Sunday Reading: Gettleman interview with Politi

Giants

Schwartz NYP: NFL draft: Why Giants may not select a QB with No. 6 pick
https://nypost.com/2019/04/21/nfl-draft-why-giants-may-not-select-a-qb-with-no-6-pick/amp/

Costello NYP: NFL draft five-year analysis: Giants one of the surprises
https://nypost.com/2019/04/21/nfl-draft-five-year-analysis-giants-one-of-the-surprises/amp/

Lombardo NJ.com: NFL Mock Draft 2019: Giants ignore QB? can they plug biggest holes? | Takeaways, grade from latest projection
https://www.nj.com/giants/2019/04/nfl-mock-draft-2019-giants-ignore-qb-can-they-plug-biggest-holes-takeaways-grade-from-latest-projection.html

Dunleavy NJ.com: NFL Draft 2019: Here is where Giants are most likely to make trade
https://www.nj.com/giants/2019/04/nfl-draft-2019-here-is-where-giants-are-most-likely-to-make-trade-gm-dave-gettlemans-trade-history.html

GM

Politi NJ.com: Gettleman to his critics as NFL Draft approaches: 'I like my resume so far’

“I think some people are still missing it,” the Giants general manager told NJ Advance Media in a wide-ranging 30-minute interview. "Football is the ultimate team game. If all 11 guys aren’t doing the right thing, you’re not going to be successful.
“There’s more to it that just collecting talent. There is a cultural thing to it that’s critical. I have not been on a team that’s gone to a Super Bowl that’s had a culture problem.”


Did he have one with the Giants?
“Not any more,” he said with a satisfied smile.


“What I find interesting, there are people reporting and making judgments on what I do and how I do my job who don’t know the game, who have never been involved with a team, and have just been on the outside looking in,” Gettleman said. “That’s not your fault, by the way. It’s just the way it is. But the problem is, to me, is when a reporter makes a judgment and doesn’t have all the information. That’s a thing I just shake my head at.”

“I’ve been to seven Super Bowls,” he said. “I feel very strongly that I know what it should look like, what it should smell like, what it should taste like. And, so, you can look at me and say, well, I either know what I’m doing or I’m a big fat rabbit’s foot. Neither one’s bad, right? I like my resume so far.”
“You have to have a philosophy, and you have to be intentional with every single move. And you can’t panic. I’ve told John Mara, we’re going to fix this. We’re going to put a team out there that everyone is going to be proud of.”
But will his old-school philosophies work in this pass-happy NFL? Gettleman pounds the table several times as he gives his answer.
“Let me say this, okay?" he said. “There are three truths. Football evolves. The game evolves. The style of play evolves. But there are three truths that have not changed and will not change. Okay? You have to run the ball. You have to stop the run. And you have to rush the passer.”

https://www.nj.com/giants/2019/04/exclusive-giants-gm-dave-gettleman-to-his-critics-as-nfl-draft-approaches-i-like-my-resume-so-far-politi.html

QB

Smith PFT: Will Giants pass on a QB at 6 and take one at 17?

“So will the Giants pass on a quarterback at 6 and take one at 17?
That would be an odd approach: If the Giants like one of those quarterbacks well enough that they think he’s the successor to Eli Manning, they should take him with the sixth overall pick, so as not to risk some other team taking him with Picks 7-16. And if the Giants don’t like a quarterback enough to take him sixth overall, then he’s not good enough to justify going 17th, either.
The latter point has been demonstrated by the Browns three times in recent years: In 2007, 2012 and 2014, the Browns had two first-round draft picks and took a quarterback all three times. Those quarterbacks — Brady Quinn, Brandon Weeden and Johnny Manziel — did not pan out. The lesson from the Browns is that if you’re not confident enough in a quarterback to take him high in the first round, there’s probably a reason for that.
Quarterback is, by far, the most important position in the NFL. If the Giants’ future franchise quarterback is available at Pick No. 6, they shouldn’t risk losing him by waiting for Pick No. 17.”

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2019/04/21/will-giants-pass-on-a-qb-at-6-and-take-one-at-17/

NFL

Volin Boston Globe: Sunday Football Notes: In a way, NFL Draft kicks off the season
https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/patriots/2019/04/20/way-nfl-draft-kicks-off-season/EfbzAXtvnBWvNAOHENrriN/story.html

ATLANTA
Ledbetter AJC: Should Falcons fly up to No. 3 to get Williams or Oliver? 
https://www.ajc.com/blog/atlanta-falcons/should-falcons-fly-get-williams-oliver/SAzaZl6E7Pvpq8deVTpYzN/

BALTIMORE
Shaffer Baltimore Sun: After 12 standout seasons, Ravens guard Marshal Yanda might be 'just getting better and better' physically
https://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/ravens/bs-sp-ravens-marshal-yanda-steve-saunders-20190419-story.html

Eisenberg Ravens.com: Why Big Defensive Changes May Be for the Best
https://www.baltimoreravens.com/news/eisenberg-why-big-defensive-changes-may-be-for-the-best

BUFFALO
Skurski Buffalo News: Inside the Bills: New sports performance center viewed as 'clearly the best' in NFL
https://buffalonews.com/2019/04/20/buffalo-bills-sports-performance-center-nfl-jay-skurski/

CHICAGO
Potash Chicago Sun Times: Bears GM Ryan Pace can’t lose his productive mid-round touch in 2019 draft
https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/bears-gm-ryan-pace-cant-lose-his-productive-mid-round-touch-in-2019-draft/amp/

CINCINNATI
Dehner Cincinnati Enquirer: Who will Bengals draft? Linebacker the top priority
https://amp.cincinnati.com/amp/3528247002

CLEVELAND
Doershuck Columbus Dispatch: Browns draft: John Dorsey dives into Prospects Anonymous
https://www.dispatch.com/sports/20190420/browns-draft-john-dorsey-dives-into-prospects-anonymous?

DALLAS
Cowlishaw Dallas Morning News: Is Ezekiel Elliott nearing the end of his Cowboys' tenure? How running backs have become the NFL's most expendable commodities 
https://sportsday.dallasnews.com/dallas-cowboys/cowboys/2019/04/20/ezekiel-elliott-nearing-end-cowboys-tenure-running-backs-become-nfls-expendable-commodities

DENVER
White CBS Sports: Denver Broncos mock draft 2019: Seven rounds, picks, big board, team needs, multiple options for every sesaunders-20190419-story.html[/url]lection
https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/news/denver-broncos-mock-draft-2019-seven-rounds-picks-big-board-team-needs-multiple-options-for-every-selection/amp/

O’Halloran Denver Post: NFL Draft Preview: Wanted by Broncos — three-down inside linebacker
https://www.denverpost.com/2019/04/20/nfl-draft-preview-broncos-linebackers/amp/

O’Halloran Denver Post: NFL Draft Preview: If Broncos wait until round 2 to add a linebacker, Alabama’s Mack Wilson is intriguing
https://www.denverpost.com/2019/04/20/nfl-draft-broncos-linebacker-mack-wilson/amp/

DETROIT
Birkett Detroit Free Press: Detroit Lions can ace 2019 NFL draft if they do one of these 3 things
https://amp.freep.com/amp/3517523002

