You don’t have to tell New York Giants fans to get into the game, but that is what first-year defensive coordinator Wink Martindale is asking them to do this week in the team’s home opener at MetLife Stadium against the Carolina Panthers.
Martindale wants Giants fans to be so loud when Carolina has the ball that it forces them into a silent count.
Wink Martindale is calling on Giants fans to "be loud" in the home opener:
"If you want to be part of changing this culture here with the Giants: Be loud, and have that place rocking where people don't want to come to our stadium. We'll give you something to be loud about." pic.twitter.com/h2gTGBealS
— Giants Videos (@SNYGiants) September 15, 2022
Giant fans have always been one of the most engaged fan bases in the NFL but they haven’t had a lot to be enthusiastic about the past decade or so.
The Giants in mired in a death spiral that has seen them log in losing records in eight of the last nine years and the year they did have a winning record (2016) they were embarrassed in the playoffs.
No one really knows how loud MetLife Stadium can really get. The Giants have played exactly one playoff game there (2012) and the co-tenant Jets haven’t played any.
The Giants once averaged over 80,000 fans per game about a decade ago, but that average dipped to around 73,000 last year. COVID-19 might have had an impact on that number and it remains to be seen how many fans will attend this year.
The poor performance of the team in recent years has led to a malaise in the fans attending the games. In many cases, they seek out other forms of entertainment of dining when the game gets away from the home team.
Also, season ticket holders can re-sell their tickets on in the secondary marketplace and those seats are often bought up by fans of the visiting team.
But Martindale and the Giants want to change all of that. And the transformation begins on Sunday.
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