George R.R. Martin loves three issues: Seeing his work made into HBO reveals like Sport of Thrones and Home of the Dragon, not ending The Winds of Winter, and the Nationwide Soccer League. Particularly, he’s a die-hard fan of New York’s groups, the Jets and the Giants. You may say he has a factor for misplaced causes.
Serious about Martin and soccer in the future, as I’m wont to do (and as is he; the author will steadily carry up soccer and A Track of Ice and Fireplace in the identical weblog publish), I began to marvel: What if they’re extra associated than we beforehand thought?
On the time that is being written, the NFL playoffs are underway, and the New York Giants have made greater than an look, successful final week’s wild card recreation towards the Minnesota Vikings and shifting on to face the top-ranked Philadelphia Eagles (go birds) within the divisional spherical.
New York soccer playoff wins don’t occur that usually. You realize what else doesn’t occur that usually? The publication of a brand new A Track of Ice and Fireplace ebook. And my knowledge suggests which may not be a coincidence.
[Ed. note: All stats are from Pro Football Reference, both for the Giants and the Jets.]
Per a 2014 interview with Rolling Stone, Martin started writing what would change into A Sport of Thrones in 1991 — a 12 months that began with the Giants successful the Tremendous Bowl towards the Buffalo Payments. It will be 5 extra years earlier than the ebook was prepared for publication, throughout which the Giants made a short two-game look within the January 1994 playoffs and the Jets additionally made a uncommon playoffs look within the wild card spherical in ’91, so there was plenty of wind in Martin’s sails.
A Conflict of Kings was printed within the U.S. in 1999, a 12 months that additionally noticed the Jets make the playoffs (a operating theme within the NFL for many years has been the Jets being god-awful, even worse than the Giants, so this was a Large Deal). November 2000, when A Storm of Swords was printed within the U.S., doesn’t appear that outstanding for New York soccer, however the Giants had been properly on their method to a fairly nice playoff run that season, going all the best way to the Tremendous Bowl towards the Baltimore Ravens in January 2001. (They misplaced that point, which is form of becoming for A Storm of Swords’ basic themes.)
That is the purpose the place Martin begins to earn his status for by no means placing out new ASOIAF books in a well timed method. A Feast for Crows wouldn’t see the sunshine of day till fall 2005, a four-year stretch the place New York’s NFL playoff document was a bit fallow, hardly ever rising above the preliminary wild card spherical — however the Jets did scrape previous that solely to lose within the division spherical towards the Pittsburgh Steelers in, you guessed it, January 2005.
Issues get a little bit bizarre from right here: The Giants win the Tremendous Bowl once more in 2008 however A Dance With Dragons doesn’t arrive till 2011 — a really outstanding 12 months for New York soccer. The Jets, for the second 12 months in a row, had their greatest playoff displaying since 1998, and the Giants started their march to successful the Tremendous Bowl in early 2012 — a 12-month interval of ecstasy for New York soccer, and ASOIAF followers.
As gas for writing, it is sensible that an unbelievable soccer 12 months would accompany getting an advanced ebook out the door — Martin, within the foreword to A Dance With Dragons, known as the ebook “a bitch and a half” to get executed.
That brings us to the current, and the chance that the intervening 12-year hole between Dragons and the forthcoming The Winds of Winter isn’t totally Martin’s fault. Each of New York’s soccer groups have, to make use of a technical time period, sucked shit over the past decade. However there’s lastly hope once more. The Giants are within the playoffs, and so they’ve already received one recreation.
However it’s not just like the New York Giants have an simple time forward of them. There are three extra rounds left within the playoffs, together with this Saturday’s showdown towards a very good Eagles group (favored by over a landing of their matchup towards the Giants). In the event that they handle that, the following recreation can be towards both the San Francisco 49ers or the Dallas Cowboys, each groups with higher data and better odds of creating it to the Tremendous Bowl. Then lastly could be the Large Sport itself, during which the Giants could be the underdog regardless of which of the remaining groups (the Bengals, Payments, Jaguars, or Chiefs) they confronted.
Hope springs everlasting for ASOIAF and Giants followers alike. Simply getting previous the wild card spherical final week is big, so by my reckoning Martin could also be impressed sufficient to announce a publication date for his long-overdue novel quickly. In the event that they win the Tremendous Bowl? We would even see The Winds of Winter this 12 months.
These inquisitive about watching alongside can watch the Giants play the Eagles on Jan. 21 at 8:15 p.m. EST on Fox, and, ought to the Giants make it that far, the Tremendous Bowl on Feb. 12, beginning at 6:30pm EST on Fox.