There will be a slight change to the annual preseason game between the New York Giants and New York Jets simultaneously known as the Snoopy Bowl/MetLife Bowl.
The Snoopy Bowl/MetLife Bowl will open the preseason for both clubs on Aug. 8. In recent years, the game has been played in the third week of the preseason.
The Giants and Jets have met in the preseason annually since 1969. The first game was played at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Conn. as a precursor to the AFL-NFL merger. Big Blue was in the midst of what would become an 18-year postseason drought while Gang Green was coming off its guaranteed victory in Super Bowl III.
The game was seen by both teams as a “turf war” for dominance in the nation’s most populous city. The Jets emerged victorious, handing the Giants a 37-14 beatdown that wasn’t as close as the final score might suggest.
The loss led to the firing of Giants head coach Allie Sherman. Sherman was the first head coach in NFL history to win consecutive Coach of the Year awards (1961, 1962). He spent the majority of his coaching career with the Giants as a running backs coach, offensive coordinator, and head coach.
The Giants won three consecutive Eastern Division titles (1961-63) but fell in the NFL Championship Game to Vince Lombardi’s (whom Sherman succeeded as Giants offensive coordinator in 1959) Green Bay Packers (1961, 1962) and George Halas’ Chicago Bears (1963). The Giants’ appearance in the 1963 NFL Championship Game was their last appearance in the NFL’s title game until Super Bowl XXI.
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Firing Sherman (who wanted to draft Joe Namath in 1965) cost the Giants more than a coach who led the team to championships. He signed a 10-year contract paying him $50,000 annually and was on the team’s payroll until 1974.
The enthusiasm surrounding the annual preseason game began to die down in the late 1970s. Since 1984, the Giants and Jets are the only NFL teams to share the same stadium at the same time, a designation that will end in 2020 when the Los Angeles Chargers and Los Angeles Rams begin play at City of Champions Stadium.
Despite sharing Giants Stadium/MetLife Stadium, the fervor for the annual Giants/Jets preseason game is not the same as it was in the late ‘60s/early ‘70s.
The Giants and Jets play in different conferences. They have only met 13 times in the regular season since the 1970 merger and can only meet in the postseason if both squads make it to the Super Bowl…which has never taken place. In fact, there are only two Super Bowls featuring teams from the same state: Super Bowl XXV (won by the Giants over the Buffalo Bills) and Super Bowl XXIX (when the San Francisco 49ers trounced the then-San Diego Chargers).
Under the NFL’s current scheduling formula, New York’s pro football teams play every four years. In 2019, they will square off in the 14th regular season meeting in the series in Week 10 (Sunday, Nov. 10, 1:00 EST on FOX). The Giants will be designated as the away team. Big Blue leads the all-time series 8-5.
– Curtis Rawls is a Managing Editor for Full Press Coverage and covers the NFL and the New York Giants. Please like and follow on Facebook and Twitter. Curtis can be followed on Twitter @CuRawls203.