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Schnellenberger’s “NO” led to two SB titles for the Giants

Big Blue '56 : 4/4/2021 8:41 am
Quote:


Coach Howard Schnellenberger’s death on March 27 at age 87 was a reminder of how dramatically one man’s decision in 1984 impacted the fortunes of the Giants franchise forever.

In 1983, Schnellenberger had led his rebuilt Miami Hurricanes to a national championship. That same season, Bill Parcells’ first Giants team had gone 3-12-1. Parcells’ parents had both died that year. He’d started Scott Brunner over Phil Simms. And the team was devastated by injuries.


So Giants GM George Young offered Schnellenberger the Giants’ head coaching job. Young had been an assistant coach on Schnellenberger’s Baltimore Colts staff in the mid-1970s. He was ready to replace Parcells if Schnellenberger said yes.

But he turned Young down.

Schnellenberger instead took a job running the USFL’s Spirit of Miami, an arrangement that collapsed and led to his return to college with Louisville in 1985. Saying “no” to the Giants, meanwhile, created a domino effect still impacting the Giants today.

Parcells stayed and won the franchise’s first two Super Bowls in 1986 and 1990, but he also never forgot Young’s attempt to replace him and left after winning his second championship.

Bill Belichick stayed on as the Giants’ defensive coordinator because Parcells stayed, and his success in New York would springboard him to becoming arguably the greatest head coach in NFL history with the New England Patriots.

Fast forward to the modern-day Giants, who pursued and interviewed Belichick Patriots assistants Josh McDaniels and Matt Patricia before hiring New England special teams coordinator Joe Judge last winter.

It all connects back to Schnellenberger saying no to Young after the 1983 season. Talk about a defining moment.







Link - ( New Window )
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SFGFNCGiantsFan : 4/4/2021 8:51 am : link
Life is wild eh?
Happy Easter BB56. Actually there's a little more to it than HS  
Victor in CT : 4/4/2021 8:51 am : link
just saying no. Parcells got wind of it and told Al Davis, who said he'd "take care of it". Davis then told Jimmy the Greek, how spilled it on the NFL Today that the Giants were pursuing him. Young and the Mars went into complete denial mode after that. It's in Parcells' book.
Yup.  
Big Blue '56 : 4/4/2021 8:52 am : link
And I wanted Schnellenberger when I read Young was in pursuit..😂
RE: Happy Easter BB56. Actually there's a little more to it than HS  
Big Blue '56 : 4/4/2021 8:54 am : link
In comment 15208870 Victor in CT said:
Quote:
just saying no. Parcells got wind of it and told Al Davis, who said he'd "take care of it". Davis then told Jimmy the Greek, how spilled it on the NFL Today that the Giants were pursuing him. Young and the Mars went into complete denial mode after that. It's in Parcells' book.


Back atcha buddy. I vaguely recall that in BP’s book. The thing is, Young was stubborn as hell, do you think he would have cared if Schnellenberger had said yes? Just asking as I have no idea.
Maybe a “YES” would have led to three or four.  
Big Blue Blogger : 4/4/2021 8:55 am : link
Just sayin’.
...  
SFGFNCGiantsFan : 4/4/2021 8:59 am : link
Parcells was a great coach here, no doubt. But two things piss me off about him: 1) his dalliance with the Falcons right after XXI. I believe Rozelle had to even get in to squash it & 2) waiting until spring of '91 to call it quits, instead of doing it right after XXV. Yes, I'm aware GY hated BB and would never have hired him, but perhaps if Parcells calls it quits earlier, we don't end up with Thou Who Shall Not Be Named.

All time great coach, but a man who seemingly always had his eye on the next destination.
RE: RE: Happy Easter BB56. Actually there's a little more to it than HS  
Victor in CT : 4/4/2021 9:01 am : link
In comment 15208874 Big Blue '56 said:
Quote:
In comment 15208870 Victor in CT said:


Quote:


just saying no. Parcells got wind of it and told Al Davis, who said he'd "take care of it". Davis then told Jimmy the Greek, how spilled it on the NFL Today that the Giants were pursuing him. Young and the Mars went into complete denial mode after that. It's in Parcells' book.



Back atcha buddy. I vaguely recall that in BP’s book. The thing is, Young was stubborn as hell, do you think he would have cared if Schnellenberger had said yes? Just asking as I have no idea.


very possible. we'll never know, but it all worked out pretty well.
Not sure I see Leonard’s point.  
johnnyb : 4/4/2021 9:11 am : link
Yes, Parcells stayed and won two Super Bowls. All because HS said no? I do not follow the logic. And to take it one step further, saying that retaining BB led to hiring Judge 36 years later is a head scratcher.
Why is it assumed that  
Lines of Scrimmage : 4/4/2021 9:40 am : link
Schellenberger could not have had more success than Parcells?
RE: Why is it assumed that  
SFGFNCGiantsFan : 4/4/2021 9:41 am : link
In comment 15208914 Lines of Scrimmage said:
Quote:
Schellenberger could not have had more success than Parcells?


Sure, he could have, but 2 titles in that era is pretty hard to top.
RE: RE: Why is it assumed that  
Lines of Scrimmage : 4/4/2021 9:48 am : link
In comment 15208919 SFGFNCGiantsFan said:
Quote:
In comment 15208914 Lines of Scrimmage said:


Quote:


Schellenberger could not have had more success than Parcells?



Sure, he could have, but 2 titles in that era is pretty hard to top.


No doubt. Just saying he was a very accomplished coach. Was on the staff for National Championships (Alabama), coached his own NC team and OC for Shula's undefeated team.
Lines of Scrimmage: +1  
Big Blue Blogger : 4/4/2021 10:23 am : link
Lines of Scrimmage said:
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No doubt. Just saying he was a very accomplished coach. Was on the staff for National Championships (Alabama), coached his own NC team and OC for Shula's undefeated team.

Probably fair to say the Giants hired the wrong coordinator from that ‘72 Miami team. Though I doubt Lombardi himself could have done much with the talent Arnsparger had here.
Compare Parcells and Coughlin. Each made the playoffs 5 times in  
Ivan15 : 4/4/2021 10:41 am : link
7 years. Each won 2 Super Bowls. Parcells accomplished that in a 10-year period. I think there were 2 lost seasons due to work stoppages. Coughlin accomplished the same in a 12-year period.

Parcells left voluntarily and left behind an aging but competitive team. Coughlin left kicking and screaming and left behind a talentless disaster, not saying it was his fault, but the Giants still made the playoffs the next season.

We will have to wait along time to have a coach equal to either of them, even if that guy is Joe Judge.
Schnellenberger was a great coach  
US1 Giants : 4/4/2021 10:49 am : link
maybe the Giants get more than the two that Parcell's got, probably not. Schnellenberger probably would not have shafted the Giants as Parcells did on his exit.
Defining moment for the Giants?  
Beer Man : 4/4/2021 11:44 am : link
Schellenberger was a great coach, but we will never know what the team would or would not have accomplished under him. The only thing we can really say about it, is that it opened a door for Bill Parcells.
Schnelleberger gets GY to  
bluepepper : 4/4/2021 2:16 pm : link
take Reggie White instead of Gary Zimmerman in the USFL draft. The rest is history...lol.

Honestly winning two Super Bowls in 5 years especially in an NFC packed with the Niners, Skins and Bears of that era was a mega accomplishment. No way do I think HS would have matched Parcell's record here.
RE: Schnelleberger gets GY to  
SirLoinOfBeef : 4/4/2021 2:25 pm : link
In comment 15209103 bluepepper said:
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take Reggie White instead of Gary Zimmerman in the USFL draft. The rest is history...lol.

Honestly winning two Super Bowls in 5 years especially in an NFC packed with the Niners, Skins and Bears of that era was a mega accomplishment. No way do I think HS would have matched Parcell's record here.


Just not playing against Reggie White every year would have been a victory in itself!
Not really convinced that hurricanes are caused by  
CT Charlie : 4/4/2021 2:59 pm : link
butterflies flapping their wings.
George Young Hated Belichick????  
Samiam : 4/4/2021 5:33 pm : link
Are you sure about the word hated? Young did not think BB had the temperament to handle the NY market especially the media.
I’m not sure he was wrong especially at that time. Look at how BB bailed out on the chance to coach the Jets.

As an aside, why does Parcells get a pass for, what I think was, deliberately screwing the team when he finally did leave. I think his flirting with Atlanta was pretty low class but finally leaving at the start of the exhibit season almost guaranteed a bad season. I don’t know what he told the front office before hand but I suspect he didn’t. From the majority of fans, it seems to me, he gets a pass.
Parcells took crap when he left in '90  
Lines of Scrimmage : 4/4/2021 6:26 pm : link
He actually had open heart surgery and says he was not well. So I am not sure where all that Parcells screwed the Giants came from.

RE: Parcells took crap when he left in '90  
SFGFNCGiantsFan : 4/4/2021 7:06 pm : link
In comment 15209211 Lines of Scrimmage said:
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He actually had open heart surgery and says he was not well. So I am not sure where all that Parcells screwed the Giants came from.


LOS, to me it was the timing. If that surgery took place post XXV, I stand corrected. But he sorta let us holding our dicks in the wind leaving that spring instead of right after the Super Bowl.
RE: RE: Parcells took crap when he left in '90  
Lines of Scrimmage : 4/4/2021 7:12 pm : link
In comment 15209231 SFGFNCGiantsFan said:
Quote:
In comment 15209211 Lines of Scrimmage said:


Quote:


He actually had open heart surgery and says he was not well. So I am not sure where all that Parcells screwed the Giants came from.




LOS, to me it was the timing. If that surgery took place post XXV, I stand corrected. But he sorta let us holding our dicks in the wind leaving that spring instead of right after the Super Bowl.


He may of. We did not have the social media and such. I am sure he had a little resentment from the George Young issue. He had a serious health issue. I will always give him a pass I guess. He got the Giants over the top. LT adored him and I do think many other players just wanted to give everything for him recognizing BB was a genious. Those teams to me were so much about grit, toughness and Bill was the catalyst at least at that time imo.
LOS.  
SFGFNCGiantsFan : 4/4/2021 7:15 pm : link
That's fair. In his Football Life, he said a doctor told him that, if he had a heart attack, his chances of survival was 50-50 & his quality of life wouldn't have been that good if he lived. He was a great coach here without ?. His constant flirtations/timing of his exit just don't sit well with me. The crazy thing is that if cell phones are as common now as they were in '97, he ends up returning instead of going to the Jets.
Sfgf  
Lines of Scrimmage : 4/4/2021 8:29 pm : link
We may see some things differently but I appreciate your thoughts on this.
If Parcells left because he was still mad at Young  
I Love Clams Casino : 4/5/2021 8:38 am : link
then Parcells is a dick.

The team was 3-13-1.....Parcells expected full faith and confidence from the GM of a storied franchise when the fan base is screaming for blood? Parcells couldn't understand the Front Office's position given the circumstances?
RE: George Young Hated Belichick????  
BillKo : 4/5/2021 2:48 pm : link
In comment 15209191 Samiam said:
Quote:
Are you sure about the word hated? Young did not think BB had the temperament to handle the NY market especially the media.


Wasn't there something where BB was dating a secretary - or something to that extent - and GY frowned upon it.

So while he respected BB's football acumen, he wasn't a fan of his ethics. And probably held that against him from being hired...........
take this with a few grains of salt since it's from Parcells' book,  
Victor in CT : 4/5/2021 4:45 pm : link
BUT: in it he claimed that when it became apparent that he had a potentially serious heart issue and had to go for tests, he asked GY if he wanted him to ask BB, Coughlin, to stick around just in case. Claims GY said no on both, and was enphatic that BB was not HC material in his mind. Also claims that GY had his heart set on Handley from the get go, that he liked him because he was a fellow teacher.
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