Getty Giants quarterback Daniel Jones (left) and franchise legend Lawrence Taylor (right).
It’s been a rather trying season for Giants faithful. Scratch that, it’s been a rather trying past decade for Big Blue fandom. To put it frankly, being stuck in the cellars of mediocrity would almost be considered good holding ground for a franchise that owns the fourth-worst winning percentage in football since 2012 (39.1) and is just one of eight teams in the NFL who are in the midst of a four-plus season playoff drought.
Whether it’s their tendency to reduce their fan’s life expectancy with gut-wrenching errors or the fact that some would simply prefer to watch paint dry rather than watch Saquon Barkley run into the back of his offensive linemen for the better part of 60 minutes, many have begun to tune out the once-great organization — that includes the greatest player in team history.
Per TMZ Sports, Lawrence Taylor no longer keeps tabs on the Giants franchise he once helped lead to two Super Bowl victories. In fact, he’s so out of the loop, he’s unaware of who quarterback Daniel Jones even is and was flabbergasted to hear that No. 10 is no longer taking snaps under center:
The 62-year-old unveiled the shocking fact about his life on a call with former Giants star Ottis Anderson … asking his ex-teammate (and current business partner) who quarterback Daniel Jones is.
“Daniel Jones is the [what?]” Taylor said to Anderson during the interview. “You mean to tell me Eli is not the quarterback no more?!? Get the hell out of here!”
Unclear if LT’s joking … but the conversation was hilarious nonetheless, ’cause you can tell in the clip, LT legitimately doesn’t know much about his former franchise these days.
‘Who? Joe Judge?’
Jones isn’t the only relevant Giants figure Taylor claims to be foreign to. Likening head coach Joe Judge to the Clint Eastwood 1972 film “Joe Kid,” it’s pretty clear Taylor’s not giving too much of his energy to Giants football nowadays.
“He doesn’t watch, I’m telling you,” Anderson said of Taylor … “We were talking earlier and we were talking about [Dave] Gettleman and Joe Judge and he said, ‘Who? Joe Judge? You talking Joe Kid, the one that played Clint Eastwood?!’”
“I said, ‘No, not Kid!’” Anderson continued. “He loves Westerns so he was talking about Clint Eastwood movies!”
The latest Giants news straight to your inbox! Subscribe to the Heavy on Giants newsletter here!
Sign up for the Heavy on Giants Newsletter!
Judge to Return in 2022?
It’s fair to assume that Taylor is stretching out his cluelessness some. However, at the same time, even categorizing Taylor as a casual fan may be giving the NFL Hall of Famer too much leeway. The Giants franchise is in an all-time sad state and to listen to the most prolific player in team history utter disinterest in keeping tabs on them speaks volumes.
The good news for Taylor, it looks as if he’ll at least get one more year to get acquainted with Judge, via Peter King of NBC Sports:
I get that Joe Judge likely survives the Giants’ post-season housecleaning that starts with GM Dave Gettleman. I can’t really argue with that. But I found myself watching parts of Judge’s 28th game, by which time there should be some familiarity with the system, even among the backups, and wondering why lots of that is lacking.