For this throwback Thursday, it's a review I did a while back on the 1993 Giants vs. Vikings Wild Card playoff game played in cold, windy Giants Stadium which made it near impossible to throw the ball when heading down one side of the field.
It was also a game that saw a few eras come to an end. It would be Phil Simms and Lawrence Taylor's final game in Giants Stadium, essentially closing the door on what was left of the Parcells championship teams built in the 1980s. And it was also CBS' final broadcast as the NFC network in Giants Stadium, with some wondering if Pat Summerall and John Madden would continue together (spoiler...they did, on FOX).
Semi interesting note- between 1986 and 2016, this remains the only playoff game the Giants won and did not end up in the Super Bowl during that same run. All other seasons were one and done.
Enjoy!
http://bigbluevcr.blogspot.com/2013/06/1993-giants-vs-vikings.html - (
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Oh how I despised Dan Reeves. Lucky for him his predecessor saved him from being the most despised Giants coach of the past 40 years.
wrong game. they won this one. they lost in 1997.
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bad loss
wrong game. they won this one. they lost in 1997.
True, my bad....
I wrote about Hampton in the review, that Reeves never had a running back as good as Hampton was during his time in Denver, and he ran Hampton into the ground. Hampton had almost 1200 carries in 4 years. He averaged over 24 carries a game in 1993, including 41 carries vs. the Rams. He carried 29 times the week before and 32 times the week after. It's no wonder he was out of the game by age 28.
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Great, great short yardage back
Hampton will always be one of my favorite Giants ,I loved him at Georgia and was so happy when we drafted him .I always felt he got a raw deal in 1997 he definitely should have been used more down the stretch especially in the Vikings playoff game in that bad weather ,I think he had his best game of the year the week before vs the Cowboys
Hampton was one of my favorite Giants as well, just wish he could have lasted a bit longer.
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Great, great short yardage back
Hampton will always be one of my favorite Giants ,I loved him at Georgia and was so happy when we drafted him .I always felt he got a raw deal in 1997 he definitely should have been used more down the stretch especially in the Vikings playoff game in that bad weather ,I think he had his best game of the year the week before vs the Cowboys
I only remember him playing in one game in '97 because his knees were in bad shape all season or something like that.
Anyone remember the ridiculous contract the Giants gave Hampton only the year before to keep him from going to the 49ers? And he only played like 2 seasons of it, one of which was 99% spent on the bench or the training room.
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In comment 13494078 Ron Johnson said:
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Great, great short yardage back
Hampton will always be one of my favorite Giants ,I loved him at Georgia and was so happy when we drafted him .I always felt he got a raw deal in 1997 he definitely should have been used more down the stretch especially in the Vikings playoff game in that bad weather ,I think he had his best game of the year the week before vs the Cowboys
I only remember him playing in one game in '97 because his knees were in bad shape all season or something like that.
Anyone remember the ridiculous contract the Giants gave Hampton only the year before to keep him from going to the 49ers? And he only played like 2 seasons of it, one of which was 99% spent on the bench or the training room.
That contract they gave to Hampton was one of the Giants biggest mistakes and was part of George Young's struggles with free agency and the salary cap (while teams like the Niners and Carmen Policy would break all the rules and win another Super Bowl along the way). Basically the Niners signed Hampton to a contract, and the Giants had a week to match it since he had a transition tag. It came out later that Young wanted to wait the full week before announcing that they were going to match the deal, and essentially freeze the 49ers for a critical week in free agency while the Giants were preparing other moves.
But then, in a way which would set the precedent for Giants fans to cringe when a microphone is shoved in the face of a Tisch, an MSG reporter found Bob Tisch at a NY Ranger game and asked him about Hampton. Rather than say something about it's being looked into by George Young and the front office and they will figure it out, Tisch blurted out that the Giants were bringing him back. So that blew the whole cover and plan, and the Giants finalized the announcement pretty much the next day. As it turned out, Hampton had another 1000 yard year in 1996, but he was basically done after that. And the Giants cap was screwed up for a few years afterwards. So much so that in 1999, they literally signed zero free agents. Nada, in order to fix their cap problems.
He got concussed not once not twice but THREE TIMES in one game. Hard to believe that was allowed even back then