"All my ghosts, on every sea, in every land / Who needs that now?"

The 49ers venture into the wilds of Jersey this Sunday to war with the New York American football Giants.

* San Francisco vs. New York Giants
Sunday, October 21, 2007. 1:00 PM, PST.
Week 07
The Battle Of Old Blood

* Photo of Cody Pickett being pursued by NYG linemen via SFGate

Both teams are stumble-bum flawed at this juncture; the Niners with their horrifically mis-called offensive scheme, the Jints with their utterly undermanned defensive secondary, and both teams with a wave of injuries.

Hoo-boy, the only sure thing 'bout this game is that it's sure to be uglifitateous.

Dang; the level of play wasn't always this way between the 49ers and the Giants. Throughout the 1980s, whenever these two franchises met, it was a toe-to-toe match of two great forces: Bill Parcells' big-stick powerhouser Giants and Bill Walsh's adaptive, keen-hewn Niners.

We remember those Giants of the 80s: The cold, steely eyes of Phil Simms. The maniacal thrash of Lawrence Taylor. The mustachioed guttiness of Jeff Hostetler. The flea-like skittering of Dave Meggett. Whoever-it-was-this-week that Parcells plugged in at halfback banging the ball behind that huge offensive line (which would include Jumbo Elliot, of course). Pepper Johnson, Leonard Marshall, and that damned Jim Burt on defense. Burt might have picked up a ring in 89 with the Niners, but we never really accepted the idea of having him on the team after that monstrous hit he put on Joe Montana in 1986.

American Football Spectacular's New York Giants correspondent Joon Lee had some choice recollections of past NYG/SF battles: