A typical offseason exercise for many NFL beat writers is to compile lists of their team’s greatest players, games, moments and eras. This year, with an extended offseason due the coronavirus pandemic lock-downs, those exercises have been stretched to the limit.
It doesn’t mean they’re any less fun. In a recent piece by CBS Sports’ Dan Schneier, he reveals his New York Giants’ “Franchise Five,” which is a similar exercise to our “Mount Rushmore” series in which we listed the top five figures in New York Giants history.
Schneier and veteran NFL reporter Pete Prisco settled on five names no one can dispute: Bill Parcells, Lawrence Taylor, Roosevelt Brown, Eli Manning and Michael Strahan. All but Manning are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and are members of the Giants’ Ring of Honor.
But give that time. Manning just retired a few months ago. He will have his name enshrined in the Ring of Honor as early as next year and if CEO John Mara keeps his word, “no Giant will ever wear No. 10 again.”
Having followed the Giants for much longer than young Mr. Schneier and at least as long as Mr. Prisco, if not longer, I agree with their choices.
The common thread among players is that they all spent their entire careers with the Giants. Manning played 16 seasons and 236 games, the most of any Giants player. Strahan played 216 games over 15 seasons. Taylor suited up for 184 games in his 13-year career, while Brown played 162 games across 13 seasons.
Parcells was the team’s greatest coach, taking the championship-starved Giants and their fans to their first two Super Bowl triumphs. His 8-3 post season record is impressive, but he has fewer total wins than Tom Coughlin, who also sports an 8-3 playoff mark with two Super Bowl wins.
My five would be Taylor, Manning, Frank Gifford, Strahan and Harry Carson. I hate to exclude Brown, who was also a Giants’ coach after his playing career, but here’s my logic. Gifford was the face of those great Giant teams of the 50s and 60s. It was him that people think of when they reminisce about that era. Brown may have been the overall better player, as were Emlen Tunnell and perhaps some others, but Gifford was the icon.
Carson played on a lot of bad football teams in the 1970s and held the fort with class and dignity before the Giants built up the team around him in the 80s. He is one of my all-time favorite Giants and many young-‘uns who never saw him play undersell him because of his genteel off-field demeanor. Let me tell you this, he was anything but genteel on the field. He was good as any middle linebacker in his era, maybe better.
Schneier writes that it was a close call between Manning and Phil Simms and I can see that. Simms was as talented as any quarterback the Giants have ever had. His early injury issues set him back. His first five seasons were marred by bizarre and debilitating injuries. Then, he was robbed at a second shot at a Super Bowl in 1990 by a late-season foot injury.
Manning never missed a game due to injury however, and did get that second Super Bowl win and MVP, so what might have been doesn’t count here.
I chose to exclude Parcells because of the way he left. Many Giant fans were angry with his departure, especially after the way the succession plan unfolded (Ray Handley was selected as head coach over Bill Belichick) and the fact that Parcells went on to coach three other teams after leaving.
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