1
00:00:01,280 --> 00:00:05,160
Speaker 1: Welcome to The Giants Huddle, a New York Giants podcast.

2
00:00:05,240 --> 00:00:07,960
Speaker 1: I'm Paul to Tino, and welcome to the Giants Huddle Podcast.

3
00:00:08,200 --> 00:00:11,440
Speaker 1: Today's guests are former Giants general manager Ernie of Corsi

4
00:00:11,560 --> 00:00:14,640
Speaker 1: and former Giants beat writer for The Bergen Record Vinnie Detroni,

5
00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:18,360
Speaker 1: discussing George Young's induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

6
00:00:18,760 --> 00:00:20,760
Speaker 1: But first, I want to remind you that you can

7
00:00:20,800 --> 00:00:23,799
Speaker 1: find the Giants Huddle podcast on Giants dot com, the

8
00:00:23,840 --> 00:00:27,760
Speaker 1: Giants Mobile app, and all your favorite podcast platforms. Find

9
00:00:27,800 --> 00:00:32,519
Speaker 1: all the Giants podcast offerings on giants dot com slash podcasts. First,

10
00:00:32,640 --> 00:00:36,120
Speaker 1: we are joined by former general manager Ernie of Corsi. So, Ernie,

11
00:00:36,280 --> 00:00:39,680
Speaker 1: you probably know George Young better than anybody possibly could.

12
00:00:39,720 --> 00:00:42,640
Speaker 1: Your your time with him goes back to Baltimore. I

13
00:00:42,680 --> 00:00:44,479
Speaker 1: don't know why it took so long for him to

14
00:00:44,520 --> 00:00:46,879
Speaker 1: get into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, But if

15
00:00:46,920 --> 00:00:49,960
Speaker 1: you had had your opportunity to talk to the selectors,

16
00:00:50,479 --> 00:00:53,200
Speaker 1: what would have been your number one pitch to get

17
00:00:53,240 --> 00:00:56,720
Speaker 1: George in there sooner than he finally did. Well, you know,

18
00:00:56,720 --> 00:00:59,640
Speaker 1: I never got hung up on all of that. I

19
00:00:59,640 --> 00:01:02,360
Speaker 1: wish would be alive, but he would have to go

20
00:01:02,400 --> 00:01:05,880
Speaker 1: in nineteen years ago for that to happen. I remember

21
00:01:05,880 --> 00:01:08,600
Speaker 1: when John Mackie took forever to get in and I

22
00:01:08,920 --> 00:01:10,839
Speaker 1: kind of said the same thing you just said. John

23
00:01:10,920 --> 00:01:13,840
Speaker 1: Mackie said, it doesn't matter, I'm in okay. Well, but

24
00:01:13,920 --> 00:01:17,840
Speaker 1: he was alive. I can only talk about George. I mean,

25
00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:21,840
Speaker 1: he and I uh started with the Baltimore Coles. He

26
00:01:21,880 --> 00:01:24,920
Speaker 1: was there about a year and a half before me. Uh.

27
00:01:24,959 --> 00:01:28,400
Speaker 1: And it's ironic that the very first day I was there,

28
00:01:29,800 --> 00:01:32,959
Speaker 1: I was introduced to him. First words out of his mouth,

29
00:01:32,959 --> 00:01:34,960
Speaker 1: where did you go to a reading and writing school?

30
00:01:35,520 --> 00:01:38,000
Speaker 1: I mean, you knew how important education was to George,

31
00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:40,000
Speaker 1: So I told him I went to wait first. He

32
00:01:40,080 --> 00:01:43,720
Speaker 1: accepted that. Uh. That night, I was staying you know,

33
00:01:43,760 --> 00:01:45,920
Speaker 1: I was just relocating, so my family was back in

34
00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:48,800
Speaker 1: State College. I was staying at a motel in York

35
00:01:48,840 --> 00:01:50,920
Speaker 1: Road in Baltimore for six dollars a night, and I

36
00:01:50,960 --> 00:01:55,560
Speaker 1: went to a Rustler's steakhouse or Dollar ninety nine Steaks

37
00:01:55,640 --> 00:01:58,480
Speaker 1: next door. I walked in. They're all benches and Lovey

38
00:01:58,600 --> 00:02:01,920
Speaker 1: and George are sitting here. And I had recognized him

39
00:02:01,960 --> 00:02:03,720
Speaker 1: from just meeting, and of course I knew who he

40
00:02:03,880 --> 00:02:06,880
Speaker 1: was from Kent State. He asked me to join. I

41
00:02:06,920 --> 00:02:09,840
Speaker 1: mean we talked for about two hours. Finally, love he said,

42
00:02:10,080 --> 00:02:12,120
Speaker 1: can you take him home? I've had enough of this.

43
00:02:12,160 --> 00:02:15,480
Speaker 1: So we we talked forever and it was amazing. From

44
00:02:15,520 --> 00:02:19,560
Speaker 1: that night, my first night in the organization on, we

45
00:02:19,840 --> 00:02:23,200
Speaker 1: really became very, very close friends. I don't think um

46
00:02:23,400 --> 00:02:25,560
Speaker 1: obviously when we worked together, but when I was in

47
00:02:25,560 --> 00:02:27,440
Speaker 1: Cleveland and he was at the Giants, I don't think

48
00:02:27,880 --> 00:02:30,480
Speaker 1: too many days went by, maybe two they didn't. We

49
00:02:30,520 --> 00:02:34,440
Speaker 1: didn't talk. Um he did everything you can do. UH

50
00:02:34,800 --> 00:02:37,519
Speaker 1: he was and everything he did he did at a

51
00:02:37,639 --> 00:02:41,160
Speaker 1: level of excellence. He was a terrific football player at

52
00:02:41,160 --> 00:02:45,400
Speaker 1: Bucknell and High School. UM. He was a great teacher

53
00:02:45,960 --> 00:02:48,920
Speaker 1: in junior high school's first job. He was one of

54
00:02:48,919 --> 00:02:51,720
Speaker 1: the best high school football coaches at two different schools,

55
00:02:51,720 --> 00:02:56,040
Speaker 1: Covert Hall in City College High School in Maryland football history.

56
00:02:56,680 --> 00:03:00,440
Speaker 1: UM he was a great scout. He coached the offensive

57
00:03:00,480 --> 00:03:03,359
Speaker 1: line in nineteen seventy because they let the offensive line

58
00:03:03,360 --> 00:03:07,880
Speaker 1: coach go after two games. Um and coached and helped

59
00:03:07,880 --> 00:03:09,639
Speaker 1: coach the team into the Super Bowl and win the

60
00:03:09,680 --> 00:03:13,240
Speaker 1: Super Bowl. Went back to be a personel director UH

61
00:03:13,280 --> 00:03:18,240
Speaker 1: and then later became a general manager, UH, and then

62
00:03:18,440 --> 00:03:23,880
Speaker 1: became an executive. He was a trustee, UM counselor to Mr.

63
00:03:23,960 --> 00:03:26,880
Speaker 1: Tackle Boo was going in with him. So there wasn't

64
00:03:26,880 --> 00:03:28,960
Speaker 1: anything George did that he didn't do. It a level

65
00:03:28,960 --> 00:03:32,200
Speaker 1: of accidents and above all which I benefited from and

66
00:03:32,200 --> 00:03:36,559
Speaker 1: everybody else who worked with him or for him benefited from.

67
00:03:36,600 --> 00:03:38,960
Speaker 1: He was a tremendous teacher and he was able to

68
00:03:39,000 --> 00:03:43,920
Speaker 1: teach UH in a way that was you know, not threatening,

69
00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:47,800
Speaker 1: not dictatorial. Uh. You know, And I said in my

70
00:03:47,920 --> 00:03:50,760
Speaker 1: statement that there you know, there isn't a day that

71
00:03:50,800 --> 00:03:53,440
Speaker 1: goes by I don't think about him. And there isn't

72
00:03:53,440 --> 00:03:55,120
Speaker 1: a day I go by that I don't think about

73
00:03:55,120 --> 00:03:58,400
Speaker 1: something that he taught me. So in nineteen seventy, when

74
00:03:58,480 --> 00:04:00,760
Speaker 1: you're the pr guy with the coal and he is

75
00:04:00,800 --> 00:04:03,720
Speaker 1: working in various positions on the staff, including the offensive

76
00:04:03,720 --> 00:04:07,120
Speaker 1: line coach, is there anything that tipped you off then

77
00:04:07,480 --> 00:04:09,800
Speaker 1: that he would wind up having what would be a

78
00:04:09,840 --> 00:04:12,560
Speaker 1: Hall of fame career in so many various roles in

79
00:04:12,600 --> 00:04:17,080
Speaker 1: the NFL. Well, the only thing was that I tell

80
00:04:17,480 --> 00:04:20,760
Speaker 1: two stories about it, that he when you know, the

81
00:04:21,080 --> 00:04:24,240
Speaker 1: staff wanted somebody else into the offensive line coach and

82
00:04:24,320 --> 00:04:26,679
Speaker 1: I think they were a little threatened by George's intellect,

83
00:04:26,800 --> 00:04:29,360
Speaker 1: to be honest with you. Uh, And he wasn't one

84
00:04:29,360 --> 00:04:31,960
Speaker 1: of them. He wasn't a lifetime coach at the pro

85
00:04:32,080 --> 00:04:36,640
Speaker 1: level or even collegiate level. So they kind of expressed

86
00:04:36,640 --> 00:04:38,520
Speaker 1: that they wanted to hire Red Miller, who was a

87
00:04:38,520 --> 00:04:41,000
Speaker 1: great offensive line coach. So George went back to be

88
00:04:41,040 --> 00:04:45,120
Speaker 1: a player personnel director. Two years later, the tea was sold,

89
00:04:45,200 --> 00:04:48,200
Speaker 1: Joe Thomas was a general manager. He fired the coaching

90
00:04:48,279 --> 00:04:51,159
Speaker 1: staff and brought in Howard Snellenberger and George he elected

91
00:04:51,200 --> 00:04:54,200
Speaker 1: to leave that job to go back to coach the

92
00:04:54,240 --> 00:04:57,240
Speaker 1: offensive line. And I said to him, you know, are

93
00:04:57,240 --> 00:04:59,240
Speaker 1: you nuts? I said, you're on a track to become

94
00:04:59,279 --> 00:05:03,280
Speaker 1: general manager or general manager in this league and maybe

95
00:05:03,320 --> 00:05:05,919
Speaker 1: here why are you going back to coach? And I

96
00:05:05,920 --> 00:05:08,640
Speaker 1: remember he told me, said the best job in this

97
00:05:08,720 --> 00:05:10,400
Speaker 1: league as a head coach, and that was what he

98
00:05:10,400 --> 00:05:11,760
Speaker 1: had his eye on. And he was a coach. He

99
00:05:11,800 --> 00:05:14,120
Speaker 1: had been a coach in high school, so you know,

100
00:05:14,240 --> 00:05:18,320
Speaker 1: he that was his calling in his mind. But I

101
00:05:18,360 --> 00:05:20,159
Speaker 1: will say, I will tell you a story from Super

102
00:05:20,160 --> 00:05:25,400
Speaker 1: Bowl five. Uh, that's so revealing. You get two weeks

103
00:05:25,440 --> 00:05:28,520
Speaker 1: before the Super Bowl he was the offensive line coach.

104
00:05:29,000 --> 00:05:32,000
Speaker 1: Dallas had created. Landry had created what they called the

105
00:05:32,080 --> 00:05:36,640
Speaker 1: flex defense, which is very simply explained that the left

106
00:05:36,640 --> 00:05:39,200
Speaker 1: defensive end would be on the line of scrimmage, the

107
00:05:39,320 --> 00:05:43,159
Speaker 1: left defensive tackle is a yard back, the right defensive

108
00:05:43,200 --> 00:05:45,360
Speaker 1: tackle is on the line of scrimmage, and the right

109
00:05:45,400 --> 00:05:48,520
Speaker 1: defensive end as a yard back. That's how they played it.

110
00:05:48,920 --> 00:05:51,520
Speaker 1: They always played it. It kind of threw everybody off

111
00:05:51,640 --> 00:05:55,320
Speaker 1: because no one else played it. So they're preparing and

112
00:05:55,360 --> 00:05:57,200
Speaker 1: I was in the meeting room with him. In those days,

113
00:05:57,200 --> 00:05:59,800
Speaker 1: there were five people in the front office, so we

114
00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:03,920
Speaker 1: all did everything from personnel to pr to travel to everything.

115
00:06:04,240 --> 00:06:07,200
Speaker 1: So I'm listening to him talk to the staff and said,

116
00:06:08,360 --> 00:06:10,760
Speaker 1: what are we gonna do if they invert the flex?

117
00:06:11,800 --> 00:06:15,279
Speaker 1: Meaning the left left defensive end is a yard off

118
00:06:15,320 --> 00:06:17,600
Speaker 1: the left defensive fact that goes to the line of scrimmage.

119
00:06:17,920 --> 00:06:21,200
Speaker 1: It's just the opposite as I described it. And the

120
00:06:21,240 --> 00:06:25,480
Speaker 1: coaches said, forget it. They've ever invert the flex, And

121
00:06:25,520 --> 00:06:28,000
Speaker 1: George said, fine, but what are we going to do

122
00:06:28,080 --> 00:06:31,360
Speaker 1: if they do? They wouldn't hear of it. Guess what

123
00:06:32,680 --> 00:06:36,880
Speaker 1: they come out They had introverted the foot flex. I'm

124
00:06:36,920 --> 00:06:39,400
Speaker 1: telling you we couldn't get an inch on the ground

125
00:06:39,440 --> 00:06:42,200
Speaker 1: the whole game. And the only reason we wanted is

126
00:06:42,240 --> 00:06:44,640
Speaker 1: we intercepted three passes and finally got to the goal

127
00:06:44,720 --> 00:06:48,840
Speaker 1: line and Tom Mwatsky, who waited about two pounds is

128
00:06:48,960 --> 00:06:50,960
Speaker 1: willed his way into the end zone. We could we

129
00:06:51,000 --> 00:06:53,000
Speaker 1: had the ball into two yard line, couldn't score. We

130
00:06:53,160 --> 00:06:57,200
Speaker 1: couldn't gain an inch because we were not prepared for that.

131
00:06:57,279 --> 00:07:00,360
Speaker 1: So that seems simple. But when you get your running

132
00:07:00,400 --> 00:07:03,800
Speaker 1: game and your offensive line movement and your pools and

133
00:07:03,880 --> 00:07:06,839
Speaker 1: everything else, your traps to that flex defense, which was

134
00:07:06,839 --> 00:07:11,720
Speaker 1: confusing enough, and they go opposite, that throws you off.

135
00:07:12,600 --> 00:07:14,640
Speaker 1: And I remember, I mean, this is my first year

136
00:07:14,640 --> 00:07:16,920
Speaker 1: in the league and I'm just getting to know George,

137
00:07:16,960 --> 00:07:20,600
Speaker 1: and I just remember thinking, you know, what a thinker

138
00:07:20,680 --> 00:07:23,880
Speaker 1: this guy is. And I always thought, you know, he

139
00:07:23,920 --> 00:07:26,040
Speaker 1: was going to be a general manager. He wanted to

140
00:07:26,040 --> 00:07:28,720
Speaker 1: be a head coach. As it turns out, yeah, he

141
00:07:28,760 --> 00:07:31,920
Speaker 1: did become a great general manager. Now, of course, you

142
00:07:31,960 --> 00:07:34,760
Speaker 1: know you later were a GM with the Colts and

143
00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:37,360
Speaker 1: with the Browns as well, and you mentioned that you

144
00:07:37,440 --> 00:07:40,080
Speaker 1: never stopped talking to George, But yet I don't ever

145
00:07:40,160 --> 00:07:42,920
Speaker 1: remember you making a trade with him. What were those

146
00:07:42,920 --> 00:07:46,600
Speaker 1: conversations like And did you guys ever talk about trading personnel.

