Former Giants wide receiver Amani Toomer viewed Michael Strahan’s waving of an Eagles flag on the Fox pregame show of Super Bowl 2025 as a little more than just part of a pre-recorded segment with Saquon Barkley.
It was a “shot across the bow” at the Giants after what was an abysmal 2024 season in which the team went 3-14 and watched Barkley – the team’s former star running back – dominate for one of the organization’s biggest rivals.
“That’s a warning shot, ’cause when we played if we didn’t perform, we’d be out, right?” Toomer said on Monday during an appearance on ESPN New York’s “Bart & Carlin.”
“Now as players, I’m not just gonna be a fan because I played there. You have to prove something to us. We are Giants through and through, but you can’t just say, you’re a Giant you just shut up and sit in the corner. Babysit in the corner, No! We want results. We want to be proud of the organization that we shed blood, sweat and tears [for].”
The Giants 2024 season produced the fourth-lowest win percentage in franchise history (.176) and it was the second consecutive season Big Blue missed the postseason after the Brian Daboll and Joe Schoen administration led them to the playoffs in 2022, their first year in charge.
The Giants have won just one playoff game since they won the Super Bowl during the 2010 season and have just two playoff appearances in that span.
Barkley’s dominance in 2024, which culminated in a Super Bowl title on Sunday night after the Eagles routed the Chiefs 40-22, was the icing on the cake of the historically bad year for the Giants.
“For all you Giants fans out there, I’ve been around a lot of guys who left the Giants and gone to other places that I did not like, and I never liked them. But he’s such a special man. C’mon, we’re gonna ‘Fly, Eagles, Fly’ for Saquon Barkley because I respect and love this man so much. See we don’t have a flag in New York,” Strahan said during the segment filmed on a river boat in New Orleans.
Strahan also admitted during the interview that he was “pissed” over the situation with the Giants and how it led to Barkley leaving for the Eagles last offseason.
The Giants great has needled the organization previously during Fox broadcasts, including during the playoffs when he brought up how the team let Barkley and defensive back Xavier McKinney leave in the offseason, sarcastically saying “well done” while discussing it.
“We’re not just gonna wave the pom poms if we don’t feel like it’s a product that is worth waving the pom pom for,” Toomer said during the ESPN New York interview. “And when was the last time we could sit back and be like, yeah we’re Giants fans? And say it with our chest out instead of saying it and then kicking some dirt and then giving an excuse and then showing our rabbit’s foot. We might be and should of, could of, would of, maybe.
“We are tired of it and I don’t know who’s listening or whatever, but if we were playing and we were performing like our team is performing now. And out there on the field looking like poop, we’d be off the team. That’s why we’re holding them accountable like they held us accountable for 13 of my years and 16 or 15 of Strahan’s years.”
Strahan did catch a bit of flack for his waving of the Eagles flag on the pregame show, but Toomer implored Giants fans to point their anger at the organization for failing to live up to the standards that they’re expected to be at.
“Don’t let the anger fall away from where it should and which it should be with what we’re doing as the Giants, and how we’re not being competitive,” he said.
Toomer played for the Giants from 1996 through 2008 and was a member of the team that won the Super Bowl in 2008, the organization’s first since they won the Super Bowl in 1991.
In 2009, Toomer was inducted into the Giants ring of honor.
Strahan was also part of the Giants team that won the Super Bowl in 2008 and played his entire career with the franchise.
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