Giants Stadium - Notable Moments

Notable Moments

• October 10, 1976: The Giants played their first ever regular season game at Giants Stadium, a 24–14 loss to the Dallas Cowboys in front of 76,042 in attendance.
• October 1, 1977: Soccer legend Pelé played his last game, an exhibition match between the Cosmos and Santos. He played the first half for the Cosmos and the second half for his old Brazilian team.
• October 28, 1978: Rutgers beat Columbia 69–0. The Lions' humiliating defeat was the last game in one of the oldest rivalries in college football. Columbia's young coach Bill Campbell retired from coaching after the game and went on to a vastly more successful career in the Silicon Valley.
• November 19, 1978: Giants quarterback Joe Pisarcik fumbled the handoff to Larry Csonka with just seconds remaining in the game, allowing Herman Edwards (later a Jets head coach) to scoop it up and run it back for a touchdown, giving the Philadelphia Eagles an improbable 19–17 win. This play would be known as "The Miracle at the Meadowlands," and helped lead to the hiring of Ray Perkins as head coach, and later George Young as general manager. Pisarcik's career in New York never recovered, and Phil Simms was drafted shortly after.
• September 6, 1984: The New York Jets moved into Giants Stadium, losing their first game to the Pittsburgh Steelers by a score of 23–17.
• July 29, 30 and 31, 1984: The Jacksons performed three sold out shows during their Victory Tour.
• July 14, 1985: The Baltimore Stars defeat the Oakland Invaders, 28–24, in the 1985 USFL Championship Game, the final game in league history.
• August–September 1985: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band performed six sold out shows on the final leg of their Born in the U.S.A. Tour.
• December 28, 1985: The first NFL playoff game at The Meadowlands, and AFC Wild-Card game between the New York Jets & New England Patriots was won by the Patriots 26–14.
• December 29, 1985: The New York Giants played their first home playoff game at Giants Stadium, a 17–3 victory over the San Francisco 49ers.
• January 11, 1987: The New York Giants shut out the Washington Redskins 17–0 in the NFC Championship game to advance to Super Bowl XXI in Pasadena. Two weeks later, the Giants would win Super Bowl XXI, their first Super Bowl victory.
• November 8, 1987: The New York Giants defeated the New England Patriots 17–10 in ESPN's first televised regular season game.
• June 30, 1989: The Who sold out four consecutive shows performing portions of the rock opera Tommy to open the first of two sets each night.
• June–July 1994: Giants Stadium served as a venue for the 1994 FIFA World Cup, opening with Ireland's 1–0 win over Italy, and concluding with Italy's 2–1 win over Bulgaria in the semifinals.
• July 18, 1994: Pink Floyd performed their final US show ever on their Division Bell Tour in which they performed The Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety..
• October 19, 1997: Following the Jets defeating the Patriots, two individuals were violently accosted and stabbed by an underage and drunken Patriots fan. The incident would lead to various lawsuits and the establishment of higher security standards and no alcohol being served after the 3rd quarter at Giants Stadium.
• December 13, 1998: The New York Giants defeated the then-13–0 Denver Broncos 20–16 in front of 72,336 in attendance.
• October 23, 2000: In what has been called the greatest game on Monday Night Football, the New York Jets came back from a 30–7 deficit by scoring 30 points in the fourth quarter and another 3 in overtime to beat the Miami Dolphins 40–37. The game is known as the Monday Night Miracle.
• January 14, 2001: On a field of painted mud, the New York Giants defeated the Minnesota Vikings 41–0 in the NFC Championship Game in front of 79,310 in attendance to send the Giants to Super Bowl XXXV in Tampa.
• July–August 2003: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band broke their own record with 10 sold-out shows on the Rising Tour.
• December 20, 2003: The New England Patriots defeated the New York Jets 21-16 in ESPN's 200th NFL regular season game.
