Giants Fans Jimmer, Grant Living In 49er Country
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — At 1140 The Fan, home of sports talk in the Sacramento region, the station gets dozens of callers every day wanting to talk about the 49ers. But one of the most popular hosts, Grant Napear, is actually a huge New York Giants fan.
"Next to my family and my job, the Giants are probably the most important thing in my life," Napear told CBS13's Ben Sosenko.
Napear's die-hard allegiance to the Giants dates back to his childhood on Long Island.
"I have missed in my entire life, and I'm not exaggerating, three or maybe four Giants games," he said.
The play-by-play voice of the Sacramento Kings has lived in California for 24 years, but his love for the Giants is a strong as ever. He even watches some of their games while he is calling the Kings games.
"I'll have a monitor at my broadcast location and I'll watch the game while I broadcast the Kings game," he said. "It does take a lot of concentration, I'm not going to lie to you, but I can't miss a Giants game."
Jimmer Fredette has no choice but to miss some Giants game. It's of course impossible to play basketball and watch football, but the Kings rookie roots just as hard as Napear.
"That's my favorite sports team of all the sports teams, the New York Giants," he said.
Like Grant, Jimmer's love for the "Big Blue" began when he was a kid growing up in Glens Falls, New York.
"I used to go to their training camp every single year," he said. "It was in Albany, New York, which was about 40 miles from my house," he said.
Both of these Sacramento sports figures say they expect to take the heat all week for their New York state of mind, but they're willing to make the unpopular pick on Sunday.
"I want the Giants to win," Jimmer said. "I think it's going to be a close game though."
"If guys aren't slipping and sliding everywhere, I do think the Giants will win," Grant said.
But if they don't, Grant knows he'll have to stare into his microphone come Monday and eat some crow when the calls start pouring in.
