Giants Restructure Player Personnel Department
Family calls Sunderland back home; Reese, Abrams promoted.
by Michael Eisen, Giants.com
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May 1, 2002
East Rutherford, N.J. - Giants General Manager Ernie Accorsi today announced a restructuring of several positions in the team's front office.
The Giants new Asst. GM Kevin Abrams (middle) is pictured with GM Ernie Accorsi (left) and Giants Exec. VP John Mara (right). At his request, Marv Sunderland has been re-assigned from Director of Player Personnel to special assignments scout. That will enable him to be based in the western part of the country, where he will be closer to his elderly mother, with whom he wants to spend more time.
Jerry Reese is being promoted from Assistant Director of Pro Personnel to replace Sunderland as the Director of College Player Personnel.
Kevin Abrams is being promoted from Salary Cap Analyst to Assistant General Manager. He replaces Rick Donohue, who is retiring effective June 1.
Dave Gettleman remains as Director of Pro Personnel and he and Reese will be equals in the front office hierarchy. The Giants will conduct a search for Reese's successor as Gettleman's assistant.
"This restructuring of the player personnel department streamlines the organization as we head into the future," Accorsi said. "All four individuals are in strategic positions and are very capable and valuable people. I think this puts all of these departments in excellent hands for future years."
The Giants recently completed their fourth draft with Sunderland at the head of the personnel department. Of the 23 players selected in the first three drafts under his watch, 16 are still with the Giants and two more are on the rosters of other teams.
"Marv wanted to return to the west and continue in scouting," Accorsi said. "I can understand his decision fully. I made a similar decision when I left Cleveland in 1992. I just wanted to come home to the east and be close to an ailing mother. He has the same situation.
"Marv is one of the best people I have ever worked with. He's a solid football man with integrity and a terrific work ethic." Said Sunderland, "I requested this move because it's the right thing for me and my family at this time. I am still going to scout, which is my first love. This gives me the chance to be based closer to my mother and our family. "The two thoughts that are foremost in my mind right now is how grateful I am to have had the opportunity to be the director of player personnel for Mr. Mara and Mr. Tisch and a great organization like the Giants, and also the working relationship and friendship that Ernie, Jim and I have had over the last four years. The communication and input we shared in the selection process was special."
Reese has been the Assistant Director of Pro Personnel since the Spring of 1999 when Gettleman succeeded Tim Rooney as the head of the department. Abrams joined the Giants organization that July.
"I think Jerry Reese has a tremendous future in the National Football League…The promotion of Kevin Abrams signifies the vital importance of cap management in our business now."
- GM Ernie Accorsi
"I think Jerry Reese has a tremendous future in the National Football League," Accorsi said. "His rise has been rapid and he has deserved every promotion he's received. And, of course, Dave Gettleman is as good as anyone in this league in his position. The promotion of Kevin Abrams signifies the vital importance of cap management in our business now. His expertise has been a valuable addition to the Giants." Said Reese, "First of all, I'm grateful for the opportunity and very humbled by Ernie's and upper management's confidence in my ability to elevate me to this position. We have a solid group of veteran scouts and a talented group of young scouts that should make the transition pretty smooth."
Donohue, a member of the Giants organization since 1983, has been Assistant General Manager since 1998 when Accorsi succeeded the late George Young as General Manager. "Rick Donohue has been a scout and executive with the Giants for a long time," Accorsi said. "He will be missed. Rick was an excellent partner and teammate."
Sunderland was appointed Director of Player Personnel on May 7, 1998 following the move of Tom Boisture to Vice President of Player Personnel. He has been in charge of overseeing all aspects of college scouting, including the primary responsibility of organizing the Giants drafts.
Sunderland, 57, recently completed his 25th season in the NFL. Prior to joining the Giants, Sunderland worked in the scouting departments of the New England Patriots and the New York Jets. He joined the NFL in 1976 as a personnel assistant for the Patriots, where he learned the evaluation system that is the foundation for the system used today by the Giants. Sunderland moved to the Jets organization as a talent scout in 1979 and served there until taking the Giants post. Prior to joining the NFL, Sunderland served as an assistant coach at North Dakota State from 1970 until 1975. North Dakota State won five conference titles during his tenure and finished undefeated in 1970.
