At the end of every season, there are always lessons to be learned, and I think in looking back over this year’s season, the big lesson is that it’s not about whom you have on your team, it’s about chemistry.

Let’s take two of our favorite examples to prove the point. When the New York Jets acquired Brett Favre in a trade with Green Bay, it seemed like every time I turned on the TV or the radio or opened up the sports section, it was all about Favre. In fact, the media frenzy that accompanied Favre in those first few days after his arrival days was so ridiculous, that I’m surprised no one reported on what he ate for lunch.

And then there was Dallas, with its fantasy football approach to building a roster, collecting guys like Roy Williams from Detroit (if a team that bad is getting rid of
a guy, then what does that tell you ab out him?) or Pacman Jones from Tennessee. Who could forget the quotes coming out of Cowboys headquarters advising people to “get the ring finger ready!” at the start of the season?

Well as I write this, both teams are losing, their respective playoff hopes hanging by a very thin thread. Why? Because it’s not about one man (Favre) or about a handful of guys whose names sell jerseys to the fans.

It’s about team work, and for those NFL clubs who thought the Giants got lucky last year, perhaps this off-season when they start reshaping their rosters for the 2009 season, they’ll put less of an emphasis on grabbing big name players and look more toward that hard-to-attain intangible in which the Giants are the undisputed champions of achieving: the concept of team.

It’s a concept where guys named Manning contribute just as much as guys named Moss when it counts. It’s also a concept where you don’t have guys trying about how many times they touch the ball (Dallas) but rather, they’re the first ones to jump out onto the field to congratulate a teammate (see Brandon Jacobs and Derrick Ward after the latter recorded 1,000 yards for the season) after a major accomplishment.

There is no telling how far the Giants might go in the post season, but one thing is for certain. They got a lot farther than those teams who believe it is all about the individuals. For as long as Tom Coughlin is head coach of this team, there is no reason why these Giants cannot be successful every year so long as they cling to that teamwork concept.