Inside the NFL Cover Story Snippet- George Young in 1986

I have said several times on the blog that one of my favorite shows that I taped (and regrettably lost a number of episodes due to VHS tapes either getting thrown out or just breaking) was HBO's Inside the NFL. I won't again get into all the reasons why it was a great show, as that would be a lengthy post on it own, but in each episode they would do a little special interest "Cover Story" about a former player or executive in a 4-5 minute feature.

 For the past year or so, I had been kicking around the idea of going through some more of the interesting ones, and with the benefit of hindsight, see how much these reports held up and/or had a real impact some 25-30 years later. The first one that I selected was aired as part of the 1986 season in Week 16. Inside the NFL would "go on the road" to follow a team of interest and dedicate the show to them and bring on players, coaches, etc. In this case, they went to Rockefeller Center and brought on Giants players after they had finished 14-2, the #1 seed in the NFC, and by this time was considered to be the most dominant team in the NFL. The feature of the story was of Giants GM George Young, which can be seen below



A few interesting things from this report:


-  Young began as a high school history teacher in Baltimore who also was a football coach.  Throughout his career in the NFL, he would often fall back on his 2 masters degrees in History to provide lessons and a long term outlook, which helped him in looking at what it takes to built a team.

-  Don Shula gave Young his start as a scout with the Baltimore Colts and would bring him to Miami as a Pro Personnel director, as Young had a hand in building some of the great Dolphins' teams of the 1970s

-  The Giants franchise had become a joke after winning titles up through the early 1960s.  But in fighting among ownership, particularly Wellington and Tim Mara ruined the Giants chances, culminating in "The Fumble" against the Eagles in 1978.

-  Commissioner Pete Rozelle knew he needed a strong team in NY, particularly one with the history of the Giants, to get turned around.  Since ownership couldn't work well together, Rozelle stepped in and recommended Young to take over in 1979.  Can you imagine if this was something Goodell would have to do today?  Everyone would be screaming favoritism.

- For the rest of this interview, you can see the George Young influence even today:

"You need to avoid palace revolts.  Turnover at the top causes chaos for a while and misjudgements.  The less change the better the chance to do it right...Continuity is important, the more change at the top, the more befuddlement below."

Right there tells you all you needed to know about how the Giants have changed the way they operate from ownership on down.  The Maras have owned the franchise since the beginning and continue to do so.  The Tisch family, who bought Tim Mara's stake, have been a part of the organization since 1991.  From the GM perspective, since Young took over in 1979, they have had a grand total of 3 GMs.  In each case, they were groomed as in internal candidate.  Ernie Accorsi, who spent time with Baltimore and Cleveland, came to the Giants as an assistant GM and took over in 1998.  From there he would remain as GM and build what would be the core of the 2007 and 2011 championship team and hand off the GM duties to Jerry Reese, the former Pro Personnel Director.  As Young said, continuity.

It also applied to coaches.  While teams go through coaches in a short time, the Giants have been fairly consistent supportive of their coaches

- Ray Perkins (1979-1982): 4 years - left to go to Alabama
- Bill Parcells (1983 - 1990): 8 years- left after 2nd Super Bowl and a health scare with his heart
- Ray Handley (1991-1992): 2 years.  He was a bad choice
- Dan Reeves (1993-1996): 4 years.  Left after a power struggle
- Jim Fassel (1997-2003): 7 years.
- Tom Coughlin (2004 - present): 12 years and counting

"You build your team with a QB and then a pass rusher...We had Simms and OJ Anderson, and went for Simms because we needed the passer.  People said that he was a late first round pick, but we didn't have a late first round pick, we had an early one, so we made the pick there."

Now, you can take this a few ways, but the point was clear.  An organization starts with a QB, period.  No QB, no winning.  OJ Anderson turned out to have a good career with the Cardinals, and Young would trade for him in 1986 as an insurance policy.  But the point was made loud and clear.  What did Accorsi do as soon as he took over in 1998?  Tried to find a QB.  He didn't believe in Danny Kanell or Kent Graham.  But he had close ties with Joe Paterno and Penn State.  When Kerry Collins was released by the Panthers, and then the Saints, after some high profile alcohol and racial issues, Accorsi felt he was a franchise QB.  Collins would reward him with a dominant NFC championship game performance and Super Bowl appearance.  Come 2004, Accorsi again chased the QB, wanting Eli Manning and ended up trading for him from the Chargers in exchange for Phillip Rivers and other picks.

As for picking a player at a need position despite what the pundits and fans think about per their relative value.  Now this can be a controversial stance in going for need over value.  But there are times when a need position brings up a player that might be taken about 10 or so slots too soon.  Everyone yells that they got the guy too early.  According to Young, and as he mentioned, he asked the Maras to leave him alone and lock his door and let him do his job and take the heat.  Look no further than the 2015 first round pick, Ereck Flowers.  Flowers was thought to be a mid/late first rounder.  Well, the Giants needed a tackle, he was there for them and they couldn't/wouldn't trade down, so they picked him.

