The New York Giants are a team.
The National Football League ( NFL ) is a professional American football league consisting of 32 teams , divided equally between the National Football Conference ( NFC ) and the American Football Conference ( AFC ) . The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area . The Giants were one of five teams that joined the NFL in 1925 , and is the only one of that group still existing , as well as the league 's longest-established team in the Northeastern United States . Additionally , the team as a whole is occasionally referred to as the `` Big Blue Wrecking Crew '' , even though this moniker primarily and originally refers to the Giants defensive unit during the 80s and early 90s ( and before that to the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball teams of the late 1970s and early 1980s ) .