Here are two questions for you to start your Championship Week: What
would have happened if Ernie Accorsi hadn't had such a backbone on April
24, 2004? And what would have happened if A.J. Smith had played
hardball with Accorsi as the clock wound down on the fourth overall pick
of the 2004 NFL Draft, with just seven minutes to go and the Giants on
the clock?
Ben Roethlisberger a Giant.
Osi Umenyiora (not Shawne Merriman) a Charger.
Eli Manning a Charger.
It
takes a big story to throw the 49ers off the front page of Monday
Morning Quarterback today -- and you Niner fans will get your love soon
enough, courtesy of the man who made the block of the year in NFL -- but
the fates of Manning and Umenyiora, after their huge combined role in
the Giants' 37-20 trouncing of the top-seeded Packers last evening, were
on my mind as I sat down to write. I've told the story of the 2004
draft and the Manning/Chargers/Giants love triangle before, but the
Umenyiora part of it has never gotten its due.
Smith, the
Chargers' rookie GM at the time, asked then-Giants GM Accorsi for
unknown second-year pass-rusher Umenyiora in the week before the draft.
No, Accorsi said; I don't trade young pass-rushers. San Diego had the
first pick in the draft, and Manning said he didn't want to play for San
Diego, but the Chargers picked him anyway -- and everyone in football
knew they wanted North Carolina State quarterback Philip Rivers instead;
the Manning pick was going to force the Giants to deal a ransom for him
because Accorsi loved Manning and Smith knew it. So with the Giants on
the clock, Smith called again.
"He brought up Umenyiora again,'' Accorsi told me last night, "and I said no. We were not giving him up. There was no way.''
So now the trade teetered. If Smith had insisted on Umenyiora and
killed the deal, Accorsi had an ace up his sleeve: He could trade down
three spots and pick up a second-round pick from Cleveland ... and still
draft the Giants' No. 2 quarterback on the board, Ben Roethlisberger
from Miami of Ohio. The Giants liked Manning much more, but Accorsi
wouldn't budge on Umenyiora. Accorsi offered the Giants' first- and
third-round picks in '04, and an '05 first-rounder. "We still want
Osi,'' Smith told him.
Tick, tick, tick ...
Two minutes left.
Accorsi's last, best offer.
"No Osi,'' he said. "That's still a deal-breaker. But we'll throw in a six next year.''
Pause on the line from San Diego.
Tick, tick, tick ...
"Make it a four,'' Smith said.
"I'll give you a five,'' Accorsi said.
Done.
On
Sunday, here came the Packers, down 20-10 to start the second half,
starting and stopping down the field, trying desperately to find some
rhythm. Five minutes into the half, Aaron Rodgers had the Pack at the
Giants' 30, and it was first down, and he took the snap and looked over a
packed secondary that had frustrated him throughout the first half.
From Rodgers' left, Umenyiora took an inside move against left tackle
Chad Clifton, beating him as Clifton flailed away.
Now 30
and coming off knee and ankle injuries and a contract hissing match with
current GM Jerry Reese earlier this season, Umenyiora sped in and
batted the ball out of Rodgers' hand just as he went to pass. (Telling
stat from FOX just then: The forced fumble was the 32nd of Umenyiora's
nine-year career. That's a lot.) Giants recovered. Packers never got
closer than seven the rest of the way. Umenyiora had two of the Giants'
four sacks, and the line made sure Rodgers was never comfortable all
day.
Accorsi liked defensive linemen, and he stocked this
team with Umenyiora, Justin Tuck and Mathias Kiwanuka before he left
the team after the 2006 season. In came Reese, and he's taken it up a
notch: Chris Canty and Rocky Bernard in free agency, along with Dave
Tollefson (a seventh-round pick from Green Bay who was cut, signed to
Oakland's practice squad, and then signed by the Giants from the
Raiders), and Linval Joseph and Jason Pierre-Paul in the draft. Can't
have enough defensive linemen. That, plus their cool quarterback and his
receiving weapons, is why the Giants are one win away from their second
Super Bowl in four years.
"People have always depicted
what we did in that '04 draft as an obsession with Eli Manning,'' said
Accorsi. "It wasn't. If we'd have had to, we'd have taken
Roethlisberger, and we'd have been fine with that. We just weren't
giving up Umenyiora.''
Almost eight years later, Accorsi's
stubbornness is a big reason the Giants are headed to San Francisco for
Sunday's NFC Championship Game ... and just as big a reason the Packers
feel so deflated this morning.
GOD BLESS THAT MAN!!!
