Insider’s view:
Hundreds of thousands of New York metropolitan area sports fans tuned in to watch a third-string quarterback, Jake Fromm, and the Giants close out yet another lost season on Sunday afternoon, and I would like to use this space to address all of those people directly:
Why?
To what end? For what possible purpose? I was paid by The New York Times. What was your excuse? Self-loathing? Force of habit? Ironic detachment?
2021 N.F.L. Season News and Analysis
- Playoff Picture: Explore every team’s path to the postseason on the final weekend of regular-season games, updated live.
- Week 18 Predictions: Our picks against the spread.
- Saturday’s N.F.L. Games: The Cowboys held onto their shot at the N.F.C.’s No. 2 seed by beating the Eagles, and Kansas City’s defense powered it to a win over the Broncos.
- The Season That Ran Too Long: With only one true elimination game, Week 18’s bloat should feel anticlimactic.
Please don’t attempt to shift the conversation to the fans who showed up in person at MetLife Stadium — I admire them. One can only assume they bought their tickets months in advance with the adorable notion that the N.F.C. East was available for the taking or might come down to this face-off, in which a youthful dual threat, Daniel Jones, would go up against the Washington Football Team’s aging gunslinger, Ryan Fitzpatrick.
Instead, they got stuck with an in-person view of Jake Fromm versus Taylor Heinicke.
Those fans are legends, especially the ones who stuck around to watch Fromm throw his second interception of the game on the season’s final play. But for TV viewers, who had the option of changing the channel, I ask again:
Why?
This Giants game had zero playoff implications. It offered no glimpse of the future, since most of these Giants will not be back. The next time Washington plays a regular-season game, the team will be called something else. This was a game between ghosts. Dull, low-scoring ghosts.
The Washington Soon-to-Be-Something-Else won, 22-7, and the Giants’ first 17th regular-season game was just a bonus week of bad football, the N.F.L. equivalent of a free but stale doughnut. And if you watched it, you ate it.
Verdict: In honor of this dreadful season, how about a dreadful pun? This one was over Fromm the beginning.