As the 2026 NFL season gets underway, New York Giants fans are once again focused on winning. Odell Beckham Jr. is back on the Giants roster and back wearing No. 13. Quarterback Jaxson Dart, wide receiver Malik Nabers and elite pass rusher Brian Burns are all giving NFL fans something to talk about, 40 years after the ’86 Giants pulled off one of the biggest stunts in professional football history just an hour before heading out to Pasadena to face the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXI.
@nadachamp #nygiants embrassing. #cringeworthy #vintage #nfl
♬ original sound – N/ADaChamp
In 1986, the Giants faced the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXI in Pasadena, California. Just an hour before boarding the bus to the airport, several members of the squad made an impromptu rap and dance video called “We Are the New York Giants.”
The Chicago Bears had famously created “Super Bowl Shuffle” the year before, and the ’86 Giants wanted to capture some of the Bears’ pop-culture magic. Unlike the Bears, who produced their video and filmed it well in advance of reaching the Super Bowl, the Giants players put theirs together at the last minute, giving the players only a few hours to learn the lyrics and dance moves.
The video may look underproduced, even rushed, but that’s exactly what makes it so entertaining today. The New York Giants would go on to beat the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXI, but an hour before departing, they weren’t acting like polished pop stars or even the megawatt star athletes that they were. They were just teammates having fun and celebrating one of the biggest moments in any of their careers.
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The Giants Wanted Their Own “Super Bowl Shuffle”
@truseeker777_2.0 Chicago Bears Shufflin’ Crew – Super Bowl Shuffle (1985). #chicagobearsshufflincrew #chicagobears #superbowlxx #superbowl #80ssports #80sfootball #fyp
♬ Silence 3 Minutes – Silent Meditation, No Sound Pause Breaks
The Bears’ “Super Bowl Shuffle” became a genuine pop-culture phenomenon. The Giants’ version never reached that same level of pop-culture zeitgeist, but it offers a timeless snapshot of the culture of the late 1980s, when not everything an NFL star did had to be curated and turned into part of a social media strategy.
“We Are the New York Giants” may not be as polished as a heavily produced team marketing video or a perfectly curated music video, but it captures a moment in time, just an hour before some of the biggest sports stars in the world headed off to play on the world’s biggest stage.
Here, these future Super Bowl champions are just athletes having fun.
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