Several New York Giants legends got together to discuss the history of the franchise during a panel over the weekend at Fanatics Fest in New York City. During the Night with Champions panel, the players joked around while discussing their favorite NFC East rivals to beat during their playing days.
Michael Strahan takes a shot at Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones
When discussing their NFC East rivals, Giants legend and Hall of Famer Michael Strahan delivered the line of the night. He took aim at Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones while harping on the joy of beating the hated rivals during his career:
“Oh man, I mean, there’s nothing better than seeing Jerry Jones disappointed,” Strahan quipped. “But I used to love going right down the turnpike and stomping the Eagles out.”
Strahan was a problem for both the Cowboys and the Eagles to handle throughout his legendary NFL career. The two-time first-team All-Pro racked up 21.5 sacks against the Eagles in his career and 18 sacks against the Cowboys in his career.
The Giants love beating the Cowboys and Eagles
Alongside Strahan on the panel were other Giants legends, such as QB Eli Manning, WR Plaxico Burress, RB Ottis Anderson, and DE Justin Tuck. The popular answers among the panel were the Eagles and the Cowboys as the former players joked about how much fun it was to beat up on those particular two rivals:
“There’s nothing like going down to Texas and beating them Cowboys,” Burress told panel host Jesse Palmer. “Nothing like it. Nothing like playing in Dallas, man. Nothing like it.”
“I must agree with Strahan,” Anderson told the panel, referring to Strahan’s preference to beat the Eagles. “Eagles fans are the worst fans in America.”
Manning sided with his wideout, however, saying, “I’m going with the Cowboys. Just because we beat them in the playoffs, we knocked them out in ’11 to enter the playoffs, beat them in ’07 in the playoffs. We beat them on so many big games so those are just great memories.”
“Listen man, the Eagles, I hate them. The Commanders, I hate them. But those Cowgirls…” Tuck said as he broke the tie among the panel. “They were by far [my favorite team to beat]. Just being able to watch Jerry [Jones] come down and think his team is going to win that game and already hand out them next playoff tickets and we politely stomp they ass out… yeah.”
Interestingly enough, no one on the panel selected the Washington Commanders as their favorite NFC East rival to beat. While the rivalry between Washington and New York is still intense, there’s nothing quite like the divisional hatred shared between the Giants, Cowboys, and Eagles.
All quotes in this article were captured by Empire Sports Media’s own Anthony Rivardo at Fanatics Fest.
