License Plate Guy Ready for NFC Championship

New City resident Joe Ruback looked out the window of his hotel room in San Francisco Friday and saw the sun defying forecasts of heavy rains this weekend.

Not that he thinks the weather will matter when his beloved New York Giants will do when they play the San Francisco 49ers 6:30 p.m. Sunday for the NFC Championship in San Francisco's Candlestick Park. 

"I don't care if we play them in 160-degree heat or minus-50 and snow," Ruback said. "The Giants are winning either way. It doesn't matter. It's like destiny again. When the Giants find themselves in this position, they win."

That said, the absence of rain might make wearing license plates to the game a bit more comfortable. Ruback is better known as  the most recognizable of Giants fans, and he will be wearing his trademark chain of license plates once again this Sunday. 

To Ruback, there is no reason not to be confident, though the Giants only went 9-7, not clinching the NFC East and a playoff berth until their 31-14 victory over the Dallas Cowboys in the final game of the regular season. He remembers well that the team seemed to be in trouble after losing for a second time to the Washington Redskins Dec. 18.

"How could anybody call themselves a Giants fan if they weren't nervous?" Ruback asked. "We don't know what it's like on Easy Street as Giants Fans. They started with the Jets (Dec. 24). That was the first playoff game. The Jets, Dallas, Atlanta and Green Bay. Four straight playoff games and we just keep rolling. We'll play 16 playoff games."

Ruback compares the current team to the 2007 Giants, who upset the previously-undefeated New England Patriots to win the third Super Bowl in franchise history.

"It's an eerie feeling that it's so much like '07," Ruback said. "The Giants didn't get any respect then and we don't get respect now.

"Eli (Manning) is getting a lot of respect. The Giants' offense gets a lot of respect. But nobody picked them. Just like '07, they are road warriors."

This season's road trip included last week's 37-20 victory over the Packers in Green Bay, eliminating a team that entered the playoffs 15-1. As usual for all Giants games, Ruback was there. He was also in the stadium for the Giants' victory over the Packers during the '07 season playoff run. 

"Again, it was very similar to '07," Ruback said. "I had the same seat behind the Giants' bench. Everything was very eerie. The same. The big, bad, mighty Packers were 15-1, but everything lined up for us, not having to go to the Voodoo Dome (Superdome) in New Orleans." 

Instead the Saints went to San Francisco last week, losing to the 49ers. Ruback has read about the rough treatment many Saints fans received from the crowd in Candlestick Park.

"I was just there in week 10 and I didn't get a taste of that," Ruback said. "Maybe I'm immune to it. I get yells to me and stuff you can't print. Nothing out of the ordinary. New York fans are going to come here loud and obnoxious like any place. That's fine. They are entitled to cheer the way they want to cheer. As long as they are not looking for more than banter back and forth, you're fine in San Francisco."

Ruback has already made his plans for Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis.

"I'm done," Ruback said. "I already have the party bus to take us to Indy. Normally, I fly, but this time I'm driving with a bunch of Giants fans."

Ruback said he doesn't believe in superstitions, in taking one game at a time. He also doesn't care which team the Giants would play if they make it to the Super Bowl, the New England Patriots or the Baltimore Ravens.

"I think we are going to see a rematch of the Super Bowl (against the Patriots)," Ruback said. "That just means we can complete 2007 all over again. 

"But part of me wants the Ravens. I was at that Super Bowl (when the Ravens beat the Giants Jan. 28, 2001). I didn't like that Super Bowl. We owe them, too."