PHILADELPHIA — The Giants will not close their pathetic 100th season Sunday with more airplane protest banners — not even one of them.
A spokesman for the Woodbine-based company High Exposure — which schedules these flights — sent the following statement to NJ Advance Media before the Giants’ season finale at the Eagles:
“Unfortunately, we had to cancel today’s flights due to the temperatures and wind forecast. The aircraft are modified to run cooler than normal because of the high temperatures in the summer. We do have aircraft operating [in] cooler temperatures. But once they get below 25 degrees and winds are blowing over 25 miles an hour, we shut down.”
High Exposure had one Giants-related plane scheduled to fly, plus one plane towing a banner that was unrelated to the Giants.
The Giants-related banner was going to taunt co-owner John Mara for his team letting Eagles star running back Saquon Barkley walk in free agency last offseason: “TY NY FOR NO. 26.”
That banner was hired by Grungo Law, a personal injury firm based in South Jersey and Philadelphia that was going to include one of its own ads with the banner.
Mara and co-owner Steve Tisch could decided to fire the failed third-year regime of general manager Joe Schoen and coach Brian Daboll after Sunday’s matchup with the Eagles’ backups.
It would be especially disgraceful if the Giants lost this game, even though losing would help their position in the 2025 NFL Draft. (They are currently fourth.)
Plus, a loss Sunday in Philadelphia would mean even more humiliation for Mara and Tisch — in a season full of it. That embarrassment has included plane protest banners before back-to-back December home games.
Mara and Tisch — who were surely upset about those late-season banners — must decide what to do with Schoen and Daboll after Sunday. It’s entirely possible both men stay for a fourth season, though that’s not a lock.
Sunday’s Barkley banner — seemingly paid for by an Eagles fan — was expected since the days before the Dec. 29 home finale win over the Colts. But now, it won’t happen.
An angry Giants fan — who had not previously paid for a banner — planned to hire one Sunday that vented frustration at Mara. But the fan’s plans — with a company other than High Exposure — fell through.
Before this season, the Giants hadn’t experienced a plane protest banner over their home stadium since 1978. Then, in back-to-back December home games — against the Saints and Ravens — they had two of them.
The pre-Saints banner read: “MR MARA ENOUGH — PLZ FIX THIS DUMPSTER FIRE”
The pre-Ravens banner pushed harder: “MR MARA ENOUGH — WE WON’T STOP UNTIL YOU FIRE EVERYONE”
Two weeks later — before the home finale against the Colts — Mara was going to face three more planes. But cloudy weather grounded those planes. And the Giants won the game, to avoid going winless at home for the second time ever.
One of those pre-Colts banners was going to read: “MR MARA — ENOUGH … CLEAN HOUSE OR SELL THE TEAM”
Another was going to read: “ARE DRONES SEARCHING FOR GIANTS WINS AT HOME?”
The pre-Saints and pre-Ravens banners were hired by two different frustrated Giants fans. The fan who hired the pre-Ravens banner told NJ Advance Media he wanted to “embarrass” Mara and Tisch into firing Schoen and Daboll.
The Giants are a 3-13 debacle entering Sunday’s game against the 13-3 Eagles, who are playing backups because they have already locked up the NFC’s No. 2 playoff seed. Which means the Giants could win — and drop even farther down the 2025 NFL Draft order.
Last week against the Colts, the quarterback-needy Giants snapped a franchise-record 10-game losing streak with a win that knocked them from first in the draft order to fourth. All they had to do was lose out against the Colts and Eagles, and they would’ve had the No. 1 pick.
If they beat the Eagles, they could wind up as low as ninth, depending on what happens in other games. Since the Browns lost Saturday, the highest the Giants could pick is second.
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Darryl Slater may be reached at dslater@njadvancemedia.com.
