The Giants have won four straight games and they're finally ready to start talking about themselves the same way the Jets have been talking about themselves all season.
"I don’t think, I know it, we are the best team in the NFC," Antrel Rolle said. "Hey, we are the best team in the NFL and that’s hands down."
"I feel confident if we play our best football, we can beat anybody in the NFC. I honestly do feel that way," Barry Cofield said.
So much for the Giants' long-held contention that they belong in more rarefied air than the Jets. It seems that a little taste of success hits everyone exactly the same way.
And why shouldn't it? It feels good to win, it feels even better to win a bunch of games in a row and no one should be embarrassed about sharing those good feelings with the world. That goes for fans, too. We haven't watched a local football team lose a game since September 26th, something that's made it a lot easier to stomach a World Series without the Yankees and the just general state of affairs of the Mets.
Where do you draw the line on feeling good? For our money, the best spot is about 15 feet in front of the spot where you start hypothesizing about New York invading Dallas en masse for a Super Bowl between the Jets and Giants. That means no breakdowns of how such a game would play out, it means no wondering about how the NFL would handle both conference title games being played in the same stadium and, generally, it means no discussion of the Super Bowl when we haven't even made it to Halloween.
Doesn't anyone else remember 2008? It wasn't that long ago, even if it seems impossible to remember a time when Brett Favre was compared to a little kid for the way he played the game instead of the way he shunned pants in public settings. But let's get into the wayback machine for a moment and remember back to the time when the Jets were 8-3, the Giants were 10-1 and the entire city was convinced that a Super Bowl matchup was in the offing.
You probably remember what happened next. Favre started throwing interceptions at every opportunity, Plaxico Burress decided to use himself for target practice and both teams crashed and burned long before the Steelers and Cardinals played for the Lombardi Trophy. Fans of Eastern thought will certainly have an idea why that happened, but there's a lesson here even if you believe karma is as real as ghosts, Santa Claus or the bust of your average Vegas stripper.
Sports
That was 11 games into a season and it was still ridiculously early to start talking about the Super Bowl. So drunk as you may be about Vegas installing the Jets and Giants as the favorites in their respective conferences, take it in stride and keep the wild dreams in check until there's actually reason to spend your precious time thinking about them.
Not only does that approach spare you any undue disappointment, it also makes it much easier to enjoy today because you aren't only focused on tomorrow.
Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City and is a contributor to FanHouse.com and ProFootballTalk.com in addition to his duties for NBCNewYork.com. You can follow him on Twitter.
