Tag: Everson Walls

Tom Coughlin heads list of 8 Giants semifinalists for Pro Football Hall of Fame

Eight former members of the New York Giants, including head coach Tom Coughlin, are among the semifinalists for Pro Football Hall of Fame.

[anyclip pubname=”2123″ widgetname=”0016M00002U0B1kQAF_M8169″]

Four former New York Giants players, one former coach, and former head coach Tom Coughlin have been included on a list of 60 semifinalists who will advance to the next round of consideration for the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2024.

Running back Ottis ‘O.J.’ Anderson, quarterback Charlie Conerly, linebacker Carl Banks, and defensive back Everson Walls will be among a group considered to be among 12 Seniors and 12 Coach/Contributors advancing to the final stage.

Late Giants head coach Dan Reeves, a two-time AP NFL Coach of the Year, is also a semifinalist.

The results will be announced on July 27.

Coughlin coached the Giants for 12 seasons (2004-15) and was a two-time Super Bowl winner(XLII, XLVI). He also was the first head coach of the expansion Jacksonville Jaguars in 1995, taking the team to two AFC Championship Games. He had an overall NFL record of 182-157 over 20 seasons.

Anderson split 14 seasons between the St. Louis Cardinals (1979-1986) and Giants (1986-1992). He is a two-time Super Bowl champion and six-time 1,000-yard rusher. He was also named MVP of Super Bowl XXV.

Conerly played all 14 of his NFL seasons (1948-61) with the Giants. He won the NFL title in 1956 and passed for 19,488 yards and 173 touchdowns.

Banks was the third overall selection in the 1984 NFL draft out of Michigan State. He was a two-time Super Bowl champion during his time with the Giants (1984-1992). Banks also played one season in Washington (1993) and two in Cleveland (1994-95).

Walls played most of his NFL career (1981-93) with the Dallas Cowboys, where he was named to three first-team All-Pro teams, four Pro Bowls and led the NFL in interceptions three times while in Dallas. He finished his career with the Giants and Cleveland Browns and helped Big Blue to victory in Super Bowl XXV.

Also on the coach/contributor list is former Giants assistant/defensive coordinator Marty Schottenheimer and head coach John McVay.

[lawrence-related id=712310,712300,712296]

[affiliatewidget_smgtolocal]

6 with Browns ties named Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2024 semifinalists

There are six with Browns connections were named as Pro Football Hall of Fame semifinalists.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame has announced their Class of 2024 semifinalists from their seniors, coaches, and media classification. This means no first-ballot candidates will be selected from this pool. We are now just three weeks away from offensive tackle Joe Thomas being inducted into the Hall of Fame, and soon others with ties to the Cleveland Browns could join him.

Of the list of semifinalists released, there were six players, coaches, and an owner who the city of Cleveland has disdain for to make the cut. Here is the complete list of individuals with ties to the Browns who are Class of 2024 semifinalists.

2 Giants among Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2023 finalists

Former New York Giants greats, Everson Walls and Dan Reeves, are among the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2023 finalists.

The New York Giants have two finalists in the running for the 2022 Pro Football Hall of Fame class.

The Hall of Fame selection committee chooses between four to eight new members to join the greatest honor in football every year. Currently, the Giants have 18 members in the Hall of Fame which is tied for the third-most of any NFL franchise.

New York will now have the chance to raise that number this summer as Everson Walls and Dan Reeves were named finalists for this years class.

Walls, cornerback, played 13 seasons (1981-1993) in the NFL where he recorded 57 career interceptions. Throughout his career, he played for the Dallas Cowboys, Giants (where he won a Super Bowl), and the Cleveland Browns.

During his time with the Cowboys, Walls earned a PFWA All-Rookie Team honor, three First-Team All-Pro honors, four Pro Bowl trips, and an NFL record three seasons leading the league in interceptions.

This outstanding play combined with his help in the Giants’ second Super Bowl victory has cemented Walls as one of the better cornerbacks in NFL history.

Reeves was a player, assistant coach, and head coach in the NFL from 1965 to 2003. He sadly passed away in January of 2022 but is survived by his three children, six grandchildren, and his outstanding career in pro football.

Similar to Walls, Reeves began his career in the NFL with the Cowboys as a running back. There he set two franchise records at the time: most all-purpose touchdowns in a season (16), and most scrimmage touchdowns in a game (four).

After eight seasons in the NFL, Reeves retired to become an assistant coach for the Cowboys. He finished his playing career with 3,683 scrimmage yards, 40 touchdowns, and a Super Bowl VI championship.

Reeves spent time as an assistant coach for Dallas from 1972 to 1980 (while taking the 1973 season off) where he would also win another Super Bowl. He then went on to become the youngest head coach in the NFL in 1981 when he would take the position of vice president and head coach of the Denver Broncos. There he earned a record of 110-73-1 making six playoffs and two Super Bowl trips which earned him a nomination to the Broncos Ring of Fame.

Reeves would then go on to coach the Giants from 1993-1996 where he won Coach of the Year in 1993. He would finish his coaching stint with the Giants with a 31-33 record with one playoff appearance.