Reese joined the Giants scouting department on Dec. 15, 1994 after a successful playing and coaching career at the University of Tennessee at Martin. During his college playing career (1981-1984), Reese was honored as a two-time All-Gulf South Conference pick. He is among the leaders on UT-Martin's career list in interceptions and still holds several punt return records. Following his playing career, Reese served as a student assistant for one year and as a graduate assistant for two seasons before becoming a full-time coach of the secondary from 1988 through 1993. He moved to coaching the receivers and assumed the assistant head coach title in January of 1993.
Abrams' responsibilities have included salary cap management and forecasting, contract negotiations and coordinating the Giants' compliance with the NFL's Collective Bargaining Agreement. He came to the Giants from the NFL Management Council, where he helped to monitor the league-wide salary cap and analyzed all new player contracts with respect to the rules and regulations of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Donohue spent four seasons as assistant director of player personnel after spending 10 years as a scout. He joined the Giants in August, 1983 after coaching on both the collegiate and high school levels. A native of the Bronx, Donohue is a graduate of Dewitt Clinton High School and the University of Dayton.
http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/sports/1996/09/25/1996-09-25_this_mess_is_team_effort.html
THIS MESS IS TEAM EFFORT
BY BARRY MEISEL
Wednesday, September 25th 1996, 2:00AM
LIKE MOST NFL personnel directors, Tom Boisture has a strong ego and firm convictions. Like GM George Young, the man who hired him in 1980, Boisture's dogmatic beliefs continue to be blessed by a very conservative organization that has been dragged into the 1990s. Like Young, Boisture bears significant responsibility for the Giants' rapid decline this decade. Unlike Young, this headstrong and irascible Detroit native who butted heads for years with Bill Parcells and has butted heads with Dan Reeves last week agreed to comment on his role in the team's current predicament. Not that Boisture totally accepted blame.
"Hey, everybody's to blame," he said on Friday. "We've got a lot of players that are playing on other teams, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're any better than what we've got. If I had any ideas (as to why the Giants have fallen so far), I'd tell Dan. Or I'd tell George, or somebody. I don't have any idea."
Boisture, 65, was one of Young's most significant hires. Under Boisture's direction, the Giants drafted and stockpiled a wealth of talent in the '80s, enough to win Super Bowls in 1986 and 1990. They made the playoffs six times in his first 11 years on the job, but have reached the postseason only once in the five seasons since Super Bowl XXV. The Giants' steady decline in the '90s can be traced directly to the players they've lost to age and retirement, free agency and poor drafts. When Boisture was asked about his three No. 1 draft picks from 1991-93, FB Jarrod Bunch, TE Derek Brown and QB Dave Brown, he lukewarmly defended the first two and insisted that Brown's fate is still to be determined. "Bunch, he played Dan's first year, we got into the playoffs, and then he got hurt," Boisture said. "He was just never healthy after Dan's first year. I don't think he was in the league the next year, was he?" No. Bunch was released prior to the '94 season, picked up by the Raiders, and quickly cut. He's out of football. Derek Brown was a bust as a Giant, too. He was claimed by Jacksonville in the expansion draft, but missed all of last year with a lacerated spleen. He starts for the Jaguars now and is primarily a blocker who has caught three balls in four games.
"We just didn't think he was good enough," said Boisture, who believes it takes three years before a draft crop can be assessed adequately. "He wasn't as good as the two guys we had, I didn't think. And Dave, Dave is struggling right now. So is everybody else. If Dave can make a couple of big plays, I think that will boost his confidence. Now a quarterback's a little different. It takes longer (than three years), and it has to do with the kind of team he's surrounded by. A quarterback can't do it himself."
Boisture has one or two years to go on his current contract. His assistant, Rick Donohue, eventually is going to succeed him. Donohue, a Bronx native, came to work on Boisture's staff as a scout in 1983 and was promoted to his current job three years ago.
Boisture sounded a tad defensive when asked about his recent track record. Especially when he discussed the accumulation of offensive players over the last few years.
"We've always tried to get big offensive linemen and big running backs," he said. "So we can run the football. And we've finally got some receivers, although you can't prove anything by what we've shown so far. The whole team, we haven't played well. I think the players have talent, and have put a lot into winning games."
Does he think he has provided Reeves enough talent to win?
"You can think all you want," Boisture replied. "The bottom line is, if you don't win, something's wrong. If you can put your finger on it, talk to George. Maybe he'll give you a bonus."
