Giants 100th Season | New York GiantsIn celebration of the Giants' 100th season, an independent committee ranked the Giants' Top 100 Players. The countdown finishes up with 10 through 1. Presented by Bud Light.
The "Top 100 Players" Committee: Bob Papa (Chair), Pete Abitante, Ernie Accorsi, Judy Battista, John Berti, Linda Cohn, Vinny DiTrani, Bob Glauber, Joe Horrigan, Jay Horwitz, Peter King, Gary Myers, Paul Schwartz, George Willis.
Welcome to the final installment of Giants Top one hundred Players, presented by Bud Light. I'm Bob Papa, joined by Bob Blobber, longtime writer and one of the voters in the Top one hundred for the New York Giants. Bob, we've reached the final ten. And what a fun exercise this has been getting to this point.
So fantastic to think about so many great players, think about so many great eras. And that's the real challenge is, you know, how do you determine which player is the best given an era? And you know, you have to kind of juggle a lot of things, so really good thinking process and I think it came out pretty well.
Well.
We got two guys here that are inside that top ten, and we'll start with the Captain Hall of Famer Harry Carson. Harry, when you got the news that you had made it to this point of the process, what was some of the thoughts that went through your mind?
For me, it was.
Jee just being mentioned in the top ten, and I mean it was it was like I was blown away because I never really considered myself to be that kind.
Of player to warrant being, you know.
In the top ten. You know, I maybe top hundred, yeah, maybe, but top ten.
That was special. That was really special.
All right, let's go back to draft day nineteen seventy six. What's going through your mind from I gotta go from South Carolina State and I'm going to be a New York Giant.
You know.
To be honest with you, Bob, I really didn't know. I went to South Carolina State, and that's you know. I was a down defensive lineman coming out of college. Marty Schoenhammer drafted me and wanted to teach me how to play mid linebacker. And there are people who, when I was drafted, doubted that I could play the position, being drafted to play a position that I had never played before, the mindset, the attitude that you have to have to play that position. I was really new to this, this whole thing, you know. I mean, there are a lot of guys who pulled me aside to share their feelings and what I might be able to do with this organization.
And I was.
Able to basically follow the lead of what those guys had to say to get to be in the top ten of all time great giants.
How you were captain of your college team. But what did it mean to be named the captain of the New York Giants, especially as a defensive player.
For one thing, it was special to be a mid linebacker in the biggest market in the country. Then, after my third year, to be elected captain by my teammates was something extremely gratifying. I was honored to be named captain, So it was really special to be their leader.
Tell me about that linebacking corps, that crunch bunch.
Brad, Brian, Lawrence and myself. You know, we were at a crunch bunch and we were big, strong, fast, and we were able to get after people. Lawrence was on one side, Brad was on the other side, Brian was next to me, and you just felt like you could just smack people around when the offense booked the huddle and you could see the fear in their eyes. I had never been a part of a group that demanded so much respect then that group, especially those linebackers.
Nineteen seventy three Giants are playing in the Yankee Stadium. New York City cancels the least because they find out that the Giants are moving to Jersey, so they have to go to the Yale Bowl seventy three seventy four. Then they played at Chase Stadium in seventy five. So yeah, the Giants, the Jets, the Yankees and Mets all playing.
In Chae in seventy five.
Giants Stadium opens in seventy six, they finally have their home.
Welcome to the Giants Stadium.
Just later immediate Lanton of me will take you to the upper level plans Roger step and enjoy.
The GAMELI I'll start with you. When you think about Giants and you think about that sound and coming out of that tunnel, what's the first thing you think of.
I think of the wind.
As a quarterback, I think of the wind and trying to you know, waking up on Sundays walking through that tunnel, going on in the field and saying, you know, figuring out which way the wind was blowing and how was an effect by performance on the field. But also you think about the great crowds and the fans loud in the stadium with pumped up for big moments, supporting us, cheering for our touchdowns and so just a great support that all Giants fans have given me, given the teams always had our back, and just that electric feeling in the air on a Sunday afternoon.
Getting to play in that stadium was a real treat.
All right.
It wasn't until the end of October in seventy six against the Cowboys where the stadium was finally christened. Obviously, you guys were not a winning team in those first few years, far from it, far from it. But when you think about now eighty one, you beat the Eagles on the road in the playoffs, which was stunning to us as Giants fans, having not been to the playoffs since nineteen sixty three. It was something you thought only other franchises experienced. Then eighty four you back it up, then that fourteen and two season in eighty six ending with a Super Bowl. When you think about that stadium in those days and those moments, those games against Washington and especially the forty nine ers, those are the biggest robberies and the Cowboys, even though they were starting to go this way, do you still feel it? Do you still feel that excitement? And when you go back in your mind's eye and think about that building, Oh, they're gonna put.
The ball, they gonna get a touchdown, to be old touchdown.