White CBS Sports: Detroit Lions mock draft 2019: Seven rounds, picks, big board, team needs, multiple options for every selection
https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/news/detroit-lions-mock-draft-2019-seven-rounds-picks-big-board-team-needs-multiple-options-for-every-selection/amp/

HOUSTON
White CBS Sports: Houston Texans mock draft 2019: Seven rounds, picks, big board, team needs, multiple options for every selection
https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/news/houston-texans-mock-draft-2019-seven-rounds-picks-big-board-team-needs-multiple-options-for-every-selection/amp/

McClain Houston Chronicle: 2019 NFL draft countdown: Scouting the defensive tackles
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/texas-sports-nation/texans/amp/2019-NFL-draft-countdown-Scouting-the-defensive-13778173.php

McClain Houston Chronicle: 2019 NFL draft countdown: Scouting the edge rushers
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/texas-sports-nation/texans/amp/2019-NFL-draft-countdown-Scouting-the-edge-13778136.php

INDIANAPOLIS
White CBS Sports: Indianapolis Colts mock draft 2019: Seven rounds, picks, big board, team needs, multiple options for every selection
https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/news/indianapolis-colts-mock-draft-2019-seven-rounds-picks-big-board-team-needs-multiple-options-for-every-selection/amp/

KANSAS CITY
White CBS Sports: Kansas City Chiefs mock draft 2019: Seven rounds, picks, big board, team needs, multiple options for every selection
https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/news/kansas-city-chiefs-mock-draft-2019-seven-rounds-picks-big-board-team-needs-multiple-options-for-every-selection/amp/

LOS ANGELES CHARGERS
Manzano OC Register: Chargers 2019 NFL draft needs: Finding Philip Rivers’ successor, upgrading offensive line
https://www.ocregister.com/2019/04/20/chargers-2019-nfl-draft-needs-finding-philip-rivers-successor-upgrading-offensive-line/amp/

White CBS Sports: Los Angeles Chargers mock draft 2019: Seven rounds, picks, big board, team needs, multiple options for every selection
https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/news/los-angeles-chargers-mock-draft-2019-seven-rounds-picks-big-board-team-needs-multiple-options-for-every-selection/amp/

LOS ANGELES RAMS
Dennis Rams.com: 2018 Draft picks who McVay says could contribute in year two 
https://www.therams.com/news/2018-draft-picks-who-mcvay-says-could-contribute-in-year-two

MIAMI
Hyde Sun Sentinel: Chris Grier must draft better for Dolphins' bold plan to work
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/miami-dolphins/fl-sp-hyde-dolphins-grier-20190420-story.html

Hyde Sun Sentinel: After year of growing pains, former Penn State TE Mike Gesicki needs growth spurt with Dolphins
https://www.mcall.com/sports/penn-state/mc-spt-penn-state-dolphins-gesicki-20190420-2yhvcb74knb6pkiot656pwancq-story.html

MINNESOTA
Chris Tomasson (@christomasson)
4/20/19, 3:30 PM
Vikings have $1,683,682 in salary-cap room. They need roughly a million more to sign their draft picks. After next week's draft, players they take will count initially as $495,000 against the cap, so that won't affect anything. But they'll need room when they want to sign all.

Walters Twincities.com: Vikings likely to upgrade O line in draft
https://www.twincities.com/2019/04/20/charley-walters-vikings-to-upgrade-o-line/amp/

NEW ENGLAND
Duffy Boston Herald: Patriots NFL Draft preview: Search for Tom Brady successor continues
https://www.bostonherald.com/2019/04/20/patriots-quarterbacks-nfl-draft/amp/

Reiss ESPN Boston: Quick-hit thoughts and notes around the New England Patriots and NFL:

Highly rated WRs have found it tough to catch on with Patriots
http://www.espn.com/blog/new-england-patriots/post/_/id/4817397/highly-rated-wrs-have-found-it-tough-to-catch-on-with-patriots

NEW ORLEANS
Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter)
4/20/19, 5:29 PM
Former Saints’ TE Benjamin Watson, who intended to retire after last season, is now considering a return to the NFL, according to sources. Watson is currently focused on welcoming twins next week. But after their arrival, he may be open to coming back to the right situation.

Walker NO Advocate: Saints draft preview: Defensive line proves to be biggest need heading into draft
https://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/sports/saints/article_04269d3c-6394-11e9-b628-7fcf845638ea.amp.html

NEW YORK JETS
Costello NYP: NFL draft: Jets could look for a replacement for Andre Roberts
https://nypost.com/2019/04/21/nfl-draft-jets-could-look-for-a-replacement-for-andre-roberts/

OAKLAND
Gehlken LV Review Journal: Secondary isn’t Raiders’ primary concern in NFL draft
https://www.reviewjournal.com/sports/raiders-nfl/secondary-isnt-raiders-primary-concern-in-nfl-draft-1645962/amp/

PITTSBURGH
Rutter Pittsburgh Tribune Review: Sean Davis might spur Steelers to draft safety
https://triblive.com/sports/sean-davis-might-spur-steelers-to-draft-safety/

SAN FRANCISCO
Inman SJ Mercury News: Death of 49ers scout Reggie Cobb sparks outpouring of grief
https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/04/20/49ers-scout-reggie-cobb-passes-away/amp/

Chan NBC Sports Bay Area:
https://www.nbcsports.com/bayarea/49ers/jimmy-garoppolo-opens-about-work-he-did-mike-shanahan

Branch SF Chronicle: Nick Bosa should be the 49ers’ choice, if rave reviews count for anything
https://www.sfchronicle.com/49ers/amp/If-rave-reviews-count-for-anything-Nick-Bosa-13781915.php

SEATTLE
Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter)
4/20/19, 6:36 PM
Seattle still is considering trading franchise DE Frank Clark and if he were to be traded before Thursday’s draft, the package would need to include at least a first-round pick, per league source.

Condotta Seattle Times: Report: Seahawks asking for at least a first-round pick for defensive end Frank Clark
https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/seahawks/report-seahawks-asking-for-at-least-a-first-round-pick-for-defensive-end-frank-clark/?

TENNESSEE
White CBS Sports: Tennessee Titans mock draft 2019: Seven rounds, picks, big board, team needs, multiple options for every selection
https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/news/tennessee-titans-mock-draft-2019-seven-rounds-picks-big-board-team-needs-multiple-options-for-every-selection/amp/

WASHINGTON
Keim ESPN Washington: Redskins' search for identity could lead to defense (not a QB) with first pick
http://www.espn.com/blog/washington-redskins/post/_/id/38382/redskins-search-for-identity-could-lead-to-defense-not-a-qb-with-first-pick?

White CBS Sports: Washington Redskins mock draft 2019: Seven rounds, picks, big board, team needs, multiple options for every selection
https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/news/washington-redskins-mock-draft-2019-seven-rounds-picks-big-board-team-needs-multiple-options-for-every-selection/amp/

Sordelett News & Observer: Woodrum continues chasing NFL dream after signing with Redskins
https://www.newsadvance.com/sports/liberty_university/woodrum-continues-chasing-nfl-dream-after-signing-with-redskins/article_29ab7e92-631c-11e9-8d80-7b2dc1b986ca.amp.html

Colleges/Draft

Lindsay GBN: 2019 GBN Big Board

1. “Quinnen Williams DT  6-3, 303 4.83 Alabama RSO
2. Nick Bosa DE 6-4, 266  4.79 Ohio State JR
3. Josh Allen OLB 6-5, 262 4.63 Kentucky SR
4. Ed Oliver  DT  6-2, 287  4.73 Houston JR
5. Devin White ILB 6-0, 232 4.42 LSU JR
6. Kyler Murray  QB  5-10, 207 4.40               Oklahoma  JR
7. Montez Sweat  OLB  6-6, 260 4.41 Mississippi State SR
8. TJ Hockenson  TE 6-5, 251 4.70                Iowa RSO
9. Jawaan Taylor  OT 6-5, 312  5.35 Florida JR
10. Rashan Gary  DE 6-5, 277 4.58                Michigan  JR
11. Christian Wilkins DT  6-3, 315  5.05 Clemson SR
12. Jonah Williams G/T 6-5, 302                  5.12   Alabama JR
13. Devin Bush  OLB  5-11, 235  4.43               Michigan  JR
14. Dwayne Haskins  QB  6-4, 231                  5.05 Ohio State RSO
15. Andre Dillard OT  6-5, 315  4.96               Washington State  SR
16. DK Metcalf  WR  6-3, 228  4.33              Mississippi  RSO
17. Brian Burns  OLB  6-5, 250  4.53                Florida State JR
18. Cody Ford  OG  6-4, 330 5.21               Oklahoma  JR
19. Clelin Ferrell DE 6-5, 263 4.70                Clemson  JR
20. Josh Jacobs RB 5-9, 220 4.65              Alabama JR”

https://gbnreport.com/2019-gbn-big-board/


Kaye NJ.com: NFL Draft 2019: Is Kyler Murray the best QB in class? Who are the under-the-radar playmakers? | Q& A with Cover 1& #8242;s Jordan Reid
https://www.nj.com/eagles/2019/04/nfl-draft-2019-is-kyler-murray-the-best-qb-in-class-who-are-the-under-the-radar-playmakers-qa-with-cover-1s-jordan-reid.html

Moyer Centre Daily Times: Penn State has 2 ‘polarizing’ prospects in the NFL draft. Here’s what one expert said about them
https://amp.centredaily.com/sports/college/penn-state-university/psu-football/article229475799.html

QB
Serby NYP: Breaking down the top four QBs — flaws and all — in NFL draft
https://nypost.com/2019/04/21/breaking-down-the-top-four-qbs-flaws-and-all-in-nfl-draft/amp/

RB
Barnes Memphis Commercial Appeal: How a close family prepared Darrell Henderson for success with Memphis football, NFL Draft
https://amp.commercialappeal.com/amp/3507983002

WR
McBride Boston Globe: Notre Dame’s Miles Boykins moves far up in the receiving line.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/patriots/2019/04/20/after-injury-prone-senior-year-stanford-bryce-love-may-sleeper-pick/kPFg6uMLjh9obiFL0ixiQP/story.html

Thomas Akron Alliance Review: Akron's Parris Campbell dashes his way into the NFL Draft's early rounds because of hard work
https://www.the-review.com/sports/20190420/akrons-parris-campbell-dashes-his-way-into-nfl-drafts-early-rounds-because-of-hard-work?

Branch SF Chronicle: Former Palo Alto WR KeeSean Johnson eager to make his own name in NFL
https://www.sfgate.com/49ers/article/Former-Palo-Alto-WR-Johnson-eager-to-keep-13782942.php

TE
Kreager The Tennessean: Brentwood Academy alum Dawson Knox sets goal of being day two NFL Draft pick
https://amp.tennessean.com/amp/3488458002

DE
Rothstein ESPN Detroit: Inside the mind of Chase Winovich, the NFL draft's most curious prospect
http://www.espn.com/nfl/draft2019/story/_/id/26550021/inside-mind-chase-winovich-nfl-draft-most-curious-prospect?

CB
Sparks The Tennessean: NFL draft: Joejuan Williams grew up in Nashville housing projects just a few miles from where he'll get picked
https://amp.tennessean.com/amp/3519266002

Ben Fennell (@BenFennell_NFL)
4/19/19, 7:18 PM
Some of my favorite 2019 CB sleepers...

Donnie Lewis - Tulane
Nikolas Needham - UTEP
Jimmy Moreland - James Madison
Kyron Brown - Akron
Stephen Denmark - Valdosta (4.46)
Dylan Maybin - Fordham (4.40)
Rodney Randle - Lamar (4.28)
D'Angelo Ross - New Mexico (4.32)

History

Giants Birthdays 4-21

Rick Dvorak LDT D3-Wichita State 1974 NYG 1974-1977 4-21-1952

“While he’s back now, there was a time when Dvorak left the farm after he graduated from Spearville in 1970. Later that year, Dvorak went to Wichita State when tragedy struck the team on Oct. 2. One of two planes going to Utah State crashed in the Rocky Mountains west of Denver, killing 31 people. Fourteen of those were players.
Freshman couldn’t play NCAA football at that time, so Dvorak wasn’t on that trip. But the NCAA made an exception for Wichita State, whose freshman were allowed to play for the rest of the season.
Dvorak played his first game three weeks after the crash in a 62-0 loss to Arkansas in Little Rock. Dvorak, who had been a defensive end, moved to offensive tackle with only two weeks’ experience at the position.
“Coming from a small town where people pulled their cars up to the field to watch the game, that was mind-boggling,” Dvorak said. “Going to a stadium with 40,000 people in it, giving us a standing ovation as we walked on the field, that was quite an experience.”
Dvorak played defensive tackle for the rest of his career at WSU. The three-time all-Missouri Valley Conference selection made more than 400 tackles as he played in 44 straight games.

Football career
The New York Giants then drafted Dvorak as a linebacker, citing his speed and agility, despite never playing that position.
He played linebacker as a rookie, but in 1975, he started the entire season at defensive tackle. Dvorak played two years more with the Giants and one with the Miami Dolphins in 1978. He was cut before the ’79 season.
“I took that as a hint that maybe I ought to just call it good for now, go back to what I wanted to do,” Dvorak said. “I went back home.”

https://www2.ljworld.com/news/2004/jan/05/former_nfl_player/

Lewis Kelly G W-MIN 2005 NYG 2005 4-21-1977

Newton High School science teacher, Lewis Kelly, the Newton County School System’s 2019 Teacher of the Year, is a finalist for Georgia Teacher of the Year! (4-15-2019)

“Mr. Kelly is an epidemiology and physical science teacher at Newton High School, where he has worked since August 2014. He previously taught biology in both the DeKalb and Henry County school systems. Mr. Kelly earned his Bachelor of Science degree from South Carolina State University in 2000. After a six-year career in the National Football League, where he played offensive guard for the Minnesota Vikings and the New York Giants, Mr. Kelly earned a Master’s in Education from the University of Phoenix and pursued a career in education. He has been a teacher since 2011.”

https://www.newtoncountyschools.org/departments/public_relations/news/lewis_kelly_georgia_t_o_t_y_finalist

NYP: GIANT STRUGGLE – WIFE’S DEATH WEIGHS ON BACKUP LINEMAN KELLY (4-02-2005)

https://nypost.com/2005/08/02/giant-struggle-wifes-death-weighs-on-backup-lineman-kelly/

Tony McGee TE W-DAL 2003 NYG 2003 4-21-1971

In Memoriam

Steve Owen LT/RT NYG 1926-1933 Head Coach 1930-1953 Born 4-21-1898 Died 5-17-1964

From/Credit Hap Moran.com:

“Most of Steve’s biographical information is scattered throughout his book, “My Kind of Football,” published in 1952. Steve’s mother sent him to live with a sister in Aline, Oklahoma, to go to high school. There Steve played on a basketball team, which won the state tournament held at Phillips University in Enid. There is no team photo in the archives of Aline High School, but if one exists it would no doubt be the earliest sports related item for him.

Steve worked summers in the oil fields, and planned to head to Texas after his high school graduation, but, when the war broke out in 1917 his mother convinced him he should enlist in the Student Army Training Corps at Phillips so he could use his education to serve as an officer. According to a profile of Steve written by Frank Graham for Sport Magazine in December 1947, Steve said he was “lying under a tree watching the football squad when Johnny Maulbetsch spotted me. ‘You’re big enough to play,’ he said, ‘Why don’t you come out for the team?’ I couldn’t think of any good reason why I shouldn’t, so I did.”
Maulbetsch, an All-American at Michigan, had an eye for athletic talent, or at least for size. The 1921 Phillips yearbook says Steve “pulled down his third All State position. He was All State guard ’18-’19 and this year was given All State Tackle.” Steve was captain-elect for the 1921 season.

After World War I ended the Student Army Training Corps was dissolved and Steve enrolled as a regular student. In addition to football he played baseball, boxed, and wrestled – although these other sports are not covered in the yearbook and it’s not clear if they were official teams of the college. In wrestling Steve certainly wandered off the campus, taking on professional matches in Kansas under the name of Jack O’Brien. It would be great to track down a hand-bill or program from one of his wrestling appearances.
Steve wasn’t quite done with college when his eligibility ran out, so Tubby McIntyre, who had followed Maulbetsch as coach, invited Steve to help as his line coach. Probably the earliest picture of Steve as a coach is in the 1924 Phillips yearbook, where he sits unmistakably in the back row. But coaching would have to wait because, in fact, Steve had already started his career in pro- football.

Back in the early 1920s there was a lot of post-season barnstorming by the professional teams, and in January 1922, Jim Thorpe led the Toledo Maroons into Oklahoma to play a team of all-star collegians. They played in Tulsa on a Saturday and Oklahoma City on a Sunday. The famous story is that Thorpe leveled Steve on a block because Steve thought Thorpe was too old and too tired to do much damage. As a result of those games, Steve was offered a contract to play with Toledo in 1923, but the desire to finish college and the offer of the job as line coach kept him at Phillips.
That would not be the case in 1924 when Steve signed to play with the Kansas City Cowboys. And it was the Cowboys who brought him to New York.
The Toledo club folded after the 1923 season, and Steve thought that shut the door for him with the NFL. Then a former college teammate, Dutch Strauss, got Steve a job with LeRoy Andrew, promoter of the Kansas City team. In August 1924, Steve and Dutch drove a Chevrolet Coup 350 miles in three days from Oklahoma to Kansas City. where Steve began his pro career for $50 per game.
The Kansas City team played most of their games on the road – “Andy” Andrew could not afford the guarantee which a home team provided visitors. They got as far east as Philadelphia in 1924, and in 1925 made it to New York City to play the fledgling Giants. (Andrew would later coach the Giants in 1929 and 1930; Steve was his successor.) In between the 1924 and 1925 seasons Steve took a job as a school principal in Binger, Oklahoma. The previous principal had been stabbed by one of the students, but Steve had a knack for managing roughnecks and used a little coaching psychology to build loyalty and instill discipline. He escaped without a scratch.


When the Kansas City Cowboys came to New York in 1925 they promoted their game with the Giants by riding up Broadway on horseback complete with sombreros, chaps, boots and spurs. In the game Steve lined up at left tackle opposite Century Milstead; both men played 60 minutes. The Giants won 9-3.
Kansas City ended the 1925 season playing the Cleveland Bulldogs in Hartford, Connecticut. After that game, George Mulligan, owner of the Waterbury Blues football team, invited Steve to play on a team to oppose the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame in a series of games. They played four games on four successive Sundays, and based on his aggressive play Steve was signed for a post season tour to Florida with the New York Giants

The Giants played at least three games in Florida after the 1925 season: Jan. 1, 1926 against the Coral Gables Collegians, at Palm Beach, January 9 against the Jacksonville All-Stars, Fairfield Stadium, and January 16, again against the Coral Gables Collegians. Some Giants may have then headed out to California for more football, but Steve headed back to Enid, Oklahoma. When he got home he learned that the Giants had bought him from Kansas City for $500.
The postseason play brought professional football to parts of the country that had never seen the game, and players often joined with former rivals to create an “all-star” team to draw the crowds. After Steve played the full 1926 season with New York, newspapers in Tulsa, Oklahoma, reported he signed on with Jim Kendrick’s Buffalo Rangers for the final game in a series of three contests with the Hominy Indians. After the 1927 season he signed on with C. C. Pyle to play 8 games in California on a team headlined by Red Grange.
The exploits of the 1927 Giants are well documented and the team won the NFL championship. Red Grange and C. C. Pyle had come back into the NFL fold after losing a bundle with their AFL adventure in 1926, and after the 1927 postseason games in California, Pyle was looking for the next great sports promotion – a cross country marathon run, the famous Bunion Derby. Steve Owen would be part of this adventure going east from Los Angeles to New York starting March 4, 1928 and heading west from NY to LA March 31, 1929.

Steve wrote: “The cross-country derby was a great experience for me.. I got to be a starter.. It showed me what the human body could stand in athletics.. I had the pleasure of rooming with Red Grange on the marathons.” Programs from these two epic events come up for auction with some regularity, and can be bought for under $100. In the 1928 event Red Grange gets second billing to Pyle as the “Assistant Director General.” Steve is at the top of the list of Assistant Referees and Patrol Judges – Ray Flaherty is on there as well. In 1929 Red is no longer involved and Steve is listed as Referee, although Geoff Williams in his book “C. C. Pyle’s Amazing Foot Race,” described Steve as the Sheriff to enforce Pyle’s rules and Flaherty as his Deputy

There was also a vaudeville style show that traveled with the foot race. One top-billed performer was Florence Carr – “Star of ‘No, No, Nannette’ and ‘The Miracle.’” By April, 1930, Steve and Florence were married and living in New York City.
In 1933 Steve had to leave the Giants training camp in Pompton Lakes due to the fatal illness of Florence, who was at her parent’s summer home in Boston. Ray Flaherty took over coaching duties. The Giants played two preseason games with Flaherty filling in – on September 9 against an All-Long Island eleven at Freeport, NY and on September 13 against the Staten Island Stapes, now no longer in the NFL and with Ken Strong playing for the Giants against his former teammates. Newspapers reported that Steve would return to the team in time for a September 17 game against Paterson, after which the team would travel to Pittsburg to open the NFL season against the Pirates on Sept. 20.
In 1935 Steve married Miriam Sweeny, sister of the Giants’ team doctor, Francis Sweeney.
Researchers have put together a very thorough picture of Steve’s career both as a player and coach in the NFL from 1924 to 1953. Many
place the spotlight most brightly on the 1934 Championship Game against the Bears, better known as the Sneakers Game because the Giants won the game after donning basketball shoes for the second half to get better traction on the frozen field. Steve would also guide the Giants to a total of 8 Eastern championships and 2 NFL titles, but in 1952 and 1953 the team had only 10 wins against 14 losses, and the writing was on the wall.”

http://hapmoran.org/images/Steve%20Owen.pdf


COACH STEVE OWEN: THE GREAT INNOVATOR

“Professional football has advanced from a simple to complex game. To a great extent, this is due to the imaginative genius of the coaches.
In the early years the innovators were George Halas, Curly Lambeau, Greasy Neale and Jimmy Conzelman. Later Paul Brown and Vince Lombardi came along. Today [ed.: 1970s] we have Tom Landry, Don Shula, Hank Stram and George Allen to mention a few.
Seldom mentioned; yet one of the great innovators of all time is Steve Owen, for 23 years the guiding genius of the New York Giants. Stout Steve came up with innovations like the A-formation and the Umbrella Defense. These were not only catchy names, but effective weapons. The Giants under Owen won eight division and two league championships.
What is even more remarkable about Owen is that he stressed defense when few of his contemporaries did. His kind of football began with blocking and tackling. "Football is a game played down in the dirt and it always will be. There's no use getting fancy about it."
Often criticized by Giants fans as ultra-conservative, he may have been the first NFL coach to elect to kick off to start a game. He often chose to go for a sure field goal rather than gamble for a touchdown, and that further upset New York rooters. Eventually, however, the rest of the league came around to his way of thinking. When Stout Steve stepped down as Giants coach in 1953, George Halas said, "Steve was the first to stress the importance of defense and the advantage of settling for field goals instead of touchdowns. Every team strives today to do what Owen was doing twenty years ago."
"Steve really stressed that defense," said Hank Soar, an American League baseball umpire who played nine years for Owen. "He was a strict disciplinarian and definitely not a gambler. I was the only one who could talk back to him. We fought like cats and dogs yet he let me have complete control of the defensive backfield when I was on the field.
"Even as a player Steve was conscious of the importance of a good defense. He tried to convince his coach to use such radical departures from the standard defenses as five and six-man lines. When he became coach of the Giants he put his ideas into action. We had stunting linemen, rushing linebackers although we did not call it the blitz, and as the safety man I often performed what is now called the safety blitz. We had a very good pass defense and fellows like Baugh, Isbell and Hutson seldom had good days against us."
Stout Steve the Tackle
Owen was born in the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) where his father had claimed land when the Cherokee Strip was opened to settlers. His mother was the area's first "school marm."
His first athletic ambition was to become a jockey, but his growth doomed that. In his pro football prime he weighed as much as 260 pounds, perhaps a bit more than even Secretariat or Cigar could handle.
He entered Phillips University in 1916 and by 1917-18 had become the team's captain and star tackle. For a couple of years, he tried differnt things: one year as coach at his alma mater, time spent in the oil fields, even wrestling professionally under the name "Jack O'Brien" to preserve his amateur standing.

In 1924, he became a professional football player with the new Kansas City Blues in the young National Football League. The team lasted three seasons, playing mainly on the road as a sort of football wild- west show. In its final year, the team name was even changed to "Cowboys."

Although K.C. actually had a winning record in 1926, the restructuring of the league after that season meant the Cowboys were out. Their coach, Roy Andrews, and many of their players wound up in Cleveland with a new team formed around Benny Friedman, but the Giants reportedly paid Kansas City $500 for Owen's contract.
It was money well spent. Steve became one of the main cogs in what may have been pro football's greatest defensive team of the decade -- the 1927 NFL Champion Giants. In sweeping to an 11-1-1 record, New York shut out their opponents in ten games and gave up a mere twenty points for the season.
When the Giants slumped badly the next year, New York brought in Friedman to lead the offense and Roy Andrews to coach. For 1929-30, the Giants were 26-5-1 and scored 620 points! The next strongest offense mustered only 432 points. New York had the best show in the league. But that was only good enough for a pair of second-place finishes to the Green Bay Packers.
Andrews was let go with two games left on the 1930 schedule, with Friedman and Owen serving as co- coaches for the last two tilts -- both victories.
Owen had a formidable reputation as a tackle, but Friedman was on a par with Red Grange and Ernie Nevers as one of the most famous names in the league. Moreover, Benny was acclaimed as a brilliant offensive strategist (and, if anyone forgot that, he was always quick to remind them).
So it must have come as a shock to many New York fans when the coach for 1931 was named -- Steve Owen!
Steve Owen the Coach
Owen received no contract. His agreement with the Giants for 1931 and for the rest of his stay was a simple handshake.
In opting for Owen, the Giants cast themselves in a role that would become their character until long after Owen was gone -- the team that lived by its defense. No doubt the team's persona peaked with the Robustelli-Huff-Modzelewski-etc. DEE-fense of the late 1950s under Owen's successor Jim Lee Howell, but it was Owen who set the Giants on the trail. In his best years, Owen's defense dominated. In bad years -- and the Giants had some seasons when the talent was thin -- the team might lose by three or four touchdowns, but fans could take solace in the thought that under another coach it would have been worse.
Still, some fans yearned for a more risk-taking club. Owen was a great defensive coach, they'd agree, but he just wasn't an innovator.
They should have paid closer attention.
Steve's first division championship came in 1933. And he almost beat the mighty Bears in the Championship Game with a razzle-dazzle pass play that saw quarterback Harry Newman pitch out to halfback Ken Strong who lateralled back to Newman who then passed to Strong in the end zone.
The next year, Owen won his first NFL title on an icy Polo Grounds field by outfitting his football team with sneakers for the second half. That's standard stuff today, but in 1934 it was revolutionary.
As the 1930s wore on, Owen developed the first two-platoon system. Rules at the time restricted substitution. If a player left the field, he couldn't return until the next quarter. Obviously, such a thing as today's offensive and defensive units was an impossibility. Coaches -- even those with teams deep in talent -- started their best all-around, eleven players and then substituted piecemeal. A sub would go in when the starter was winded or hurt, or when the sub's special talent was needed. Generally, the starters would play at least two-thirds of the game. Naturally, they were often used up by the fourth quarter.
Owen set his sights on developing two units of equal ability on offense and defense. One unit would start the game and play to the middle of the first quarter. Then the other unit would come in and play to the middle of the second quarter when the original unit would return. The same pattern continued in the second half. As a consequence, Owen's players were normally fresher than their opponents.
The A
"In 1937, Steve came up with the A-formation" Hank Soar recalled. "He split his lineman (another innovation) and placed four on the right side of the center and just an end and tackle on the left. He put the wingback behind the weak side end, the blocker behind the weak side tackle, the tailback four yards behind the center with the quarterback a yard in front of him and to his right. Owen had planned to use several formations so he called this the A-formation with the others to be called B, C, and D; however he ended up using this one almost exclusively.
"Steve regarded our 1938 team as his best," said Soar. "We had two backfields of equal strength which he alternated. In one backfield Ward Cuff played the wingback. He was a fine receiver and one of the best place kickers I have ever seen. Nello Falaschi played the blocker, I was the tailback and Ed Danowski, a great passer, played quarterback. The other quartet included Dale Burnett, Leland Shaffer, Bull Karcis, and Tuffy Leemans, another fine passer. For spares we had John Gildea, a punter,
Kink Richards, and Len Barnum."
Soar went on to relate how Owen detested taking chances. "One game I was tackled near the goal and lateraled to ‘Tarzan' White who scored a touchdown. Owen pulled me out and gave me hell, he kept reminding me we could have fumbled.
"On defense we used the five-man line with Falaschi, John Dell Isola, and Hall of Fame center Mel Hein as linebackers. Shaffer and Cuff played the hatfbacks and I was the safety. On the line there was Jim Poole and Jim Lee Howell at the ends, Ed Widseth and John Mellus tackles and Orville Tuttle and Pete Cole guards.
"We finished with an 8-2-1 record and played the Packers for the title. I caught the pass that won the game. I was just inside the end zone and went up between two Packers, I don't recall who they were, and caught the ball. To this day I do not know how I did it, but we won and that's all that counts."
A part of football that has all but disappeared is the colorful nicknames that were so plentiful on that Giant team. Nicknames such as "Tarzan" White, "Bull" Karcis, "Ox" Parry, "Kayo" Lunday, "Tuffy" Leemans, and "Jiggs" Kline are probably gone forever.
Owen stuck with the A-formation though other coaches were switching to the T and in 1948 he obtained Mississippi star Charley Conerly to run it.
"I played tailback my first year with the Giants," said Conerly. "The A was a powerful formation up the middle and fellows like Bill Paschal and Eddie Price won rushing titles going right up the middle. However, it was a little weak going around the ends.
"The next year," Charley went on, "Steve decided to use the T more, so he brought in Allie Sherman to help install it. I was selected as the first Giant T-formation quarterback. I was a little reluctant to try, but Steve and Allie convinced me it would prolong my career, so I went along with them."
Steve proved a prophet as Conerly played 14 years, led the league in passing once, and took the Giants to four divisional and one league title.
The Umbrella
When the All-America Football Conference collapsed, Owen picked up almost half his defensive team by adding backs Tom Landry, Otto Schnellbacher, and Harmon Rowe, guard John Mastrangelo and tackle Arnie Weinmeister.
"In 1950 we developed a defense against the Browns that came to be known as the Umbrella," recalled Em Tunnell, later a Giant assistant coach. "Our ends, Jim Duncan and Ray Poole, would drift back and cover the flats while tackles Arnie Weinmeister and Al DeRogatis and guards Jon Baker and John Mastrangelo were charged with rushing the passer and containing the run. The lone linebacker, John Canady, was told to follow the Brown fullback wherever he went.

"Tom Landry played the left corner, Harmon Rowe the right, I was the strong safety and Otto Schnellbacher the weak. If you would look at this alignment from high in the stands it looked like an opened umbrella. In truth, it was the same 4-3-2-2 used today. We did go into other formations, but mostly we used this 4-3 arrangement. It was so successful against the Browns that we beat them twice. The first time we played them we shut them out, the first time that had ever happened to them."
Tunnell was one of football's all-time great bonanzas. A graduate of Iowa, he walked into the Giants' office and requested a tryout, which Owen gave him. Em fancied himself a running back, but Steve saw him as a defensive man. For 14 years Tunnell was one of the best safeties in the game. His 79 career interceptions and 258 punt returns are NFL records. He is a member of the Hall of Fame.
After the 1953 season, Steve Owen turned the Giants over to Jim Lee Howell, who had starred for him for nine years. Today a member of the Hall of Fame, Steve left behind a legacy of leadership, innovation and winning.”

http://www.profootballresearchers.org/archives/Website_Files/Coffin_Corner/18-04-653.pdf

THE STEVE OWEN “A” FORMATION

“In his 1952 autobiography My Kind of Football, Coach Owen described how the A formation came about:
I had the idea for the A formation from the first time I saw Link Lyman [a tackle for the Chicago Bears in the 1930’s who experimented with varying his splits when he lined up on defense] slide off from the customary tackle position. He showed me what line splits could achieve.
I worked out the formation first in 1935 but did not use it until 1937, against the Redskins in Washington…we finished second in ‘37 and went with the A all the way in ‘38 to win the world title by defeating Green Bay 23-17. But I am not going to claim the A did it all — we had a bunch of mighty good players, who would have been stars in any formation.
My theory behind the A was this: I wanted to spread without losing concentrated attacking power, and yet keep the defense scattered along a wide front so that it could not jam in on us at any point.
To do this I hit on the idea of deploying my line strong to one side, and my backs strong to the other side. So far as I know this was an original formation.
In the A, the line shows four men to the right of center and two to the left. But in the backfield the weight is to the left of center, with the wingback out on the left flank. The formation can be run in the other direction, with line strong to the left and backs heavy to the right. The A exaggerates the effect of a split line, to carry the spread into the backfield.
When first introduced, we did not use the man-in-motion before the snap, but that factor was soon developed for Ward Cuff. From wingback he moved toward the slot between left half [quarterback] and fullback, with the timing to arrive there as the left half spun to make his fakes or hand offs. This reverse alone made Cuff one of the great backs of football.
When we first experimented with the A we had used the standard single wing, and in practice we called my new system A and the single wing B. After noting the possibilities the new formation opened up, we thought it should rightly head the alphabet as A, and we forgot about B and the other twenty-four letters as well.
Coach Owen added that the A formation was also excellent for quick-kicking. (My Kind of Football – Joe King, ed.: David McKay, New York, 1952.)
Steve Owen’s teams were always known for their defense, and were generally composed of two-way players. Both of these facts limited his capacity to explore the outer limits of A formation football, in my opinion. I have taken his concepts and added some modern passing ideas from both the Mouse Davis school of Run and Shoot football, and from the Bunch Attack that has been popularized recently by Andrew Coverdale and Dan Robinson. (Readers of my Wild Bunch, Spread Option Run and Shoot, and Modern TCU Spread playbooks will not be surprised to hear this.)
Having supplanted the single wing as the Giants’ offense in 1937, the A formation outlasted it in the NFL by some two years; the Pittsburgh Steelers abandoned the single wing in 1952, and the Giants dropped both Owen and the A in 1954.
As I have already said, I think Steve Owen is hugely underrated as an offensive innovator. His half spin series from the A formation — taken straight from the pages of the 1956 book that he co-authored with former Giants receiver Ray Pelfrey (The Passing Game: Offensive and Defensive for Coaches and Players: Wm. C. Brown, Dubuque, Iowa, 1956) — is at least the equal of anything I have seen for the Warner Single or Double Wings or Dutch Meyer’s TCU Spread in terms of deception and multiplicity of threats.

https://directsnapvault.com/steve-owen-formation/

Hartman Minn Star Tribune: Giants introduced Bud Grant to football

“Bud Grant, the great Vikings coach, might never have gotten into football if it weren’t for the fact that the New York Giants trained in the preseason in his hometown of Superior, Wis., in the late 1930s and early 1940s.
“Many teams in the NFL in those days went to outlying areas, and the Giants went to Superior,” Grant recalled. “Ole Haugsrud, I think, had something to do with that, to bring them to Superior. And as a kid at 10, 11, 12 years old, I was at every practice.

“I shagged balls and watched them practice, watched them play, I walked out with the team, walked in. They had a big tackle at that time by the name of Dewitt Coulter, and he used to let me carry his helmet from the practice field maybe 300 yards to the locker room. A big thrill for me, of course, and he gave me his helmet and I carried that sweaty helmet into the locker room and hand it to him, and he’d say, ‘Thanks, kid.’ That was some of my memories. I spent a lot of time there.”

One of the ways Grant got to know the team well was because his father ran a concession stand there by the nearby baseball stadium.
“There’s not much to do after football practice, so the New York Giants, with Steve Owen and his brother and some of their staff, would come to the baseball game at night. It was just across the street from where they were staying. I don’t know if anyone is old enough to remember Steve Owen, but he was a very rotund, big guy. They’d hang around until the end of the game, and my dad would give them all free hot dogs.”

Yes, and Grant nearly started his Hall of Fame career being drafted by the Giants before the merger of the AFL and NFL, but then the Philadelphia Eagles, who incidentally trained in Grand Rapids from 1949-50, selected him No. 1 overall.
“After playing with the Gophers I had heard my dad, I hadn’t heard directly, but [the Giants] apparently said, ‘We’ll draft your kid probably somewhere in the top of the draft,’& #8239;” Grant said. “Philadelphia stepped in and drafted me No. 1.”

http://m.startribune.com/giants-introduced-bud-grant-to-football/395765391/

Johnny Perkins WR D2-Abilene Christian 1977 NYG 1977-1983 Born 4-31-1953 Died 4-25-2007

Ken Strong FB/PK NYG 1933-1939, 1944-1947
Born 4-21-1906 Died 10-05-1979

Carroll PFR: KEN STRONG

“The year was 1928. Coach Walter Steffen's Carnegie Tech team -- a team that had run roughshod over Rockne's Notre Dame eleven the week before -- had just been destroyed by New York University. Steffen, a respected coach who had seen the best in football for a quarter of a century, talked about N.Y.U.'s premier back, Ken Strong:
"A great ball carrier -- 205 pounds of speed and power.
"One of the best blockers I've ever seen.
"A high-class forward passer -- up with the best.
"Certainly one of the best all-around kickers in football history. "A player with exceptional spirit -- a team player in every way. "I'll tell you he is easily the greatest football player I ever saw!"
In 1939, after Strong had shown what he could do as a professional player, Grantland Rice was only slightly more conservative: "Considering the test of both college and pro football, I'd say the battle of the swift and strong was among Ken Strong, Jim Thorpe, and Ernie Nevers, with Bronko Nagurski close up. Strong and Thorpe had greater variety; this gives them the edge. I mean everything that belongs to football -- running, blocking, tackling, passing, and every type of kicking."
To be ranked with Thorpe and ahead of Nevers is certainly heady stuff. In retrospect, the records show that Strong was never more than an ordinary forward passer, and after a wrist injury in 1931, he was actually sub-par. His other statistics -- running, receiving, and kicking -- were excellent for his day, but pale in the era of the specialist. Still, rating him on any single phase of his game is silly. It was his ability to win in every conceivable way that made him so valuable. He was the kind of athlete to whom coaches are forever pointing and saying, "If I could pick one player to have for one big game ...."
Ken was born in New Haven, Connecticut, August 6, 1906. Following a brilliant four years at West Haven High School, he entered New York University in 1925. Handsome, with a shock of dark, wavy hair, he would have made a great cover for a media guide had there been such at the time. But, considering his football exploits, he would have made any N.Y.U. guide-cover had he looked like the elephant man.
He began there as a blocking back, but by his senior year he was doing everything for the nationally-ranked Violets. He led the nation in scoring with 162 points on 22 touchdowns and 30 extra points. He finished his college career with 2,080 yards by rushing alone. Naturally, he was on everyone's All-American team for 1928.
Although his football fame was coast-to-coast, his future appeared to be in baseball. He was a power-hitting outfielder, regarded as the best prospect to come out of a New York school since Lou Gehrig. Upon his graduation in June of '29, he signed a contract with the New York Yankees.
His progress was steady and spectacular. He whacked 21 home runs in the remainder of the '29 season for New Haven of the Eastern League and followed with 41 for Hazleton of the New York-Penn League in 1930. In a game on June 8 against Wilkes- Barre, he slugged four homers in four successive at-bats. He was being hailed as the "next Lou Gehrig."
Then in 1931, with 13 home runs already in the till for Toronto of the Triple-A International League, he ran full- speed into an outfield wall and broke a bone in his wrist. The injury left him unable to throw a baseball correctly and ended his diamond career.

Meanwhile, he'd reached stardom in pro football. The New York Giants made him an offer in 1929, but he turned them down to join the Staten Island Stapletons for $5,000 a season plus a rent-free apartment.
Although the Stapes' offer was higher than the one made by the Giants, some observers thought he'd made a mistake. With the Giants, he could have made bigger headlines and certainly played in more victories than were possible with the Stapes. Sometimes, with Staten Island, he was pretty much a one-man show. Significantly, he scored 45% of all the points the Stapes could muster during the team's four years in the NFL.
If his acclaim at Staten Island wasn't always national, it certainly was loyal. One day the Stapes played the Giants at cozy Thompson's Stadium, the Stapletons' home field. New York end Ray Flaherty tackled Strong near the sideline and they both slid into the crowd standing there.
Ken tried to get up, but Flaherty held him fast. "Leggo!" yelled Ken, his face pressed into the dirt. "I'll let go when you stop belting me!" hollered Flaherty.
To the surprise of both, Flaherty was actually being smacked by a little old lady with an umbrella, outraged at what that mean New York end had done to HER Ken.
In the Stapes' four years in the NFL, only once did they get to a .500 season, but they were usually "respectable" losers. As their only All-Pro, Strong was the one who preserved the respectability. In any given game, he was usually the Stapes top rusher, often the only scorer, sometimes the top receiver, and even their best-of-a-bad-lot passer.
In 1933, the Stapes dropped out of the league and Ken signed -- at a salary cut to $250 a game -- with the Giants.
The NFL had just decided to move the goal posts up to the goal lines. Giant coach Steve Owen immediately recognized two facts. First, field goals would become a more deadly offensive weapon. And, second, the Giants had in Ken Strong quite possibly the best kicker in the league.
Early in October, a Strong boot provided the margin in a 10-7 victory over the Packers, but it was a mid-November meeting with the Bears that was something special. New York Times columnist Arthur Daley explained: "He kicked a field goal. The Giants were offside. He kicked a field goal. The Giants were offside. So he did it again, and this time it stuck for a 3-0 victory.
"During that series of plays Coach Steve Owen grew irate because his brother Bill, the New York tackle, had made no attempt to flatten Joe Kopcha, the Bear guard, who was a sitting duck as he knelt on the line of scrimmage. Steve yanked Bill to the sideline.
"`Why didn't you belt Kopcha?' roared Steve.
"’I just couldn't,' said Bill. ‘Every time Ken kicked, Kopcha raised his eyes to heaven and said, ‘Please, God, don't let him make it.' Gosh, Steve, I couldn't belt a guy when he was praying, could I?'"
1933 was also the year the NFL divided itself into two divisions. The Giants won in the east and the Bears in the west, setting up a rematch for the first championship game.
Although the Giants lost 23-21, the game was one of the best ever, with the lead changing hands six times. The last New York touchdown was most unusual. "Harry Newman handed off to me on a reverse to the left," Ken later explained, "but the line was jammed up. I turned and saw Newman standing there, so I threw him the ball. He was quite surprised. He took off to his right, but then HE got bottled up. By now I had crossed into the end zone and the Bears had forgotten me. Newman saw me wildly waving my hands and threw me the ball. I caught it."
Later, the Giants put the Newman-to-Strong-to-Newman-to-Strong play into their offense, but it never worked again. However, it showed the kind of resourcefulness Strong brought to the game.
1934 was probably Strong's best year. He rushed for over 400 yards and totalled 56 points in touchdowns and kicks. The championship game saw the Giants and Bears facing each other again. The field at the Polo Grounds was a sheet of ice, as the Bears built up a 13-3 lead through three quarters. The only New York points came on a 38-yard field goal by Strong. But the Giants had put on sneakers borrowed from the Manhattan College bas- ketball team at the beginning of the second half. By the fourth quarter the New Yorkers were used to their new footgear and the Bears were still sliding on the ice. The Giants rattled off 27 points. Strong scored touchdowns on runs of 11 and 42 yards.
The Giants won in the east again in 1935. For the third straight year, Strong scored a touchdown in the championship game, this time on a 42-yard pass from Ed Danowski. However, that was the only touchdown New York could get as Detroit won easily 26-7.
The next year, after a salary dispute with the Giants, Ken jumped to the New York Yankees of the American Football League, one of the short-lived rivals of the NFL. In 1939, he was back with the Giants. "I broke my back against Washington," he recalled, "and was a kicker exclusively after that."
In 1944, after being retired for four years, Ken came back to the Giants as a kicking specialist. A number of old pros came out of retirement during the war years for one last fling. Green Bay's great passer of the 1930s, Arnie Herber, also shook off the mothballs and joined the Giants. Strong led the NFL in field goals in '44 and Herber gave them one of the league's more respectable passing attacks, as the Giants won another eastern title.
Most of the overage warriors re-retired by the war's end, but Ken was still good enough to contribute after peace arrived. He was New York's kicker through 1947, missing only two extra points in four seasons.
Strong's last session with the Giants was in 1962 when he served as a special kicking coach. His star pupil -- Don Chandler. Counting that one year as a coach, Ken was with the Giants during nine seasons. In seven of those years, New York won its division championship.
Strong, who died in New York in 1979 at the age of 73, enjoyed a successful business career away from football. In 1967 he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Several years earlier he was named to the College Hall.
When West Haven High School proudly dedicated its new football stadium to the greatest all-around athlete in the history of the school, the program listed many -- not all -- of Ken's football accomplishments but closed with this: "And with all the publicity, back-slapping and praise, he has never lost any of his admirable characteristics as a good sport, a splendid competitor, a pleasant companion and a true gentleman always."
In many ways, that's an even more impressive list of Ken Strong's talents than even the one given in 1928 by Coach Walter Steffen.

http://www.profootballresearchers.org/coffin-corner70s/01-09-015.pdf

PFR: THE HIDDEN CAREER OF KEN STRONG

The more we find out about minor league football in the 1930s and '40s, the more top-level players we discover who put in time with pro teams outside the NFL. Among others, the list includes stars like Frankie Albert, Ed Danowski, Jack Ferrante, Augie Lio, Harry Newman, Hank Soar, Tommy Thompson and Kenny Washington, plus Hall of Famers Red Badgro, Johnny Blood, Sid Gillman, Vince Lombardi and Ace Parker.
But without a doubt, among the famous names of football, the one with the most extensive non-NFL career was Ken Strong.
The initial phase of Strong's pro career lasted from 1929-35. In four years ('29-32) with the Staten Island Stapletons and three ('33-35) with the New York Giants, he was a consensus all-pro selection in 1930-31 and '33-34, finishing among the NFL's top four scorers in each of those seasons. Then, after an injury- plagued 1935 season and a contract dispute with the Giants, he jumped in 1936 to the New York Yankees of the newly formed AFL.
Though it didn't last, the AFL was definitely a major league in '36. The Yankees contended for the title before ultimately finishing third. With no passer, the team relied almost exclusively on its ground game, led by Strong's powerful running and crunching blocks. In addition, Strong finished third in the league in scoring – in fact, he would have led the league easily if not for the fact that he made only 5 of 20 field-goal attempts.
The Yankees declined in 1937, as did the AFL, which barely made it through the season. After an opening-game loss at home, the team took to the road and never returned. Strong played in the opener and the first road game, then left the club for good.
As punishment for jumping to the outlaw league, Strong was suspended from the NFL for five years. But Giants owner Tim Mara had a lot of clout, and before the 1938 season he came to Strong with a proposition: If Ken would play with Mara's new farm team at Jersey City, Mara would arrange for his big fullback to return to the Giants in 1939.
As pro football's first full-fledged farm club, the Jersey City Giants proved an unqualified success, rolling to the American Association championship with a 7-1 record. Strong booted 13 field goals and led the league with 51 points, earning a spot on the all-league team – and also his return to New York the following season.
Back with the Giants, Strong became a role player, a kicker and blocking back. But he finished the season with a back injury, and then underwent a stomach operation in the summer. (In Pro Football's Rag Days, Strong said the problem was an ulcer.) Apparently, his pro football career was over.
By October, though, Strong had recovered sufficiently to accept an offer to return to Jersey City, where the
Little Giants had gotten off to a rocky start. Strong's kicking and the passing of Danowski, his former New York teammate, helped drive Jersey City to another American Association title. And at season's end, Strong announced that he was hanging up his jersey for good.
As it turned out, "for good" meant one year.
In 1942 the American Association shut down for the duration of World War II. In its absence, a number of teams in the Northeast formed a pretty regular circuit of their own, something like the Ohio League in the Canton-Massillon era. One team, the Long Island Clippers, featured as their star back none other than Ken Strong.


The Clippers played four games against other clubs on the circuit, plus another against the NFL Brooklyn Dodgers, but won only one

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