The date was January 26, 1970.
Homer Jones, without question, the biggest name on the Giants at the time, was traded to Cleveland for DT Jim Kanicki, MLB Wayne Meylan, and RB Ron Johnson.
I can remember my Dad's disgust-a season ticket holder since 1948-that one of the few Giants offensive weapons was let go.
The feeling got worse that following September when the NFL introduced the first Monday Night Football ever, and the Browns beat the Jets, inspired by a 2nd half kickoff run back for a touchdown by Homer Jones and the largest fan crowd in the history of Cleveland Browns stadium.
But things never really panned out for the Browns acquisition of Homer Jones. They learned quickly that his knees were shot, and his football career fizzled quickly.
The disgust in January from the shock of the trade news slowly went away. Meylan would turn out to be of little value to the Giants, while Kanicki proved to be solid D lineman for years to come, and of course the Giants got Ron Johnson, "the hole pickin', dust kickin' blur of blue" who quickly became the new face of the franchise.
A Johnson had replaced a Jones, and Giants fans could return to being optimistic fans.
The most interesting part of that trade was that the player the Giants coveted was Kanicki, their defense had been terrible for a long time - pretty much since the Sam Huff trade in '64. They also got the LB Meylan to help shore up the front seven and Johnson was pretty much a throw-in to close the deal. The Giants had no idea how good he was (nor did the Browns and LeRoy Kelly was their workhorse back in '69.
As for Homer Jones, his impact on Cleveland in 19070 was nil, his knees quit on him.
The lesson is, you can't judge any transaction the day after, it needs to play itself out.
Iirc, Jones still owns the record for lifetime average per catch at a little over 20
Supposedly Tarkenton used to tell him, go deep and I'll run around and get up the ball. At least that was the joke. Caught a lot more long passes than Beckham. Might have been faster, but didn't have Beckham's leaping ability.
The trade was good for the Giants then as yesterday’s will be too ...
Homer Jones was freakish in terms of his physical ability - he was a big man (around 225lbs) who could run like a gazelle. He was allegedly fast than Bob Hayes and was scheduled to race him one summer before training camp but was talked out of it by Wellington Mara who feared he's injure himself training.
The downside of Jones was he was a poor route runner who regularly freelanced and improvised, he essentially wanted to go deep every single play. Tarkenton was quoted more than once saying things along the line of "Homer runs Homer's offense." In short, he ignored working on the little things that could have made him an elite performer and likely hall of famer, and simply relied on his physical gifts to get by.
I just don't see things being good for the Giants in the near term.. who cares if the trade works out.. doing things like this is a sign that we are bad.. the GM thinks we are bad..
I just don't see things being good for the Giants in the near term.. who cares if the trade works out.. doing things like this is a sign that we are bad.. the GM thinks we are bad..
Almost made the playoffs the following year.
The most interesting part of that trade was that the player the Giants coveted was Kanicki, their defense had been terrible for a long time - pretty much since the Sam Huff trade in '64. They also got the LB Meylan to help shore up the front seven and Johnson was pretty much a throw-in to close the deal. The Giants had no idea how good he was (nor did the Browns and LeRoy Kelly was their workhorse back in '69.
As for Homer Jones, his impact on Cleveland in 19070 was nil, his knees quit on him.
The lesson is, you can't judge any transaction the day after, it needs to play itself out.
Johnson wasn't quite a throw-in. He'd been the Cleveland Browns number one draft choice the previous spring. Giant's Tucker Fredrickson was about to be moved from HB to FB and Johnson's skills projected to be a starter in that Giants offense. Kanicki also started for the '70 team that (9-5) almost made the playoffs, but Meylan never made it out of training camp. The starter at MLB for the 1970 Giants was rookie Jim Files.
Quote:
on Ron Johnson (I did something very special last week, more to come on that in the future hopefully!).
The most interesting part of that trade was that the player the Giants coveted was Kanicki, their defense had been terrible for a long time - pretty much since the Sam Huff trade in '64. They also got the LB Meylan to help shore up the front seven and Johnson was pretty much a throw-in to close the deal. The Giants had no idea how good he was (nor did the Browns and LeRoy Kelly was their workhorse back in '69.
As for Homer Jones, his impact on Cleveland in 19070 was nil, his knees quit on him.
The lesson is, you can't judge any transaction the day after, it needs to play itself out.
Johnson wasn't quite a throw-in. He'd been the Cleveland Browns number one draft choice the previous spring. Giant's Tucker Fredrickson was about to be moved from HB to FB and Johnson's skills projected to be a starter in that Giants offense. Kanicki also started for the '70 team that (9-5) almost made the playoffs, but Meylan never made it out of training camp. The starter at MLB for the 1970 Giants was rookie Jim Files.
Right, Files was a real good player, only to leave after three season to pursue the priesthood. That pretty well sums up the decade of the 70's for the Giants.
The Giants wanted a back, and Cleveland knew they weren't taking carries away from Kelly, so he was included in the deal.
When I think about Jones, Johnson and Frederickson, my knees start aching. ;-)
Yeah, when you're looking at moves by the 1970's Giants for a positive precedent it's not encouraging.