Not that you should be expecting a refund if you happened to be at the Giants’ pathetic, season-ending, stadium-closing loss to the Panthers on Sunday, but both Eli Manning and Tom Coughlin would like you to know that they’re very, very sorry for making you watch that.
Manning apologized, and called it “frustrating” that the Giants played so badly with so much on the line. Coughlin, too, called it “frustrating,” then talked about how it’s really hard to make the playoffs, and how they’d made it four years in a row, and how it’s not a privilege but something they have to earn, and so on. All of which is true, we suppose, but if it’s meant to make this any easier to take, it’s not helping. Yes, making the playoffs is hard. But making the playoffs after you start the season 5–0 isn’t. Perhaps Giants fans and Broncos fans could start some sort of support group.
We guess there’s really nothing to do but apologize at this point. (Well, unless you’re Osi Umenyiora and you want to complain about playing time.) But there’s only one thing that can be of any consolation right now: Since Dallas and Green Bay both won, they’d still be on the outside of the playoffs looking in at this point, even if they won on Sunday. Well, that and the promise of a better-than-usual draft pick and the infusion of some new blood into a team that’s sorry in more ways than one.