The Final 20

Teams must still make plans for the upcoming season, in spite of all of the uncertainties on the labor front.

I was impressed with a story about the New York Giants who ran a contest to determine which of their ten fans would have their pictures on the team's individual game tickets for the season. The team got 1,300 entrants before selecting 20 finalists. Some of their stories were so inspiring.

They included a G.I. who wore his New York Giants 1990 Super Bowl Championship t-shirt during every dangerous patrol while on duty in Iraq.

Another was a fan 91 years old who has followed the team for 85 years and owned season tickets for 60 until the team initiated the Personal Seat Licence. He even wore a Giants custom-made kippah and tallit when he had his own bar mitzvah last year.

Perhaps one of the best stories is a lady who has attended every home game since 1970. She missed only one in a run of 317 games. That was in 1989 when she gave birth to her first child, four days before kickoff.

Every fan of the game has their own story.