Giants Mount Rushmore

Giants Mount Rushmore

I forget if it was ESPN or NFL Network that I was watching the other day, but there was an ad telling fans to go online and vote for who should be on their team’s “Mount Rushmore.” There’s going to be some sort of special in August where all 32 Mount Rushmores are revealed.

For a number of franchises this will be an almost impossible task. How do you pick only four Chicago Bears or Green Bay Packers or Pittsburgh Steelers? Likewise, do teams like the Jaguars and Texans even have four guys that would be worthy? Pretty much everybody has one or two fairly obvious selections, but beyond them, narrowing it down is really difficult. Nevertheless, I’m going to give it a try with my favorite team, the New York Football Giants.

As I said, each team has its obvious choices. For the Giants, that obvious choice is Lawrence Taylor. He isn’t just the greatest player in franchise history, he’s arguably the greatest outside linebacker in NFL history. LT revolutionized his position and was the backbone of that Giants defense that led the team to two Super Bowl wins in a five-year span. He was the MVP in 1986, the last defensive player to receive the honor. Sure, he’s had some issues in his personal life. But that’s not relevant here. Lawrence Taylor’s impact on the New York Giants is immeasurable. He isn’t just near the top when it comes to all-time great Giants. He’s AT the top.

The Giants have won the Super Bowl four times. LT and Co. were responsible for two of them. If I had to pick one player most responsible for the other two, it’s gotta be Eli Manning. Two fourth-quarter Super Bowl comebacks. Two Super Bowl MVP awards. That alone is enough to earn a place right at the top of the franchise pantheon. But when his career is done, Eli’s going to end up first or second in franchise history in pretty much every major passing category. His place in Giants annals is already secure. Eli belongs on Mount Rushmore.

Those two were the easy ones. Now it gets a little harder. There have been so many great players in Giants history that are worthy of consideration. There’s Phil Simms, the Giants’ all-time greatest quarterback before Eli showed up. And how about the other quarterbacks, Charlie Conerly and Y.A. Tittle? Sam Huff, the great middle linebacker from the 50s. Hall of Famer Harry Carson, LT’s partner in crime on that defense. Defense. That’s been the Giants’ bread-and-butter through the years. It was that defense that gave us Michael Strahan, before he turned into Regis. If we’re including coaches in the mix (and I don’t know why not), Bill Parcells has to be in the discussion, too. While we’re at it, longtime owner Wellington Mara is one of the most influential owners in NFL history (the game ball is called “The Duke,” which was Mara’s nickname).

My third selection, though is perhaps the franchise’s first great player. In the days when playing both ways was still the norm, Hein played center and linebacker. And he never missed a game in his 15-year career! Hein was All-NFL every year from 1933-40 and was the MVP in 1938 (still the only offensive lineman ever to be named MVP). He was the best player on the Giants’ first two World Championship teams (1934, 1938), and they lost the Championship Game five other times during that era. A member of the NFL’s 50th Anniversary and 75th Anniversary All-Time Teams, he was part of the inaugural class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1963.

So that’s three. Who gets the last spot? Well, the Giants’ four championships can be divided into four distinct eras. In the 1930s, Mel Hein was their best player. The best player on the Super Bowl XXI and XXV winners was Lawrence Taylor. Eli Manning is the face of the current team. The fourth great championship era was the mid-1950s. That team’s star? Frank Gifford.

Today, there are probably more people that know Frank Gifford for Monday Night Football or as Kathie Lee Gifford’s husband. But he was a Hall of Fame football player first. Gifford played three different positions during his career, but was best known as a halfback. His best season was probably 1956, when he was named MVP and the Giants beat the Bears for the championship. After Chuck Bednarik famously almost killed him in 1960, Gifford returned as a receiver in 1962, and earned another Pro Bowl selection. In 1977, he got his bust in Canton.

There you have it. My Mount Rushmore consists of the greatest player from each of the four great eras in Giants history. Of all the great players in franchise history, Mel Hein, Frank Gifford, Lawrence Taylor and Eli Manning stand out as the best–and the most deserving of the honor.