E-GIANTS
Dave Klein was the Giants' beat writer
for The Star-Ledger from 1961 to 1995.
He is the author of 26 books and he is one of
only four sportswriters to have covered all the Super Bowls.
Dave has allowed TEAM GIANTS to reprint some of his articles.

SPECIAL REPORT - SPAGNUOLO LEAVES

By DAVE KLEIN
The day before the Giants might have been playing for the right to return to the Super Bowl for a second year in a row, they took another body blow.

Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, who helped get them to Super Bowl 42 and certainly aided in their stunning upset of the New England Patriots, accepted an offer to become head coach of the St. Louis Rams.

His reported friendship with the new St. Louis general manager, Billy Devaney, was clearly a contributing factor. He trusts Devaney, who has been a personnel director, assistant general manager and executive vice president of several teams including the Washington Redskins, San Diego Chargers and most recently the Rams. Spagnuolo and Devaney worked together in San Diego in 1993 when Devaney was the assistant to general manager Bobby Beathard and Spagnuolo was a scout.

Spagnuolo, 49, was hired as the Giants' new defensive coordinator on Jan. 22, 2007, hired away from the Philadelphia Eagles, where he had spent the previous eight years -- first as a general defensive assistant, then secondary assistant coach and finally linebackers coach.

For those eights year he worked under the reigning NFL defensive guru, Jim Johnson, from whom he freely admits he learned a considerable amount of the tactics and strategies he employed when given a free hand with the Giants. "There were other coaches, of course," he said recently. "All of them, every coach I worked with, contributed to my education."

Spagnuolo's main asset appears to be the proper positioning of pass-rushers, and he has chosen to involve more players than is usual in his often flamboyant approach to sacking the quarterback. "I'll play the best 11 guys on defense," he said, and then added, with a grin, "and no, they won't all be cornerbacks and safeties."

When he was hired by Giants' head coach Tom Coughlin, the first major project he undertook was the conversion of the number one draft choice of 2006, Mathias Kiwanuka, from defensive end to strongside linebacker. Then with the injury last summer of Pro Bowl end Osi Umenyiora and the retirement of veteran Michael Strahan, he undid what he had wrought and put Kiwi back at end.

"He is a remarkably talented athlete," Spagnuolo said of Kiwanuka, "and with his skills and intelligence he can handle the transition."

Spagnuolo, who has been a target for teams seeking a head coach for the last two seasons, reportedly signed a four-year, $11.5 million agreement with the Rams, a team in turmoil far more seriously than he found the Giants at the start of the 2007 season. In fact, those Giants put together a memorable playoff run and won three straight road games in order to arrive at Super Bowl 42 in Glendale, Ariz., where they proceeded to humble the previously undefeated Patriots -- whose head coach, Bill Belichick, is yet another former Giant defensive coordinator.

In addition to Belichick and now Spagnuolo, the Giants watched as John Fox left his job as defensive coordinator to become the head coach of the Carolina Panthers in 2002, almost immediately after the 2001 season. In fact, there was a fourth Giant defensive coordinator who slipped through the net, too -- the legendary Hall of Fame head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, Tom Landry.

The hiring of Spagnuolo ended the pursuit of a handful of coordinators, all of whom at one point or another were rumored to be the top choice. They included Dallas offensive coordinator Jason Garrett, Minnesota defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier, Baltimore defensive coordinator Rex Ryan and, for a while, the recently dismissed Denver head coach Mike Shanahan.

It had been widely rumored (and hoped, by Giant fans) that Spagnuolo would remain with the team long enough to succeed Coughlin. In fact, after last February's dramatic Super Bowl victory, he was given a new four-year contract calling for $2 million a year, and there were reports that he had been "unofficially guaranteed" the head coaching job when Coughlin retired.

But there are only 32 such jobs in the world -- that of NFL head coach -- and Spagnuolo felt it was his time. He declined an offer presented by the Washington Redskins last March.

There were early reports that Spagnuolo would ask for the release of two assistant coaches on the current Giants' staff to take with him to St. Louis -- quarterbacks coach Chris Palmer and secondary/cornerbacks coach Peter Guinta, but no confirmation was available.

Perhaps one statement from the retired Strahan, now a FOX-Sports analyst, best sums up the esteem in which the Giants held Spagnuolo. "We finally won a Super Bowl," he said, which brought to a happy conclusion his 15-year Giants' career. "I credit the Mara family, the Tisch family, head coach Tom Coughlin, Eli Manning and, maybe most of all, coach Spags."

Good luck, coach.

Check out Dave's website at E-GIANTS where you can subscribe to his newsletters which run much more frequently than what is available here.
- Team Giants

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