset as a turning point. The iconicly cold, windy Candlestick Park resulted and did little to quell the Giants’ epic losing ways mid-Century. Downstate, LA brutally used their power of eminent domain to oust poor immigrant residents of Chavez Ravine to make way for the first privately financed ($23M) stadium since the original Yankee Stadium. Horace redeemed his coupon. Walter got his entertainment icon, sans cineplex and overhead dome. Slighted, New York baseball fans were left with peanut shell scraps. And seething tempers. MLB awarded the expansion team the NY Mets in consolation but that team’s reputation suffers in perpetuity as an insulting residual result. But in the end it was a sweetheart of a deal that reshaped Baseball forever. It was consummated, the moving trucks backed in and the Teams never looked back.
So that’s how the Dodgers-Giants rivalry traveled the test of time, 13 states and 5 generations. Had it not been for the pressure cooker environs of 1957, tonight’s possibly deciding NLDS game would look dramatically different. That Dodger Dome at the famed intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush? Yah, that’s now home to Barclay’s Center. Walter was ever the visionary as Horace pinched nickels until the eagle screamed. And the Dodgers and Giants found a common bond in change. Toldja 1957 was interesting.
Equally of note is the NFL at Week 5 where seemingly the rich get richer and the poor go hungry. By that standard, I suppose you could consider the Packers among the rich with their now 4–1 record bolstered by a too-close win over Cincy, 25–22. While Aaron Rodgers turned in another solid performance completely silencing the naysayers from the Week 1 chatterbox, it was the sizzle reel of goofy FG kicking errors in the final minutes of OT play that had media editors everywhere spilling tears of laughter into their keyboards. 5 combined missed kicks, turnovers and general nuttiness pretty much played the part of the circus music soundtrack. Ever seen a ball nail the flag at the top of an upright? Bengals kicker Evan McPherson did and — incorrectly — presumed a WIN. His GB counterpart in Mason Crosby saw that and raised him 2 before FINALLY sealing the game WIN with a successful FG. Winning shouldn’t be that hard for a team like Green Bay. And it has no business being so darn funny. That’s always a WIN in my book. Over in Glendale, the visiting and emaciated 49ers found out how the NFL wealthy prosper. The were turned away without a crumb to sustain them, 10–17. The Cards and Kyler Murray roll on as the sole remaining unbeaten team at 5–0. Despite their vaunted Defense, the ARI Offense assault wasn’t as sharp, prolonged or as poisonous as compared to weeks prior. Surprising considering the unfolding collapse of a SF team who tasted the Super Bowl just a few years ago. Is ARI running low on gas? The Brownies will find out on Sunday. In similar circumstances, a cross-state matchup down in the Sunshine State witnessed the Bucs torching the Dolphins, 45–17. Tom Brady and his Offense garnered an absurd 558 yards. Which signals deep-rooted Defensive problems in Miami, abandonment of hope and dereliction of duty. QB Jacoby Brissett did what he could but coach Brian Flores has a boatload of headaches beginning with knowledge of the Team passing on LAC sensation Justin Herbert two years ago. That lingering dance with troubled Deshaun Watson is yet another. The Dolphins drown further underwater into irrelevance at 1–4 while Tampa Bay cruises easily in calm seas at 4–1.
Over at SoFi, in a likely AFC playoff tease, the Brownies came to Hollywood and were in search of their fairy tale ending and nearly had their way. The Chargers delivered a nightmare ending in the 4 quarter with 4 TDs and a fatal knockout blow. Thank you, Justin Herbert, who is gathering MVP chatter momentum in only his sophomore season. The Chargers charge forth (4–1) in a battle with the Bills for AFC supremacy. And speaking of the Bills, they might have uncovered sandal in KC. Sunday night’s game offered a VERY troubling look into the early machinations of a possible decline, if ever so glaring. In contrast to just last Season, perhaps the word collapse nestles in there. Sorta. It’s just that while the Chiefs might have showed up to play underneath stormy weather, their Defense took a knee; and not in a good way. Sure the squad is injury-laden but then whose isn’t? Troubling, this weakness is spilling over onto the other side of ball where QB Patrick Mahomes turned in an unusually tepid outing complete with 2 INTs. On the other side of the token, Bills QB Josh Allen was on fire (15/26 315 yards 3 TDs) and the inferno spread to their Defense where they outmatched KC at practically every turn. The Chiefs trudge on with a bottom-heavy 2–3 record while the Bills gallop to TEN next Monday at 4–1. And finally, there are the Raiders. Ohhhh the Raiders. True to form, the mid-Season about face might have been pulled forward for 2021. Where Derek Carr was throwing to possible MVP kudos and powering his Team to an unlikely jackrabbit start, the pull of gravity (and Murphy’s Law) ended up being too great in Week 5. Derek was anemic against the Bears and was outplayed by CHI rookie QB Justin Fields. News of tumult at the top with the ugly abrupt jettisoning of HC Jon Gruden this week sure played a distracting part in their 9–20 LOSS. How this plays out for the rest of the Season with yet more uncertainty in Leadership certainly doesn’t bode well for a team that just weeks ago looked unstoppable. Lady Luck is not smiling upon Las Vegas today. The Bears, meanwhile, ascend to 3–2.
In our traditional Round Robin, the Giants dropped another. This time in BIG fashion to the hotshots in the NFC East, the Cowboys, 20–49. America’s Team is enjoying their best start in ages. And taking us along for the ride. At Heinz Field, Big Ben roared back at all those premature criticisms of his advanced age and critical decline (15/25 253 yards 2 TDs). He along with the O’s rushing game powered Steel City to victory over DEN, 27–19. The Broncos did display a lovely Defense that was to be outmatched by game’s end. A welcome Pittsburgh return to form for a beleaguered Team wrestling with a VERY disappointing season thus far at 2–3. The Pats rebounded from last week’s Tom Brady show to eek out a W against The Texans, 25–22. Credit to the hardy Texans and QB Davis Miller for putting on a fantastic show and making NE earn every cent of their whisper-thin victory. Not so whisper-thin was the margin of victory in Jacksonville where the Urban Meyer drama spewed forth as is ejected from a flamethrower. The Titans demolished his Jags, 37–19, and leave JAX fans clamoring for the normalcy and dignified (Losing) Season of 2019. That’s when Minshewmania swept the league. Now grainy weird videos of an embattled Head Coach in so clearly over his head sweep over the interwebs. Again, not in a good way. NOLA dealt a stinging defeat to Washington, 33–22, in a game that saw QB Taylor Heinicke slump BADLY. The Lions remain belly-up at 0–5 where Jared Goff (from the Rams) ponders life in NFL poverty. The Jets joined their Giants in throwing yet another L up on the board while last night’s coocoo bananas OT thriller reminded us of the power, fury and beautiful athleticism that IS Lamar Jackson and his stealthy City Birds. The visiting Colts felt the punishment. At least, at 1–4, they have the bright lights of Hard Knocks to look forward to next month. I wish the same could be said of us.
