It’s tough for me, Peiser. The Giants have been beating on me for years. I’m legitimately angry at half of the players. Shockey is a hillbilly idiot with an EAGLE AND FLAG tattoo on his arm. Eli Manning is as consistent as a cheap watch and Michael Straham is just too flamboyant for me to take seriously. The only one I like on that whole team is Mathias Kiwanuka. And I hate Coughlin. God. It’s just so hard, man. Despite all of that, I keep coming home to them.

More seriously, good response on the local allegiances thing. It really is predominantly a family thing- my family’s rooting pattern is the semi-rare Mets/Giants hybrid (though there are stubborn pockets of Yankees support), so that’s how I roll. Geographic proximity has a lot to do with sports other than football (though even there, Queens & LI’ers tend to lean Jets from their days at Shea). Figure that those are the games you go to/ watch as a young’n, so it gets ingrained. However, in Manhattan the rules are a bit different, as it’s an island chock-full of transplants; people who want a local team pick one (usually the Yankees, frontrunning bastards) but there’s no need as there’s always a bar showing your team- even if it’s Tottenham.

One fault there though; there are no Knicks fans anymore.