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.

A FOND FAREWELL TO THE MEDIA ROOM -- A PLACE NONE OF THE FANS GOT TO SEE

By DAVE KLEIN
When Giants Stadium opened in 1976 (the first game was Oct. 10, to be exact, and the Giants lost to Dallas, 24-14), the media room also opened. In those days it was called the press room. But press room, media room, what's the difference? It was where we went to work.

The room was in the basement of the new stadium, about 100 yards removed from the team's locker room. It consisted of two banks of cubicles with chairs, two gender-sensitive rest rooms and, frankly, not much more.

And through that room passed hundreds of friends and acquaintances and others who never made a mark or an impression, but we were all members of the same ink-stained fraternity, and the camaraderie was unmistakable.

It is closed now. The team moved its offices to the new edifice on the other end of the sprawling tract of property, and the press room (sorry, media room) is actually on the first floor with a window that lets in the fresh air, or at the very least provides a view of the world.

That's good, right? Well, not really. The old basement media room was home for a lot of us since that first year, although I am hard-pressed to list any other sportswriter, broadcaster or radio head who spent more years there than your correspondent.

From the original crew of 1976, there is probably one other who was there that first year, and for reasons too numerous and painful to mention, he doesn't count.

But the list of names goes on and on, and perhaps some might be familiar to a few of you. It is the recounting that seems to be important at this moment, since we were told to empty our little cupboards above the cubicle and make sure there was nothing that we wanted to keep.

The names? John Kennelly, Norm Miller, Frank Litzky, Bill Wallace, Harold Rosenthal, Jim Smith, Lenny Lewin, Len Berman, Bob Glauber, Peter King, Greg Aiello, Ed Friel, Hy Goldberg, Dick Clemente, Harold Weissman, John Altavilla, Bill Verigan, John Branch, Joe Lee, Neil Amdur, Steve Serby, George Willis, Mike Vaccaro, John Jeansonne, Dave Solomon, Augie Lio, and I am sure I left out dozens, for which I apologize, but the current guys (and girls) don't count in this honor roll.

Wellington Mara visited the media room. So, too, did every head coach since the building was opened, from Bill Arnsparger to Bill Parcells to John McVay to Ray Perkins to Dan Reeves to Jim Fassel to Tom Coughlin. Players shuffled in and out, not as often and usually with a purpose. Michael Strahan visited one day to boldly and loudly criticize the team's offense under Fassel. Lawrence Taylor was there, Carl Banks and Ron Dayne and Sean Landeta. Andy Robustelli was there as the Director of Operations, an early-day title for general manager, followed by George Young, Ernie Accorsi and Jerry Reese.

It was in this press room that Phil Simms was interviewed the day the Giants released him -- for financial reasons. It was here that Robustelli came in to announce the firing of offensive coordinator Bob Gibson, the "villain" of The Fumble Game. At the end of that season, McVay was fired, too, and Robustelli quit, and it might not have been a totally bad event since it brought dramatic change to the team, brought Young in as general manager, brought Perkins in as head coach.

It was our home, in a real and valid sense, and in the middle of the room was a long conference table. Oh, it was scarred and rickety but it was "our" conference table, and every Friday afternoon Parcells would come in and begin an hour-long (sometimes more) "off the record" exchange with those of the beat writers who chose to hang out.

It was during one of these informal sessions that Parcells saved your correspondent from extreme embarrassment, and I will always be grateful. Perhaps now that the room is closed, part of the past, that story can be told. It was 1985, I think, when L.T. and Leonard Marshall were at the peak of their pass-rushing, sack-producing frenzy.

They were positioned together on the right side of the defensive line, L.T. as the outside linebacker, Leonard as the defensive end. So your brilliant correspondent asked a question.

"Coach, if they are your two best pass-rushers, why aren't they on opposite ends of the line?"

He fixed me with a baleful stare, and then, mercifully, said: "I'll answer that question later."

So I waited, and when everyone else had left, he turned to me.

"Dave," he said, "that was absolutely the dumbest question you have ever asked."

I bridled. "Why?" I blurted out. "Because," he said, "if I put them on opposite ends of the line, they can both be double-teamed. But when they are together, whatever the offense decides to do is wrong. You double-team Leonard, L.T. gets you. You double-team L.T., which probably isn't possible, and you let Leonard loose on just one blocker."

Thankful that no one was there to witness such a complete and total lesson in humility, it has stayed with me ever since, and it taught me to think out all possible reasons instead of just shooting from the lip.

I have had the chance to remind Parcells of that Friday afternoon many times since, and he always smiles. "You did turn out to be a pretty good student," he once said. And I beamed, if only inside.

So now the room is going to go the way of the old stadium. We'll move into the new, shiny, first-floor media room in a couple of weeks. Somehow, I don't think it will be the same. You know, it just couldn't be.

And to all the ghosts I leave there, my heartfelt thanks for the companionship, the jokes, the help and the friendship.

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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