I went to a school that probably had ten thousand people at homecoming. So when Giants Stadium was opened, and I remember standing in the tunnel getting ready to run out on the field and seeing my seventy two thousand fans yelling for the Giants. I mean, it was an altogether different experience for me. You know, Giants Stadium for me was a special place to play, especially in December when it was really really cold. We would stand in the tunnel getting ready to run out with no T shirts on or no thermals on, and and you know, we would kind of bow up, like this is our place and this is what we play for.
Oh.
The Filet Paper program seven seconds ago had the Giants will be taking the reservation.
From parting.
The gatorade bass originated by Harry Carson. Where did it come from?
Well, it really wasn't my idea. I always give credit to Jim Burt because Parcels had been writing him all week and we're about to play the Washington Redskins, and so as time was winding down, we were so jubilant with the fact that we were beating them at home. We came up behind him with the bucket and we drenched him. Once I got him. That sort of set things in motion, because Bill was very superstitious. If you do something one week and if it works, you have to keep doing it.
So as we were.
Winning, I had to keep drenching him with getory. We had fun doing it with him, and it just really became a symbol of the eighty six season. Super Bowl twenty one. How did you wind up as the lone captain for the coin toss? You know, quite frankly, I didn't know that I was going to be the long captain. I was on the sideline talking with Parcels and the official was standing there and he said we have to go, and so Parcells said go, and I said, well what about Joy go?
Rot Phil go?
And so I started walking out on the field by myself, and I really didn't think about it. And then halfway out on the field, I thought myself, God, you know Denver Broncos were walking toward me, and it was like five, six, seven of those guys.
I'm a giant captain, Harry Carson.
I just felt honored to be representing all the guys on a team. But the mere fact that Parcels trusted me was something extremely gratifying.
Eli how about for you, I mean, because you know you've played the most recently of everybody. What were your thoughts when you heard about this?
Yeah, just a great honor just to be in that list of the great names for this storied franchise and how many championships and great teams and Hall of famers, and you know, Harry Carson once didn't right across from me, But to be in that list is a great honor, and it was just thrilled also, Yeah, a little like Harry, a little shocked that. You know, I think I can name ten players that are better than me, maybe more deserving of this than me as well.
When you think about giant stadium and you think about that sound and coming out of that tunnel, what's the first thing you think of.
I think of the wind.
As a quarterback, I think of the wind and trying to you know, waking up on Sundays walking through that tunnel, going on the field and saying, you know, figuring out which way the wind was blowing and how was an effect by performance on the field. But also you think about the great crowds and the fans loud in the stadium, pumped up for big moments, supporting us cheering for our touchdowns, and so just a great support that all Giants fans have given given me, given the teams always had our back, and just that electric feeling in the air on a Sunday afternoon.
Getting to play in that stadium was a real treat.
First choice in the two thousand and four NFL draft is Eli Manning. You're the number one overall pick. You don't get the starting job as a rookie. How did you reconcile that in your mind?
I was I wanted to get the starting job, but I didn't get down. I thought it was important for me to get some playing time that first year.
We kind of got a big hand right there.
He is, Eli Manning jogging out of the tunnels.
Number ten.
Do a huge ovation here at Giant Stadium.
We win.
When you finally did get a chance to start, you played some of the best defenses in the league week after week after week.
Yeah.
The first game is versus Atlanta. Threw my first touchdown to Jeremy Shockey.
Throws it over the middle, touchdown, shocky, But the record show Eli Manning's first touchdown past coast to Jeremy.
Shockey had some you know, decent games, had some struggles we did. We only won one game the last game of season versus Cowboys.
Now Manning will throw.
Stops throws one left down the sideline touchdown, Tyrae.
That was big for me and my confidence.
I think the players and their confidence around me, and they're kind of in the season, you know, a bad season on a good.
Note after that first year of struggle, now the stakes kind of get ramped up. What did you learn from that second season?
That second season, we know, we had a good season. We won the NFC East, you know, win eleven and five. It was a big year and we were one of the top scoring teams in the league that year. All of a sudden, you get to the playoffs, you play Carolina and you get shut out.
With that six playoff loss, there's questions as to weather Coach Conflin's gonna come back.
Coach Coffin was under the fire a little bit. I was under the fire, you know, going into my fourth year. We needed to have a big year. You know, we didn't get to start. We wanted to start, knowing too, but we turned it around quick and started playing great football.
Go into Washington that third game, we're down at halftime.
But you know, in the second half we get some big plays and thanks the.
Stout let's designy bros just left.
You got to fix the fennessydeam.
Flex go catches a little slamt for a touchdown. We take the lead.
Put down fucking up for us. The Giants have come back from.
A seventeen to three halftime jepisit and they now have a twenty four to seventeen lead.
And then you know, all of a sudden, Washington starts driving our defense. Just a huge goal line stamp.
Fourth and goal.
That's the one Redskins need a touchdown a time.
Thanks the out and up up with.
Giants them up fort the goal.
The gonna win the ball game.
The Giants may have saved their season.
That was huge.
That was huge just for the morale of the team and just knowing that and we kind of hung in there and we fought back and we found a way to win that football game, and that was really kind of the theme for the rest of the year.
Welcome to lambeau Field in Green Bay for the NFC Championship Game. The second coldest game ever at lambeau Field minus one degree with a windshield of minus twenty three.
Now you're in the NFC Championship game, you gotta go against Farv in Green Bay lambeau Field.
That was just, you know, kind of my favorite game, you know, just in lambeau Field. It's negive twenty three degrees NFC Championship playing against you know, Brett Farv and the Green Bay Packers.
I mean, this, this is it.
But you're dealing. I mean you're just throwing the ball where you're throwing it like it was seventy and Plaxico is in a hand to hand combat with Woodson and Harris.
And Plaxico was he was feeling it.
And really we ran the same route, like, you know, nine times. I think Plakka had eleven catches or so that game. I think, you know, eight or nine were the same. You know, it's the same call. There's just different conversions to it. He ran a hitch. One time he went inside, I do it looked kind of looked like a slant. But one time he goes outside and my back shoulder. Uh, another same player hit him money down the sideline where it makes a.
Great catch and he drags his feet.
And also the way we went out, we missed, you know, two field goals and then you know, here comes times to that third one on the forty seven yard or all right, here.
It goes times again from forty seven yards. Snap is good, kick on its way and Overrandon does it have the distance?
And us good Lawrence Times just kick the Giants to the super Bowl.
Man, here you go, Thank you, brother, Let's get it.
Thank you man, let's go get it. I'm good, Thank you, Matt, love you than You're going to the Super Bowl. And not a sweeter feeling in the world.
The New York Football Giants and the New England Patriots in Super Bowl forty two.
As a team. You guys are pretty confident going into that Super Bowl.
We felt good going into that game.
And we went out there and did our job and played well and didn't make mistakes that we could win this game.
Man, he would throw it to the end, don't touchdown. They tell we have a coach other.
Ty tough of lead who the eleven oh five we.
Go in the ball game.
So now you guys jump back in front for the first time all game. The Patriots really looked like the Patriots. They went down the field. Randy Moss beats Webster touchdown, like, so now it's on to you.
You know.
It's a great clip of Michael Strahan walking down the sideline saying, hey, the final score is going to be seventeen fourteen.
Seventeen thirteen at the final, okay, seventeenth thirteen.
Fellas what turned down?
We all world tamping believe.
It and it will happen.
I was a little upset as like the quarterback. I kind of wanted to give the big pep talk to the offense and get it going. I guess Michael fifteenth year, you know, got to do it. But I was kind of like, Michael, like you just let him score. If you just want to stop them right there, like we wouldn't have to have this conversation. I think, like, I don't know if you deserve right now to be talking after you just let them score a touchdown to give them the lead back.
The Giants do what they have to do.
They've got to go eighty three yards in two thirty nine and Eli Manning do it.
You know, we're down four and there's only one option. You know, the scorer's got to be seventeen to fourteen. We get to a third and five you know, we have a pretty good play on for for the coverage. I'm probably gonna work maybe the Tyree on the post and we just get a little rush, get a little rush going, and you know, they got a hold of me, but they just never pulled me down. They just kind of I could feel the guy hold me, but he just they weren't tackling me. So I just I fought out of it. Are old, right, I kind of saw Tyree sl Rodney Harris there, but I just figured, you know, I got to give this a shot. David just you know, makes an unbelievable catch. That was, you know, obviously a huge play for us, but you know, we still had a lot of work to do.
First to ten.
At the thirteen thirty nine seconds to go, Giants.
Down by four.
You know, the Patriots that their mentality kind of down there in the red zone.
They're gonna play kind of a quarters coverage or they're gonna do all out blitz. Finally they came out with the all out blitz. We had plaque one on one and you know, there was no doubt where I was going. I was going it high in the corner end zone and let him make a play.
And that is it for New York Giants have knocked out the New England Patriots.
You guys win, the confetti comes down. I mean, is it everything that you would ever dreamed?
At first, it's just chaos.
You're hugging everybody and you're around. There was kind of a moment right before I got up on stage to grab the trophy for the first time. I mean, that's kind of when it just it all kind of sunk in for the first time. Just you know, we just we just won the super Bowl.
Let's go back said the twenty eleven season. And obviously the whole elite thing.
Is Eli Manning an elite quarterback?
Are you a top five, top ten quarterback?
Yeah?
I think I am. Are you in the Tom Brady class?
Yeah?
I mean I consider myself in that class.
There was such a direct question. It was like, do you consider yourself of an elite quarterback? A top five quarterback in the NFL? And I think, like I think any athlete you always do, you think like hey this, I'm I can win every game.
I can make every throw. I can you know I've won a championship already. We can win. I know we can win Championships was.
The San Francisco NFC Championship game. One of the most physical games you've ever played in.
Yeah, it's got to be up there. And you know, their their defense is is as good as they get. So another game where say, hey, you know, just you know, you gotta be patient. You know, can't force things, don't give their offense a short field to work with, make them drive eighty ninety yards and earn all the points that they get. And you know, if you got to take some sacks, you know, so be it. Let's just you know, let's stay in the game and let's give us a shot at the end to win this. Hit Man and ham On a touchdown late in the fourth quarter that was big.
Ships one to the left to the end zone. Touchdown Giants for real, anningham Man. The Giants are back in front with eight thirty four to go.
A couple of special teams turnovers in our favor really helped.
Us get some field position.
Watch the ball Giants say they have it.
They do, knocked up by Jakwan Williams and recovered by the Giants, and then you know times kicking the game winning field goal.
Snap is low kicking on its way, it's got the distance and it.
Is good and words times. It's done it again. He's kicked the Giants to the second Super Bowl in four years. New York Giants football is on the air. It's the New York Football Giants and the New England Patriots super Bowl forty six.
In this Super Bowl, I mean a lot of people picked you guys to win, and you really outplayed him in the first half.
We had this all in mentality for the last six seven weeks and I didn't want that to end.
We had to keep that all in mentality going. We could not afford to relax.
Manning back to throw rows gone not touchdown, Giants to kick the crews on the slant.
Sure enough, you know, got the game to the fourth quarter and the final drive, and you know, very comfortable in that situation. We've been in that situation many times that season.
Channing out of the shotgun, Shatney's back to throw, climbs the pocket deep ball down the left.
Sideline and it's gonna be caught.
Was he in bounds?
Yes, Manningham on the sideline.
That's a heck of a throw and a heck of a catch by Mario Manningham.
I was looking through my right and they you know, kind of doubling a chem and Victor and had them blanketed. So it was really kind of like I'm gonna look to Mario when he was running his full speed. Patrick Chunk kind of had cheated in. I think with my eyes looking right and saw you know, a little window and let her fly. And we get close and they're gonna let us score, right, They're gonna they let us score.
Hand off Bradshaw.
He runs up the middle and on he falls into the end zone for the touchdown.
He thought about stopping.
Probably to give Patriots the ball back with a little bit more time than we wanted.
To Brady's back. Brady's under pressure, Brady's chased. Brady heaves one down the middle of the field.
Into the end zone.
A jump ball.
I kind of see the ball, you know, get hit and then I lose it and then finally a second layer.
I kind of see it dribbling on the ground.
Ain't good play. The ball game's over.
How the Giants have won Super Bowl forty.
Six second super Bowl? They're always different. First is always the first second is special too, But what does the second one mean? To you as far as personally and organizationally.
First time, it was all kind of brand new. It kind of came out of nowhere.
The second one, you end up thinking about the other guys who were getting their first Super Bowl and it's an exciting time for myself and anything about those guys who are going through it for the first time, you know what that feeling is, and smiling for them.
In the Giants Stadium and in the Giants facility, there's a lot of history around and obviously you've played more games than anybody in the history of the Giants, so you spent the most time in the building of anybody. But what was it like to be able to interact with and be around former players that tend to be around a lot, whereas other franchises don't necessarily have that.
Yeah, it's just a it's a really special and I think it goes back to, you know, well into Marrow, what's a giant, always a giant, And that's not something he just said, that's something truly he truly meant he believed in, and that culture still stands today and so great players are always around the facility they come back.
I appreciate the organization, the ownership.
It's a family and you once you come in here, same guys that were in the equipment room, the film room, the training room when I got here as a rookie. Twenty years later, they're still there and there's you know, people in the front office. So it is a family and you always feel welcome. You're always invited back and come have lunch, come watch practice, come hang with the players and interact.
And it's unbelievable to have that access. Well, and Tamara always said, once a giant, always a giant. For me, it's only a giant, Bob. Listen.
You know these two players here are as deserving as there are. And this was not a I don't think it was difficult to put Harry Carson and Eli Manning in the top ten in the history of the franchise. Now it's one hundred years. So that does a lot of players and incorporates a lot of eras, and there are some amazing players along the way. But you know they've earned it, and you know they played in different eras, different rules, different athletes. You know, they're better athletes than they were in the twenties and thirties. It's just that's how sports goes right when you you know, it develops like that. So, I mean, these are two of the most deserving guys to be in this spot.
Harry, I want to ask you about number eight on this list. Sam Huff came to the Giants in nineteen fifty six. They win the NFL Championship that first year in Yankee Stadium. You played similar position, that inside linebacker position, and you had a chance to be around him, even though he was retired as a player, but he always wore his giant proudly. What were some of the things that you learned from him and your experiences with him.
He was a tough guy. He was a tough guy playing during a tough era.
What do you do that for a you doing it one more time? He ain't.
I want to talk you one.
I don't do that.
You went again to get a broken out?
Don't do bo?
You know, playing against you know, the players who were playing during that era, he stood out. And one of the things that I thought about when I was coming into, you know, playing for the Giants, was I wanted to be mentioned in the same breath as Sam.
Huff intercepts Plumb on a spectacular catch.
Even before you know I was drafted to play with the Giants. I recognized that name, Sam Huff and at some point I reached out to get some advice from you know, Sam about playing the position. He was gracious enough to give me time and I really appreciated it. And subsequently, when I got into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, I was able to see Sam on a regular basis and we had our share of conversations talking about playing the game.
Sam Hubbs first year, he was ready to leave. He actually left the team. He wanted to just quit. Jim Lee Hall was too tough on him. They didn't have the right position for him. He was a down lineman. They were looking at him.
There, and he left.
He literally left for the airport one day and Vince Lombardi was dispatched to go get him. And Lombardi sees him at the airport and he says, what are you doing.
I'm leaving.
You know they're yelling at me. You know I've never had this before.
I can't take it.
Lombardi says, no, you have to come back.
You know you have to come back. You have to continue playing. You're too good. Stop.
So Lombardi goes back. He tells Jim Lee Hall, no more yelling, find a spotform, figure it out, and Tom Landry then puts him in the flex defense as that four to three middle linebacker and then the rest is history. But he he was ready to be done, and he kind of laughed about it as his career went on. But imagine what might not have happened? Sure had that changed, you.
Know, those middle linebackers tend to be very fragile.
Right, why they don't want to be yelling.
And then Vince Lombardi then coming back and telling the coach don't yell at yeah, don't yeah. Vince was the last guy you'd expect to be able to say that, So it all.
Worked out eli.
Number four on this list is Frank Gifford, who he was drafted by the Giants in nineteen fifty two. He won the MVP in nineteen fifty six and was a multifaceted player, running, receiving, played multiple positions. You know, all of us grew up watching them on Monday Night Football.
As Frian Gifford halfback.
I spent twelve wonderful years with the New York Giants, many of those years.
Winding up in championship games.
Now as fran.
Gifford sportscaster, I play an entirely different position.
What are your thoughts when you think about Frank Gifford other than the yellow blazer on Monday Night football.
Yeah, I mean I think that's you know, I think, just like you said, this is the amount that he was able to do. He ran, he caught, he threw touchdowns. I mean, he was kind of that position that it doesn't really exist anymore in football, like the running back. Like you don't see running backs throwing it catching. He was, you know, just a playmaker and just you know, you kind of I remember him, like you said, from announcing, and you know, I didn't get to see him play live, but I got to hear his voice and associate it with watching football growing up, and so just got to meet him, you know, several times. Always the big smile of this, the big personality, always a delight to be around. And just you know, when you think of the New York Giants, he's one of the names that that pops up just because.
Of just that that time, and and what what.
A great character and a great player that he was, and you think about it, I mean, missus Mara that that was her favorite, right with our family. Frank Gifford was royalty, right.
I think so.
I think I was just talking with Ernie of Corsi and he just mentioned that. I think it was well into Mayor's favorite also, and you can see why. Just just the the ultimate pro and did everything they asked and just a wonderful person as well. So he was kind of mister New York I know during that time. It would have been a fun time to hang with him during that.
When he was at any Giants event, you know, there's royalty and then there was that next level. And Frank carried himself in that way, but was very approachable to people.
Very down to earth guy.
He was.
He had magnetism about himself that you know, you just you can't replicate it. It's not fake and it's all real. And you know he's Frank Gifford's in the rooms man, got you know, can I talk to him? And he was He was very humble man. And you know, you think about the NFL now, everything is yeared toward offense, all the rules more offense more and Frank Gifford continues to hold the record for most touchdowns by a new York Giant.
It's it's remarkable.
And he played so long ago and the ELI touched on it, you know, the running, the throwing, and the catching. He was just the all around player.
Gifford was it.
He had the whole package, and he succeeded the golden boy from Southern cal He and he hits the big stage in New York and he wins a championship and he and he does these, you know, Hall of Fame things over over the length of his career.
Speaking of Frank Kifford, he's number four. Number five is the modern day Frank Kifford, which is your teammate, Michael Strahan. He has gone from being not only a Hall of Fame football player, but to someone who excelled on TV doing football, who has now excelled like Frank Gifford did, crossing over to become a true star across America. Did you think that he would take it that route.
I'm not surprised that it went that route, just with Michael's personality and him in the locker room.
He was the guy.
His voice was always carrying through the locker room when he when he was telling a story or he was animated about something everybody heard what he was saying.
This is what I was built for.
I would loriball. That's what Linman telling you.
Don't be physical, don't be time.
He don't be.
Time champion and winner. Believe they will win the game. We got to do that time and we ain't no pun I ain't right, No, ain't right. No. Not surprised.
Also just with his his work ethic, and that's what was so important for me to see why he was such a great mentor role model for me coming to the New York Giants.
This is a guy who brought it every single day, every single practice.
He was going full speed every you know, in the weight room, working extremely hard, always there, always a great attitude and always encouraging me. Just appreciate him so much. We're always having my back and kind of setting the example for how you have to work, how you have to prepare, how you have to play for the New York Giants and in the NFL. And he's a great friend of mine. And get to watch him now on TV doing all the fun things and he's no one's working harder than Michael and deserves all the success that he's having.
Dan Reeves was the head coach when Michael came and Mike Nolan, whose dad coach with the Giants, I mean, they moved Michael and he became, along with Reggie White, the best two way defensive end in the National Football League because, as you know, his ability to play the run was as good as anybody.
Yeah.
Yeah, and you know that transition happened. You know, he was more or less a traditional guy coming from from the right end. And Nolan I was talking to him about it long after Michael's career ended. He says, yeah, you know when his first year he was having trouble with the steps right, the steps he just couldn't get to just a little off. His footwork was off. So we put him on the left side, and then all of a sudden, you know, he was like, he's like the steps, he's in rhythm and he he's great. And so I went to Stray and said, you know, this is what Nolan said. He goes, what what is he talking about? But it really, I mean that that switch was huge.
First and Tenny he goes McNabb back to throw steps up on the president. He's sucked by Michael Strahan And there's the record.
The New York Giants record one hundred and thirty three and a half and he does it with Lawrence Taylor in the house.
The other thing about straight hand, I don't know if you win that two thousand and seven Super Bowl without that kind of leadership, and you know, that defense was great. You had the game of your life in the Super Bowl, but set up in large part because of the defense holding holding those Patriots.
You know, Down takes the snap and back to throw SATs in the pocket and he's sucked by Michael Strahan back of the thirty two yard Live.
And and Straighthan's leadership, and there was a little question whether he was going to come back that season contract wise, but he came back and it was huge, and he had the season of a lifetime and he was able to do what few others have done is walk off into the sunset with the Super Bowl.
And we did want to win for Michael just because of what he meant to this organization fifteen years. His leadership, especially on the defensive side, but the whole team, and he gathered everybody together and he used to walk around the locker room before every game just you know, shook everybody's hand, had a message for him, had a friendship, had a relationship with every player, and we definitely wanted to win that one for him, get him his championship.
Life is about improbability, and my life is improbable. I am an absolutely improbable Hall of Famer. I am with a late bloomer as a football player. You know, I didn't play in high school. Play one year high school. I was the late bloomer. But the improbable happened. I get drafted by the New York freaking Giants. And not only by the Giant, but I get drafted by Wellington Merra, the Duke, Bob Tisch, the Tisch family, and the great George Young. Those are the guys who brought me and trusted me enough to bring me to the Giants. In the spirit of that their kids, John Merra and Steve Tish have continued and that spirit of realizing that the team is a family now. I used to go into the locker room before every game and I would go and tap and touch and scan five to five and pep talk every player, equipment, guy, coach. The reason I did it was because each time I touch each guy, I'm accountable to you what I put out there on that field today is not for me, It's for you. You will never be disappointed in me. This is about family, This is about teammates. This is about everybody pitching in to make you better and for you, hopefully to make them better.
And for what the game of football has done for me.
I am eternally grateful to this game, and I'm so glad that I am a representative of the twenty and fourteen NFL Hall of Fame.
Tonight, Michael Straham, it is my great privilege on behalf of the other two hundred days having Hall of Famers, to present you with this rate as one of the great players in the history of the game.
You talk about threads, right, he was there with Lawrence's last year and some of those guys. He played with the Keith Hamiltons of the world and got to a Super Bowl in two thousand and then you kind of horrd you think about some of the threads with you. We talked about Sam Huff, But for instance, at number ten on the list is Andy Robistelli, who was the president the Giants didn't have a GM at the time. He was the president of football operations and he was there when you got drafted, so you had a chance to be around more giant royalty and those connections from the past to which eventually led to your team. What was it like to be around another great defensive person that was in the building and on the property.
You know, there are names that kind of resonate with you that you always remember. Robastally is one of those names that you always sort of remember. And that was before I even was drafted to play with the Giants. Here's a personality that I used to watch on television or I would listen to on the radio or whatever, and I hear his name and I always equated his name with the New York Football Giants.
You know, Bobby Roba still is a player, was like amazing, you know, he he you know, I did see him a little bit as a kid and him thinking, you know, big, big guy, but he was not. You know, he was six one two twenty right, six one two twenty as the defensive end yet but he was very quick. He was very skilled in terms of technique, and he would he would just dominate people. He you know, he had a good outside move and and he got after the quarterback. So he was really one of the great pass rushing defensive ends of his time.
Yeah, that was a lot of Tom Landry as the defensive coach at that time and kind of using analytics ahead of the time. He was the one that figured out the probabilities and studying the tape on how to stop Jim Brown, which is why they developed that umbrella defense. Robistelli won a title with the Rams in fifty one, then came to the Giants and obviously they had that great run of fifty six, then fifty eight, sixty sixty one, sixty two, sixty three, losing the championship games. But he was you know, back then the Giants defense was announced. It's my mom till this day can rattle off the nineteen fifty six Giants starting defense name and number. The chant of defense didn't start at Nick games. It started with Giants games and the Giant defense was introduced.
To the audience.
Oh that's like, that's how big it was. Neither of these guys, none of us had any connection with Melhein. So Melhine has come in at number three on this list. That's when they played sixty minutes. So he played center, he played backer, and he went to eight straight Pro Bowls. You know, the inaugural Hall of Fame class. But one of these players that over the course of time, I give the voters a lot of credit for not being aged biased and realizing what this man meant to the early years of the NFL.
Well, when you think about Melhine, and you know, I had the benefit of having talked to like Wellington, Mara Welling about Melhein. You know, he saw him and he knew what he was all about, and so you have you have that connection to history. But you just look at it like I believe it was six straight All Pros, first Team All Pro, all those Pro Bowls.
Playing two ways.
You know, Melhine was the first offensive lineman to be named MVP in the NFL in nineteen thirty eight, and he's the last last.
I was like, is this true?
Yes, it's true.
And he was just so dominant at his position, and you know, later in his career he was already to retire in like the early forties, and he became a coach at Upstate New York School Upstate New York and during the war they had to stop the program and on weekends he would come down and still play for the Giants. He played three more years, like you know, living part time in the area. But he was that good and they were willing to do whatever to keep him.
I want to ask you now, he stopped coaching as an assistant before you got there. But really, one of the greatest stories in the history of the National Football League is mister offense on defense, Emlyn Tannell, who in this list comes in at number six. Emlyn Tanell took a bus from Philly to the Giants' offices and asked for a tryout. And as original owner Timarra said, if he's going to take that much of an effort to bust up and come now, we should at least give.
Him a tryout.
This is one of the most dominant player on the defensive side of the ball. One season, his interception return yardage and his punt return yardage was more yardage than the leading rusher in the NFL.
Drops into the waiting arms of Eblen Tonal and he does what the New York fans have been halping Parr all afternoon, adding another brilliant run back to his record and a touchdown to the New York side of the scoreboard.
Still holds a giant record for intercept seven and there in that time.
And they didn't throw that much he was it felt like he was, you know, for the amount of throws to interceptions.
It's it's unbelievable.
He has the second highest number of interceptions in NFL history. It's unbelievable, right, seventy nine and Paul Krauss had eighty one. I think Dean Sanders had fifty four. Fifty four, so Emlyncenel was se twenty five more than Dion Sanders. He was a great player, very unassuming player, you know, very humble guy, but dominant.
Second most interceptions in the history of the NFL Giants franchise leader in an era when they played twelve games.
Yeah, yeah, they eat that.
And he was a Coastguard hero during during the war. There's a ship, there's a ship commission in his name, the ss M Lintonelle. That's that's pretty remarkable.
It wasn't until I came to the Giants that I realized that he was the first black player to be signed by the Giants nineteen forty seven and something.
Like forty eight whatever.
Yeah, he was the first man of color to be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame as well. Pretty incredible stuff with Mlntenella, isn't it. Let's go to the man who was voted number one, I think when you or no, let's go to number two first, Josevel Brown, Okay, because maybe the best left tackle in the history of the sport. Yeah, he was a twenty seventh round pick, you know, the old seven seven, but an absolute dominant player that you know was around during your playing days. You know you could see those tree trunk legs. What were your reminiscing of Roosevelt Brown when you think about him?
You know he had that voice.
If you've been around him, you saw the knees and his fingers were all mangled and everything. But he was there and he gave me and all the other players who needed a kicking in the rear, in or whatever.
He gave us advice that stuck with us.
To be on any kind of list with Rosie Brown, that really is special for me and should be for everybody else on that list, because he's number two, and it's well deserved.
He's number two.
And how many offensive linemen would be like number two? It would be maybe a quarterback.
I would vote, I'd vote for him. I'd like to have a.
Quarterback, running back or whatever. But this is a left tackle who went to a small black school Morgan State.
For our younger fans, now, when we did the great plays and fans could vote on it, uh, there's the one play where he blocks like three guys at once as one of the top plays in the history of the Giants. Would you say, for the younger people watching right now, to give them a frame of reference, would you maybe have Jonathan Ogden as the current day visual or the modern day visual of what Roosevelt Brown.
Yeah, Ogden was probably a little bit bigger, you know, bulkier, you know, but but similar in terms of talent and just just he put him out there down.
Let's take a guy blocked out of the games? Done you guys?
You know what was remarkable And Harry mentions the HBCU factor. Back back then, scouting was just very rudimentary. You don't don't have what it was that there was a writer in Pittsburgh, Bill Nunn junior. He was the sports editor of the Pittsburgh Courier, black paper in Pittsburgh, and he had an all star team that he compiled each year for each BCU players, and Rosie Brown was on there, and the Giants saw it and you know, took took a chance on him in the twenty seventh round, right, But that All Star Team was a really important tool that owners used because eventually, you know, once integration reintegration happened forty six, there still were not a lot of black players in the NFL. But that All Star Team was was important and the Giants used it, and kind of that's how they learned about him, really, because there was no this was not TV and that kind of thing. So just kind of a remarkable way that he got here, but he still had to earn it that first year, and he did. He was plugged in right away as a starting left tackle and never left.
All right, So let's go to number one. I'll start with you, Eli, Lawrence Teller. I mean, you've seen him around a little bit over the years, but I mean you're of the age where you had a chance to watch him play on TV. I mean, can you imagine having to go against him?
No, I'm glad I did not have to go against him.