Reeves would finish out his NFL career with the Atlanta Falcons from 1997-2003 where he won the 1998 NFL Coach of the Year award and the 1999 George Halas Award while making two playoff appearances including one Super Bowl.

[mm-video type=playlist id=01eqbx61yex5whq8aq player_id=none image=https://giantswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]

[lawrence-related id=694730,694701,694687]

[listicle id=694767]

‘I knew that was going to be it’: Everson Walls speaks on Diggs tying his record

Cowboys legends Everson Walls and Deion Sanders speak glowingly of what they see in new star Trevon Diggs. | From @StarConscience

There was nothing but good vibes inside AT&T Stadium in Week 16 as the Dallas Cowboys dropped 42 points in the first half and cruised to a 56-14 win. The Cowboys scored on offense, defense, and special teams. After punting on their first possession, Dallas got their start with Washington’s first offensive play when cornerback Trevon Diggs snagged his 11th interception of the season, tying Everson Walls’ team record set in 1981.

Walls was in attendance as the teams’ Community Legend of the Game and sat in the Ring of Honor suite. Once Washington quarterback Taylor Heinicke launched a pass intended for wide receiver Terry McLaurin, Walls believed Diggs would secure it.

“When it first happened, I knew it was going to happen,” Walls said. “When I saw the ball in the air, I was already up, had my hands in the air. I knew that was going to be it.”

Walls was accompanied by his daughter Charis, former teammate Michael Downs’ daughter Carolyn, as well as former Cowboys Dixon Edwards and Chad Hennings who both were members of all three of the franchise’s Super Bowl title teams in the 1990s. Diggs hauled in the interception just after Walls had been announced on the big screen, and Walls almost missed it.

“I barely saw the play,” said Walls. “We were talking trash, laughing, having fun. My daughter was on social media, telling me stuff. And before we could look up …

“I remember when he caught it, I remember standing up, ‘There it is.’ I had my fist up like, ‘Mine!’ Like I got the interception. Everybody is going crazy in there. The first thing we see is his son (on the screen), and that was hilarious. We all sat down and started cracking up because the son, he was doing all his moves.”

As a former wide receiver during his collegiate days at Alabama, Diggs has transferred those skills to the cornerback position by high pointing the ball when it’s in the air. It’s a skill that Walls displayed during his playing days and he talked about how when Diggs made the interception it was reminiscent in a few ways of his 11th. Walls had brokene Hall of Famer Mel Renfro’s record established in 1969.

“And you’re going to tell me that didn’t look like an Everson Walls interception?” said Walls. “Come on, man. That’s the same way I surpassed Mel Renfro. Same side of the field, against the Philadelphia Eagles. Same route.”

Diggs may not have set a new team record yet, but his interception against Washington put his name in the history books as he became the first player since Walls to amass more than 10 interceptions in a season.

Walls isn’t the only former Cowboy that is supporting the play of Diggs. Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, who is considered by many to be the best cornerback in NFL history, has been impressed with the second-year star.

“I think Diggs has been phenomenal,” Sanders said on The Rich Eisen Show. “I truly hadn’t had a chance to study him or watch him right. But what he’s accomplished is phenomenal. Of course, the next phase is going man to man against the best man every week, then you get the accolades and the talk of the guys who’ve been doing it for years. A guy like Patrick Peterson came out of the womb to play man to man against the opponent’s best receiver. Jalen Ramsey, same way. You’re going to get balls, they’re not going to throw away from you because that’s their best. That kid can play and I’m proud of him. What he’s doing out there on the field for cornerbacks, I’m proud of.”

If Diggs can get at least one more interception he would be the first player to grab more than 11 since Lester Hayes in 1980 when he recorded 13 as a member of the Oakland Raiders. Even if he doesn’t, Diggs has established himself as the NFL’s top ball-hawking cornerback in only his second season.

[listicle id=689129][vertical-gallery id=689080][lawrence-newsletter]

Everson Walls: Cowboys takeaway artist’s true legacy lies in what he gave to teammate

Despite a historic rookie season and a role in two of the league’s greatest games ever, Walls greatest contribution was to an ex-teammate.

Legacy is a word that gets tossed around casually in the world of football. But what really makes for a lasting and meaningful legacy? Wins? Touchdowns? Championship trophies? Memorable moments? Mere statistics?

Yes, Everson Walls has all of those things attached to his name after a 13-year career in the pros. He’s probably most immediately remembered in the minds of Cowboys fans for his transcendent 1981 season when he snagged a whopping 11 interceptions as an undrafted rookie. Others may recall the freeze-frame images of his unique place in history in not one, but two of the biggest games of a generation.

The list of coaches who had a personal hand in Walls’s journey is a veritable who’s who of the sport’s most hallowed legends. But the legacy of the player himself is often lost in the fog of a decade’s worth of mostly lackluster Cowboys squads; he had to leave Dallas, for example, to earn the championship ring he unquestionably deserved.

He remains one of the Cowboys’ true greats, but none of his on-the-field accomplishments nor professional accolades tell the full story of Walls and what he meant to so many of his teammates… and one in particular.