• October 10, 2004: The Television show "Queer Eye For The Straight Guy" filmed "A Pigskin Proposal" prior to and during a New York Jets home game. It featured a pregame tailgating party and a halftime proposal where Brian Mortensen proposed to Rachel Groeneveld. |url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0932193/.html
• September 1, 2005: The punk rock band Green Day sold out Giants Stadium with Against Me! and Jimmy Eat World. It was their biggest concert played in North America.
• December 26, 2005: The New York Jets & The New England Patriots played each other in a classic battle on the last Monday Night Football game on ABC. The Patriots defeated the Jets 31–21.
• January 8, 2006: The largest crowd to witness a Giant game, 79,378, watched a Giants 23–0 playoff loss to the Carolina Panthers.
• July 29, 2006: Bon Jovi played their eighth consecutive sell-out of Giants Stadium. This was also the last concert of their Have a Nice Day Tour.
• July 7, 2007: The "New York" portion of Live Earth, a worldwide series of concerts of pop and rock music featuring various bands and musical artists planned to inspire global warming activism, was held at Giants Stadium. Kenna, KT Tunstall, Taking Back Sunday, Keith Urban, Ludacris, AFI, Fall Out Boy, Akon, John Mayer, Melissa Etheridge, Alicia Keys, Dave Matthews Band, Kelly Clarkson, Kanye West, The Smashing Pumpkins, Roger Waters, Bon Jovi and The Police all performed.
• August 18, 2007: 66,237 attended as the largest crowd ever for a regular-season MLS match at Giants Stadium (or any match between two MLS teams here). The MetroStars/Red Bulls previously had several matches with 50,000–65,000, and this day's match was also their highest attendance home or away for a regular-season match. This LA Galaxy versus Red Bulls match also set a new high for an MLS match that was not a part of a double-header, even beating the highest MLS Cup Final attendance (in 2002: 61,316).
• September 9, 2007: New England Patriots CB Ellis Hobbs set an NFL record by taking the second-half kickoff 108 yards for a touchdown against the New York Jets in a 38–14 opening day victory. The play also tied the record for the longest play in NFL history at the time, matching the 108-yard missed field goal returns by the Chicago Bears' Devin Hester against the Giants in 2006, and the Bears' Nathan Vasher the previous season against San Francisco. That record was broken 8 weeks later when San Diego Chargers CB Antonio Cromartie returned a missed field-goal 109 yards for a touchdown against the Minnesota Vikings.
• December 29, 2007: The New England Patriots closed out their undefeated 16–0 regular season at Giants Stadium with a 38–35 win over the New York Giants in front of a record regular season crowd on 79,110. In the fourth quarter, Patriots QB Tom Brady broke Peyton Manning's NFL record of 49 TD passes set in 2004, with his NFL record 50th TD pass, a 65-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Randy Moss, who on the same play set the record for most touchdown receptions in a single season with 23, breaking the record held previously by Jerry Rice with 22 touchdown receptions set in 1987.
• June 8, 2008: The USA played then world #1 Argentina to a scoreless draw in front of a crowd of 78,682.
• July 26, 2009: In the 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup Final 79,156 fans witnessed Mexico beat the USA 5–0, Mexico's first win against the USA on American soil in a decade.
• September 23–24, 2009: U2 played two consecutive sold out shows at Giants Stadium, their last two shows of the famous venue, as part of their U2 360 tour. On the second night of the performance, Bono announced that the attendance record has been broken. He also joked that "not even the pope had as many people there." The final attendance was 84,467.
• October 9, 2009: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band played in the final concert at Giants Stadium. The concert capped a five-night stand of performances in September and October, highlighting Springsteen's classic albums, Born To Run, Darkness on the Edge of Town, and Born In The USA as well as debuting a new song in honor of New Jersey and Giants Stadium entitled, "Wrecking Ball."
• October 24, 2009: The final soccer game at Giants Stadium was played between the New York Red Bulls and Toronto FC, with New York winning 5–0.
• December 27, 2009: The Giants played their final home game in the stadium against the Carolina Panthers, losing by a score of 41–9.
• January 3, 2010: The Jets defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 37–0 in the final game at Giants Stadium. The victory would also earn the Jets a playoff berth.