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Are The New York Giants ‘Britain’s Team’?
by CJ Sanchez
23/1/2008
 If the New England Patriots are ‘America’s Team’, then what happens with the rest of the teams in the NFL? Can other countries claim them? The NFL is huge in American Samoa, do they get a team?
There have been several athletes who have renounced their home country ties in order to compete for Great Britain and unlike many Brits, I’ve always been one to accept them. Provided they’re good.
As far as I’m concerned, once they’ve claimed that loose connection and are eligible to don the Union Jack, they become British end of story.
Lennox Lewis? Born in West Ham. Greg Rusedski? His mother was British. Kevin Peterson? Born in South Africa? I don’t want to hear it. British.
So going by that rationale I don’t see any reason why the New York Giants can’t become ‘Britain’s Team’. They already play in red, white and blue, so we’re halfway there and they’ve played in front of the home fans at Wembley. But what about the players themselves? Wouldn’t they have to be British?
Well, it turns out (if you allow for the odd, unsteady connection) that many of them are! Take a gander at this selection from the Giants Roster:
Let’s start with the easy ones. We all know that Osi Umenyiora was born in London and lived there until he was seven years old. Seven years is plenty of time to become a cockney, check out the cast of Eastenders, half of them learnt their accents in seven minutes!
Osi could also be considered ‘Britain’s Pro-Bowler’ as he will be making his second Pro-Bowl appearance this season. In fact, Osi was the only Giant voted to the Pro Bowl. That technically means the best player on the Giants roster is a Brit.
You see? It’s all coming together.
Next up is Lawrence Tynes. Tynes was born in Greenock, Scotland and (after making that 47 yard field goal in the NFC Championship Game) is most certainly British.
After that the links get a little more subtle.
Line backer Antonio Pierce was born in Bermuda and makes regular trips back to the island to visit his relatives. Bermuda is still designated as a ‘British Overseas Territory’. I don’t know exactly what that means but it’s of no consequence Antonio Pierce is British.
Joining him in an all British outside linebacking core is Mathias Kiwanuka. Mathias is the grandson of Benedicto Kiwanuka, who just so happened to be the first Prime Minister of Uganda. Uganda was a part of the Commonwealth until 1962. Mathias Kiwanuka British.
Defensive end Adrian Awasom was born in Cameroon. Cameroon became a member of the Commonwealth in 1995 British.
 Guy Whimper was drafted by the Giants in 2006. He hails from Honolulu, Hawaii. Hawaii’s state flag has the Union Jack on it British.
Eli Manning possible distant cousin of Bernard Manning British.
Plaxico Burress Born in Norfolk (Virginia) British.
Michael Strahan Once played a golfer with body odour issues in a deodorant advert. The advert had an English voiceover British.
Chase Blackburn Blackburn are former winners of the Premiership British.
Jim Finn Born in Teaneck, New Jersey. Anything with tea in it British.
But it doesn’t end there!
New York Giants head coach, Tom Coughlin was born in Waterloo, New York and attended Waterloo high school. How can anything associated with Waterloo not be British? It’s a done deal.
And to top it all off, did you know that the first game the New York Giants ever played took place in ‘New Britain’, Connecticut? It was October 4th 1925 and the Giants won 26-0. Their opponents on that day were a team by the name of ‘All New Britain’. What more do you need?
So there we have it; from this day forth the New York Giants are ‘Britain’s Team’. Perhaps we should rename them the New York Britons? Either way, the good thing is, Britain will be well represented in this years Super Bowl.
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