NFL: New York Giants - 10 Greatest Games

New York Giants: 10 Greatest Games

Studio: Warner Home Video

Year: 1987-2008

Rated: Not Rated

Program Length: 1000 minutes

Aspect Ratio: 4:3

Languages: English Dolby Digital Mono & Stereo

Subtitles: None

The Program

The National Football League and Warner Home Video have joined forces to produce this 10-disc DVD set, which contains nearly complete television broadcasts of ten significant New York Giants football games which were played between 1987 and 2008. The title is something of a misnomer, because some of the team’s greatest games are not included, presumably because complete telecasts do not exist. Chief among those would be the “Greatest Game Ever Played,” the 1958 NFL championship game between the Giants and the Baltimore Colts, the first NFL game to be decided in sudden-death overtime.

As noted, these are “nearly complete” broadcasts. Every play of each game is included, but some unnecessary material has been excised in order to allow each game to be covered in about two hours. For example, after a touchdown and extra point are scored the next thing to be shown will be the subsequent kickoff. The special teams running out on the field and the kicker teeing up the ball are usually edited out. It should be pointed out that the editing is done very well and the transitions appear to be almost seamless. There are of course no commercials, and there is little or no pre-game chatter. However, instant replays are included and these presentations have little in common with the 30-minute replays which DirecTV airs as part of its NFL Sunday Ticket package.

One interesting aspect of watching the older games – those played in the late eighties and early nineties – is the limited use of on-screen graphics. Today we are used to continuous graphics showing score, time remaining, down and distance, etc. While watching the 1987 playoff games, the viewer really has to pay attention because the on-screen information is only intermittent.

Here is the lineup of games:

NFC Playoff Game, Giants v. San Francisco 49ers (January 4, 1987)

CBS

Announcers: Pat Summerall and John Madden

NFC Championship Game, Giants v. Washington Redskins (January 11, 1987)

CBS

Announcers: Pat Summerall and John Madden

Super Bowl XXI, Giants v. Denver Broncos (January 25, 1987)

CBS

Announcers: Pat Summerall and John Madden

NFC Playoff Game, Giants v. Chicago Bears (January 13, 1991)

CBS

Announcers: Pat Summerall and John Madden

NFC Championship Game, Giants v. San Francisco 49ers (January 20, 1991)

CBS

Announcers: Pat Summerall and John Madden

Super Bowl XXV, Giants v. Buffalo Bills (January 27, 1991)

ABC

Announcers: Al Michaels, Dan Dierdorf, Frank Gifford

NFC Playoff Game, Giants v. Philadelphia Eagles (January 7, 2001)

Fox

Announcers: Pat Summerall and John Madden

NFC Championship Game, Giants v. Minnesota Vikings (January 14, 2001)

Fox

Announcers: Pat Summerall and John Madden

(The date of this game is incorrectly listed on the box as January 14, 2000)

NFC Regular Season Game, Giants v. Philadelphia Eagles (September 17, 2006)

Fox

Announcers: Joe Buck and Troy Aikman

Super Bowl XLII, Giants v. New England Patriots (January 27, 2008)

Fox

Announcers: Joe Buck and Troy Aikman

Giants fans may question why this set includes two playoff games from 2001 (a year when the Giants lost the Super Bowl) and a regular season game from 2006, but does not include the Giants’ 2008 NFC playoff games against Tampa Bay, Dallas and Green Bay. The reason, presumably, is that those games are already available in the DVD set New York Giants: The Road to Super Bowl XLII.

The Video

The video quality of this DVD set is surprisingly good, considering that the source material of the older games is 20+ year-old video tape. The colors are solid and accurate. Close-ups look sharper than the long shots, but this obviously is due to the inherent limitations of the video tape. The image occasionally blurs a bit, but for the most part it is consistent. The more recent games, such as Super Bowl XLII, look very good, but it would be nice to see them become available in high definition.

The Audio

The box says that the audio is stereo, but all of the sound in the older games is coming from the center channel. The stereo effect becomes more pronounced as the set progresses, and the broadcast of Super Bowl XLII has nice separation and the noises made by the crowd really come to life. However, even on the older games the audio is clear and understandable, with no annoying anomalies.

The Supplements

This set contains no extras.

The Packaging

The set consists of ten discs, one game per disc. The DVD case fits into a cardboard slipcase. A listing of the games is on the slipcase, but not on the DVD case. For those of you who are concerned about shelf space, the width of the entire package is one inch.

The Final Analysis

This set obviously is aimed at New York Giants fans, and they will not be disappointed.

Equipment used for this review:

Toshiba HD-XA-2 DVD player

Panasonic Viera TC-P46G15 THX Plasma display, calibrated to THX specifications by Gregg Loewen

Yamaha HTR-5890 THX Surround Receiver

BIC Acoustech speakers

Interconnects: Monster Cable

Release Date: August 25, 2009