What they don't get is exclusive use. The New York Jets will move in for the 1984 season. The football team at Rutgers University will also use it for home games too big for their 23,000-seat on-campus stadium from 1976 to 1992, for their entire 1993 season when their stadium is rebuilt, and occasionally from 1994 onward.
Other college football games will be played there, including the short-lived Kickoff Classic and the even-shorter-lived Garden State Bowl. A few high school State Championship games will be played there. Lots of soccer games, including the New York Cosmos (1977-84), the New York/New Jersey MetroStars/Red Bulls (1996-2009), and games of the 1994 World Cup. Lots of concerts. And a 1995 Mass by Pope John Paul II.
What the Giants also don't get is a successful debut. In front of a sellout crowd of 76,042, they are beaten 24-14 by the Dallas Cowboys. However, for the most part, the stadium will be good to the Giants, and they win 7 NFC Eastern Division titles, 4 NFC Championships and 3 Super Bowls while playing there, until they and the Jets move into the new MetLife Stadium next-door in 2010.
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October 10, 1976 was a Sunday. These were the other NFL games played that day:
* The New York Jets beat the Buffalo Bills, 17-14 in front of 59,110 at Shea Stadium. Maybe having the Giants and the Jets both playing at home on the same day wasn't a good idea. At any rate, the Jets' 1st touchdown was scored by Ed Marinaro, who in 1971 played for Cornell University, and finished 2nd to Auburn quarterback Pat Sullivan for the Heisman Trophy, the closest any Ivy League player has since 1937.
Joe Namath did not win the Heisman Trophy as the quarterback at the University of Alabama. Nor did Richard Todd. On this day, Namath was 3-for-11 for 21 yards and a touchdown, but also threw an interception. Todd was 4-for-11 for 58 yards. O.J. Simpson did win the Heisman, for Southern California in 1968, and rushed for 53 yards for the Bills.
* The Baltimore Colts beat the Miami Dolphins, 28-14 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.
* The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Washington Redskins, 33-30 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington.
* The Cleveland Browns beat their arch-rivals, the defending Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers, 18-16 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.
* The Cincinnati Bengals beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 21-0 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. The Bucs were an expansion team, and would lose their 1st 26 games, not winning until December 11, 1977.
* The Detroit Lions beat the New England Patriots, 30-10 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan.
* The Green Bay Packers beat the Seattle Seahawks, 27-20 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay.
* The Minnesota Vikings beat the Chicago Bears, 20-19 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.
* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 33-14 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.
* The New Orleans Saints beat their arch-rivals, the Atlanta Falcons, 30-0 at the Superdome in New Orleans.
* The Houston Oilers beat the Denver Broncos, 17-3 at the Astrodome in Houston.
* The Oakland Raiders beat the San Diego Chargers, 27-17 at San Diego Stadium.
* And the next day, on ABC Monday Night Football, the San Francisco 49ers beat their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Rams, 16-0 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Baseball's Playoffs were underway. In Game 2 of the American League Championship Series, the Kansas City Royals beat the New York Yankees, 7-3 at Royals Stadium in Kansas City. (It was renamed Kauffman Stadium in 1993.) But the Yankees would win the series in Game 5, on a walkoff home run by Chris Chambliss.
In Game 2 of the National League Championship Series, the Cincinnati Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-2 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. The Reds would complete the sweep 2 days later, and beat the Yankees in the World Series.
The NBA season, the 1st after absorbing 4 teams from the ABA, began 11 days later. But the NHL season was underway, and 4 games were played:
* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Montreal Canadiens, 3-1 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.
* The Boston Bruins beat the Cleveland Barons, 4-3 at the Boston Garden, In 1978, the Barons were merged with the Minnesota Twins, making them, for all intents and purposes, the last team in North America's "big four" major league sports to go out of business.
* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Los Angeles Kings, 1-0 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.
* And the Chicago Black Hawks beat the Vancouver Canucks, 5-1 at the Chicago Stadium.
And 3 games were played in the World Hockey Association:
* The Quebec Nordiques beat the Birmingham Bulls 4-3 in overtime at Le Colisee de Quebec.
* The Minnesota Fighting Saints beat the Indianapolis Racers, 4-1 at the St. Paul Civic Center.
* And the Winnipeg Jets beat the New England Whalers, 5-2 at the Winnipeg Arena.