Tag Archives: New York Giants History
The LoudMouths debate whether Eli Manning is the greatest Giants quarterback ever.
Tagged Eli Manning, New York Giants History, Phil Simms |
Three losses in a row and the best team in the league coming to your building can really corner a coach. Tom Coughlin is trying his best to spin this scenario in his favor.
“We will bounce back and that is the thing I believe in. That is what we preach,” Coughlin told reporters yesterday. “It is a time for us to be bold and not sit back and listen to what all of you are saying. Rather, just to come out fighting and that is the position we will take.”
Coughlin is under no illusions. The Packers are every bit as dangerous as the Saints – maybe even more dangerous – and his team will need a mammoth effort if they are going to usurp another undefeated team. In 1998, the Giants sacked the 13-0 Denver Broncos. In Super Bowl XLII, they turned the Patriots into a 19-1 afterthought. Now, here comes the latest juggernaut: the Packers. The defending Super Bowl Champions, who are 11-0 this season, have not lost since December 19 last year.
Tagged Green Bay Packers, New York Giants, New York Giants History, Tom Coughlin |
Nearly thirteen years ago - on December 13, 1998 - the Denver Broncos rolled into Giants Stadium a perfect 13-0. The Giants were 5-8, unable to repeat the magic of the previous year when they finished 10-5-1 and made the playoffs.
On that December afternoon at the Meadowlands, New York beat Denver, 20-16, spoiling the Broncos quest for a perfect season.
Fast forward to this Sunday (it will be December 4) and you will have the mighty Packers coming to town with their perfect 11-0 record. John Elway, Aaron Rogers. Super Bowl Champion Denver Broncos, Super Bowl Champion Green Bay Packers. How eerily similar.
And of course you have the 6-5 Giants playing for their playoff lives. You can’t go back 13 years, nor can you go back almost four years when the Giants beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl, ending New England’s dream of a perfect season. All you can do is play the game that’s next on your schedule. And if you’re the Giants, hope you play a lot better than you played in the last one.
Tagged New York Giants, New York Giants History |
Former Giant greats TE Mark Bavaro, LB Carl Banks, LB Brad Van Pelt, P Dave Jennings and RB/Head Coach Alex Webster will be enshrined in the Giants Ring of Honor Sunday night at halftime.
Bavaro, the prototypical Giant TE who became a fan favorite with his silent toughness, was a favorite target of QB Phil Simms on the Giants’ 1986 Super Bowl team.
Van Pelt and Jennings were two of the lone bright spots for the Giants during the team’s low period of the 1970′s. BVP was the Blue’s top draft pick in 1973 and went on to play in five Pro Bowls.
Jennings was the NFC counterpart to Oakland’s Ray Guy, making the Pro Bowl four times. He also served as color commentator on Giant radio broadcasts from 2002-7.
Webster was a staple in the Giants backfield in the 50′s and early 60′s and would go on to coach the team from 1969-73.
Banks was part of the Giants LB corps under Bill Parcells that won the franchise’s first two Super Bowls.
Tagged New York Giants History, New York Giants News |
1982 was not one of the NFL’s proudest years. A 57-day players’ strike shortened the regular season from 16 to nine games. The Giants came into the season with high hopes after qualifying for the playoffs in 1981 for the first time in eighteen seasons.
The truncated seasons caused the NFL to scrap their traditional playoff format for a 16-team tournament in which the top eight teams in each conference would qualify. The Giants finished the season with a 4-5 record, which was good enough to make the playoffs, but due to tiebreakers they would be left on the outside looking in.
The team that got that eighth slot turned out to be the Detroit Lions, who the Giants faced that Thanksgiving Day in the Pontiac Silverdome. With the game tied at 6 in the fourth quarter and the Lions knocking at the door, Detroit QB Gary Danielson threw an out pattern to RB Horace King inside the five.
It never got there. Giants’ LB Lawrence Taylor stepped in front of King, snared the pass and took off down the sideline all alone. LT took it 97 yards to the house for the winning TD, stunning the home crowd and a national TV audience and creating perhaps the greatest Thanksgiving memory in Giants’ history.
Click below to watch the video, with the great Jim Gordon providing the call….
Tagged Lawrence Taylor, New York Giants History |
Former Giant GM George Young and Bill Parcells – the team’s legendary coach in the 1980′s – are among 26 modern-era semifinalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Young, who had built contenders in Miami and Baltimore, was handpicked by then-Commissioner Pete Rozelle to run the Giants in 1979. He was the driving force behind the Giants’ resurgence back to league prominence in the 80′s. Young built the Giants from the ground up. He made QB Phil Simms of Moorehead State his first draft choice. After selecting North Carolina LB Lawrence Taylor in 1981, the team qualified for the playoffs for the first time since 1963. The Giants would go on to win Super Bowls XXI and XXV.
