A Historical Look At The New York Giants

One of my favorite things to do from time to time is to take a look back at some of the rosters of past teams, once we have a chance to reflect on the careers of some of the players on those teams. For a prime example of this, look back at the rosters of the early 2000s Miami Hurricane teams. Just absolutely loaded.

However, in honor of the the Super Bowl, this entry is going to look back at the 1990 New York Giants football team. This is the team that went on to win Super Bowl XXV in Tampa, Florida, which admittedly is my favorite Super Bowl of all time. Some of the many reasons for this are: (1) I attended; (2) the Whitney Houston national anthem sung at the height of the first Gulf War; (3) the NFL announced its Silver Anniversay All-Super Bowl Team; (4) Thurman Thomas at the absolutely height of his career, and the only reason he did not win MVP was because of; (5) local legend Ottis Andersen winning MVP; (6) Giants with a 2:1 time of possession advantage; (7) Scott Norwood's miss; and (8) (did I mention that) I was at the game.

Well, anyway, this entry isn't a typical look back at the roster of a championship team. I want to highlight a particular portion of the team roster - the coaching staff. As most people know, Bill Parcells was the head coach, and as many of us have heard recently Bill Belichick (Defensive Coordinator) and Tom Coughlin (Wide Receivers) were both on that staff. That in and of itself is a ton of coaching talent. But that wasn't it. The remaing coaches were:

Ron Erhardt - Offensive Coordinator
Ray Handley - Running Backs
Mike Pope - Tight Ends
Fred Hoaglin - Offensive Line
Romeo Crennel - Defensive Line
Al Groh - Linebackers
Mike Sweatman - Special Teams Coordinator
Charlie Weis - Assistant Special Teams

The list of coaches that either had head coaching experience at the NFL or major college level, or became head coaches at that same level are: Parcells, Erhardt, Handley, Belichick, Crennel, Groh and Weis. Just absolutely amazing.

Seeing how that coaching staff turned out, it is amazing that Giants only won by a missed 47 yard field goal instead of absolutely routing the Buffalo Bills that year.

It remains to be seen if either of these two staffs in tomorrow's Super Bowl will ultimately measure up to the success of that 1990 New York Giants coaching staff. Only time will tell.