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 five sportswriters to have covered all the Super Bowls.
Dave has allowed TEAM GIANTS to reprint some of his articles.

By DAVE KLEIN
There are tons of reasons why the Giants would like to beat the Cowboys on Sunday, and not all of them have to do with the standings (although that is by far the most important).

First and foremost, it's Bill Parcells.

Nobody made the same impact when he was appointed (some say anointed) as head coach in 1983 than Parcells, who wasn't "Tuna" then. He was just a bright assistant coach with a near-brilliant defensive mind and a sharp tongue.

Equally true, nobody made the same impact as Parcells the day - - and the way - - he resigned his job eight years later. No one will ever know the real reasons, and there were many of them, but by then he had become an icon and the reasons he gave, i.e., his health and his family, seemed to be bogus.

There was his open rift with then general manager George Young, and the in-fighting in which they engaged was often reported - - by insiders with a burning desire to tell somebody - - and usually, and eventually, confirmed.

Parcells wanted control over the hiring and firing; in other words, he wanted to conduct the draft and the waiver system. Young, in one of his most telling statements, said (when pressed): "Look here, my job is to put players on the field, Bill's job is to coach them." It was a marvelous arrangement, and the pity is that the two couldn't simply co-exist.

Two Super Bowl victories were only part of the overall success achieved by this two-headed management-coaching team.

But Tuna left, vowing not to coach again, promising to spend time fishing (hence, along with his somewhat pear-shaped build, the nickname). Yeah, right. He was back coaching in a year, taking the New England Patriots to another Super Bowl but losing it.

Then he created a mess when he left the Patriots, with word leaking out during that Super Bowl week, and took on the unenviable task of coaching the New York Jets. He almost made it, coming within 30 minutes of the AFC championship in a showdown with Denver.

And then he left the Jets, only to be pursued by the curmudgeon owner Jerry Jones and agreeing to take on the Cowboys, the so-called "America's Team." Funny, I always thought the Yankees were America's Team, but who am I to quarrel with the populace?

So the Giants, especially those who were there when Tuna swam the local rivers, would love to stick it to him again. They beat him twice last season and he was outraged and disconsolate, according to sources. He hates to lose, and he doubly hates to lose to the Giants. He still feels he got a raw deal - - even though he was the one who left.

Then there is the Cowboys' offensive coordinator, Sean Payton.

He was, just a few years ago, the Giants' offensive coordinator, and he was treated as badly as Parcells imagines he was. Payton is a bright young coach, who came close to a few head coaching jobs during the off-season. Payton was the Giants' offensive coordinator from 1999 through 2002, and it was that last season that Jim Fassel, then the head coach, publicly embarrassed and humiliated him.

It was after a dreadful beating absorbed in a Monday night game in Philadelphia when Fassel, himself a self-proclaimed offensive genius, "fired" the kid. He announced that Payton would deal with the quarterbacks only, and that he would take over the reins of offensive coordinator as well as the duties of head coach.

Payton, who is only 42 years old now, took it standing up, staring straight ahead. He said that Fassel had ordered him to "shorten" the offensive game plan, and that while he did, it apparently wasn't short enough. He said that Fassel told him his offense was too complicated, and the worst of it was that Fassel "indicated" that a lunatic play called right near the end of the first half in Arizona a few weeks earlier, one that resulted in an interception returned for a touchdown, had been Payton's call.

Payton said it wasn't. Well, then who did call the ridiculous play? Turns out, on good authority, that it was Fassel himself.

As soon as Parcells took over in Dallas, which was 2003, he hired Payton, and he was instrumental and enthusiastic over Payton's formal interview in Oakland. The kid will be a head coach one day, probably sooner than later, and it may turn out to be another gem passed up by the Giants for one reason or another (see: Bill Belichick, Charlie Weis, Marty Schottenheimer, et al).

Did you notice the job Payton's offense did against the Philadelphia defense on Sunday, as pointed out by E-GIANTS subscriber Steve K. - As Steve commented, "did you see the way Payton took [Eagles’ defensive coordinator] Jim Johnson to school yesterday?'

Want more? Giants' head coach Tom Coughlin worked for Parcells with the Giants from 1988 through 1990 as wide receivers coach. Then he took over as head coach at Boston College and the two stayed close. In 1992, Ray Handley was put out of his misery and dismissed as head coach (and remains, apparently, in the Witness Protection Plan to this day).

George Young wanted Coughlin, a bright young coach, to replace Handley. Coughlin was anxious for a job in the NFL, especially as head coach, but after a week or so of embarrassing public courtship by Young and the Giants, Tom called a press conference at Chestnut Hill, Mass., to formally acknowledge that the Giants had offered him the job - - and that he was going to turn it down.

Rumors were rampant that Parcells, playing his own particular kind of one-upsmanship, convinced his friend that the situation wasn't right. The next year Coughlin accepted a job "not to coach" the expansion Jacksonville Jaguars, who were formally extended a franchise but not scheduled to field a team until 1995. So in 1994 he roamed the country, scouted all the rosters, involved himself deeply in the upcoming draft - - did all the things he wouldn't have had time to do if he had accepted the Giants' offer.

Hey, it wasn't all that critical. The Giants hired Dan Reeves and he took them to an 11-5 record and a wild-card playoff victory.

Lots and lots of reasons why the Giants' management always enjoys beating the Parcells Cowboys, as you can see. And when it involves standings status, so much the better.

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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