Legendary GM George Young earns HOF (the athletic)

never knew this. I thought it was all Rozelle

In comment 15320751 Big Blue '56 said:

Quote:

never knew this. I thought it was all Rozelle

I never heard that either. Not sure if this is revisionist history from John, but every report was it was always Rozelle who jumped in because he needed a strong franchise in NY to help the health of the league. Interesting though. Later Tim Mara heaped all kinds of praise on Young in the Super Bowl presentations.

I appreciate Dan Duggan.

Rozelle brought George Young to Wellington. Wellington agreed and told Rozelle if I bring it up to Tim jr he'll reject it so have someone else do it and you have my agreement. Rozelle being the business and football genius he was used Gifford who was close with Tim jr. Gifford/Scott/Wellington did not "find" George Young and bring him to Rozelle. It was the other way around.

a few years ago about George Young and I'm paraphrasing, but someone with ties to the veterans committee or whoever it is that elects people like Young at this stage when asked why isn't George Young in the HOF?

3 SB's (one Colts, two Giants) and 5 times executive of the year, seems like a lock?

the guy replied something like "he's not in because everyone thinks he's already in"

A shame it's posthumous, but hopefully he has some family who can take pride in this honor.

that it was Tim Mara who wanted a change from what were the normal hiring practices of the Giants at the time, which had been bringing in familiar in-house names to run the team (Alex Webster, Andy Robustelli, etc.)He strongly supported bringing in Young. The shout out after the Super Bowl may have been an on camera, not so subtle dig at the rest of the family.

but I understand why John Mara won't talk about it in this context, is that Wellington didn't find George Young but he did hire him and he took a back seat on football operations after running the team himself for 15 years and having been involved in every aspect of the on field football operation since he was a kid.

It speaks to his character. Not many people could put their ego aside like that for the betterment of the organization. I have worked with several CEO's over the years that chose to burn it to the ground rather than give up their "power".

It's mentioned briefly but again this isn't the article for it, in my opinion the greatest thing Wellington ever did was step in after 1983 and save Parcells. He let George Young run the team even when he cut Phil Simms over Wellington's objections. He let Ernie run the team even when he pushed Kerry Collins aside to draft Eli over Wellington's objections.

Parcells was close with Tim J. they were fairly close in age and temperament but not as much with Wellington. Different personalities, different ages, etc. But Wellington wouldn't let Young fire Parcells. Parcells knew he wanted to and was going to and that's where the bad blood between the two started.

And that he’d be out as head of the football side. Young was still suggested by others. He just went along.

I never knew the story of both Young and Accorsi interviewing for the 49ers job in 79, but both went in knowing Walsh would have final say over personnel

Turned out to be an inflection point for both franchises, and they were very intertwined as rivals through the 80s. We've all heard the story that Walsh wanted to draft Simms in 79. They went on to revolutionize offense, while Giants changed the game on defense with LT

That's pretty much accurate. After 1978 and the fumble (that fumble was the greatest thing ever to happen for Giant fans) Tim J. forced himself and his 50% into the football operation to prevent his uncle from continuing to run the team on the field as he had for 15 years since since Tim J's father Jack died in 1965.

Both sides have tried to take credit for "finding" George Young over the years. Pete Rozelle and his genius deserve all of the credit. After anyone either side had proposed had been rejected by the other side (because they were worried the GM wouldn't be their guy) Rozelle landed on George Young and he knew how to play both sides (using Gifford etc) and a got a deal done.

And I agree with the sentiment that this is very likely John Mara re-writing history by giving Papa Welli credit for Young.