Mark Bavaro – Syndication Server

Peter King names 8 Giants to his All-Time 53-Man Roster

8 former members of the New York Giants were named to Peter King’s All-Time 53-Man roster, including a few surprises.

The NFL offseason is a relatively dry time for content and that leads to a number of odd projects and fantasy scenarios.

Peter King of NBC Sports recently took on one of those exercises and compiled an All-Time 53-Man roster. What makes this roster unique is that it’s not made up of the best players of all time but rather, the best team players of all time.

King broke things down by position and his depth guys were true depth guys. His special teams players were true special teams players.

And in total, eight former members of the New York Giants were among the 53.

ChatGPT’s top 10 Notre Dame tight ends not including Michael Mayer

Remember any of these guys?

ChatGPT is a useful AI writing tool, but it’s not without its flaws. You have to be specific in what you want when you enter a prompt. Otherwise, it will assume things that aren’t true, and you have to enter the prompt again to account for the things that weren’t correct initially. While it doesn’t take much time to edit and regenerate prompts, it still can be mildly frustrating.

Another problem, at least at the moment, is that it only accounts for information through September 2021. Since then, [autotag]Michael Mayer[/autotag] became arguably the best tight end in Notre Dame history. So when we asked ChatGPT to generate what it believes is the program’s top 10 tight ends, Mayer wasn’t included.

The point of this particular introduction is to explain why Mayer isn’t on this list. But hopefully, you have fond memories of the 10 names ChatGPT did generate. Without further adieu, here it is, edited for accuracy:

Notre Dame football countdown: 86 Derek Brown days

When you think of Notre Dame tight ends who is the first player that comes to mind?

Notre Dame has always been strong at tight end but you could argue the Fighting Irish went from being strong at the position to simply being the best at it in the early 1990’s with a huge part of that being because of Derek Brown.

A few greats like [autotag]Dave Casper[/autotag], [autotag]Ken McAfee[/autotag], and [autotag]Mark Bavaro[/autotag] came before Brown but he was the first domino that led to a slew of Notre Dame tight ends being drafted ever since.

Brown played at Notre Dame from 1988 through 1991 and caught three touchdown passes during the championship season of ’88. In all, he’d catch 62 passes with the Irish for 899 yards and eight total touchdowns before becoming the 14th overall pick in the 1992 NFL draft by the New York Giants.

Previous to Brown being drafted, three Notre Dame tight ends had been selected in the first two rounds of the NFL draft all-time. Starting with Brown in ’92, eight Notre Dame tight ends have had their names called in the first two rounds since, including Irv Smith who was selected in the first round one year later.

In April of 2013, Her Loyal Sons caught up with Brown where he shared how he ultimately chose Notre Dame.

“One Saturday morning during the winter of my senior year of high school I popped in this video tape that I had that was called “Wake up the Echoes.” No one was home and I started watching it and the video gave me goose bumps and at that moment I thought, ‘Screw it. I’m going to Notre Dame.’”

Brown went on to play in the NFL from 1992-1999 with the Giants, Jaguars, Raiders, and Cardinals and caught 43 passes during that time.

Check out a few photos of Brown’s football career below!

Happy National Tight Ends Day from Tight End U

We can’t possibly let #NationalTightEndsDay go by without celebrating. Who is the best to ever play the position at Tight End U?

Happy National Tight Ends Day to all that celebrate.

And if you’re a fan of Notre Dame football either past or present, you’re likely a fan of the tight end as nobody has produced as much talent at the position for as long as Notre Dame.

In all, 25 Notre Dame tight ends have had their names called in the NFL draft, the most recent being Tommy Tremble who went in the third round of the 2021 NFL draft. He’s the most recent for Brian Kelly, who has seemingly put a tight end into the NFL every year.

According to ProFootballNetwork.com, National Tight End’s Day became a thing thanks to San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.

“We were on the sidelines after Celek’s score when Jimmy asked, ‘What is it, like National Tight Ends Day?.’ I was like, ‘yeah, it’s National Tight Ends Day. It’s a holiday. Tight ends all over the league are scoring touchdowns.’ That’s how it came to be. We just kind of rolled with it.”
– George Kittle, star tight end for San Francisco 49ers

So let’s take a look at just a few of the great tight ends that have played for Notre Dame aka Tight End U over the years.

8 best Giants not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame

The New York Giants have many players in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but here’s a look at the best eight who do not reside in Canton.

The New York Giants have scores of players who have been enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio but there are others that fans soul love to see bestowed with the honor.

Here are eight players who are either eligible or past their eligibility that I feel should have (and still may) been considered for the Hall.

Greg Larson, center (1961-73)

Larson played 13 seasons for the Giants with his career beginning in the final years of the Giants’ golden era of the 1950s and 60s. He would play in 179 games as a Giant and was a mainstay at center from 1963 until his retirement in 1973, missing just three games over that period.

Larson was widely unsung due to the Giants’ nosedive as a franchise under Allie Sherman in the 1960s, but he did manage to make the Pro Bowl in 1968.

I’m not quite sure if he is Hall of Fame-worthy, but I’m sure he’s as good, if not better, than some of the centers who have been enshrined in Canton.