147
00:07:47,560 --> 00:07:51,960
Speaker 1: I wasn't much of a trader veterans trader, but we

148
00:07:52,040 --> 00:07:56,239
Speaker 1: had conversations like this. I would ask him, for example,

149
00:07:56,240 --> 00:07:58,680
Speaker 1: if a player was coming up for contract, and I

150
00:07:58,720 --> 00:08:01,720
Speaker 1: did this with you know Usen. Let's be honest. You

151
00:08:01,720 --> 00:08:04,280
Speaker 1: don't trust everybody in the league, and a very few

152
00:08:04,280 --> 00:08:07,520
Speaker 1: people you trust. I trusted George. I trust Kevin Culport

153
00:08:07,520 --> 00:08:10,040
Speaker 1: of the Steelers. And I'll give you an example the

154
00:08:10,120 --> 00:08:14,400
Speaker 1: kind of conversations I had with George. They had. Plexico

155
00:08:14,520 --> 00:08:17,520
Speaker 1: was coming up for contract and I called Kevin and said,

156
00:08:17,680 --> 00:08:20,239
Speaker 1: are you going to resign him? If he said yes,

157
00:08:20,440 --> 00:08:23,440
Speaker 1: the conversation was over. He said, no, I can't. I

158
00:08:23,480 --> 00:08:26,160
Speaker 1: gotta sign Hines Warden. I don't have enough room. Then

159
00:08:26,200 --> 00:08:30,680
Speaker 1: I asked him about Plexico and my virtue of what

160
00:08:30,760 --> 00:08:33,920
Speaker 1: he told me about Plexico, That's why I signed him.

161
00:08:33,960 --> 00:08:37,520
Speaker 1: I had conversations like that with George, and George had

162
00:08:37,559 --> 00:08:41,280
Speaker 1: those conversations with me. We drafted before I became general

163
00:08:41,280 --> 00:08:44,319
Speaker 1: manager of linebacker named Johnny Cooks who played for Giants.

164
00:08:44,640 --> 00:08:46,880
Speaker 1: He called me when I was in Cleveland. He said,

165
00:08:46,880 --> 00:08:49,079
Speaker 1: are you gonna sign Johnny Cooks. I said, no, we

166
00:08:49,200 --> 00:08:53,040
Speaker 1: got four linebackers. Now, we had Cousino, Chip Banks, you know,

167
00:08:53,200 --> 00:08:56,520
Speaker 1: Detti Johnson. We were loaded a linebacker, Clay Matthews. I

168
00:08:56,600 --> 00:08:59,000
Speaker 1: said no. He said, okay, tell me about him. Okay.

169
00:08:59,040 --> 00:09:01,960
Speaker 1: If I would have said interested in signing him, he

170
00:09:01,960 --> 00:09:05,240
Speaker 1: would have dropped the subject. And we really never trade it.

171
00:09:05,280 --> 00:09:08,600
Speaker 1: I mean, Georgeton trade that much either, and I didn't,

172
00:09:08,880 --> 00:09:11,520
Speaker 1: So there weren't really you know, you didn't trade that

173
00:09:11,640 --> 00:09:13,920
Speaker 1: much unless you were trading draft choices in those days,

174
00:09:14,880 --> 00:09:17,960
Speaker 1: which is still mostly trading his trading draft choices. So

175
00:09:18,120 --> 00:09:21,840
Speaker 1: if conversations went went like that, we talked about everything.

176
00:09:21,840 --> 00:09:24,400
Speaker 1: But we never crossed the line. Even though we were

177
00:09:24,440 --> 00:09:27,599
Speaker 1: in the same conference. We came within one game of

178
00:09:27,679 --> 00:09:30,200
Speaker 1: playing in the Super Bowl and six, I mean I

179
00:09:30,240 --> 00:09:32,280
Speaker 1: came with over a time of playing in the Super

180
00:09:32,320 --> 00:09:35,600
Speaker 1: Bowl with him six And I'll never forget this, you know.

181
00:09:35,600 --> 00:09:37,679
Speaker 1: I met my desk about eight o'clock in the morning

182
00:09:37,760 --> 00:09:40,640
Speaker 1: that day, and George was a man of a few words.

183
00:09:41,640 --> 00:09:44,200
Speaker 1: In my phone rings, my private line, it's it's George,

184
00:09:44,240 --> 00:09:47,400
Speaker 1: and always says is I hope we're happy. I hope

185
00:09:47,400 --> 00:09:49,280
Speaker 1: we're both happy. At the end of this day. Of

186
00:09:49,320 --> 00:09:53,320
Speaker 1: course he was. I wasn't, but you know that that

187
00:09:53,440 --> 00:09:57,719
Speaker 1: was how our relationship went. Ernie, you come on as

188
00:09:57,760 --> 00:10:01,000
Speaker 1: an assistant to George, he's the general manager. How quickly

189
00:10:01,040 --> 00:10:02,959
Speaker 1: did it take you to accept that offer when you

190
00:10:03,040 --> 00:10:05,800
Speaker 1: got the phone call from him? Not quickly. And I'll

191
00:10:05,800 --> 00:10:08,480
Speaker 1: tell you why. I the reason I left the Browns.

192
00:10:08,800 --> 00:10:10,720
Speaker 1: And a lot of people say, well, you know you

193
00:10:10,760 --> 00:10:12,960
Speaker 1: didn't get along with Belichick. I got I hired Belichick.

194
00:10:13,480 --> 00:10:16,520
Speaker 1: I had no problem. But my mother, I'm an only child.

195
00:10:16,559 --> 00:10:21,040
Speaker 1: My mother was Ailien and she was going downhill in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

196
00:10:21,400 --> 00:10:25,040
Speaker 1: For me, Cleveland was, you know, the West. I had

197
00:10:25,040 --> 00:10:28,800
Speaker 1: never lived anywhere but in the circle of Baltimore State College,

198
00:10:28,840 --> 00:10:32,720
Speaker 1: Philadelphia and Hershey, p a And except to go to college.

199
00:10:33,160 --> 00:10:36,880
Speaker 1: And I wanted to come back east. And the Roselle

200
00:10:36,880 --> 00:10:39,200
Speaker 1: was not the commission but he told me it's very

201
00:10:39,280 --> 00:10:42,680
Speaker 1: likely Baltimore is getting an expansion team. The governor hired

202
00:10:42,720 --> 00:10:47,560
Speaker 1: me to interview prospective owners, and I felt, look, I'm

203
00:10:47,559 --> 00:10:49,360
Speaker 1: fo'm doing that. I got a pretty good chance of

204
00:10:49,440 --> 00:10:51,320
Speaker 1: being the general manager. And to me, it was like

205
00:10:51,400 --> 00:10:54,120
Speaker 1: coming home. That's why I left. Well, we didn't get

206
00:10:54,160 --> 00:10:57,319
Speaker 1: the team we lost to Jacksonville, so I had nothing going.

207
00:10:57,920 --> 00:11:01,360
Speaker 1: But during that period when I sold wheats and club

208
00:11:01,440 --> 00:11:05,040
Speaker 1: seats around town to show our strength and being able

209
00:11:05,080 --> 00:11:08,640
Speaker 1: to sell out a stadium, which we did, I did

210
00:11:08,760 --> 00:11:11,960
Speaker 1: so with with Peter Angelois of the Orioles, and he

211
00:11:12,080 --> 00:11:15,080
Speaker 1: hired me and I was really happy, and George knew

212
00:11:15,120 --> 00:11:17,880
Speaker 1: I was happy. I was in baseball, which I love. Look,

213
00:11:17,920 --> 00:11:20,480
Speaker 1: my pension was never going to be the same. I

214
00:11:20,520 --> 00:11:22,319
Speaker 1: love the National Football League, but I figured, you know,

215
00:11:22,360 --> 00:11:24,240
Speaker 1: a lot I was. I was in the league thirty years,

216
00:11:24,800 --> 00:11:28,160
Speaker 1: so be it twenty five years. At that point, I'm happy.

217
00:11:28,320 --> 00:11:31,120
Speaker 1: You know, they liked me with the Orioles, and George

218
00:11:31,160 --> 00:11:34,199
Speaker 1: did that. He came down to games and we talked

219
00:11:34,200 --> 00:11:38,640
Speaker 1: a lot. So he got sick, is your recall, and

220
00:11:39,120 --> 00:11:41,400
Speaker 1: a lot of his weight problem was due to stress.

221
00:11:42,120 --> 00:11:45,240
Speaker 1: And uh, they told her, look, you can continue to work,

222
00:11:45,320 --> 00:11:48,240
Speaker 1: but you got to drop the contracts for very few

223
00:11:48,760 --> 00:11:50,840
Speaker 1: and you can't be traveling all over the country scouting.

224
00:11:51,120 --> 00:11:56,120
Speaker 1: So he brought me up basically to do that work. Um,

225
00:11:56,160 --> 00:11:58,559
Speaker 1: but you know, I mean, I was making a lot

226
00:11:58,559 --> 00:12:00,920
Speaker 1: of money in battleware, but I can get George wasn't

227
00:12:00,920 --> 00:12:04,320
Speaker 1: offered me much either, So moving to New York. You know,

228
00:12:04,400 --> 00:12:06,600
Speaker 1: I I thought about it long and hard. I was

229
00:12:06,760 --> 00:12:11,880
Speaker 1: very comfortable and I just wasn't sure. Um, but then

230
00:12:11,920 --> 00:12:14,160
Speaker 1: I thought yeah, And I think on the look, there

231
00:12:14,160 --> 00:12:16,600
Speaker 1: were two reasons I took it. One was the strength

232
00:12:16,600 --> 00:12:20,000
Speaker 1: of our relationship and friendship. At number two, I was

233
00:12:20,040 --> 00:12:22,760
Speaker 1: going to the Giants. Now, I wouldn't have gone anywhere else,

234
00:12:23,120 --> 00:12:25,640
Speaker 1: but I knew Wellington Mara. I didn't know John, I

235
00:12:25,640 --> 00:12:28,679
Speaker 1: didn't know Bobtish, but I knew enough about the organization

236
00:12:29,000 --> 00:12:31,480
Speaker 1: to know that, Look, if you're gonna work someplace and

237
00:12:31,600 --> 00:12:33,400
Speaker 1: you have your choice, that's where you want to work.

238
00:12:33,920 --> 00:12:35,920
Speaker 1: So that's how it happened. But it was not an

239
00:12:35,960 --> 00:12:38,840
Speaker 1: easy decision. And George knew it because I remember when

240
00:12:38,880 --> 00:12:41,480
Speaker 1: George first brought it up, and you know how he was.

241
00:12:41,600 --> 00:12:45,120
Speaker 1: He wouldn't there was no small talk. He didn't open

242
00:12:45,120 --> 00:12:47,520
Speaker 1: the conversation with jeez, how are you doing. But you

243
00:12:47,559 --> 00:12:53,120
Speaker 1: know he calls that day and he said, I don't

244
00:12:53,120 --> 00:12:56,320
Speaker 1: want to ruin your life. That sounds started okay to

245
00:12:56,360 --> 00:12:59,560
Speaker 1: bring me back into the pressure cooker. But uh that

246
00:12:59,679 --> 00:13:03,000
Speaker 1: was and uh that's why I left. So when you

247
00:13:03,080 --> 00:13:05,440
Speaker 1: finally took the job, to be as assistant GM with

248
00:13:05,480 --> 00:13:08,280
Speaker 1: the Giants. Was there anything you learned about George after

249
00:13:08,360 --> 00:13:11,559
Speaker 1: being in that position that you didn't know about him before.

250
00:13:12,760 --> 00:13:15,400
Speaker 1: I wasn't shocked by it, but I mean I had

251
00:13:15,440 --> 00:13:18,600
Speaker 1: never worked for him. We we were, you know, we

252
00:13:18,600 --> 00:13:22,200
Speaker 1: were equals in Baltimore, and then we both became general

253
00:13:22,240 --> 00:13:25,800
Speaker 1: managers about the same time. Uh, we were making I

254
00:13:25,800 --> 00:13:28,680
Speaker 1: remember we were making the same salary in Baltimore fourteen

255
00:13:28,679 --> 00:13:30,600
Speaker 1: thousand and he used to tell me, I've been here

256
00:13:30,600 --> 00:13:32,960
Speaker 1: two years longer than you, I should be making more

257
00:13:33,000 --> 00:13:35,280
Speaker 1: money than you. And we used a kid about that.

258
00:13:36,559 --> 00:13:39,680
Speaker 1: What I was. I was very important to me that,

259
00:13:39,920 --> 00:13:43,679
Speaker 1: having been a colleague and a friend and uh all

260
00:13:43,720 --> 00:13:46,959
Speaker 1: these years, that I treated him like a boss. When

261
00:13:46,960 --> 00:13:48,920
Speaker 1: I came to New York, I could not. I was

262
00:13:49,080 --> 00:13:51,560
Speaker 1: not going to come in there palsy, wowsy. It wasn't

263
00:13:51,600 --> 00:13:55,160
Speaker 1: fair to him. He was the vicar of this franchise

264
00:13:56,200 --> 00:13:59,640
Speaker 1: in the football end, and I didn't want anyone else

265
00:13:59,679 --> 00:14:02,960
Speaker 1: to me in any way, you know, treat him like

266
00:14:03,240 --> 00:14:06,800
Speaker 1: we were equals. I wanted to make sure that I

267
00:14:06,800 --> 00:14:09,480
Speaker 1: paid him the proper homage as the boss, and not

268
00:14:09,559 --> 00:14:13,760
Speaker 1: only the boss, but eminently successful general manager. So I

269
00:14:13,840 --> 00:14:16,120
Speaker 1: treated him that way. On the one thing I do

270
00:14:16,240 --> 00:14:19,240
Speaker 1: remember though, that you know, we didn't do in Baltimore together,

271
00:14:19,280 --> 00:14:22,040
Speaker 1: and then I didn't work with him. Was yelling, the

272
00:14:22,040 --> 00:14:25,200
Speaker 1: screaming at agents. I used to have a you know,

273
00:14:25,280 --> 00:14:27,120
Speaker 1: I used to laugh like heck. I don't know if

274
00:14:27,120 --> 00:14:29,440
Speaker 1: you ever saw our quarters in the gym Nail Gymnasium

275
00:14:29,560 --> 00:14:33,440
Speaker 1: Fairley Dickinson, but they were cramped and we had some holdouts.

276
00:14:33,400 --> 00:14:36,000
Speaker 1: I remember Keith Hamilton held out and we were going

277
00:14:36,040 --> 00:14:37,960
Speaker 1: to Berlin and he was trying to get the science

278
00:14:37,960 --> 00:14:39,480
Speaker 1: so we could go to Berlin, which you never did

279
00:14:39,520 --> 00:14:42,720
Speaker 1: go to Berlin. And he is screaming at that agent,

280
00:14:43,320 --> 00:14:46,560
Speaker 1: I mean, and he's rattling the walls, you know, And

281
00:14:46,600 --> 00:14:49,760
Speaker 1: I said, jeeus, isn't George I remember in Baltimore. So

282
00:14:49,840 --> 00:14:52,800
Speaker 1: that part of it, yeah, you know, But but because

283
00:14:52,800 --> 00:14:55,400
Speaker 1: he was in charge then, you know, and uh And

284
00:14:55,480 --> 00:14:58,800
Speaker 1: of course the last forty eight hours, I've thought of

285
00:14:58,920 --> 00:15:03,000
Speaker 1: so any stories, uh that, so many things that he

286
00:15:03,040 --> 00:15:06,880
Speaker 1: taught me. They all come flowing back. But it coming

287
00:15:06,920 --> 00:15:10,080
Speaker 1: back to work for him. At that point in my life.

288
00:15:10,120 --> 00:15:13,600
Speaker 1: I'm in my fifties. I've been a general manager for

289
00:15:14,640 --> 00:15:19,160
Speaker 1: twelve ten years, been to five playoffs, and now coming

290
00:15:19,200 --> 00:15:21,160
Speaker 1: back to work for him, it was it was like

291
00:15:21,360 --> 00:15:23,520
Speaker 1: someone going back to Harvard to get their n b A.

292
00:15:23,680 --> 00:15:25,760
Speaker 1: I mean, you know now now I had a chance

293
00:15:25,800 --> 00:15:29,000
Speaker 1: to work for the best um. So it was it

294
00:15:29,080 --> 00:15:31,280
Speaker 1: was a great treat. And you know, I really value

295
00:15:31,280 --> 00:15:34,680
Speaker 1: of those four years before I became general manager. First

296
00:15:34,680 --> 00:15:37,520
Speaker 1: of all, the pressure was on him, not me. That

297
00:15:37,600 --> 00:15:40,520
Speaker 1: made it easier. I could sleep a little better. But secondly,

298
00:15:40,640 --> 00:15:43,320
Speaker 1: it was such a joy to work with him. Ernie,

299
00:15:43,360 --> 00:15:45,520
Speaker 1: let me ask you this, when you then became the

300
00:15:45,560 --> 00:15:48,400
Speaker 1: Giants general manager, you have said there's not a day

301
00:15:48,560 --> 00:15:50,280
Speaker 1: or a week goes by that you don't think about

302
00:15:50,320 --> 00:15:52,280
Speaker 1: something that he said or that he taught you. And

303
00:15:52,320 --> 00:15:55,480
Speaker 1: the Giants people, including John Mara, the Giants co owner, says,

304
00:15:55,520 --> 00:15:59,920
Speaker 1: the same thing is that one particular item that reverberates

305
00:16:00,080 --> 00:16:05,440
Speaker 1: more than others professionalism. And you know, he taught me

306
00:16:05,520 --> 00:16:08,840
Speaker 1: this lesson and I saw it, you know, in action

307
00:16:08,920 --> 00:16:11,400
Speaker 1: every day, but when I worked for him, But he

308
00:16:11,480 --> 00:16:15,480
Speaker 1: taught me this lesson early in my career in Baltimore. Now,

309
00:16:15,600 --> 00:16:18,320
Speaker 1: you you know, you kind of are shaped by the

310
00:16:18,400 --> 00:16:21,040
Speaker 1: one person, usually one person, sometimes it's more than one.

311
00:16:21,840 --> 00:16:26,000
Speaker 1: In your profession that got you first, and kind of

312
00:16:26,080 --> 00:16:30,280
Speaker 1: you idolized or used as an inspiration. I came to

313
00:16:30,320 --> 00:16:33,920
Speaker 1: Baltimore from Kent State, Okay, so, uh, I'm working for

314
00:16:33,960 --> 00:16:38,520
Speaker 1: this fist fisty little guy Paterno, and who you know,

315
00:16:38,960 --> 00:16:41,400
Speaker 1: was not quiet on the sidelines. It was not quiet

316
00:16:41,800 --> 00:16:45,680
Speaker 1: in the offices. Uh, a little bit of a temper.

317
00:16:45,840 --> 00:16:47,640
Speaker 1: And so I thought, that's the way you act if

318
00:16:47,680 --> 00:16:50,520
Speaker 1: you're a leader, okay. And and I would be in

319
00:16:50,560 --> 00:16:52,280
Speaker 1: the press box and i'd sit with George. I mean

320
00:16:52,320 --> 00:16:55,080
Speaker 1: this is when he was hot coaching, and you know,

321
00:16:55,120 --> 00:16:57,320
Speaker 1: you didn't have any booths or sweets in Baltimore. And

322
00:16:57,600 --> 00:16:59,360
Speaker 1: we're in the back room of the press box and

323
00:16:59,720 --> 00:17:01,560
Speaker 1: you know, be a call that I wouldn't make a scene,

324
00:17:01,600 --> 00:17:05,399
Speaker 1: but I'd be complaining and whining and and sometimes maybe

325
00:17:05,440 --> 00:17:07,680
Speaker 1: a little too loudly where the writers could hear me.

326
00:17:08,400 --> 00:17:12,399
Speaker 1: And one day he said to me, act professional, will you,

327
00:17:13,160 --> 00:17:14,560
Speaker 1: and and that you know, he was a man of

328
00:17:14,640 --> 00:17:17,880
Speaker 1: few words, and that really stung me. He said, you're

329
00:17:17,880 --> 00:17:20,800
Speaker 1: not working for the guy in that state anymore. You're

330
00:17:20,800 --> 00:17:24,040
Speaker 1: working here in the Baltimore colt Be professional. And you know,

331
00:17:24,080 --> 00:17:26,680
Speaker 1: I really thought that all the way through the time.

332
00:17:26,680 --> 00:17:29,040
Speaker 1: When I got back with him, he he was very

333
00:17:29,080 --> 00:17:32,719
Speaker 1: professional as Dean or you know, he would never I

334
00:17:32,760 --> 00:17:35,360
Speaker 1: sat with him during games. He wouldn't say a work,

335
00:17:36,160 --> 00:17:38,280
Speaker 1: He wouldn't say a word of something. You might hear

336
00:17:38,320 --> 00:17:41,439
Speaker 1: a little like sound coming out of his body, but

337
00:17:41,560 --> 00:17:44,199
Speaker 1: you but I said to him once, you know that

338
00:17:44,280 --> 00:17:46,040
Speaker 1: was a horrible call. He said, I know, I said,

339
00:17:47,040 --> 00:17:48,840
Speaker 1: you will say that. He said what difference would have

340
00:17:48,880 --> 00:17:52,399
Speaker 1: it made? And and that you know, that was him

341
00:17:52,440 --> 00:17:55,399
Speaker 1: and that was pretty much. Look, I learned a lot

342
00:17:55,440 --> 00:17:57,760
Speaker 1: of things on how to build a team. I mean, listen,

343
00:17:57,800 --> 00:17:59,879
Speaker 1: we we we both got the Baltimore and you know

344
00:18:00,080 --> 00:18:02,120
Speaker 1: this was the quarterback. Now you don't think that we

345
00:18:02,119 --> 00:18:05,000
Speaker 1: were gonna then mold our career around the importance of

346
00:18:05,000 --> 00:18:08,080
Speaker 1: the quarterback obviously, and the next thing we we you know,

347
00:18:08,119 --> 00:18:11,400
Speaker 1: we knew that was vile. Was besides protecting that quarterback

348
00:18:11,720 --> 00:18:13,840
Speaker 1: is a pass rush. So he comes up here, he

349
00:18:13,960 --> 00:18:17,600
Speaker 1: drafts Phil Simms and he drafts Lawrence Taylor. Okay, so

350
00:18:17,880 --> 00:18:20,320
Speaker 1: he gets a quarterback who wins the Super Bowl in

351
00:18:20,359 --> 00:18:23,520
Speaker 1: the best pass rusher I ever saw. So so our

352
00:18:23,520 --> 00:18:26,600
Speaker 1: philosophy was very similar when it came to that, how

353
00:18:26,600 --> 00:18:30,119
Speaker 1: do you build a team, Ernie. That is awesome stuff.

354
00:18:30,160 --> 00:18:32,800
Speaker 1: Appreciate it. It was really awesome talking to you again.

355
00:18:32,920 --> 00:18:36,399
Speaker 1: And great memories. And I'm sure that everybody who listens

356
00:18:36,640 --> 00:18:38,480
Speaker 1: we'll have a smile on their faces they relive this

357
00:18:38,520 --> 00:18:41,280
Speaker 1: stuff with you. Thank you so much, my pleasure, Thanks you,

358
00:18:41,560 --> 00:18:44,760
Speaker 1: thanks for asking me. That's Giants general manager Ernie a coursie.

359
00:18:45,000 --> 00:18:47,440
Speaker 1: Now we are joined by Vinnie Detroni, former writer for

360
00:18:47,480 --> 00:18:49,679
Speaker 1: the Bergen Record who was on the Giants bad for

361
00:18:49,760 --> 00:18:52,000
Speaker 1: over three decades. He's been a finalist for the Pro

362
00:18:52,040 --> 00:18:55,440
Speaker 1: Football of Fame Writer's Wing many times. And of course

363
00:18:55,480 --> 00:18:58,560
Speaker 1: we are here to talk about the election of George Young,

364
00:18:58,720 --> 00:19:03,160
Speaker 1: former Giants general manager, going into the Pro Football Hall

365
00:19:03,200 --> 00:19:06,080
Speaker 1: of Fame. Thanks for taking the time, Vinny, We got

366
00:19:06,080 --> 00:19:09,720
Speaker 1: some memories to go through. For sure. George, who we're

367
00:19:09,760 --> 00:19:13,960
Speaker 1: talking about here, very modest. George Young, for sure probably

368
00:19:14,000 --> 00:19:16,680
Speaker 1: would appreciate that joke. I just can't say enough about

369
00:19:16,680 --> 00:19:20,160
Speaker 1: the man and the time I spent, you know, covering

370
00:19:20,240 --> 00:19:23,480
Speaker 1: him and uh, you know, talking with him and learning

371
00:19:23,560 --> 00:19:27,800
Speaker 1: from him and just a just a tremendous individual and

372
00:19:27,880 --> 00:19:30,840
Speaker 1: kind of a unique kind of individual. Well, let's talk

373
00:19:30,880 --> 00:19:33,720
Speaker 1: about the beginning, because George Young comes to the Giants

374
00:19:33,800 --> 00:19:37,119
Speaker 1: after a lengthy career with the Colts and the Dolphins,

375
00:19:37,480 --> 00:19:40,960
Speaker 1: and in seventy nine he winds up becoming the Giants GM.

376
00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:42,800
Speaker 1: You'd already been on the beat for a few years,

377
00:19:42,800 --> 00:19:46,000
Speaker 1: and the Giants were having some tough times, to say

378
00:19:46,040 --> 00:19:48,840
Speaker 1: the least. I mean, you know, the fumble kind of

379
00:19:48,920 --> 00:19:52,120
Speaker 1: you know, it was the most embarrassing thing any team

380
00:19:52,119 --> 00:19:55,840
Speaker 1: had gone through. Pretty much. Um. He had two owners

381
00:19:55,880 --> 00:19:57,920
Speaker 1: who didn't talk to one another. They would not talk

382
00:19:57,960 --> 00:20:00,080
Speaker 1: to one another, and they went on this MISSI and

383
00:20:00,200 --> 00:20:03,240
Speaker 1: to find this general manager. And it was going months

384
00:20:03,240 --> 00:20:05,439
Speaker 1: and months. I called it the Marathon because it was

385
00:20:05,480 --> 00:20:08,800
Speaker 1: just it was going on and on and on and

386
00:20:08,800 --> 00:20:13,679
Speaker 1: and and it got into February, and uh, one morning,

387
00:20:13,920 --> 00:20:16,879
Speaker 1: Wellington maracles a press conference at eleven o'clock in the

388
00:20:16,920 --> 00:20:19,960
Speaker 1: morning and announces that he wants to go and get

389
00:20:19,960 --> 00:20:24,000
Speaker 1: a coach because it was getting late. And Timmy came

390
00:20:24,000 --> 00:20:27,000
Speaker 1: down at thirty and said, no, no, we're not going

391
00:20:27,040 --> 00:20:28,720
Speaker 1: to do that. We're gonna get a general manager and

392
00:20:28,760 --> 00:20:31,760
Speaker 1: have him hired a coach. So there was this standoff.

393
00:20:31,800 --> 00:20:34,679
Speaker 1: But both of them had mentioned that earlier in the

394
00:20:34,760 --> 00:20:37,760
Speaker 1: day someone had turned down their request, you know, for

395
00:20:37,840 --> 00:20:40,560
Speaker 1: him to be the general manager. So I assumed there

396
00:20:40,600 --> 00:20:42,520
Speaker 1: was someone on the East Coast because it was early

397
00:20:42,520 --> 00:20:44,640
Speaker 1: in the morning, and it was it was Jan van

398
00:20:44,680 --> 00:20:47,280
Speaker 1: Douser from the league office. But I didn't, you know,

399
00:20:47,320 --> 00:20:49,600
Speaker 1: I thought it was somebody from a team, another team.

400
00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:51,400
Speaker 1: So I went back to the office and I looked

401
00:20:51,400 --> 00:20:54,800
Speaker 1: through all the media guides of teams on the East

402
00:20:54,800 --> 00:20:57,560
Speaker 1: Coast and the East Eastern time zone, and I came

403
00:20:57,600 --> 00:21:00,440
Speaker 1: across George Young in Miami, and I said, this guy

404
00:21:00,480 --> 00:21:03,679
Speaker 1: seems kind of interesting. So I called a friend of

405
00:21:03,680 --> 00:21:06,440
Speaker 1: mine in Miami. I wanted writers, and I said, did

406
00:21:06,440 --> 00:21:08,680
Speaker 1: you hear anything about George Young turned down the Giants?

407
00:21:08,680 --> 00:21:11,479
Speaker 1: He goes, no, but here's his number. You can call

408
00:21:11,560 --> 00:21:14,159
Speaker 1: him and ask him. So he gave me his home number.

409
00:21:14,720 --> 00:21:17,879
Speaker 1: I called George gets on the line and I explained,

410
00:21:17,960 --> 00:21:20,960
Speaker 1: I introduced myself, explained why I was calling, and it

411
00:21:21,080 --> 00:21:23,080
Speaker 1: was his pause, and I thought, oh, I got him.

412
00:21:23,119 --> 00:21:25,200
Speaker 1: He's the guy, you know he turned it down. Then

413
00:21:25,240 --> 00:21:27,439
Speaker 1: next thing, here, how did you get this number? Where'd

414
00:21:27,440 --> 00:21:30,880
Speaker 1: you get this phone number? And he started, you got

415
00:21:30,880 --> 00:21:32,760
Speaker 1: it from you know, you got it from another writer.

416
00:21:32,880 --> 00:21:35,480
Speaker 1: What you people do this? Bubba and he went on

417
00:21:35,600 --> 00:21:39,400
Speaker 1: for about a minute, just railing, and I'm saying to myself,

418
00:21:39,440 --> 00:21:41,960
Speaker 1: please say you turned down the job, because I don't

419
00:21:41,960 --> 00:21:44,120
Speaker 1: want to have to deal with this guy for forever.

420
00:21:44,920 --> 00:21:47,080
Speaker 1: Then he calmed down. He says, Okay, now what do

421
00:21:47,119 --> 00:21:49,520
Speaker 1: you want to know? And I asked him the question

422
00:21:49,560 --> 00:21:52,919
Speaker 1: again and he said, no, it wasn't me. And you know,

423
00:21:53,040 --> 00:21:55,320
Speaker 1: usually I hear these things, but I didn't hear anything.

424
00:21:55,359 --> 00:21:57,600
Speaker 1: And we talked. We actually talked about the job for

425
00:21:57,680 --> 00:22:00,120
Speaker 1: a couple of minutes, and I told him when it's

426
00:22:00,119 --> 00:22:01,679
Speaker 1: gonna be a tough job, because you know, you've got

427
00:22:01,720 --> 00:22:05,399
Speaker 1: two owners who you know, who don't don't talk to

428
00:22:05,440 --> 00:22:07,800
Speaker 1: one another. You've got a losing culture here that's been

429
00:22:07,800 --> 00:22:10,120
Speaker 1: built up for years and years. I was probably trying

430
00:22:10,119 --> 00:22:13,720
Speaker 1: to dissway him from taking it and uh. But then

431
00:22:13,800 --> 00:22:18,000
Speaker 1: a week later there he is at Gallagher's UH Steakhouse

432
00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:21,159
Speaker 1: in New York as general manager and new general manager

433
00:22:21,160 --> 00:22:24,520
Speaker 1: of the Giants. And through the years when George and

434
00:22:24,600 --> 00:22:28,360
Speaker 1: I whenever we got into a little argument Sally or

435
00:22:28,400 --> 00:22:31,399
Speaker 1: you know, we just disagreed on something, I would always say, George,

436
00:22:31,400 --> 00:22:33,960
Speaker 1: remember I called you before the marriage did and he

437
00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:37,040
Speaker 1: would go, yeah, that's right, you did. Yeah, okay. But

438
00:22:37,920 --> 00:22:40,840
Speaker 1: he was just a wonderful guy. I always told people

439
00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:43,280
Speaker 1: he was like the NFL's version of the grin shoe

440
00:22:43,280 --> 00:22:46,679
Speaker 1: stool Christmas because he had the rough exterior made like

441
00:22:46,760 --> 00:22:49,919
Speaker 1: he was grumpy and grouchy, always had things close to

442
00:22:49,960 --> 00:22:52,720
Speaker 1: the vest. But when push came to shelve if he

443
00:22:52,920 --> 00:22:55,280
Speaker 1: if he respected you, he cared about you, and he

444
00:22:55,359 --> 00:22:57,600
Speaker 1: wanted to teach you and wanted you to learn the

445
00:22:57,680 --> 00:23:00,320
Speaker 1: good things about the game. Yeah, he was you know times,

446
00:23:00,600 --> 00:23:02,360
Speaker 1: what do you want? You know, what do you want? Now?

447
00:23:02,520 --> 00:23:04,680
Speaker 1: You know? He would start out like that and then

448
00:23:04,720 --> 00:23:07,280
Speaker 1: you tell him and and he would explain. And you

449
00:23:07,359 --> 00:23:10,240
Speaker 1: remember he was a history teacher. He took he taught

450
00:23:10,280 --> 00:23:12,600
Speaker 1: world history as well as being a coach, and he

451
00:23:12,840 --> 00:23:16,480
Speaker 1: was in high school teaching high school. And you'd ask

452
00:23:16,600 --> 00:23:19,760
Speaker 1: him a question and sometimes he'd say, well, remember how

453
00:23:19,880 --> 00:23:25,639
Speaker 1: King Joseph defeated the Himalayans in fourteen thirty seven, don't you?

454
00:23:26,160 --> 00:23:27,959
Speaker 1: And I said, I would say, yeah, George, you know,

455
00:23:28,280 --> 00:23:30,920
Speaker 1: just refresh my mind on that. And he would give

456
00:23:30,960 --> 00:23:33,600
Speaker 1: you the history lesson and then he would show you

457
00:23:33,640 --> 00:23:36,760
Speaker 1: how that history lesson applied to the football question. Yet

458
00:23:36,960 --> 00:23:39,080
Speaker 1: so you would get a history lesson and a football

459
00:23:39,160 --> 00:23:41,800
Speaker 1: lesson in one phone call, and uh, you know, he

460
00:23:42,240 --> 00:23:44,800
Speaker 1: was just it was just great to talk to. One

461
00:23:44,880 --> 00:23:47,800
Speaker 1: of the things that I always admired about George, especially

462
00:23:47,840 --> 00:23:50,800
Speaker 1: early in his career when he revamped the Giant structure

463
00:23:51,200 --> 00:23:55,040
Speaker 1: and built what was the next era of Great Giants teams.

464
00:23:55,440 --> 00:23:57,280
Speaker 1: You know, first round picks in a lot of ways,

465
00:23:57,320 --> 00:23:59,879
Speaker 1: they could be easy, but throughout his draft he always

466
00:24:00,119 --> 00:24:03,480
Speaker 1: well in the second, third, fourth route, etcetera, etcetera, because

467
00:24:03,520 --> 00:24:05,960
Speaker 1: he was very much involved in the process. Well he

468
00:24:05,800 --> 00:24:08,000
Speaker 1: know he was. He was a scout at heart, I

469
00:24:08,040 --> 00:24:10,399
Speaker 1: think too. I mean he he loved the scout. He

470
00:24:10,480 --> 00:24:15,880
Speaker 1: loved to, you know, watch tape of players, film of players, um.

471
00:24:16,359 --> 00:24:20,199
Speaker 1: And every Saturday, well it was a home game or

472
00:24:20,200 --> 00:24:22,480
Speaker 1: a road game. The next day he would go to

473
00:24:22,520 --> 00:24:24,720
Speaker 1: a college game, and uh, you know, a lot of

474
00:24:24,720 --> 00:24:26,960
Speaker 1: times you'd ask him, where'd you go, George, would you

475
00:24:26,960 --> 00:24:29,720
Speaker 1: go yesterday? And he tell you, and you'd like to know, Okay,

476
00:24:29,720 --> 00:24:31,480
Speaker 1: well he's looking at this guy, looking at that guy.

477
00:24:31,800 --> 00:24:34,360
Speaker 1: I remember one time we were it was a home

478
00:24:34,359 --> 00:24:37,560
Speaker 1: game and he he's in the press box. I said him, George,

479
00:24:37,600 --> 00:24:39,960
Speaker 1: where'd you go? Yesterday said I saw the best player

480
00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:44,000
Speaker 1: in the country this yesterday, and uh and at the time,

481
00:24:44,040 --> 00:24:45,760
Speaker 1: we all thought that Giants were going to draft George

482
00:24:45,840 --> 00:24:48,680
Speaker 1: Rogers because they had a horribor running attack. And even

483
00:24:48,720 --> 00:24:51,600
Speaker 1: in the press room, we had a we had a

484
00:24:51,600 --> 00:24:54,639
Speaker 1: blackboard and we had a chart George versus the Giants

485
00:24:57,560 --> 00:25:02,400
Speaker 1: fotball season, right, and we'd put how many yards George

486
00:25:02,480 --> 00:25:04,920
Speaker 1: Rogers got on Saturday and how many yards the Giants

487
00:25:04,920 --> 00:25:07,800
Speaker 1: got on Sunday as a team, and George Rogers always out.

488
00:25:08,280 --> 00:25:10,680
Speaker 1: So we thought forty much that the Giants were gonna,

489
00:25:10,960 --> 00:25:14,160
Speaker 1: you know, wanted to get George Rogers. And so I said,

490
00:25:14,480 --> 00:25:16,399
Speaker 1: would you go because I saw the best player in

491
00:25:16,440 --> 00:25:18,440
Speaker 1: the country. And I said, oh, you went to South

492
00:25:18,480 --> 00:25:22,040
Speaker 1: Carolina and he looked at me and went Wrong Carolina.

493
00:25:22,800 --> 00:25:25,639
Speaker 1: And then right away we knew, well, he's not an

494
00:25:25,640 --> 00:25:28,920
Speaker 1: interest in judge. He's richer than Lawrence Taylor. And uh,

495
00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:30,680
Speaker 1: you know, he would he would always give you little

496
00:25:30,720 --> 00:25:33,919
Speaker 1: things like that that he would just uh, he was

497
00:25:33,960 --> 00:25:36,280
Speaker 1: just great like that. Now, one of the things that

498
00:25:36,320 --> 00:25:39,000
Speaker 1: the writers always said about George was he was so

499
00:25:39,119 --> 00:25:43,280
Speaker 1: respectful and and and and really so professional that eventually,

500
00:25:43,680 --> 00:25:46,040
Speaker 1: when George retired from the Giants and then he was

501
00:25:46,080 --> 00:25:47,440
Speaker 1: with the league for a couple of years. In two

502
00:25:47,440 --> 00:25:49,840
Speaker 1: thousand one, the Pro Football writers here in New York

503
00:25:49,840 --> 00:25:53,040
Speaker 1: and cover the Giants named the Good Guy George Young

504
00:25:53,119 --> 00:25:56,840
Speaker 1: Good Guy Award after him. Talking about an honor, that's

505
00:25:56,920 --> 00:25:59,440
Speaker 1: that's a pretty big deal. Yeah. I mean, I think

506
00:25:59,480 --> 00:26:03,720
Speaker 1: everyone everyone who covered the team and got to, you know,

507
00:26:03,840 --> 00:26:08,399
Speaker 1: deal with George appreciated how he would like if you

508
00:26:08,480 --> 00:26:12,760
Speaker 1: had something that you know, he didn't particularly care to

509
00:26:12,760 --> 00:26:16,639
Speaker 1: to expand on, um, he would he would never like

510
00:26:16,720 --> 00:26:19,960
Speaker 1: try to get you off the off the track. He

511
00:26:19,960 --> 00:26:21,959
Speaker 1: would say, I have no comment on that, and then

512
00:26:21,960 --> 00:26:24,199
Speaker 1: you knew there was something there. But if it was

513
00:26:24,280 --> 00:26:28,080
Speaker 1: something that you thought was right and wasn't, he would

514
00:26:28,200 --> 00:26:29,879
Speaker 1: tell you, you know, don't go down that road or

515
00:26:29,880 --> 00:26:32,080
Speaker 1: don't go up that tree. That's not and you would

516
00:26:32,160 --> 00:26:34,200
Speaker 1: know that he wasn't trying to just put you off.

517
00:26:34,400 --> 00:26:37,320
Speaker 1: He was telling you that's not you know, that's not

518
00:26:37,400 --> 00:26:39,840
Speaker 1: the case. You know, look look somewhere else. That's not

519
00:26:39,880 --> 00:26:42,560
Speaker 1: the case. But like I said, he never tried to

520
00:26:42,560 --> 00:26:45,560
Speaker 1: to knock you off as something that you were onto,

521
00:26:45,880 --> 00:26:48,800
Speaker 1: and um, that was I always appreciated that, and I

522
00:26:48,840 --> 00:26:51,760
Speaker 1: think all the other writers and broadcasters who dealt with

523
00:26:51,840 --> 00:26:54,600
Speaker 1: appreciated that too, that he was always honest and he

524
00:26:54,680 --> 00:26:57,720
Speaker 1: never tried to lead you astray. You know. In George's

525
00:26:57,760 --> 00:26:59,879
Speaker 1: career as GM with the Giants, and well we'll finish

526
00:27:00,040 --> 00:27:03,720
Speaker 1: up on this note. Uh. He wound up from seventy

527
00:27:03,800 --> 00:27:07,120
Speaker 1: nine through nine seven, Uh, taking the Giants not only

528
00:27:07,160 --> 00:27:10,960
Speaker 1: the two Super Bowl championships, eight playoff appearances, with four

529
00:27:11,119 --> 00:27:15,199
Speaker 1: different head coaches, Ray Perkins, Bill Parcels, Dan Reeves and

530
00:27:15,320 --> 00:27:18,600
Speaker 1: Jim Fossil. That in itself is a pretty amazing feat.

531
00:27:18,760 --> 00:27:21,639
Speaker 1: And of course in eighty seven, I remember the picture

532
00:27:21,720 --> 00:27:24,679
Speaker 1: of George looking down from the press box window, of

533
00:27:24,760 --> 00:27:27,000
Speaker 1: him crying on the bench at the end of the

534
00:27:27,040 --> 00:27:31,400
Speaker 1: eighty seven season at the regular season finale, Jim Fossil

535
00:27:31,560 --> 00:27:33,959
Speaker 1: was the coach and the Giants had won that division championship,

536
00:27:34,359 --> 00:27:36,960
Speaker 1: and he knew that he was retiring Ernise he was

537
00:27:36,960 --> 00:27:38,960
Speaker 1: going to be taking the job, and he had left

538
00:27:38,960 --> 00:27:41,680
Speaker 1: the Giants in good hands. The emotions just poured out

539
00:27:41,880 --> 00:27:45,800
Speaker 1: like I had never seen before. George. George loved football.

540
00:27:46,000 --> 00:27:48,959
Speaker 1: He loved the game of football. He loved the National

541
00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:51,600
Speaker 1: Football League. I mean, he served on you know, another

542
00:27:51,640 --> 00:27:54,440
Speaker 1: thing about being a contributor. He served on so many

543
00:27:54,480 --> 00:27:58,320
Speaker 1: committees in the league as well as handling the general managers.

544
00:27:58,600 --> 00:28:00,520
Speaker 1: I mean he was He was coach amen of the

545
00:28:00,680 --> 00:28:04,840
Speaker 1: Competition Committee with with Tex Shram for so many years,

546
00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:08,119
Speaker 1: and that's one of the most prestigious committees in the league.

547
00:28:08,359 --> 00:28:11,400
Speaker 1: He also was on the college He helped soothe over

548
00:28:11,440 --> 00:28:14,680
Speaker 1: the college thing when uh uh, the NFL was forced

549
00:28:14,680 --> 00:28:17,640
Speaker 1: to take in underclassmen and and some of the colleges,

550
00:28:17,640 --> 00:28:20,720
Speaker 1: we're not gonna let your scouts in anymore, blah blah blah.

551
00:28:20,800 --> 00:28:23,320
Speaker 1: You know, he helped smooth that over. He would he

552
00:28:23,400 --> 00:28:25,960
Speaker 1: loved the National Football League and he learned to love

553
00:28:26,000 --> 00:28:28,760
Speaker 1: the New York Giants. I mean, you know, he came

554
00:28:28,840 --> 00:28:31,879
Speaker 1: up here and you know he just put everything into

555
00:28:32,680 --> 00:28:36,080
Speaker 1: his whole soul into you know, making turning this thing around,

556
00:28:36,359 --> 00:28:39,360
Speaker 1: which was not an easy job. And um, you know,

557
00:28:39,400 --> 00:28:42,440
Speaker 1: I one time I asked him, I said, George, you

558
00:28:42,480 --> 00:28:44,680
Speaker 1: know you and love his wife. I said, you never

559
00:28:44,720 --> 00:28:47,120
Speaker 1: had any kids. He goes, that would not have been

560
00:28:47,160 --> 00:28:49,480
Speaker 1: fair to any child that I had, because I spent

561
00:28:49,600 --> 00:28:52,120
Speaker 1: so much time on my job that you know, it

562
00:28:52,160 --> 00:28:54,920
Speaker 1: wouldn't be fair to have any children. And you know,

563
00:28:55,040 --> 00:28:56,680
Speaker 1: and that's the kind of way he was. He was

564
00:28:56,840 --> 00:29:00,600
Speaker 1: just devoted to to turning this thing around, to making

565
00:29:00,640 --> 00:29:02,880
Speaker 1: this team the best that could be, and you know,

566
00:29:02,920 --> 00:29:05,560
Speaker 1: in to keeping it there, and uh, you know, he

567
00:29:05,720 --> 00:29:10,560
Speaker 1: just he was just a tremendous, tremendous, uh person. George

568
00:29:10,600 --> 00:29:12,520
Speaker 1: Young was seventy one when he passed away from an

569
00:29:12,520 --> 00:29:16,000
Speaker 1: illness in two thousand and one. Spent thirty four of

570
00:29:16,160 --> 00:29:18,920
Speaker 1: his years in some way shape or forming the National

571
00:29:18,960 --> 00:29:22,560
Speaker 1: Football League, and now a member of the Pro Football

572
00:29:22,600 --> 00:29:24,800
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame. Renny to Trony, former beat writer from

573
00:29:24,840 --> 00:29:28,120
Speaker 1: The Bergen Record, We appreciate your time, my pleasure, Paul

574
00:29:28,240 --> 00:29:30,960
Speaker 1: talking about George. We thank Vinnie to Troni and Ernie

575
00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:34,040
Speaker 1: a Corsi for joining us today on the Giants Huddle podcast,

576
00:29:34,400 --> 00:29:36,720
Speaker 1: which you can find on giants dot com, the Giants

577
00:29:36,720 --> 00:29:40,080
Speaker 1: Mobile app, and all your favorite podcast platforms. For all

578
00:29:40,080 --> 00:29:43,360
Speaker 1: the Giants podcast offerings, please go to giants dot com

579
00:29:43,440 --> 00:29:44,560
Speaker 1: Slash Podcasts