Made in Connecticut
Waterbury’s Graham, Hartford’s Spencer restoring the stature of Giants defense
Sean Spencer remembers a tough loss at Bulkeley High, more than 30 years ago. An unpleasant, potentially dangerous scene was unfolding as the players were leaving.
And when they looked behind them, coach Graham Martin was there.
“We had some guys outside of our school after we played, and they were heckling us,” Spencer said. “... A bunch of dudes talking crap. We went outside to approach them, and Coach Martin came out with us. Not that we were going to get into a fight, but we weren’t backing down. Just to see this older guy out there with no fear, I’ve taken that through my whole career, that no-fear approach to challenges.”
Patrick Graham has memories, too, from playing his high school football in Connecticut, lessons from coach Bob Arciero at Crosby-Waterbury that stuck.
“He was very fair, and he never really sugar-coated anything,” Graham said. “The hard work he’d put in, he always went the extra mile. He used to pinch my cheek, and I could tell by the look in his eye he had an affinity for me. I knew he cared about me, but he still would tell me the truth. Coach would tell us the truth, whether we wanted to hear it or not, and I try to do it with all my players today. They want you to be their coach and have a relationship, but they want the truth more than anything.”
Graham, 41, assistant head coach and defensive coordinator, and Spencer, 49, the D-line coach, have been working wonders with the Giants, restoring the toughness, the physical play for which the franchise has always been known, and what they are teaching and accomplishing in the NFL has strong roots in Connecticut.
“The blue collar, the hard-working element of Waterbury, and the people I was fortunate to be around,” said Graham, who can still tick off the names of about a dozen teachers who helped him back in the day. “I had some really excellent teachers, and the lessons I learned from them, I still keep in mind today. They were hard on me. I’m so appreciative of that, because it taught me you have to go through the process. I’m a big process guy now.”
When Joe Judge, who had been with the Patriots, took over as head coach of the Giants, he brought in Graham, who had coached several years in New England, and had one year as Dolphins coordinator, on Jan. 17.
Spencer, who had spent his whole career at the college level, expressed a desire to get out of his “comfort zone” and test himself in the NFL.
“I felt good about how the interview went,” he said. “Then when I walked out of the building, I looked back and said, ‘I just had an interview with the New York Football Giants. Did that just happen?’ And I had to sit in my car for a little bit.” He joined the staff Jan. 31.
After their 1-7 start, the Giants won four in a row to vault to first place in the NFC East, and their victory at Seattle on Dec. 6 had the football world talking about the defense that seemed to frustrate quarterback Russell Wilson and punish ball carriers. Last week’s loss to the Cardinals was a setback, but the Giants, a game behind Washington, will be playing the Browns with a chance to get back to first place on Sunday night.
“No matter what Patrick did, he excelled at,” Arciero said. “And he was a great, great kid. He was a quarterback, then I moved him to tight end and defensive line, and he never complained about anything. He just did whatever the team needed him to do. And he didn’t forget where he came from. He’s very, very humble.”
Graham often returns to Waterbury — “It’s the center of the universe,” he says. “Don’t you know that?” — and speaks to students there.
“The kids need somebody that’s a role model,” Arciero said. “Patrick is a role model, no question about it. He’s somebody everybody can be proud of in Waterbury.”
After graduating from Crosby, Graham went to Yale, and after college pursued an MBA and considered a career on Wall Street. But he caught the coaching bug, and as a volunteer at Wagner in 2002, began building a career that could lead him to an NFL head coaching job sooner, rather than later.
“Unbelievably intelligent,” Spencer said. “I’ve known him since he was 21 years old, and he was always just analytical in his approach. ‘Tell me. Explain to me.’ He wanted to know the details of everything. His process of information, and how to put things together — football’s a puzzle, and his brain works overtime. But he challenges you to think and takes you out of your comfort zone, and that makes the whole staff better.”
While Graham is the analytical one, Spencer, sometimes called “Coach Chaos,” brings the fire and energy to a group of young linemen, nearly all under 26.
“I don’t know if I know a finer technician in terms of coaching the defensive line,” Graham said. “A lot of stuff I did was stuff I learned talking to him. Understanding defensive line play, understanding how the front moves and being able to tie the two together, Sean does a great job. The personality, thank God he’s different than me. I need that around me. He keeps it light for me, makes sure I don’t get uptight, but he has an intensity about him that the players respond to. The players know he cares about them.”
After he graduated from Bulkeley, where future Jets and Browns coach Eric Mangini was a teammate, Spencer played at Clarion, then began coaching at Wesleyan in 1995. He coached at 10 schools, rising to become assistant head coach at Penn State.
“He turned 16 during his senior
year,” Martin remembered, “and those were tough times at Bulkeley, a lot of gang violence, but Sean was always top-shelf. Sean’s football IQ was excellent. He knows what’s going on all the time with everyone. He’s been knocked down and got back up. Sean was one of those kids that could do that. That young man has paid his dues.”
Graham and Spencer stay in touch with their high school coaches. Arciero would visit Graham in Foxborough, Mass., and be introduced to all the coaches there. Spencer and Martin exchange texts after every Giants game.
“The one thing Graham instilled was his toughness,” Spencer said. “You grow up in the projects in Hartford and you go to a public school, and you really come from nothing, and we always felt like we were up against the world.
“And I’ll tell you what: I take great responsibly and great pride in knowing I represent Connecticut and represent Hartford every time I step on the field, and I know with Patrick and Waterbury, it’s the same thing. I’m a guy who had dreams, and to put those dreams into action, I had to go to work and work hard. And what I would love to instill in the youth in Connecticut is that we can do things, and if you stay true to the course, you can do something special. And don’t allow your circumstances to dictate the next step.”