THE NEW YORK GIANTS: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
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Like any team anywhere in any sport, the professional football Giants of New York have had their fabulous seasons and their frankly rotten years, as Klein's dullish history shows. But the Giants, born during the Jazz Age as a result of spiffy bookmaker T.J. Mara's $500 investment and run by the Mara family ever since, have been one of the game's most engaging -- and enriching -- franchises; by the time old T.J. died in 1959, for instance, the Giants had participated in more championship games than any other in the NFL, had more members in the Hall of Fame, and had made more money. Klein, who's reported (New Jersey Star-Ledger) the Giants for the last twelve years, plods through the record, grinding out a few years at a time like a straight-ahead fullback, interviewing those who remember when, beefing it up here and there with tales of the players and of course crucial games. It picks up a bit when he gets into Allie Sherman's reign as coach (Klein idolizes him and takes a few oblique shots at Wellington Mara, the boss, for firing Allie in 1969), but the Giants deserve a more colorful biography than this taxi-squad effort. Especially since they're moving to New Jersey tomorrow.