House Giants

The Wound

This house’s problem is that it already had the perfect story. Twice.

In February 2008 and again in February 2012 it walked into the final field as the lesser house and beat New England — the first time ending a perfect season, in what is still the most famous upset the sport has produced.

Nothing since has come close, and nothing ever will. New York has spent fifteen years as a bad team with two of the best memories in the realm, which is its own kind of trap.

The Lord

Jaxson Dart, in his second season, on a house that won four games. He is young and unproven and the entire estate is on his shoulders because there is no one else.

The Knights

Odell Beckham Jr. — returned. Older, slower, and carrying a catch this city has not stopped talking about since 2014. This is sentiment more than strategy and no one is pretending otherwise.
Isaiah Likely — forty million, and the actual plan.

Ancient Grudges

House Eagles. The most venomous rivalry in the division, and the one where the crowds genuinely dislike each other.
House Cowboys. Ancient, national, and mostly conducted through television.
House Patriots. Not a rivalry. A haunting, and New York is the ghost.

What Changed This Spring

Beckham and JuJu Smith-Schuster returned on nostalgia, Likely and Tremaine Edmunds arrived on purpose, and Dexter Lawrence — the best player in the building — was traded to Cincinnati. That last one is the move that tells you what this house actually thinks of its chances.

Prophecy