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.

ANDY ROBUSTELLI: 1925-2011

By Dave Klein
To get a glimpse of the man inside the man, I offer this perspective on Andy Robustelli, the great Giants' defensive end who died Tuesday at the age of 85.

Twice we worked together on his chapter in "The Game of their Lives," and twice he repeated the same thought, 31 years apart.

"I asked him how it felt to have been involved in something called "The Greatest Game Ever Played," and he scowled. It was a different scowl then the one he usually wore for any and all occasions.

"It could not have been the greatest game ever played," he said. "We lost." Yes, the Baltimore Colts beat the Giants that day, 23-17, in an overtime period for the 1958 NFL Championship.

And there it was. "We lost," and it didn't matter what else happened, what else anyone said, how it was remembered. "We lost," and that was Andy Robustelli.

He was fast and big, 6-1 and 235 pounds, but those are just numbers. It was his inner fire, his drive and his intensity, that set him aside from most men. He was the automatic leader of the team when he was acquired by the Giants in 1956 from the Los Angeles Rams, who had drafted him in the 19th round of the 1951 season and peddled him to the Giants for a first-round pick.

He joined a team that was on the verge of becoming great, and when he arrived he found defensive coordinator Tom Landry waiting for him. It was a marriage of significant proportions. They understood each other and despite their contradictory upbringing - Tom was from Mission, Tex., and played his football at the University of Texas. Andy was a "townie" from Stamford, Conn., and played his football at a college that no longer exists, Arnold College in Bridgeport, Conn.

"Andy was the coach on the field," Landry once said. "He grasped our defense [the so-called Flex defense] right from the start and I doubt we would have been nearly as successful without Andy on the team. I remember Wellington [Mara, the late team president] told me he was trying to get Andy from the Rams and did I think he was worth a first round pick. I told him I thought Andy was worth a dozen first round picks."

And perhaps he was.

Andy played for the Giants from 1956 through 1964, when he retired. He came back to the Giants in 1974 and stayed for five years, but it was with a chip on his shoulder.

Why?

"I always thought I would be the next Giants' head coach," he said, "so when Wellington dismissed Allie Sherman [in 1969] I was in China on a business trip [he owned and operated a gigantic travel agency, also situated in Stamford], and I flew home. I expected the call and I didn't want to tell him I couldn't get there right away."

The call never came. Wellington named a former Robustelli teammate, Alex Webster, as the next coach, and Robustelli was infuriated. "It was my job," he said. "I had nothing against Red [Webster] but I knew I was supposed to be the coach. I couldn't believe he didn't call me, and I talked about it with him several times."

What did Mara say? "He said he was sorry, Robustelli said. "He said he had to pick a player like Alex because the fans had become so upset with Sherman. And he said Alex was a popular Giant. And I wasn't?"

It is safe to say that if you ever met Robustelli you never forgot him. I was lucky; I got to work with him. Better said, I got to learn from him.

Years ago, long after Andy had stopped playing and just before I lost any thought of being athletic, the Giants used to hold a summer camp picnic for the media at their training camp site at Fairfield, Conn. It involved not only eating and drinking but a mock football game, not quite tackle football but something more than two-handed tag.

I was perhaps 30, which made Robustelli 45 or so, and I lined up at my old position, left tackle. I looked up and there he was, at right defensive end, but the smile was gone, the friendly look was gone. He was back on the field again, albeit without pads and a uniform, but he was on the field.

They snapped the ball and he rushed the passer, almost as if I wasn't even there. Again, same result. Finally, on third down, I managed to block him, which was a painful experience. "Not bad," he said, "helping me up. You aren't much good but you have courage."

I have always held that moment dear, that I played against a Hall of Fame defensive end, perhaps the best who ever played that position. Ever.

I remember watching him play the Baltimore Colts, who had a tackle now residing in the Hall of Fame as well, Jim Parker. It was watching history coming to life, and the matchup was, of course, a tie. Years later, I asked Parker to name the best defensive end he ever played against.

"Andy Robustelli," he said.

So I went to Andy and put the question to him - who was the best offensive tackle he ever faced?

"Jim Parker," he said. "No doubt." Parker died in 2005, and now they can continue their rivalry. Maybe Landry will oversee the battle, you know?

Andy played with some of the greatest Giants in team history, with such as Emlen Tunnel, Jim Katcavage, Sam Huff, Rosey Grier, Dick Modzelewski, Jimmy Patton and Erich Barnes on defense; with Webster, Frank Gifford, Rosey Brown, Charley Conerly, Y.A. Tittle, Del Shofner, Kyle Rote and Joe Walton on offense.

"Andy was part of what, to me, was the best defense ever put together," Huff said Friday. "We had Andy's experience and we had Little Mo [Modzelewski] and then we had Rosey [Grier] and along came another Katcavage. We had Tunnell, the best safety to ever play in this league, and Patton and Barnes. It was such a great time for everybody. We had the best of the best. And Andy was a leader on that team. Andy had big hands and he was strong. The best thing he did was rush the quarterback and that's what he loved to do. He'd beat the tackle one-on-one. A lot of times it was the best tackle in football. And Andy knew I had his inside."

It's difficult to comment on the passing of yet another old friend, another warrior who played the game as it was supposed to be played, who respected it and his opponents. In truth, there aren't many left from when your correspondent started this long journey in 1961, and among those who left an absolutely indelible impression was Robustelli.

He was "The Enforcer" on the team, too.

The Giants' first-round draft choice in 1961 was a running back named Bobby Gaiters, a cocky, talented but undisciplined product. He was not the typical rookie for those years, often offending the tightly-knit veterans with his words and actions.

Finally, one day during that season, they had had enough, and somebody went to Robustelli to complain. He said he would take care of it.

You need to know that the old locker room in the old Yankee Stadium had a moderately sized shower room that was unused, the nozzles capped. It was a tiled room, floor and ceiling and walls, and out of sight and almost out of hearing.

Robustelli approached Gaiters and said: "Rookie, come with me, I have a few things to tell you."

No one knows exactly what went on in that room - remember, it was almost sound-proof - but 30 minutes later when they emerged, Gaiters began a season of saying "thank you" and "excuse me" and "yes, sir" to everyone. The Enforcer had done his job.

So now Andy has re-joined Rosey Brown and Rote, Conerly and Jack Stroud, Emlen and Landry, Vince Lombardi and Wellington Mara. Sounds like the makings of another great team, and knowing Andy, he'll insist that they track down the old Baltimore Colts and demand a rematch.

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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