Up up and away

I had it all planned out until SW on Thursday cancelled all its flights out of Albuquerque Airport. I was going to hop a weekend flight to New Jersey for the Sunday morning National Football League game in which the New York Giants were trying to clinch their first post-season since 2016, but the airline that usually does everything right, didn’t do me right here.

So I gave up. Heck, I once covered the Giants and New York Jets playing in East Rutherford and I was anxious to make use of my national media pass. But on Friday afternoon, I got word both on TV and from Southwest at the airport that the plans had been changed, the round-trip flight was on.

And when we landed at Newark Airport, no rain, no snow, no wind, no crowds, just about a comfortable 55 degrees as I rented a car and made some plans. Game time couldn’t have come quicker for me. As it was, the venue right off the Garden State Parkway was packed with one of the most die-hard fans in the land. Unlike my flight, they usually set out to watch the blue and red all over the land.

The Giants media staff was a-okay, reserving my space in the press section, informing me to ask if I needed anything. This included my game program, gametime lineups, season statistics, the hospitality room, pre-game interviews, and was overjoyed to meet up with sportswriters who I went way back with without showing my age.

Yes, it was what I always called strange, you know two professional football teams with New York on all their uniforms, their gear, their literature, and, oops, playing across the Hudson in New Jersey. It just happens to be a state with only the National Hockey League Devils who play in Newark known as the New Jersey representative.

That’s true. The professional soccer team, the Red Bulls, play out of Harrison. The New York Liberty women’s pro basketball team began at Madison Square Garden then relocated to the arena in Newark, and now does some back-and-forth contests to keep their fans happy. Still, they too are known as a team from the Empire State.

The game was fine. The Giants were very good. Came no doubt ready to play. Led by versatile quarterback Danuel Jones, a first-round college draft out of Duke, who mixed in his own ground game with his aerial attack and it was no match for the visiting Indianapolis Colts. It was 17-0 after one quarter and the crowd loved it. It was 24-3 at halftime and 31-10 after three quarters, and no contest after that.

The fans became louder and louder as the game wound down. The players were already hugging, high-fiving, waving to the fans, and when it ended at 52-45 with Jones expected to be named the game Most Valuable Player, the stadium erupted. Outside, the traffic was heavy, but to be expected when you’re in Joisey, Nu Yawk, hearing automobile horns, people shouting from car to car, and so on and so forth.

No matter, it was a happy day, and in the night game Sunday, the Jets will play at Seattle against its former starting quarterback Geno Smith. The green and whitch needs a victory there after the new England Patriots downed the visiting Miami Dolphins, 31-18. earlier in the day. The Buffalo Bills are the division champions, while the Jets need a win up there because they still have to play down in Miami next week and a tie is possible, while the Pats are right in the chase.