| Location | New York City,Boston |
|---|---|
| First meeting | October 18, 1970 Giants 16,Patriots 0[1] |
| Latest meeting | November 26, 2023 Giants 10, Patriots 7[1] |
| Next meeting | December 1, 2025 |
| Stadiums | Giants:MetLife Stadium Patriots:Gillette Stadium |
| Statistics | |
| Meetings total | 14[1] |
| All-time series | Tied: 7–7[1] |
| Regular season series | Patriots: 7–5[1] |
| Postseason results | Giants: 2–0[1] |
| Largest victory | Giants: 16–0(1970) Patriots: 35–14(2019)[1] |
| Most points scored | Giants: 35(2007) Patriots: 38(2007)[1] |
| Longest win streak | Giants: 3 (2007–2012) Patriots: 4 (1996–2011)[1] |
| Current win streak | Giants: 1 (2023–present)[1] |
| Post–season history[1] | |
| |
TheGiants–Patriots rivalry is aNational Football League (NFL)rivalry between theNew York Giants andNew England Patriots.[2][3][4]
They play in different conferences (the Giants as a member of theNFC East, and the Patriots as a member of theAFC East), and thus they only meet once every four regular seasons and at least once every eight seasons at each team's home stadium, occasionally in the preseason, sometimes more often if they meet in the Super Bowl or share a common finish position in their respective divisions in the year before the 17th game.[5][6][7][8][9][10] This rivalry sparked debates among sports fans inBoston andNew York City, evoking comparisons to the fierceYankees–Red Sox rivalry inMajor League Baseball.[11][12][13][14]
The Patriots currently play atGillette Stadium inFoxborough, Massachusetts, just outside of Boston, while the Giants currently play atMetLife Stadium inEast Rutherford, New Jersey, just outside of New York City. The two stadiums are 207 miles (333 km) from each other viaInterstate 95.[15][16][17][18][19]
The rivalry became particularly noticeable during the 2000s and 2010s, when the underdog New York Giants, led by quarterbackEli Manning, defeatedTom Brady and the New England Patriots inSuper Bowl XLII andSuper Bowl XLVI. Super Bowl XLII was especially significant, as the Giants ended the Patriots' undefeated season in what is considered one of the greatest upsets in American sports history. These dramatic upsets helped fuel what became known as theTom Brady–Eli Manning rivalry.
The overall series is tied, 7–7. The two teams met twice in theSuper Bowl, both won by the Giants.[1]
The two teams first met twice in the 1970s, splitting both meetings.[20] However, the roots of the rivalry originated fromBill Parcells, who was head coach of the Giants from 1983 to 1990. Parcells' staff featureddefensive coordinatorBill Belichick, the future Patriots head coach who joined the team alongside Parcells in 1979. In 1988, future Giants head coachTom Coughlin joined the team as a wide receivers coach.[21] Both Belichick and Coughlin were on Parcells' staff when the Giants wonSuper Bowl XXV (a.k.a. theWide Right game) following the1990 season.[22] That 1990 season also saw the Giants hand the Patriots their 14th consecutive defeat. In Week 17 at New England, the Giants defeated the Patriots 13–10 to send New England to a franchise-worst 1–15 season, and a winless home campaign.[23][24]
Parcells left the Giants following the Super Bowl victory, but in1993, he took over as the Patriots head coach. In his fourth season, Parcells led the Patriots to a berth inSuper Bowl XXXI, with Belichick returning as an assistant coach following a five-year stint as head coach of theCleveland Browns. Along the way, the Patriots clinched a first-round bye in Week 17 by overcoming a 22–3 fourth quarter deficit to defeat the Giants 23–22.[23][25] Meanwhile, Coughlin earned his first head coaching job with theJacksonville Jaguars in the1995 season, and then guided the second-year franchise to theAFC Championship game. However, the Patriots defeated the Jaguars to advance to the Super Bowl, where they lost to theGreen Bay Packers. After the season, both Parcells and Belichick left to join therivalNew York Jets, while Coughlin remained as the Jaguars head coach until 2002.[26]
In2000, Belichick became the Patriots head coach, andthe following season, promotedTom Brady to starting quarterback.This era would produce six Super Bowl championships for the Patriots, but also oversaw three defeats in the title game. In the2004 season, Coughlin was hired by the Giants as head coach, and by the middle of the season, promotedEli Manning to starter.