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Giants legend Mark Bavaro understands Rob Gronkowski’s desire to return

New York Giants legend Mark Bavaro has been in Rob Gronkowski’s, so he understands why he decided to return here in 2020.

After winning Super Bowl XXV as a member of the New York Giants, legendary tight end Mark Bavaro faced a long offseason of recovery. His body was battered and bruised, his physical style of play was taking a toll and he needed to undergo surgery to repair a serious knee injury.

As far as Bavaro knew at the time, he was headed for retirement.

However, after sitting out the 1991 season, Bavaro’s body had healed, he was in a better place mentally and his love of the game returned. Subsequently, so did he.

Bavaro returned in 1992 as a member of the Cleveland Browns, and although things got off to a pretty rough start, everything eventually came back to him. And drawing on that experience, Bavaro can both relate to and understand Rob Gronkowski’s decision to return as a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers here in 2020.

“Gronk might end up having more catches than ever,” Bavaro told the Boston Globe, “because now Brady is not going to be hamstrung offensively, at least not as much as he was in New England, I don’t believe, and he’s going to be struggling a little bit with a new system and environment, so guess who is going to be his security blanket?

“Gronk really did get beat up that last year with the Patriots, when they really had no other threats. Everybody just pounded on him. If you have other threats, you can’t do that.

“This could turn out to be pretty good for him.”

After nine punishing seasons with the New England Patriots, Gronkowski announced his retirement in 2019 and sat out the year. He did a slew of other things, dabbling in both media and professional wrestling, but when Tom Brady landed with Bruce Arians in Tampa Bay, the future Hall of Famer couldn’t resist the urge to return.

The desire to win another Super Bowl probably didn’t hurt, either.

“Any true football player is hungry for success, even the guys who might have given up on the hope of winning Super Bowls, that are in it for money, fame, personal glory, or stats,” Bavaro said, “and when there’s a hint or a whiff of a championship possibility, most of those guys will put that self-interest away.

“Everyone wants to be rich and famous, but a really true football player — and you have to be a true football player to get into the NFL — wants to win championships. The saddest part for most of these guys is that they get to that level, and they’ve got no shot. They’re not on a team that has the right plan; there’s no environment to win.

“Now, with a guy like Brady coming in, with Gronk joining him, who knows who else is going to jump on that bandwagon?”

Bavaro always thought Gronk would be back, but knew it wouldn’t come with the Patriots. And as it turns out, he was exactly right.

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Ronnie Lott reflects on classic matchups with Giants, dust-up with Phil Simms

San Francisco 49ers legend Ronnie Lott recently reflected on his matchups with the New York Giants and his dust-up with QB Phil Simms.

Ronnie Lott is a Pro Football and College Hall of Fame defensive back whose career was so legendary it’s difficult to begin listing his accomplishments.

Lott is four-time Super Bowl champion (all with the San Francisco 49ers) and 10-time Pro Bowler. His mark on the game of football is indelible to the point where he has a trophy named after him.

The Lott IMPACT Award is handed out annually to the college football defensive IMPACT player of the year. IMPACT stands for many of the traits Lott brought to the game: Integrity, Maturity, Performance, Academics, Community, and Tenacity.

With the 49ers back in the Super Bowl, Lott sat down with Steve Serby of the New York Post this week and divulged some stories about his classic battles with the New York Giants.

Lott had a famous 1990 confrontation with Giants’ quarterback Phil Simms after the Niners aced out the Giants, 7-3, on Monday Night Football. A misconception about Simms’ opinion of him falsely conveyed by ex-Giant Jim Burt started it all.

“He didn’t understand why I decided to get so ballistic,” Lott said of the postgame face-to-face confrontation with Simms. “I threw a tantrum towards him. I didn’t know that Phil felt that way about me, but as we all learned in life, Phil didn’t say that, it was Jim Burt being Jim Burt getting me fired up.”

“He (Simms) looked at me, ‘What the heck are you doing (laugh)? Why are you acting like this?’ But the great thing that I love is that after the whole incident, he comes into the locker room and said to me, ‘I never would have said anything.’ For him to walk in our locker room, after that game, and then say what he said, showed me how great a human being he is.”

Later that season, the Giants would beat the 49ers, 15-13, in the NFC Championship Game. Simms did not play in that game as he was sidelined by a broken bone in his foot.

Serby also asked Lott about the famous 1986 play in which Giants tight end Mark Bavaro took him and several of his teammates for a ride at Candlestick Park.

“I think of being pulled on a slip and slide,” Lott said of what is was like to try to tackle Bavaro. “I had to redeem myself and had to hit him like George Foreman.”

Lott also spoke about Lawrence Taylor, who he said makes him feel 22 every time they meet. He also described what is was like to prepare for those tough Giants teams of the 1980s.

“The game was gonna be a fourth-quarter game. You want to try to beat ’em before you got into the fourth quarter. Coach [Bill] Parcells and his staff were really good at managing time in the fourth quarter. They were very disciplined about how to win games in the fourth quarter,” he said.

Lott is right. The Giants played the 49ers in the postseason five times during Lott’s tenure in San Fran with the Giants winning three. So much for the ‘Team of the 80s.”

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