New York Giants President John Mara said Sunday that the team is in "great spirits" despite the difficulties and uncertainty it has endured since leaving Saturday morning for what was supposed to be a Sunday afternoon game in Minnesota.
They've taken it in stride very well. Most of them have been laughing and joking about it," Mara said. "They're taking it about as well as you could possibly expect, and that includes the head coach, by the way."
The Giants will play the Vikings in Detroit Monday night at 7:20 p.m. ET after snow initially prevented the team from reaching Minneapolis on Saturday, then caused the Hubert H, Humphrey Metrodome roof to collapse Sunday morning.
Tom Coughlin agreed with Mara that the team is doing as well as it can under the circumstances.
"I think they've handled it very well. I think that the guys realized right away that it was out of our hands and really fully out of our control," Coughlin said. "I think that having finalized exactly what the schedule is and when we will play and the fact that we're in Detroit and that type of thing, I think that as our meetings begin here this evening shortly, I think our players will zoom back into the mental part of it. It's back into the hands of something that we can do something about."
Mara said the Giants did suggest the possibility of playing the game Monday night at New Meadowlands Stadium in New Jersey.
"That didn't get very far," Mara said. "The one idea that we weren't crazy about was playing at the University of Minnesota because of the weather and it being minus-11 tomorrow night would've created a lot of issues for us. We don't have our cold weather equipment out here with us. Plus from a safety standpoint, I thought that was unnecessary. Fortunately, that became academic when they told the league they would not have the stadium ready to play tomorrow night."
SB Nation Detroit reports that tickets for the game will be free, and that Lions fans holding stubs for the game held Sunday at Ford Field between the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers can use them for Monday night's game.
Defensive end Justin Tuck said he hopes the team actually benefits from all of the time players have spent together since Saturday morning.
"All of us are in this, I guess, and it's like recreating a bad Christmas movie, that's what we've been feeling like," Tuck said. "Obviously, we weren't prepared to spend this much time together but I think there are definitely positives with guys in their hotel rooms playing cards or talking with the guys next to them. It really has been a positive bonding experience and you get to know guys that you didn't know as well. Hopefully that bodes well for us going into this playoff run."