HOME MAKEOVER
Giants, Jets can transform teams with top-3 picks like ’81
ARLINGTON, Texas — In retrospect it really is amazing just how swiftly a franchise’s fortunes can flip. In this case, in the ballroom of New York’s Sheraton Hotel, it took less than a minute. Literally.
New Orleans had the first pick of that 1981 draft, by virtue of having gone 1-15 during the 1980 season, inspiring the classic nickname “Aints,” driving their fans to wear paper bags over their heads at the Superdome. Not incidentally, their lone win of the year had come in Shea Stadium, Week 15, 21-20 over the Jets. The Jets, somehow, would win the next week in Miami, meaning instead of being 3-13 they would finish 4-12, meaning instead of picking second in the draft they would pick third.
The Giants, also 4-12 in 1980, would pick second. Winning that tie-breaker from hell only wound up changing everything for both teams beginning that night at the Sheraton, April 28, 1981. It was the only other time prior to Thursday that the Giants and Jets would pick 2-3 in the draft.
The Saints wasted little time: As soon as Pete Rozelle greeted everyone to what was still officially known as the NFL’s “Selection Meeting” they picked Heisman Trophy winner George Rogers out of South Carolina, to no one’s surprise. The Giants’ table at the Sheraton sprung to life. Team PR director Ed Croke theatrically tore up the index card with “Rogers” written on it, and handed another to Jim Heffernan of the NFL office.
It took less than a minute to make the first two picks of the NFL draft on April 28, 1981.
“The Giants,” Rozelle said, as the din of assembled Giants fans filled the room, “select North Carolina linebacker ...”
The roar that followed drowned out the words “Lawrence Taylor,” and it’s doubtful even those hearty-throated faithful knew just how delighted they should have been by what they just saw.
“First time in six years they cheered any of our picks,” Wellington Mara, the co-owner, would say later.
“This,” said George Young, the general manager, with a wry smile, “is the one day of the year when all of us who have this job can feel we’re all as smart as we think we are. Well know a little more once they turn the scoreboard on.”
It is impossible to have been a football fan in New York who actually remembers the 1970s and not take pause, regularly, at what happened on April 28, 1981. The Giants and Jets had somehow gone 0-for-the-decade, 0-for-20 between them for playoff slots, and then opened the ’80s with matching 4-12s. As depressing as this year might have seemed, it was paradise compared to where both teams sat 37 years ago.
And, yes, the Giants wound up being the own- ers of the winning lottery ticket: they built a defense around Taylor that can look any other defense in history in the eye, and within six years they were celebrating a Super Bowl victory.
But the Jets did all right, too: they took running back Freeman McNeil at No. 3, and McNeil had a terrific career for the Green. In many ways, the ’80s were as good as it’s been for the Jets since Super Bowl III: the Sack Exchange, four playoff berths, the 1982 AFC Championship game, a 10-1 start to a 1986 season that looked, for many weeks, like it was destined to end in a reallife Jets-Giants “SemiTough” Super Bowl.
One night did all of that. Maybe the Jets and Giants would’ve exchanged fortunes if the Jets had lost that last game in Miami and taken Taylor (though it’s almost certain the Giants would’ve gone with Hugh Green over McNeil if they’d been third). Or maybe Taylor would’ve found himself caught in the bear trap that has been the Jets’ culture for so many years. Maybe. All we can talk about, though, is what happened, and how it happened, and what it meant for both New York teams, who both got it exactly right that night.
It serves as a wonderful backdrop for what the teams need again, 37 years later, where the quaint old “selection meeting” is now a fullblown phenomenon, one the NFL takes on the road, this year to the outskirts of Dallas.
It also serves as an official parting of ways with 2017’s football season, which really brought a minimum of joy to both sides of MetLife Stadium. The Giants earned their No. 2 slot by slipping on banana peels for 16 weeks, the Jets get No. 3 because there were fewer icebergs and one willing trade partner. So now we have this, we have Thursday night, we have the most interesting NFL draft in at least 37 years, and we have the Giants holding all the (index) cards, same as they did 37 years ago.
It is a unique spot Giants GM Dave Gettleman finds himself in, since in many ways he holds the immediate fates and fortunes of both teams in his hands. Will he pick Saquon Barkley, which would ensure the Jets will have a crack at a quality (and, possibly, gamechanging) quarterback at No. 3? Were the last few weeks a ruse, and he’s fallen hard for a QB the whole time? Is it something else? Either way, it will affect the Jets. And either way, after Thursday night, both teams will have been vaulted headfirst into their futures. Thirty-seven years ago it meant a return of football to a place of prominence in New York after a long tour through the desert. The drought hasn’t been nearly as long this time, it just feels that way.
You will feel different about your team, either team, by the close of business Thursday night. It might not only take a minute anymore. But if they hit the jackpot with their picks? They can take as long as they want. Just get it right.
Starting with you, Blue.