"You need a passer and you have to have a guy who can put heat on the passer and is an impact player."

And that is why the Giants brought in Lawrence Taylor with the #2 overall pick in the 1981 draft and he would transform the Giants defense and turn them into a dominant unit and eventually a championship unit.  That is why Young continued to draft on defense later on with high round picks, such as Leonard Marshall and Carl Banks.

Back in 2006, GM Ernie Accorsi added his own spin to this message he learned from Young.  As the Giants were drafting in late first round of the 2006 draft, they already had Pro Bowler Michael Strahan, another young Pro Bowler in Osi Umeniyora, and an up and coming pass rusher in Justin Tuck.  So who did they take with their pick?  Boston College DE Mathias Kiwanuka.  Why?  As Accorsi would say "you can never have enough pass rushers."  Accorsi already got his QB in Eli Manning.  So now it was time to load up to get the passer on the other side.  Jerry Reese would similarly pick up the mantle and bring in Jason Pierre-Paul in 2010 as Strahan retired and Osi started getting older.  The result?  Super Bowl titles in 2007 and 2011.

"Players make too much money so they think that they've made it and don't need a coach anymore.  You need a coach who will make players do their job and fight them."

 Looking at this statement, you can see why Young tabbed two disciplinarians as his head men in Perkins and Parcells.  Something went sideways with Handley, but I think Young felt he had a young offensive mind to work with, and would have been a nice fit coming off 2 defensive coaches.

And after Handley left, Young's next 2 targets were Tom Coughlin and Dave Wannstedt.  Coughlin, a former Giants assistant and placed at Giants organization friendly Boston College had 2 years under his belt at BC and wasn't ready to leave just yet, so he turned down the offer.  Next was Wannstedt, the Cowboys defensive coordinator, but he didn't want to play in the same division as the budding dynasty, so he would go to Chicago.  That left Reeves, and say what you want about him, Reeves was a successful coach.  In all he went to 4 Super Bowls as a coach (lost all of them) and had the Giants within a hair of beating Dallas to be the #1 seed in the NFC in 1993.

His final hire, Jim Fassel, another former coordinator with the Giants in 1997 would also have his ups and downs, but in the end, Fassel would win the NFC East twice, make 3 playoff appearances and got to a Super Bowl as the #1 seed.

- There was a stat posted at the end of the interview that of the 45 players on the roster, 31 were original draft picks.  Keeping in mind that rosters in 1986 were very different than today (no practice squad, IR rules were different in that guys were not shut down for a season automatically, etc), that number seems impressive.  Saying that basically 69% of the players on the roster were drafted, when the team has the best record in the NFL, is a boon to the scouts and the system.  It meant that they were picking the right players, developing them and having them contribute on the team.  For comparison sake, the 2015 Giants, have 26 players drafted by the team on the roster.  So on a 53 man roster, that's 49% of the roster has been drafted by the Giants front office.  This doesn't mean that George Young and his scouts were so vastly superior to Jerry Reese and his staff.  The differences in roster creation in 1986 and 2015 are night and day:

- There was no free agency in 1986
- There was no salary cap in 1986
- The draft was 12 rounds long in 1986, compared to 7 in 2015

So if you look at the Giants roster, an undrafted free agent, say like Victor Cruz, would likely have been picked sometime in the 12 rounds of 1986.  However that option didn't exist, so the numbers were skewed. And the way the system is set up now, with free agency and salary cap hand in hand, there has to be roster flux.  So in 1986, it wasn't that shocking to see a roster that was nearly 70% drafted by the team.

Just for fun, who were these 14 guys who were not original draft picks on the 1986 roster?
- OJ Anderson
- Bart Oates
- Sean Landeta
- Chris Godfrey
- Maurice Carthon
- Brad Benson
- Kenny Hill
- Tony Galbreath
- Raul Allegre
- Jeff Rutledge
- Tom Flynn
- Phil McConkey
- Bob Thomas
- Joe Cooper

After Young left the Giants following the 1997 season, he had a big legacy left behind him.  A five time NFL Executive of the Year.  Turned around the Giants franchise with an enduring organizational structure which still survives today, over 35 years after he set it up and the Giants have become on of the most stable organizations in all of sports, let alone football, something unheard of when Young took over in 1979.  And the net result was 8 playoff appearances, 4 NFC East titles, and 2 Super Bowl championships.

Young would finish his career in the NFL front office, helping review a variety of challenges from the working relationship with colleges to looking into improving instant replay.  But after 9/11, when the decision of what to do for Week 2 of the 2001 season, several teams wanted to play on Sunday, including Wellington Mara because he felt that it would be a nod to the terrorists winning and altering the American way of life.  Well, for many years, George Young would recount how Rozelle's biggest regret was not cancelling the games after JFK was assassinated.  Paul Tagliabue had his moment of decision and chose to cancel all the games and figure out a way to shift dates around, including the Super Bowl.

Young would pass away at age 71 on December 9, 2001.  In 2004, it would come out that Young had died as the result of a variant of Mad Cow Disease, from eating tainted beef at the Garden State Racetrack.