Young moved up to the league office after leaving the Giants in 1997. He was named NFL Executive of the Year five times. He passed away in 2001.
Young’s coach during his early tenure was Bill Parcells, who took over when Ray Perkins left for Alabama in 1982. Parcells would go on to become the franchise’s most colorful coach. His regular season winning percentage (.610) is the best in team history. He was 8-3 in the postseason, including 2-0 in the Super Bowl.
Tagged Bill Parcells, New York Giants History |
Longtime Giants’ beat writer Ernie Palladino has written a book about the two Giants assistant coaches from the 1950′s who would go on to become NFL icons: Vince Lombardi and Tom Landry.
A MUST READ for Giant fans and historians.
From Bill Huus of the Staten Island Advance:
If you’re a New York Giant football fan, you’ll enjoy reading “Lombardi and Landry,” the new book authored by Staten Island sports writer Ernie Palladino, because it brings to life famous names in Giants history during a time when the team was instrumental in moving pro football into the modern era.
If you’re a Baby Boomer who is simply a pro football fan, you’ll enjoy the book because it provides a detailed look at the totally different yet equally successful strategies and standards these two legends used to change the game forever.
Tagged New York Giants History, Tom Landry, Vince Lombardi |
1978 will always be remembered as the last year the Giants would operate as a clueless organization. After the “Fumble” game in November, Giant fans would revolt, burning tickets, bashing the team and even calling for the Maras to sell the club.
That is when NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle stepped in an mediated the cold war between team’s two owners: Wellington Mara and his nephew, Tim.
The result was the hiring of George Young as GM and the rest, as they say, is history. Young’s first three drafts would change the team forever. In 1979, his top selection was QB Phil Simms. In 1980, took CB Mark Haynes in the first round. In ’81, Young has Lawrwence Taylor fall into his lap when New Orleans chose RB George Rogers first overall instead of Taylor.
But before all of that, it was not all doom and gloom. 1978 was the first year of the 16-game schedule era. The Giants, who had been doormats for better part of past fifteen seasons, were 5-3 after eight games. The fans, who had little to root for, were brimming with optimism. The defense had always been solid, but they needed an offense to match.
In the first half of 1978, it appeared that offense had finally arrived. With Joe Pisarcik (pictured) at the helm at QB, the Giants’ offense had the leader they had lacked since they foolishly traded Fran Tarkenton back to Minnesota several seasons before.
Pisarcik’s numbers were nothing to brag about, but the offense scored when they needed to. They were winning games that in years past, they would have lost. As we would find out later on, Pisarcik was going rogue on his head coach John McVay and his OC Bob Gibson by frequently changing the plays that were being sent in. As the season went on, McVay threatened to bench Pisarcik if he continued this practice. Ironically, he did not change the play vs Eagles in which he famously fumbled, in fear of losing his job.
Tagged Joe Pisarcik, New York Giants, New York Giants History |
Giants’ Hall of Fame linebacker Harry Carson was as tough as nails. He was the heart of the defense on the franchise’s greatest team – the 1986 Super Bowl Champions – and no one has ever questioned his dedication and integrity. He is a class act all the way.
In his new book, Captain for Life: My Story as a Hall of Fame Linebacker, Carson gives us the peaks and valleys of his illustrious career and the struggles he and others have had to endure in their post-football lives.
From Mike Golic of ESPN Radio: “Captain for Life is an incredible book that shows readers what it’s really like to play football in the NFL. This is a tough, gritty true story about what it takes to succeed in the NFL by one of the best middle linebackers to ever play the game–and the price he paid for giving the sport everything he had. Football fans: this book will entertain you and show you a side of football you’ve never seen.”
Carson himself sums up the book best:
Tagged Harry Carson, New York Giants History, NFL Concussions |
It is widely believed the 1986 Giants originated the tradition of dousing the head coach with Gatorade on the sidelines after a victory. As it turns out, although they perfected the ritual, they were not the first team to do it….
But where did the tradition start? In his excellent book, First in Thirst: How Gatorade Turned the Science of Sweat Into a Cultural Phenomenon, Darren Rovell wrote about how the Giants first began doing the celebration in a section titled “The Inaugural Dunk.” Amazingly enough, it began as somewhat of an act of aggression!
Tagged Gatorade, Gatorade Shower, New York Giants History, New York Giants News, Super Bowl XXI | ← Older posts
