Chauncey Golston Expects Former Team to Be Pumped Up for NY Giants

New York Giants defensive end Chauncey Golston, who signed with Big Blue during the offseason after spending the start of his career in Dallas, was a part of Cowboys teams that have dominated the Giants in recent years.

The Giants’ last win against their division rivals came in the 2020 season finale at home, a 23-19 win, and their last win on Dallas’s home turf came in 2016. Since then, only five Giants players remain from that 2020 game–defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence, receiver Darius Slayton, left tackle Andrew Thomas, kicker Graham Gano, and long snapper Casey Kreiter–and no one remains from the 2016 victory.

But for Golston and his new teammates, there’s no time to reflect on the past, not with the Giants needing a victory to avoid their third straight 0-2 start to a season and give head coach Brian Daboll, who has yet to win against Dallas in six tries, his first head coaching win over the Cowboys.  

“To me, it’s really just a game at the end of the day," Golston said after practice on Wednesday. 

"Yes, it’s a rivalry, but it’s another football game, another opportunity to go out there and force your will on somebody else.”

"It's just being really freaking great today, and that's what winners do," added quarterback Russell Wilson, who is in his first year with the team. "They're obsessed with today. They're obsessed with the moment."

The Cowboys have undergone some significant changes in recent years. Pass rushers Micah Parsons and Demarcus Lawrence, both of whom tortured the Giants, are gone. 

So too is one-time starting middle linebacker Eric Kendricks, and of course, Golston, who was with the Cowboys from 2021 to 2024. That makes four key elements that are no longer part of the Cowboys, who have won eight straight and 15 of the past 16 meetings since 2017. 

Also gone is head coach Mike McCarthy, whom Golston said used the rivalry to fire up the players. 

“He always showed the throwback [films] to the origin of the rivalry and all of that stuff,” Golston said of his former coach. “So you were pretty knowledgeable on what it is [about] and where the animosity really stemmed from.”