A new beginning. A brutal ending.

The Giants changed a lot in 1961 and still ended up playing for the championship.

Allie Sherman became the head coach. Y.A. Tittle arrived from San Francisco in a trade for guard Lou Cordileone. Del Shofner came from the Rams. New York finished 10–3–1.

That is the beginning of an important Giants era. Tittle belongs in the history for what he gave the team, and the first season of it took them all the way to Green Bay.

Green Bay took over.

The Giants had lost to the Packers 20–17 in the regular season. The championship became a very different afternoon.

Green Bay won 37–0. Paul Hornung scored nineteen points and rushed for eighty-nine yards. This was the first NFL championship game played in Green Bay, at what was then called City Stadium.

A shutout leaves you very little room to argue about one bounce. The Giants finished scoreless. The Packers had answers on both sides of the ball.

That score belongs here in full view. A new coach and a new quarterback had helped get the Giants to a championship game. Then Green Bay overwhelmed them in the final.

Tittle and the Giants would come back. Twice. Knowing that makes this the beginning of a longer story, with that thirty-seven to nothing still a brutal chapter.