Thefirst meeting between Brady and Eli Manning came in the final week of the2007 season. New England entered the game holding a 15–0 record and were attempting to finish the regular season undefeated. Meanwhile, the Giants won a wild-card spot and had nothing to play for. However, New York played their starters throughout in an attempt to spoil the Patriots' perfect season. In the end, New England won the game 38–35 to finish 16–0, with Brady connecting for a then-record 50th touchdown pass toRandy Moss.[23][27][28][29]
The Patriots met the Giants again inSuper Bowl XLII in an attempt to finish with a 19–0 season. However, in one of the greatest upsets in NFL history, the Giants defeated the Patriots 17–14 to win the championship. With the Patriots leading 14–10 late in the fourth quarter, Manning generated a key go-ahead scoring drive, highlighted by the now-famousHelmet Catch toDavid Tyree. The winning points were scored on a touchdown pass toPlaxico Burress, and the Giants defense forced the Patriots into a turnover on downs on their final possession.[23][28][29]
The two teams faced each other again inSuper Bowl XLVI during the2011 season. Along the way, the Giants dealt the Patriots one of their three defeats in the regular season, winning 24–20 in New England.[23] Much like their previous Super Bowl meeting, the game was tightly contested and had a signature moment as well, with Manning connecting toMario Manningham late in the fourth quarter just as his toes barely stepped inbounds.[30] The winning points of the game were scored on an uncontested touchdown run byAhmad Bradshaw, and the Patriots' attempt at aHail Mary touchdown in the closing seconds fell incomplete.[31][32][33][29]
The two Super Bowls stirred up real conflict among fans in states between Massachusetts and New York. In Connecticut, some people cheered for the Giants, some for the Patriots. The split often followed geography, age, family tradition, or reactions to the Patriots’ dominance. For many, the Giants’ upset wins felt like symbolic victories over a team viewed as the “eventual winner".[34][35][36][37]
The final meeting between Brady and Eli Manning occurred during the2015 season. In another close contest, the Patriots barely won 27–26, with kickerStephen Gostkowski clinching the game on a last-second field goal. The season was also Coughlin's last with the Giants as he retired following the season.[38] Though Manning would retire following the2019 season, he did not play in the Giants' 35–14 blowout loss to the Patriots that season, which was also Brady's last before joining theTampa Bay Buccaneers the following offseason.[39][29][40][41][42]
Overall, Eli Manning owned a 3–2 all-time record against Tom Brady, buoyed by the two Super Bowl victories. In the regular season, neither quarterback managed to win on their home field, with Manning defeating Brady in their only meeting atGillette Stadium in 2011 and Brady winning atGiants Stadium in 2007 andMetLife Stadium in 2015. This rivalry, similar to thematchup between Brady and Eli's brother Peyton, featured close contests and memorable moments between the two quarterbacks, even though Eli finished with all-time stats generally inferior to Brady.[43]
After the departure of Brady and the retirement of Eli Manning in 2019, both the Giants and Patriots struggled to recapture their previous success. Aside from playoff berths by the Patriots in2021 and the Giants in2022, both teams have endured numerous losing seasons.[44][45]
The2023 season saw the series tied 7–7 as Patriots rookie kickerChad Ryland missed a game-tying field goal that would have sent the game to overtime, giving the Giants a 10–7 victory. This marked Belichick's final game of the rivalry as the Patriots' head coach as he parted ways with the team the following offseason.
In2024, both teams finished last in their divisions, resulting in a 2025 meeting due to the rotation of the fifth interconference game first played in 2021, pairing each NFC East team in a 2025 road game against the AFC East team with the same division placement as 2024.
| New York Giants vs. Boston/New England Patriots Season-by-Season Results[1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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1970s–1980s (Giants, 2–1)
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1990s (Patriots, 2–1)
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2000s (Patriots, 2–1)
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2010s (Tied, 2–2)
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2020s (Giants, 1–0)
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Summary of Results
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Make no mistake about it, Bill Belichick loves the Giants. This is also the reason why the two teams have played each other every single year in the preseason for 14 straight years. The two teams' rivalry goes beyond exhibition thrillers, though. You probably remember that the Giants spoiled the Patriots' perfect season in Super Bowl 42. They also beat them in the title game four years later. It will probably be a while before the two teams meet again on football's biggest stage, but the fact that a New York team beat a New England team in two Super Bowls is enough to create a rivalry-like flair. That, and those preseason meetings, of course.
With New York Yankees-Red Sox, that's just the way New York-Boston sports are...Be it on the field, court, diamond or ice, that's how it is between Beantown and the Big Apple.