I've seen seen you know, watch them live, watch them, you know, playing Super Bowls, and grew up as an NFL fan. I mean, he he was the guy, and he was exciting and electric. And I've seen the hits that he's put on some of these quarterbacks and it hurts me to watch it, you know, playing with them in video games and Techno Bowl, and.
He you know, he was unblockable and so he was. He was the guy.
As a kid, like if you were playing defense, you wanted to be Lawrence Taylor. And uh, just you know, you know, you hear coaches, you hear Coach Belichick talk about him and what a tremendous player and just right and right when he got here his rookie year, he was the best player. And so just uh, I'm glad, glad I never got the go against them. I probably would have not been to play sixteen years if I had to play, you know, face against him twice.
A year during that stretch.
But a part of those great teams with Harry Carson and that that defense was a scary defense.
Y'all had Harry.
What were your thoughts when he walked in the door they won as a rookie.
We didn't want him.
We didn't want him because during that during that time, you know, the Giants had the second pick in the draft and we felt.
You know.
It was Brad Vanpelt, Brian Kelly and myself. We thought that we needed offensive, you know, fireworks because.
We felt like we were sold.
I mean, we were already good, you know, And they used that second pick for Lawrence Taylor. First day of practice, we're out on the field and we're going through drills. I went and I did whatever you know, I needed to do, came back, sat on my helmet, and I'm like, Lawrence was next, and I was like, Okay, let me see what this guy has. And ball snaps. He runs in and he puts on some move that I'd never seen before, and he was he was improvising. I mean, it wasn't anything that he he was improvising. And I thought to myself when he beat that blocker so thoroughly, I thought to myself, Damn, he's good.
You know.
He had kind of skinny looking legs and everything, but he was good and he was able to hold his own from that from that time on. The Other thing is I'm glad that he had coaches who could utilize him in the right manner, be.
More aggressive on that special Now they'll come back with that, you know, that slant counter.
Some other team may have drafted him and he would have been an outside linebacker. But because of Bill Parcells and the way that he wanted his defense to play.
Maybe it's going here like a bunch of crazy dogs.
That's fun.
They saw what they were capable of doing with a Lawrence Taylor.
He was special. He was unique. He had speed. He was our guy, you know, and it was special. He was a bad ass.
He was a badass and everything that people say about him now it's true. I mean, he was a great player.
He was pretty amazing too. You pointed this out to me once in the facility. I remember you said, look at everybody pre snap. He's the only one that's flat footed. But he gets there first. His timing is instinct, and then his pure athleticism is It's like unparalleled, isn't it.
He was born to be and outside rushing, the things that he did, you can't draw those things up. It all came from playing the game. And you know, people look at Lawrence. Lawrence was one of the smartest players I've ever been around. I mean, his intellect football intellect was off the charts. We would be in meetings and Bill Belichick was our defensive coordinator and we'd be in the meeting room and he would be at the board trying to, you know, put down a new play or whatever. And Lawrence would be at the front of the room laying on the floor, halfway asleep, and Lawrence would tell Bill that's not gonna work. Bill, that's not gonna work. I can see it from here, even though I'm half asleep. You know, this is not gonna work.
You know.
Bill would challenge him and he would get up at you know, on the board, and he would write down what he was doing and why it might not work.
So it wasn't you know.
People look at football and they think it's all physical. Football is so much mental. I mean, you have to really have it here to play this game, to be able to do the things that he did on the field. That is the thing that sticks out. He showed up every game. He showed up ready to play.
I don't think I've ever seen a more relentless player, too than the Horns.
I mean, just.
Always new the situation, always gave maximum effort. There was a game in New Orleans where he separated his shoulder and was fitted with the harness, continued to play, brought the quarterback down from behind on a huge play. It was just you don't see things like that in today's game. But he he was just a warrior and and his will was I think second to none.
Let me remind you, I did not play in that game. He played my position in that game, and he was really good.
I was I was a little jealous.
I'm like, they don't need me this guy, And it was such an honor to play with a guy of that magnitude athletic ability.
Ury he might go all the way, he gonna go in I'm gone, you're ready, And so.
When I hear people say that he's the goat, I'm very proud of the fact that he was a Giant and he loved being a Giant, and he would have been at the top of every team's list if they're going through the same thing that the Giants are going through now with the one hundred anniversary, it's piece of cake.
Without you, guys, there wouldn't have been a Lawrence Taylor, but there wouldn't have been an LT.
Thank you very much.
Two Captains Super Bowl Champions, Eli Manning number eight on this final list. Harry Carson, Hall of Famer, number seven on this list Walter Payton Man of the Year Award winner as well. We want to thank you guys so much for sharing some of these stories with us as we celebrate the Top one hundred players. Eli, thank you, Harry, thank you so much. Thank you, and Bob really appreciate you being part of this entire process with the Blue Ribbon panel. The fact that you have the past honored in these top ten really speaks to the depth of understanding of this panel, and I appreciate all of your efforts and the rest of.
The corner to do it.
So fans, we continue the celebration of one hundred seasons of Giants Football for Bob Glauber, Eli Manning, Harry Carson, I'm Bob Papa. Thanks for joining us for Giants' Top one hundred Players, presented by bud Light
