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| E-GIANTS
By
Dave Klein --- "One of the worst things I ever had to do in my life was tell my old teammate and best friend, [defensive end] Jim Katcavage, that he was being cut because, well, he just wasn't good enough anymore." - First year head coach Alex Webster in the summer of 1969. --- A defensive tackle from Ohio State, George Hasenorhl, managed to spend one season on the roster but the next summer, 1975, was summoned to head coach Bill Arnsparger's office and told he had been released. "He was very calm about it, very understanding," said the coach. "He thanked me for the chance to play, he thanked me for the courtesy of telling him myself, stood up, shook my hand and wished me and the team good luck. Then when he left the office, which was off a large lounge area, he walked over to a pay phone on the wall, ripped it off and threw it through a window." --- One summer in 1962, the Giants had a free agent rookie punter in camp named Joe Whelan. He kicked for about two weeks and was then released. He accepted that news gracefully and head coach Allie Sherman thought no more about it. "About two weeks later I'm walking down the hall from the cafeteria and there's Joe Whelan," Sherman said. "I just stared, to make sure I was right, and then I said, 'Joe, what the hell are you doing here?' He gave me a kind of sheepish grin and answered, 'Coach, it's summer, I got nothing else to do, there are three meals a day here, a nice room, and since I don't have to practice or go to meetings it's like a vacation.' I made sure he was out of there later that day, but it still brings a grin to my face." --- For two years (1972-1974) the Giants had a defensive tackle named Dan Goich, who had played at the University of California-Berkeley. In those years, and from that campus, it was not surprising that he was an activist. In the summer of 1975, the NFL Players Association staged a strike and refused to allow its players to report to training camp unless a new contract was reached. The NFL stood firm, refused on all counts, and finally the NFLPA relented and the gates opened. The indelible memory that remains is Goich marching down the highway from the Pace University campus in Pleasantville, N.Y., in his shorts and T-shirt, yelling: "We got sold out, we got sold out." He was never seen again. In effect, he cut himself. --- The year that the nearly-sainted Bill Parcells took over as head coach, after Ray Perkins left to pursue his dream of becoming Bear Bryant at Alabama, there was a raging battle in summer camp between Phil Simms and Scott Brunner for the starting quarterback position. Simms had joined the team in 1979 as the first-round draft pick, the same year that Perkins had inherited the coaching reins from John McVay. Brunner joined the team the next year, a lowly sixth-round selection. Day after day the players split practice time, each getting an almost identical number of reps, and as the season drew closer there was still no answer. So one day, wandering the campus at Pace University, I bumped into running back Butch Woolfolk (more on him in a moment) and asked his opinion. He just smiled. "It's Brunner," he said. "Everybody on this team knows that." Why? "Because Simms was Perk's guy," he said, "and Bill wants to make sure everybody sees he can pick his own quarterback." It was an insight - an early one - into the way Parcells' mind worked, and of course Simms went on to be a Parcells' favorite and the best quarterback in Giants' history. --- As promised, a vignette from Woolfolk. He was the Giants' first round draft pick out of Michigan in 1982, the same year they took another running back, Joe Morris, in the second round. Butch showed promise, potential and an occasional flash of greatness, but he just wasn't what a No. 1 pick was expected to be. So one day, during an informal one-on-one interview, I asked him why he thought he wasn't a superstar yet. The honestly was overwhelming. "I never liked football," he said. "When I was in high school [Westfield, N.J.], I would have rather run track, but the football players got the girls. So I played football. And I did so well I got a scholarship offer to a college my parents could never have afforded to send me. And I did so well there [All-America first teamer] that the Giants drafted me and paid me more money than anyone in my family ever dreamed was possible." He paused here, an almost embarrassed half-grin on his face. "But I never liked football," he said. --- But the two favorite training camp stories didn't involve the Giants. One happened to the Packers, the other to the Buccaneers. The Packers were absolutely terrorized by head coach Vince Lombardi in the mid-1960s and walked in fear of his shadow. One night, after meetings, two linemen were strolling around the campus, one eating an ice cream cone, when they spied Lombardi approaching. The cone was immediately dropped into the bushes. "Why did you do that?" his companion asked. "Because," said the other guy, "I don't know if eating ice cream is all right with him." The Buccaneers, coached by John McKay, had a free agent placekicker in camp who was just lights out from up to 60 yards. Finally, the special teams coach told McKay he'd better come take a look. So he did. The kid missed everything from 30 yards up to 60, and when it was done, McKay walked over to him. "What's wrong, son?" he asked. "I'm told you make them all." The kid responded. "Coach, you make me nervous when you are standing here watching." To which McKay responded: "You know what? I plan to be at all the games, too, so why don't you just pack a bag." 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. NEW - Send a request to davesklein@aol.com for a free week's worth of news!
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