Bill called me after he was elected into the Hall of Fame and said, “I’d like to go in as a Giant, if you’ll have me.’’ I said, “Of course we’ll have you.’’
You don’t go in as anything in particular, but I think that would have been his choice. Certainly this is where he had his most success and where he’s best known for, and we welcome that.
My father, Wellington, was very fond of him and even when he had moved on to three and four teams after us they still corresponded and still spoke and still had a warm relationship. You have to remember Bill ended a long, long drought for us and so for that reason alone he’ll always have a special place in our hearts, in particular my father’s.
My father loved the way he coached, loved the way he drove the players, and no question he was a personal favorite of his. It was a big thing that he was a Jersey guy, he grew up a Giants fan, that meant a lot to my father. Nothing matched the winning. That was the most endearing quality about him.
At the end of the 1983 season, I think we were 3-12-1, we had an inordinate number of players on injured reserve, we just had no team by the end of the year. General manager George Young really was considering firing Bill and actually had been speaking with Howard Schnellenberger at the time. I still remember to this day George saying to my father and me, “I can’t get him this year but I might be able to get him next year, so let’s go with Bill one more year.’’
George was also sensitive to the fact that it was Bill’s first year and *we had all these guys hurt so maybe he deserves another chance as well. The unknown question is: Had Schnellenberger said yes, what would we have done? Fortunately he didn’t say yes.
It was not always easy because Bill and George didn’t always see eye-to-eye and my father of course loved George so sometimes that got to be a little difficult, but in the end it all worked.
My first impressions of Bill was when he was an assistant with us prior to ’83 and he was just a big, gregarious, personable guy who would joke around, was fun to be around and man, that all changed at the end of the ’83 season. I think he’ll be the first to tell you when you’re about to get fired or sensed you might get fired, it changes something in you. It definitely changed him. He became much more gruff and focused. Hey, that was a fine trade-off as far as I was concerned because it meant we were going to the playoffs and winning Super Bowls.
Bill could be difficult at times. But the greatest thing about him was I went into every game feeling like we had a chance to win and never feeling like we were going to be out-matched by the other coach. I felt like at the very least we were on an even playing field and usually we were already seven points ahead and that’s a pretty rare quality.
When he was with Dallas, that was a little tough to swallow. I remember the last game of Eli Manning’s rookie season, 2004, I saw Bill on the field before the game and I’m talking to him, we were commiserating a little bit and he said, “How you doing?’’ and I said, “Not as good as you,’’ and he said, “Hey, at least you got a quarterback.’’ He had [Tony] Romo at the time but Romo hadn’t played yet, he had no idea what he had. And to me that was kind of Eli’s coming out party, he took us down the field at the end of the game and we win the game.
Is he the greatest coach in Giants history? I don’t want to get into that. The one we got now is pretty good, too. Steve Owen was a great coach and so was Jim Lee Howell so I’ll let the media debate that. Bill’s a Hall of Famer.
I remember being in the locker room after the two Super Bowls and being with my father and I knew how much those games meant to my father. I think that’s probably the most distinctive memory I’ll have, the relationship he and Bill had and the joy they both felt in winning those games.
Wellington was such a GREAT owner and his son John... as they say, the apple didn't fall far from the tree
Imagine a Coughlin run offense and a Parcells run defense.....