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

GIANTS-JETS MATCH ON SUNDAY RECALLS THE FIRST ONE
AND THE DAY ALLIE SHERMAN WAS FIRED

By Dave Klein
The Giants will play the Jets Sunday in a meaningful game for both, yet a passing thought takes me back to the first time they met, on Aug. 17, 1969 in the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Conn.

The Jets were defending Super Bowl (3) champions, which has remained their only such prize in the 47 ensuing years. The Giants were terrible, having hit a slippery downhill slope after great seasons in the earlier 1960s, and that 1969 regular season wouldn't be much better. They would finish 6-8, but this was the afternoon of the second exhibition game of the summer and wow, did things change.

Allie Sherman was the head coach, having taken over in 1961 from Jim Lee Howell, and as he watched his team age and deteriorate around him he became more and more frustrated.

The Giants had lost their first summer game (to Green Bay) and would continue on that streak for all five preseason contests. But this was the second and when the carnage was over, they took a bus back to training camp in nearby Fairfield, Conn.

I just happened to be sitting in the row with Sherman, and he was shaking and red in the face and clearly super agitated. "We had them in the palms of our hands," he said, holding his hands up. "We had ‘em and we let ‘em go."

In truth, it was never a game. The score was 37-14 and the Jets were in control from the playing of the National Anthem to the post-game showers. I remember a Jets' fullback named Bill Mathis saying: "That was disappointing. They didn't even fight back."

The next day team owner Wellington Mara announced that Sherman had been relieved of his duties, and the statement he made carried a lot of sense and compassion: "I did it to save his sanity - and mine," he said. "Al was losing control. I was afraid he would have a nervous breakdown."

His replacement was former star Alex Webster, not because he was (or would ever be) a great coach, but because he was one of the most beloved of the old Giants and the fans just wouldn't be able to boo him. With Sherman the past few years, choruses of "Goodbye, Allie; Goodbye, Allie" would resonate from the stands in Yankee Stadium. It was, as they say, bad for business.

Speaking of history, all three players in that mini-drama are gone now - Sherman, Webster and Mara.

The first regular-season game between the teams came the next year and the Giants took a 27-10 victory. There have been a total of 12 games that counted and the Giants hold an 8-4 advantage. But the teams have played against each other in EVERY summer since that first one. It is part of the fabric of their histories.

So Sunday will be the baker's dozen, the 13th, and neither team has had much of a season. That idyllic meeting between the two in a Super Bowl hasn't happened yet and by the way things are going, probably never will. And in case I'm not the only one, there doesn't seem to be the same excitement and electricity when these far too frequent encounters are scheduled.

If the NFL did it right - and more and more these days one can make a case for the fact that they don't - the Giants and Jets would play every year. So, too, would there be an annual Baltimore-Washington game, and one between Oakland and San Francisco as well as St. Louis (for as long as the Rams remain there) and Kansas City.

So Sunday they're at it again. The Giants are 5-6, the Jets 6-5. Both need this victory desperately in terms of playoff hopes. In fact, the Giants, as lousy as they have been, can still win the NFC East. The Jets' facing hopes are centered around a wild-card berth only, since New England is so far ahead of them in the AFC East they can't even sniff the exhaust flames.

You did hear about the Giant fans who died, didn't you? His final wish was to have six members of the team serve as his pall bearers. Why? "Well, they've let me down all these years, I'd like them to do it once more."

The "experts" will give you many reasons why one team can beat the other, and they will complicate things and confuse the issues in the hopes that you might consider them knowledgeable. Forget it. The only thing to look for is the Giants' offensive line - and if guard Justin Pugh and center Weston Richburg return, that's a major plus - and the fact that the Jets have announced that cornerback Darrelle Revis WILL NOT play. So who will cover Giants' wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr.?

Jets' safety Calvin Pryor has said he will be able to do the job, and he has built a reputation as one of the hardest-hitters in the league. He has threatened to lay a few tons of stone on Beckham, despite the fact that they are friends. But Calvin, you have to catch him before you can hit him, and therein lies the problem.

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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