Adrianna Iafolla’s family group chat was in disbelief about their favorite football team.
That was during December of 2020, when the New York Giants were in the midst of a fourth-straight losing campaign. Many of then-coach Joe Judge’s strategies stunned Iafolla and her family, who were extremely vocal to one another. She called the group message with her uncle, brother and cousin “psychotic about the Giants.”
But living in Connecticut, far away from most of her family, Iafolla sought a way to connect with more local Big Blue fans. She began the newyorkgiantsfangirl Instagram account — which now boasts over 27,000 followers — as a way to build a community and concentrate Giants updates in one place.
“When free agency came along and there were new contracts that were being signed and roster moves and things like that, I found that I was always having to go to multiple different pages,” Iafolla said. “I was like, ‘There needs to be one place where you can just get all of that at once.’”
Maintaining a social media presence came naturally to Iafolla since she had worked as a social media manager for almost seven years before starting the account. The New Jersey native’s love for the Giants easily shone through, with her grandfather having been a season-ticket holder for 30 years.
Iafolla’s account goes beyond just standard updates, though, with her training camp coverage sticking out as a unique aspect.
Over the past two years she’s attended almost all of New York’s training camps during the week. After each practice ends, she goes to her car and records a three-minute video recap of everything she felt was important. The feedback from that has been overwhelming across all her platforms, she said.
“I get comments from people saying, ‘Thank you so much for your updates. I can’t go to camp, and I don’t have time to sit on Twitter and read everyone’s posts about what they saw today,” Iafolla said.
She also goes live during every Giants game and gives her unfiltered opinions, which she said her fans appreciate. Iafolla also has a podcast — which will now be on Believe Network after she signed with them. She spoke with Chris Simms recently and then-Giants offensive line coach Bobby Johnson a few years ago.
During the season, Iafolla will record a game recap in the beginning of the week and a game preview towards the end of the week — with an added twist this year. She’s now bringing on content creators from opposing teams each week to provide extra insight.
Iafolla greatly enjoys interacting with her community, especially since her husband is a New England Patriots fan who doesn’t care much about the Giants.
“Most of [the Giants fandom], I would say, are as insane as I am, and I mean that in a positive way,” Iafolla said. “We have this common thing that is the Giants that we all care probably way too much about.”
Iafolla’s greatest memory of Big Blue came when they downed the Patriots, 17-14, in Super Bowl 42. She was a senior in high school and was at a party with friends and family who were on edge during quarterback Eli Manning’s game-winning drive.
“I have never seen such pure joy, maybe outside of a wedding, from every single person in the room,” Iafolla said. “From the five-year-old kid to the 50-year-old parent, everyone just erupted in cheers. It was like the best day of everyone’s life.”
Her worst memory came more recently.
Iafolla attended the Giants’ season-opener in 2023 at MetLife Stadium. New York, coming off a season in which it notched a playoff victory, started its campaign with a 40-0 drubbing at the hands of the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday Night Football.
Iafolla left that rainy game early and went live in distress. Most of her fans panicked alongside her — and were ultimately proven right as the Giants finished that season 6-11.
Her bold predictions for this season are that second-year receiver Malik Nabers will record 1,500 yards and rookie-running back Cameron Skattebo will take over the top of the depth chart before the end of the season.
Iafolla’s biggest long-term goal is to get the female fan base more in touch. She said a complaint from many women sports fans is that “apparel for women is atrocious”, so she hopes to work her way into the fashion industry to help bring about change.
She mentioned that the Giants have a women’s club and run an event for training camp each year where all members receive VIP access for a day. No plus-ones are allowed so it helps foster a welcoming environment for women who love Big Blue, Iafolla, a member, said.
Iafolla’s largest advice to aspiring content creators is to be consistent.
“I love the Giants, I love content creating, I love doing the podcast. There are still days where I’m dragging my feet and I don’t want to do it,” Iafolla said. “But if I’m not going to do it, no one’s going to do it for me.”
