When Amani Toomer received to the Giants as a second-round pick of Michigan in 1996, Dan Reeves was New York’s head coach. “And Reeves and George Young,” the Giants’ GM, “did not get along,” Toomer recalled late final week.
“So everybody would be in the locker room taking stock of who brought you here,” Toomer, 50, a Tremendous Bowl champion and Giants Ring of Honor inductee, stated on the Talkin’ Ball with Pat Leonard podcast. “There was a defensive lineman that Dan Reeves signed, gave a big signing bonus, but George Young didn’t like him. So halfway through training camp they cut him. [Then] because George Young cut one of Dan Reeves’ guys, Dan Reeves turned around and cut one of George Young’s guys.
“So it just became this thing where the main thing wasn’t the main thing,” Toomer continued. “It wasn’t about how well you performed on the field. It was about how well you fit in, who likes you, who brought you here, and it was just a total cancer. Because we knew at the end of the day, it didn’t matter how great you played. If they didn’t want you, they didn’t want you.”
That poisonous dynamic ended, nonetheless, when Ernie Accorsi and Jim Fassel took over.
“They cut all of that out,” Toomer stated. “I remember Fassel’s first meeting, he was like, ‘I don’t have a lot of rules because I don’t want to fine you.’ He said, ‘I just want you guys to come in and play, and if you play well, you will be here. If you don’t, you will not.’”
The Giants progressively ascended as a franchise from there, with a Tremendous Bowl look in 2000. Then Tom Coughlin took over for Fassel, and efficiency and accountability outlined a Giants customary that galvanized two Tremendous Bowl championships.
Most memorably, Coughlin’s rule that gamers needed to present up 5 minutes early to each assembly or observe always bolstered his Big expectations.
“It was to let you know that if you’re not willing to do this little thing by coming early, then you probably aren’t dedicated to the team,” Toomer stated. “And those kinds of little tests have to be made all the time.”
Toomer has been reminiscing candidly concerning the glory days the final week as a result of he’s annoyed with what he has seen from his beloved Giants the previous two years. And he’s removed from the one one.
Giants Corridor of Famer Michael Strahan startled NFL followers in all places by waving an Eagles flag in honor of Philly working again Saquon Barkley throughout FOX’s Tremendous Bowl LIX pregame present final week.
However Toomer had Strahan’s again, telling ESPN New York’s Bart & Carlin present that Strahan’s flag-waving was a “warning shot” to the Giants that their present state is unacceptable.
The explanation? Toomer stated former Giants gamers have a unique perspective on their beloved group than followers do: the franchise’s love for them as gamers was by no means “unconditional.” It was primarily based on their efficiency.
So Toomer thinks the Giants group needs to be held to that very same customary now.
“We had to perform to remain on the Giants,” Toomer stated. “We had to prove our mettle year in, year out, play in, play out. And it was very conditional. So now that I’m not a player anymore and I’m on the other side of things, I want to hold the organization to the same standard that they held us to – to where we’re not just gonna be sitting back and cheering and all this stuff.
“We’re gonna support [the team] because we love the organization,” Toomer stated. “But when I see the organization kind of floundering the way it is – and then I see the organization kind of just say, ‘Oh well, let’s just do the same thing again and we’ll see if we’re getting better’ – that’s where I’m just kinda like, ‘Nah, man.’ I can understand where Strahan’s coming from. And I think a lot of people are like that: we’re just disappointed.”
Toomer has earned the fitting to speak like this concerning the Giants, with whom he performed his total 13-year NFL profession. He holds the Giants’ franchise information for profession receptions (668), receiving yards (9,497), landing catches (54) and consecutive video games with a catch (98).
He additionally holds the Giants’ postseason information for receptions (44), yards (608) and touchdowns (seven). That included 21 catches for 280 yards and three touchdowns in the course of the Giants’ playoff run to Tremendous Bowl XLII to topple the undefeated New England Patriots – and team-highs of six catches and 84 receiving yards within the large sport.
So this isn’t a hater speaking. It is a participant who bled Blue attempting to constructively criticize one thing he is aware of to be fallacious to be able to assist flip the franchise he loves round.
“I love Brian Daboll, and I love Joe Schoen,” Toomer stated. “But at the end of the day this is not a personality contest. This is a results business, and the results just aren’t there. It’s not personal. I don’t hate these guys. I just want the results. It’s like, ‘Show me the baby.’ Show me something to be proud of.”
Toomer stated it’s not simply former gamers on the skin who’re upset. It goes all the best way to the highest of the group internally.
“There should be nobody comfortable in that building,” Toomer stated. “The last two years. I know the owner’s not happy. I know that for a fact. I know that the front office isn’t happy.”
Why is co-owner John Mara working again this regime, then, if he isn’t comfortable?
“I really can’t answer that,” Toomer stated. “I can’t answer that. That’s his decision.”
Quite a few points stand out to Toomer that have to be corrected, although:
– Drafting and improvement: “The draft picks have not panned out. It’s sad to see that players have to go other places to let their talents show. The development of our players is just not there.”
– Consideration to element on the sector: “Kicks blocked. Tackling. Being in the right position. Not blowing coverages. Catching the football. Making the extra effort to block. Not fumbling the football. Turnovers. Those are things that kill you as a football team.”
– Unforced errors: “In the NFL they say more games are lost than won, that’s the old adage. There were about nine or 10 games that were lost with no opportunity to win because of the self-inflicted wounds that the Giants had. It had nothing to do with the other team.”
– Lack of effort: “We have a corner out there who’s not – we have somebody out there, I’m not gonna say any names — who’s not putting forth effort. That is the basics of winning. How do you not play with effort in the NFL? That’s one of two things: either they’re not holding him accountable, or the team isn’t deep enough to where you have a real fear of losing your position every day of the week.” There must be a “pressure to perform” created by expectations and a deeper roster.
– Letting good gamers go: “When you get a guy like Saquon who was all the above, and just because he plays running back – and you don’t have the creativity to figure out how to make that running back, [how to] have that best player be the focal point of your offense – I have a problem with that. Because that’s not how my experience or any of the older players’ experience with the Giants was. If you can play, you’re gonna stay here.”
– Not ok up entrance: “The Eagles took the Giants’ playbook. They took how we won in ’07 and ’11 and created the team around a defensive line that took one of the most elite QBs we’ve seen in years and made him look pedestrian. You need to build up the trenches. You can win in this league without an elite quarterback. You cannot win in this league without an elite offensive line.”
– Tradition questions: “We let three Pro Bowlers out of our building: [Xavier] McKinney, Saquon and [Leonard] Williams. We let them just go. And I’m sure there’s more of them: Evan Engram, even [Sterling] Shepard played well. [Julian] Love. That’s a cultural problem. And you can draft whoever you want. We could have drafted Patrick Mahomes. If that culture is not there, that’s a big problem.”
How does an NFL workforce change a tradition? Toomer is aware of from expertise relationship again to his days watching Reeves and Younger transition to Accorsi and Fassel and ultimately to Coughlin and GM Jerry Reese.
“You’ve got to change everything,” Toomer stated. “The way you practice, everything, so there’s nothing similar from last year. Comfortability kills teams. And if they feel comfortable, raise the bar of expectations to the point where if you don’t want to become part of this team, it becomes brutally honest.”
