While doing some snow-day cleanup of my hard drive, I came across a 2004 archive of my long-dead blog. The big story in April 2004 was Eli Manning, and the circus around Eli overshadowed a subplot that would have made bigger headlines in a normal draft.
In the second round, the Giants selected a highly-regarded offensive lineman from BC, Chris Snee. What didn't show up in Snee's impressive draft profile was that he had sired Tom Coughlin's grandson out of wedlock. Here's what I wrote at the time:
| Yes, for anyone who cares, second-round pick Chris Snee is the father of Tom Coughlin's grandchild, and drafting him seems like a really bad idea.... Will the selection of Chris Snee be a showcase for Coughlin's Clintonian ability to compartmentalize? Or will it degenerate into an ugly soap opera of nepotism or persecution (or both)?... For all of Coughlin's protestations to the contrary, I can't help thinking the selection of Snee is a headache the Giants didn't need. Ernie Accorsi keeps saying the Giants gave Coughlin "every opportunity" to veto the pick. That's nice, but isn't it Ernie's job to judge whether the Coughlin-Snee relationship is a problem? Of course Coughlin said he can handle it. Can you imagine Tom Coughlin admitting that he can't handle anything? |
Two Lombardi trophies and four Pro Bowls later, the humble pie tastes fine. That said, the final years of Chris Snee's career are part of the broader story of Tom Coughlin's undoing.
We will probably never know for sure why the Giants tried to hold the 2007-2008 offensive line together for so long. Coughlin's loyalty to Snee, David Diehl and Shaun O'Hara is part of the tale. So is poor drafting by Jerry Reese, Mark Ross and the scouts, in which Coughlin and Pat Flaherty seem to have played a role. Dave Gettleman didn't help much either: when it was clearly time to break up the old gang, Gettleman's signings of David Baas and Shawn Andrews provided little relief. The biggest factor of all may have been wishful thinking.
Whatever the reasons and the correct apportionment of blame, one weird fact stands out: After all of his 2008 line-mates were out of the League, the Giants went to camp in 2014 with a clearly-shot Chris Snee (and his onerous, oft-restructured contract) still listed as the starting right guard, despite having signed his presumptive replacement, Geoff Schwartz. Snee finally abandoned his comeback attempt, and the team swallowed the inevitable dead-money hit. Maybe the initial 2014 depth chart was just a gesture of respect. But it's also part of a bigger pattern. I can't help suspecting that Coughlin played a very big role in keeping Snee and Co. around past their sell-by date, and that his influence in this vital area, where the Giants have generally stunk for five years, helped pin much of the blame for the roster's decline on the Coach rather than the front office.
I guess there were a ton of giants who were married to Tom's daughter, then, because this wasn't an isolated event.
Grove went onto to have a lackluster career with both Oakland and then Miami.
Snee, well, did a bit better...
2. And to the poster who suggested it was so unusual to draft a guard in the second round as if it could only be due to nepotism. WTF. How about Kratch, William Roberts or Eric Moore. All first or second round guards.
3. Snee was an all time great player for the Giants. Yes he broke down at the end of his career. BBB admitted he was wrong in his assessment and that brings out an outpouring of the nonsense that Coughlin kept him around because he was his son in law. I can't wait for the draft and free agency so I can start reading some intelligent contributions.
and to ciggy's comment, BBB addresses this in the OP, there has been blame aplenty to go around for all participants. Of course there wasn't anyone behind Snee who was better....
Jerry Reese simply had a four-year stint when he did a terrible job as GM. Letting the o-line age and then patching with expensive, stop-gap busts and draft failures is what happened to the Giants. Revisionist history will not succeed in exonerating Reese. True, Coughlin has a portion of blame. The Head Coach is responsible for everything. But the Giants were making too many shit decisions regarding personnel. I see some folks are never going to get past that. Whatever.
Giants definitely should have cut both Baas and Snee at the end of 2012 or 2013 at the latest. Restructuring them just made the dead money worse. I think Snee's relationship with Coughlin probably did buy him an extra year but Chris also took the 1 million buyout instead of going for an injury settlement, which would have netted him more.
So, overall, it was a successful pick but it also reveals that in general getting family members involved as players or coaches is not a good idea.
Expecting him to be competent depth (for which his last year's salary was appropriate) and provide leadership and continuity both on the OL and in the locker room can't solely be attributed to nepotism, as it was a reasonable calculated risk.
That doesn't exonerate Reese - but it could very well give him some leeway. Certainly enough that the team would let him know his performance has to improve while giving him another chance, whereas Coughlin ran out of time.
Just read all the post's on here and u'll see exactly what I'm talking about...
Especially the fans that think they could do a better job running the front office then the actual FO...
2. And to the poster who suggested it was so unusual to draft a guard in the second round as if it could only be due to nepotism. WTF. How about Kratch, William Roberts or Eric Moore. All first or second round guards.
3. Snee was an all time great player for the Giants. Yes he broke down at the end of his career. BBB admitted he was wrong in his assessment and that brings out an outpouring of the nonsense that Coughlin kept him around because he was his son in law. I can't wait for the draft and free agency so I can start reading some intelligent contributions.
Thank you.
Let's go back to those days
Drafting him that high had nothing to do with nepotism. If anything it could have worked against Snee if TC showed any concern.
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1. The likely reason Snee Diehl and O'Hara hung around so long is because they were better than the guys behind them. I heard a ton of people on this site complain that Mosley et al were better. Wrong!!!
Thank you.
Snee and Baas took up 20 million in cap space. I think the people who wanted them cut were thinking they would use those savings to sign OL who were actually healthy. I don't think anyone was calling for Mosely to be promoted to replace Snee. In fact, I think Mosely was on IR.
So, you might want to think through your posts before calling others "stupid." Because if you had put a little thought into your first point, you would have realized how dumb it was.
TC or Reese the OL falling apart after the last SB had its seeds long before that last win. My guess is they all were at fault to a degree
One thing the Pats have done consistently, as harsh as it can be, is they don't overpay to keep their guys past their prime.
We have been smarter about it in some cases (Steve Smith), but we didn't do it with that line
Second, who cares if they ever drafted an OG in the 2nd before or after? He was one of the best OGs in the league for most of his career and one of the best OL in the team's history.
Third, Snee, O'Hara, an Diehl were kept around and inserted back in the lineup after I juries because there really wasn't anyone better. When you have Pro Bowlers or near Pro Bowlers returning from injury and nobody great filling in, almost any coach will go back to the great player hoping to suck a few more games out of them. Th is has nothing to do with nepotism.
Arnie, I'm curious. Has Coughlin ever done anything right?
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than Diehl and O'Hara and benched them to put Diehl and O'Hara back on the field long past their expiration dates. Snee was a great pick, an All Pro and a deserving Ring of Honor Giant. But Diehl and O'Hara got the son in law treatment too. That was SOP for Coughlin.
Arnie, I'm curious. Has Coughlin ever done anything right?
Resign, I'm guessing?
I was talking about Snee not Baas. My point was they had no one better to replace Snee. And there were lots of folks here asking to sit Snee in place of Mosley and the other reserves. If you deny that, I don't know what to tell you other than you are dead wrong.
If you think he had to be cut after 2012 or 13, you're going to have to tell me the cap implications with dead money etc. and who exactly was out there at w price that made sense.
But the major disagreement I have with you would be using the Snee pick to support your premise that it was a bad idea for the Giants to get mixed up with family members of the coach. Using Snee (one of the best offensive lineman that played for the Giants in the last 20 years and a steal as a second round pick) was a really horseshit way to support that premise. Peace out!!
Like who? Which HOFer did Coughlin bury to play these guys? This line of "thinking" is completely without merit. They continued to play those guys because the players signed/drafted to replace them didn't pan out.
Hell, we were debating it this year when it looked like Beatty was going to return.
And who the hell knows what those players who were perpetually glued to the bench might have done - the point is, stiffs were left out there on the field, well past their expiration dates. If the guys behind them were no good, then we should have at least gotten a glimpse of that. Instead, we're left to assume they were lousy, and continued to watch the corpses of once solid players rot.