Hype for Preseason Game Meaningless, But Good for Football

Rex Ryan's arrival has lifted both teams.

Giants fans won't like to hear it, but Rex Ryan's arrival has been very good for them.

They might not like the fact that he talks about winning games that he hasn't won on the field or that he calls their favored team the little brother of New York football, but if they're being honest they have to admit that football's been different in these parts since Ryan arrived in town.

He radically changed the Jets, gave them an identity and created a rivalry that's never felt more urgent than it does right now.

The Jets are brash and cocky, pleased as punch to know that they ruffle feathers everywhere they go while winning more playoff games in two years than they won in the two decades before Ryan came to town.

The Giants are more reserved, but they still have the arrogance that comes from winning three Super Bowls and they are clearly rankled by the attention given to the arrivistes they are forced to partner with so that both teams can sell ridiculously expensive tickets to their games.

That division between the two teams has made football a lot more interesting as there's a clear choice to make between the teams for the first time since Joe Namath hit the scene.

It generates attention for both teams, keeps them both in the headlines around the clock and has threatened baseball's historical place as the biggest sport in the city.

All of that is creating way too much hype for Saturday's game. Hard as everyone is trying to make it mean something, it is a practice game and will remain a practice game no matter what happens on the field.

There might be a memorable moment or two, like Eli Manning getting busted open by the Jets early in last year's exhibition game. We all remember that, but, without looking it up, do you actually remember who won that game?

Probably not, because the things that mattered in the 2010 season were DeSean Jackson's punt return, the failure of the Giants to show up the next week in Green Bay, two road playoff wins and the failure of the Jets to show up for the first half in Pittsburgh.

The winner of the preseason game, it was the Giants by a 31-16 count by the way, mattered about as much as the winner of the Tony Award for Best Musical. 

Just keep that in mind on Saturday and especially after Saturday when people try to extrapolate the results of the game into something meaningful. Unless a key player is lost for the season, nothing that happens on the field Saturday will impact the 16 weeks that actually count even if one team beats the other 47-3. 

The fact that people have convinced themselves that it does is a good thing, though. It means that football has taken on a place of primacy in our lives and that the next four months are going to be a lot of fun around these parts.

Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City. You can follow him on Twitter and he is also a contributor to Pro Football Talk.

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