Sorting the red from blue

You can draw one of two conclusions.

Conclusion I: The yahoo Patriot fans are yahooing like they've never yahooed before.

Conclusion II: Fans of the football Giants are older and more traditional, preferring to read the good ol' newspaper, rather than log on to some dopey computer.

Or maybe it's a little of both.

How else to explain latest results of the "Giants/Pats Divide" map on theday.com, America's most underrated web site? We're asking readers to choose blue for the Giants or red for the Pats on a regional map here in sports Switzerland, between Boston and New York.

Patriot fans were leading 1055-665 at last report.

(Sigh).

Didn't want to do this.

But it's time for a history lesson.

The Giants really own New England.

The Patriots are just renting.

And it's time our map reflected the Coors Light cold hard facts.

Did you know, for instance, that before the Patriots even existed, the Giants held training camp in Vermont? No, really. In 1956-57 and 1959-60. And the Giants in those days, when they won the NFL Championship in 1956 and lost to the Colts in 1958, were every bit as big as the Yankees. Frank Gifford, Sam Huff and Chuckin' Charlie. They trained in Winooski, Vt. at St. Michael's College (alma mater of The Day's Gavin Keefe, if you're scoring at home).

But wait, there's more.

One of the advertisers who keeps WEEI, Boston sports radio, on the air is a lifelong Giants fan. That's right. Dennis Drinkwater, who founded Giant Glass, a New England-based glass repair company, loves Big Blue. Remember that when you hear the catchy jingle, "who do you call when your windshield's bused? Call Giant Glass … 1-800-54-Giant, 1-800-54-Giant …"

Drinkwater's web page features the slogan "New England is Giant Country."

Are you getting this, potential voters of Day.com Nation?

Connecticut, meanwhile, is beyond argument. Especially considering the Giants used to play here. At the Yale Bowl, while Yankee Stadium was being renovated and Giants Stadium was about to be built. They were our team in 1973 and '74. And in true Giants fashion, they won once here in two years: Nov. 18, 1973 over the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Giants existed for 35 years before the Patriots did. They were the only team on television for many years, Channel 3. That's why Big Blue loyalists abound in New England. A more cynical fellow would point out that the Giants were the only team on TV in New England even after the Patriots existed, given how the Pats could never fill the old Sullivan/Foxboro/Schaefer Stadium and were thus subject to blackout.

The Patriots' old home stadium had more names than the team had home victories for an alarmingly long period of time.

Remember this, too: There have been 80,000 Giant fans at every home game since right around the time Vivien Leigh discovered Clark Gable didn't give a damn. Giant fans are impatient and ornery. But they are more loyal than Lassie.

And that's because the Giants are generational. People out there laugh when I say my childhood from September through December was church at 11, dinner at 12, kickoff at 1, profanity by 1:03.

Or better stated Tuesday in Mike Lupica's column in the New York Daily News. Quoting Giants owner John Mara:

"So many of the letters I get, still, are from people who talk about the Giants as a family thing with them, a family thing that has been passed down through generations. It's really amazing how many of these letters have the same tone, people wanting to tell me about how they started going to games in the Polo Grounds and then went to Yankee Stadium and even the Yale Bowl before we finally came to New Jersey. Either how they started going to the games in those places, or someone in the family did. And then the tickets were passed on, the way the Giants were passed on."

So come on, people of Day.com Nation. Find all the Giant fans you know, tell them to get their noses out of the newspaper and vote on the Web. Just so we can get a more accurate view of the truth. The Giants are awash in history. The Patriots? Patriots Shmatriots.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro.