November 25, 1984

In 1983, Bill Parcells was handed control over the team he had been rooting for since he was a kid. The New York Giants had also not won a title since Bill Parcells was a kid, a fact he was intimate with, since he was in the stands for the 1956 NFL Title game (Super Bowl Negative Ten, if you insist) when the New York Giants, led by matinee idol Frank Gifford and literal Marlboro Man Charlie Conerly on offense, and a toughnosed defense featuring Andy Robustelli and Sam Huff, atomized the Chicago Bears 47 to 7.  The success of the Madison Avenue Giants faded out like the color from an old photograph, and by the time Parcells was the head coach, they had only been to the playoffs once in the Super Bowl era. It would have been a storybook tale, the childhood fan returning to lead the team to ultimate glory.

The first chapter of that storybook would have been full of curses and wailing. Despite a very good defense, led by Lawrence Taylor, the Giants went 3-12-1. Parcells decided to bench quarterback Phil Simms in favor of Scott Brunner, which proved to be a disaster, with Brunner throwing six touchdowns in his first seven games. Parcells finally turned to Simms, who had demanded a trade immediately after the benching only to be told there were no willing trade partners, but Simms broke his thumb on an Eagles helmet during his follow-through motion and was out for the year. This ended the controversy, but deepened the problem. By the end of the year, the Giants front office was making phone calls to high profile college coaches like Howard Schnellenberger and Joe Paterno, seeing if they had any interest in being the next coach of the Giants. But they were rebuffed by both men, giving Parcells a second chance.

Scott Brunner had started his last game in the NFL. Parcells gave Simms the job and gave him the promise that he would stick with him until they were both run out of town. And for his part, Simms used his injury downtime to become truly serious about studying film and the mechanics of the game instead of counting on natural talent to do all the work for him. He also started weight training, in an effort to head off the injuries to his shoulder and knee that derailed his prior seasons. Despite Parcells hitching his wagon to him, Simms still had a frosty relationship with fans. Tired of the permaprospect, they had written Simms off, and his great games, like his four-touchdown decimation of the Philadelphia Eagles in the season opener, faded much quicker than his failures, like a three-interception effort in a 19-7 loss to Washington.

Despite a high variance rate, Simms at his worst was a clear upgrade over Brunner, and a little bit of offensive consistency went a long way in making the Giants a contender. On the defensive side, the Giants were more than set. Ever since he had come into the Giants organization as an assistant, Parcells had used four down linebackers instead of the 4-3 that was still in vogue. He did this to make way for Lawrence Taylor, a phenomenal linebacker who might have had more influence than anyone else over how modern defense is played. Taylor was fast enough, strong enough, and durable enough to blitz on nearly every play. Typically, a running back is responsible for picking up an extra man on a rush; an NFL running back had a better chance of getting pregnant than blocking Lawrence Taylor. With Carl Banks on the other side, shifting protection towards Taylor could often backfire. Veteran Harry Carson and rookie Gary Reasons provided more than enough shade on the inside. The Giants were 7-5 heading into Thanksgiving weekend, tied for first in the East with Washington and Dallas, and readying to face a Kansas City team that was already well out of the hunt.

Kansas City were no pushovers. Though they had gotten the only lemon in the vaunted quarterback class of 1983, they too had a lively defense, though their strength was in the secondary, with corner Albert Lewis and safety Deron Cherry making it difficult for teams to go deep. Cherry punished Simms in the first quarter in just that way, making easy work of an overthrow. The Chiefs offense, led by Bill Kenney, was not able to take advantage of that turnover, but was the first team on the board, as receiver Stephone Paige jumped over two defenders to make a spectacular catch in the endzone early in the second quarter. A Simms pass to Joe Morris set up a one yard run to tie it, but on the next drive Simms threw his second interception of the half, this one another foolish overthrow taken by rookie safety John Ross. The pick took the shine off the team record he had set earlier in the drive for completions in a season, surpassing Fran Tarkenton. The third in Simms’ hat trick came on his next drive, as a ball got batted at the line into the waiting arms of Albert Lewis. Lewis’ return set up an eight-yard pass to tight end Willie Scott one play later. to take a 17-7 lead into the locker room at half.

Simms was booed off the field by the Meadowlands faithful at halftime, and he would have admitted he deserved it for his first half performance. He completed only ten of twenty-one passes for 106 yards and three picks. But as bad as that was, he would turn it all the way around in the second half, going fourteen for twenty and finishing the day with over 300 yards. The Giants started with a run-heavy drive, something to ease Simms back into the water and make the safeties creep up. It ended with another one-yard touchdown plunge from Rob Carpenter. The rest of the third quarter was a stalemate, but Lowery hit a fifty-two-yard field goal early in the fourth, and then speedster Carlos Carson beat Mark Haynes like a drum on a deep pass to make it 27-14. Fans were headed for the exit; this one was done.

We can only hope those early leavers made it back to their televisions in time. Simms dialed in and got some revenge on his tormentors, sneaking one past Albert Lewis, who whiffed on the interception, and then hitting Bobby Johnson down the left sideline over John Ross. It was a ninety-yard drive in only two minutes, a best-case scenario drive, keeping the Chiefs from relaxing and taking the air out of the ball, and on their ensuing drive a Harry Carson tackle helped force a punt. With five minutes and a chance to take the lead, those who remained voiced a different opinion about Simms than the halftime boobirds, and Simms rewarded their patience. Running back Joe Morris, lined up as a receiver, caught a long pass and stepped out of bounds to stop the clock. The next play, with no one open, Simms scrambled and crossed midfield. Two huge passes to tight end Zeke Mowatt followed, the first for fourteen yards and the second for thirty-one. Mowatt also caught the game winner to put the capstone on his afternoon; his 126 yards were the high-water mark for his whole career. The Chiefs had time to rebut, but Harry Carson forced a fumble that Mark Haynes recovered, ending the game and giving the Giants the win they needed to keep pace with Dallas and Washington.   

Adaptability is one of the most important traits a coach can have, and Bill Parcells is so adaptable that his name isn’t Bill. When young Duane Parcells was attending his first day at a new school, someone mistook him for a Bill. Duane soon decided he liked Bill a lot more than Duane. Bill Parcells initial plans for the Giants didn’t involve Phil Simms, but once it became clear that Phil Simms was the closest thing he had to an answer, he changed the nature of the question. It is hard to say whether it is patience or impatience, since it can look like both. It may be, what the Tao calls the highest excellence, that of water, occupying without striving, taking the shape of all its surroundings.