From Tay Tay to tailgating — Inside NYC’s big sporting Sunday when ‘hope springs eternal’

It is the biggest sporting Sunday in New York and on either side of Manhattan supreme athletes set about fulfilling the American dream in events that attracted global superstars.

Hope sprang eternal in New Jersey before the Giants began their NFL season against the Vikings on a blue sky day in the Big Apple as the franchise celebrated their 100 greatest footballers as part of this year’s centenary celebrations.

Back across the bridges and tunnels that link New Jersey to Manhattan and then out to Queens, Taylor Fritz had drawn an A-List of talent as he bid to become the first American man since Andy Roddick in 2003 to clinch the US Open.

Watch selected NRL, AFL, SSN games plus every F1 qualifying session and race live in 4K on Kayo. New to Kayo? Start Your Free Trial today.

It was a case of game recognising game – or Taylor recognising Taylor – at the Billie Jean King Tennis Centre, which underlined the star-pulling status of the US Open across America.

As play was about to begin, the most famous Taylor in the world, Taylor Swift, sat courtside alongside her beau Travis Kelce and three-time Super Bowl winning quarterback Patrick Mahomes to watch the American favourite in action.

Fritz was the underdog against world No.1 Jannik Sinner, the reigning Australian Open winner and hard court supremo, while the Giants were also the outsiders despite playing at home, judging by a straw poll of fans engaging in the first tailgate of a new season.

Our quarterback sucks! And as for the offence … well, it is hard to be too critical when they don’t have one to start with.

The challenge for this very fortunate reporter was trying to tick off both major sporting experiences, a task that became trickier courtesy of the US Open final starting two hours earlier than usual to maximise the viewing audience and dodge the NFL evening matches.

A plan was in order. Jump on a 10am bus from the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan, shoot underneath the Hudson River and out into New Jersey, for the pre-match festivities at the NFL season opener. And then, when the Giants inevitably fell behind, jump on a bus and train combination back across town to catch the completion of Sinner versus Fritz.

Watch an average of 3 games each week during the regular season, plus every game of the NFL Postseason including the Super Bowl, LIVE on ESPN with Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial today >

The action provided a superb snapshot of sport in the US as NFL fans around United States and in Australia readied themselves for the season ahead, which will be broadcast of Fox Sports channel 501 and Kayo.

For AFL and NRL devotees, the most exciting time of the season at home is the moments before the first bounce of try in March.

But for the Vikings and Giants fans revelling in a monster car park outside MetLife Stadium, a couple of quick quarters (harness racing parlance) from the US trotting mecca The Meadowlands, there was a balance between fatalism and optimism about the year ahead.

Sam Howard, a Los Angeles-based advertising executive who formerly worked with the NFL in New York, had extended a work trip back to the East Coast to take in the game.

It was canny work. Mindful of the schedule, he “traded” his wife a trip to Miami to see Swift in concert in order to be able to see the Vikings get off to a flyer at MetLife Stadium in 2024.

The 37-year-old was reuniting with a group of mates he used to hang out with at an NY dive called Bar None that doubled as a Vikings bar and was “super rowdy and sloppy and terrible”.

“Pretty much every season we start with some level of optimism that is either quelled quickly or it lingers for a little bit and then we lose hope anyway,” he told foxsports.com.au

“It is funny. There is a unique level of optimism, whether you know intellectually if your team is going to be successful or not, you can look at a roster and know you’re going to win eight games, or four games, or 12 games.

“Sometimes you overachieve based on the circumstances, but everyone knows the Giants are not going to make the playoffs. Everyone here. But there is still this idea that your team could potentially win that lingers for every fan.

“The home opener is the game where we know everything will change, but we at least get to be excited for the day and for the game. Hope springs eternal in fall.”

He was at a tailgate featuring a good mix of fans from both teams, along with a couple of Aussies and even a Kiwi father-son combination from Palmerston North.

And what a tradition the tailgate is! Think sitting in the back of a ute sinking cans and eating meat pies at the country footy, but on a scale far, far bigger.

Back in Australia, you see it occasionally in the grounds of Yarra Park ahead of the grand final at the MCG and Flemington makes squillions from its car parks during Melbourne Cup week.

In the south of the US ahead of big college games, some fans will camp out for days, celebrating the weekend that marks the arrival of what is now America’s favourite pastime.

BBQs cook for hours and bear the richest briskets and stews and all manner of regional favourites, with the aromas from those fry-ups swirling on the breeze and mixing with the smoke from simmering coals and the other fuels that fire the feasts.

Generic beers – those of the bland, tasteless variety in the US that are easier to chug when the clock is yet to reach midday – were washing down far tastier sausages, steaks, hot dogs and burgers at every turn at the Meadowlands on Sunday.

Ian Edery, who has been attending tailgating parties before matches in the Meadowlands for more than 20 seasons, hosts an event that grows with every year.

His BBQ is a bewdy, both for the food on offer, and also for its welcoming nature. Vikings and Giants fans mixed freely mixing Beer Pong with ruminations about their bets for the day. Politics, thankfully, was a no-go zone at this party just two months out from the election.

“It is the beauty of the NFL. It is week one. Your team could be good. You could suck. But here we are, having a great time with friends, drinking, grilling meat. What could be bad?” Edery said.

“It is a tailgate tradition. This is why people come to football games. Realistically, you would be more comfortable on your couch with your big screen TV, but we are all together as a community, we are all Giants fans and it is special. And bringing my son into it is also special.

“It is honestly my favourite part of the game. I could leave after this and watch at home and still be happy. This is why we are here.”

Edery, at least, enjoyed his time in the carpark. But there was little else to celebrate for Giants fans.

Aside from a stirring rendition of the anthem, a flyover from air force personnel in Black Hawk Helicopters and a memorable halftime ceremony in which the 100 greats of the Giants were honoured, it was a miserable match for the home team, which was smashed 28-7.

Back across at Flushing Meadows, United States Tennis Officials were celebrating a new record, with more than one million fans attending the tournament over a three-week period.

This matched the feat of the Australian Open in January and, in another similarity, the tournament finished with the same champions in Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka. Both are supreme hard courters and their brilliance was unparalleled in both Melbourne and New York.

The closing day of the major season in Flushing Meadows differs from the opening week, where fans are crammed into a site that sits about a 40-minute train ride from Manhattan.

With only the men’s championship match on the schedule, the chaotic hustle and bustle evident through the first ten or so days eases and it is a more serene, manageable experience for the fans, though not necessarily the prices.

At A$35 a Honey Deuce cocktail, a thirsty fan would quickly run up a bill the price of an AFL or NRL grand final ticket.

There was great optimism courtside when Fritz was introduced — this reporter was tuning in via a mobile phone on a bus after the Vikings seized control at MetLife Stadium — and when he hit the front midway through the first set after a slow start.

But the supremacy of Sinner, who became the first Italian man to win the US Open 6-4 6-3 7-5, dashed the American’s dream of ending a drought that now extends into a 22nd year for men from the United States.

“Being an American at the US Open is incredible. I know we’ve been waiting for a champion for a long time and I am sorry I couldn’t get it done this time, but I am going to keep working and hopefully I will get it the next time,” Fritz said.

With the US Open at an end and the Giants season effectively over before it began, a sports-mad fan in New York has much to lament. For a day, anyway.

Tomorrow night, the Yankees host the Kansas City Royals in the Bronx. Take me out to the ball game. Take me out to the game!