MAKING HIS MARK
Bavaro says Engram looks like next great Giants TE
IT WAS lovel att fifirstt sightiht whenh llegend-d ary Giants tight end Mark Bavaro laid his eyes on rookie Even Engram during spring OTAs.
“He was running better, I thought, than the wide receivers,” Bavaro told The Post. “He’s very smooth, he’s very fast, very quick. I saw him reach up for some passes, he’s got great hands, great extension.
“I don’t think his blocking’s gonna be an issue, because it doesn’t look like they’re gonna ask him to block a whole lot. Which I think is the way the game is now.
“He’s definitely the most athletic tight end I’ve seen on the Giants since [Jeremy] Shockey. And I think he’s more athletic than Shockey.
“I watched him, then I saw Brandon Marshall, who I thought was a tight end too, because he looked the same size to me, and not as athletic, not as smooth, not as fast, not as quick. And then somebody told me it was Brandon Marshall, I said, ‘ Wow. This tight end is good.’ ’ Cause I know Brandon Marshall’s a great receiver.”
Bavaro, who will be at Empire City Casino’s Entertainment Lounge at 6:30 Saturday night for a meet and greet before taking in Giants-Jets at Dan Rooney’s Sports Pub, said Engram’s presence will affect the entire offense.
“So now you got a guy in the middle who’s huge, and running around like a dinosaur amongst pygmies,” Bavaro said. “All of a sudden, the fast, little guys on the perimeter have a lot more freedom and a lot less attention. It opens it up for everybody, it takes a lot of pressure off everybody. The Giants haven’t had a tight end that defenses have had to account for for the last few years in any special way.”
Bavaro was a hulking 6- foot- 4, 245-pound tough guy tight end from a different era. He played hurt, loved to block and became a trusted target down the seam for Phil Simms. He was Rambo. “The big movie that was playing at the titime was ‘Rambo,’ ” Bavaro said. “I guess I had a resemblance to Sylvester Stallone.”
What started out as a goof by the veterans became a compliment.
“It became a compliment because they equated Rambo with toughness, right? And they started calling me Rambo because of that,” Bavaro said. “And then it started to bother me because I didn’t like being given the Rambo toughness of quote-unquote the Vietnam veteran. My uncle and my cousin were in Vietnam, and I always looked up to them with a lot of respect and honor, and I always felt weird appropriating the status of a tough Vietnam veteran. I just didn’t feel right about it. I just thought it was unnecessary.”
It has been more than 30 years since Bavaro and the 1986 Giants won Super Bowl XXI.
“There was a bond there that I never saw on any other team that I have been on — high school, college or other pro teams,” Bavaro said.
Asked why, he said: “It was [Bill] Parcells. He put us all together. Talent wasn’t enough to be on a Parcells team. You had to have the right personality. If you didn’t fit in that mix, you were gone.”
Bavaro was Parcells’ idea of a tight end. Parcells was Bavaro’s idea of a coach.
“I had the greatest father in the world,” Bavaro said. “But there was something about Bill Parcells. There was a father-figure feeling I had towards him. He had it ... I don’t know why he had it, I can’t explain it to you, but he had it.”
Bavaro talks about Lawrence Taylor not unlike the way the current Giants talk about Odell Beckham Jr.
“Lawrence Taylor was so big, so out of our orbit as players, and yet, he couldn’t have been more down-to-earth on the practice field, more down-to-earth in the locker room, more down-to-earth on the actual playing field on Sundays,” Bavaro said. “He never held himself higher than anyone else. He was one of us, and we always felt very very connected to him as a teammate.
“All this talk about how good these guys are today, Lawrence Taylor would rip this league apart. He would be a nightmare in today’s NFL. He would kick everyone’s ass out there today.”
Bavaro marvels at that ’86 defense.
“Everybody talks about the Chicago Bears ’ 85 defense — believe me, they were good, they were unbelievable,” Bavaro said. “But I’d put the ’86 Giant defense against them, I’d say they were better than them. They might have been the best ever in the history of the league. I know I’m biased, right? But it’s a pretty compelling argument. And on top of the players, guess who their defensive coordinator was.” It was Bill Belichick before the hoodie. Bavaro feels less like Rambo today. “I’m 54 years old, you know? ... Golfing hurts,” Bavaro said. “When golfing hurts, you know you’re in trouble.”
If he had to do it over again, he would play football again. He does not worry about long-term CTE, even though he says: “I was never diagnosed with a concussion, but according to the definition of a concussion today, I probably had thousands of ’em. .... Dings, you see white spots if you’re hit hard. That happened every day in practice.”
He doesn’t mind so much when they call him Rambo today.
“It’s nice that they even remember something that long ago,” Bavaro said.