The New York Giants and Brian Daboll have exceeded so many expectations this season. Thanks to Daniel Jones’ lights-out performance in Minnesota, New York is arguably way ahead of schedule by playing in the divisional round. Daboll’s bunch has overcome so much adversity that it’d probably be silly to doubt the G-Men upsetting the juggernaut Philadelphia Eagles on Saturday night.
Unfortunately for them, they first had to contend with some minor adversity off the field before they took on their divisional rivals.
According to reports from various writers covering the Giants, the team hotel in the Center City neighborhood in Philadelphia had no water on Saturday morning. It was so bad that no one could even do routine things like take a shower:
The Giants team hotel in Center City has no water, per sources (and as @LicensePlateGuy said). Busted pipe. No showers this morning. They’re working on fixing it. #giants #eagles
— Jordan Raanan (@JordanRaanan) January 21, 2023
The water would, of course, eventually be turned back on. But not before the apparent damage was done to a team that just wanted to chill out before a huge playoff game:
Water is back on. 💧 https://t.co/h81FEBCjQQ
— Jordan Raanan (@JordanRaanan) January 21, 2023
Given the strange timing of the Giants’ water not working at their hotel on the day of a road playoff matchup, some fans jokingly speculated that the Eagles had something to do with the “sabotage.” The far more likely happening was that the pipes burst in the middle of cold winter. And if there were actual shenanigans in play, it would have probably been hotel workers who are Eagles fans and not the team itself. But I suppose you can truly never doubt NFL teams trying to get the upper hand wherever they can in the playoffs.
New York already entered its matchup with Philadelphia as massive underdogs, trying to pull off one of the bigger upsets — by betting or general fan expectations. We’ll see how the water temporarily not working at their hotel affects the Giants’ opportunity to shock the No. 1 seeded Eagles.