The Dark Days of Summer

This is the absolute worst time of year for NFL fans.  Organized team workouts are over and the Giants don’t report to training camp for five full weeks.  That’s five weeks of little or no Giants news.  It’s enough to drive a fan a little nuts.  The big question is this…how does one get their Big Blue fix during this annual crisis?

Unfortunately, there is no real substitute, but desperate times call for desperate measures.  I’m quite sure you’ve thought of every one of these techniques yourself, but we both have a little time on our hands.  Let the craziness begin.

Were you smart enough to record and keep the entire 2011 season on your DVR?   I wasn’t.  Even if I were, there’s a real good chance a few games would’ve been deleted to make room for the wife’s reruns of Dr. Phil and the Bachelor.  It’s probably for the best.  Why break up a perfectly good marriage over a few video recordings?

A second option here is NFL.com’s Game Rewind.  For $35 you get access to all regular season games for your favorite team back to 2009.  It also comes with condensed viewing where you can watch an entire game in 30 minutes and “Coaches Film” which shows various angles on certain plays.  I’ve never paid for this before, but there’s always a first time for everything.  And I have to admit, I’m pretty tempted right now.

If you prefer to spend your $35 on something else like a decent bottle of scotch, YouTube is a great place to go when you’re feeling withdrawal symptoms.  It’s not as good as watching complete games while pretending it’s the regular season all over again.  But you can find highlights of each game.  I find when I watch them in order, I still get wrapped up in the exhilaration of Week 09 against the Pats and Week 17 against the Cowboys…and of course, the despair of Week 12 in New Orleans and Week 15 against the Redskins.