Skip to main content

Former Giants Head Coach Jim Fassel Passes Away at 71

 Former New York Giants Head Coach Jim Fassel died Monday of a heart attack. He was 71. 

According to multiple reports, Fassel was admitted to a local hospital near Las Vegas after experiencing chest pains. He was said to have had a heart attack while under sedation. 


Fassel coached the Giants from1997-2003, reviving a once proud franchise that had seen some dark days in the mid-1990s, bringing them all the way back to a Super Bowl appearance in 2000 against the eventual champion Baltimore Ravens.  

Over his seven seasons patrolling the Giants Stadium sidelines Fassel went 58-53-1; won coach of the year honors his first year in 1997 after leading Big Blue to a 10-5-1 record and a wild card playoff berth against Minnesota. 

Some of his most significant wins as head coach included a 20-16 thriller against the 13-0 Denver Broncos at Giants Stadium in 1998, a 41-28 thrashing of the Jets in 1999 and of course Big Blue's 41-0 take-down of the Vikings in the NFC Championship game in 2000. 


 

Players like Michael Strahan, Tiki Barber, Armani Toomer, Ike Hillard, Jesse Armstead, and Kerry Collins all came into their own under Fassel's stewardship. Assistant coaches like John Fox and Sean Payton would later go on to success as head coaches elsewhere. It is easy to see why Fassel was regarded as the third greatest coach in Giants history behind Super Bowl winners Bill Parcells and Tom Coughlin. 


 

Unfortunately after leaving the Giants following a 4-12 season in 2003, Fassel never again got a head coaching opportunity in the NFL. He would join the Ravens in 2004 as an offensive consultant and was promoted to offensive coordinator in 2005, but the lack of success for the Ravens offense proved to be his undoing in Baltimore. He would never coach in the NFL again after that. 

Fassel's career in coaching goes all the way back as an assistant in the college ranks, namely as offensive coordinator at Stanford, where he had a quarterback named John Elway (you might of heard of him). 

Fassel would break into the NFL in 1992 with the Giants as an offensive coordinator, before moving to Denver in 1993 for the same post. 

The Giants would hire him as their head coach in 1997 after they considered bringing back Bill Parcells who was in the midst of a contract standoff with Robert Kraft and the New England Patriots. According to Parcells' biography by Nunyo DeMasio: "A Football Life: Bill Parcells," then GM George Young wouldn't approve of a Parcells-Big Blue reunion. At the last second the Giants decided to go with Fassel. Parcells would eventually land with the Jets that same off-season. 

Fassel's son, John has followed his fathers footsteps as an assistant. He was the Special Teams coach for the LA Rams for seven years from 2012-2019. He is currently the Dallas Cowboys special Teams coordinator. The younger Fassel did serve as an interim head coach with the Rams for three games.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jets, Dolphins and Patriots Playoff Breakdown

Here are the formuli that could get the Jets into and out of the playoff party this season: 1) If the Jets win against Seattle and Miami, they win the AFC East based on a better conference record (8-4) than the New England Patriots, even if New England wins out as well. 2) If the Patriots win out and the Dolphins win out and finish at 11-5, the Jets would be 10-6, or 9-7, and probably out of the playoffs. Both New England and Miami would make the playoffs, with the Dolphins as a divison winner and the Patriots as a wild card. The Patriots make the postseason if Baltimore loses one of its final two games. 3) If the Patriots win out and the Dolphins and Jets split, then the Patriots win the AFC East. The Jets will have to hope that they beat Miami to win that tie-breaker and, further, hope that they have a better conference record than the Baltimore Ravens in order to clinch the sixth seed. 4) If the Patriots and Ravens win out and the Dolphins and Jets split their final two games, then ...
8 comments
Read more

Francisco Lindor Remains Red Hot as Mets Top Phillies

 Francisco Lindor remains the hottest player in Queens right now.  The Mets shortstop blasted two more home runs, including a three-run blast in the bottom of the eighth inning, Monday night to help propel the Mets to a 5-4 win over Philadelphia.   Lindor who typically struggles in the month of April is putting together a heck of a month. Monday's two hit effort was the 10th game in the last 11 where Lindor has recorded a hit. In fact in the month of April alone this year, Lindor was hitting at .311 coming into Monday's action.  On the year, Lindor is batting .284 with five homers and 13 RBI.  Lindor's efforts proved to be prophetic, as the Phillies Alec Bohm crushed a three-run bomb off Edwin Diaz in the top of the ninth to cut the Mets lead to a single run. Fortunately for New York, Diaz was able to shut the door with strikeouts of Trea Turner and Bryce Harper.  New York (16-7) has now won five in a row.  
Post a Comment
Read more

Mets Keep Rolling into Phillies Series

 The New York Mets are feeling pretty good about things right now!  The Amazin's swept a four game series from the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday, winning 7-4 Sunday afternoon. It was the first time since 1986 that the Amazin's had swept such a series from St. Louis. We all know what happened later that season.    Well, not to get too far ahead of ourselves, because the 2025 version now faces a very stiff challenge. The Mets will face their arch rivals the Philadelphia Phillies on Monday with only two games separating the two teams in the NL East.  The Mets took out Philly in the NLDS last October, so this figures to be a heck of showdown. The Mets begin a month long stretch against teams that are likely postseason contenders like the Phillies, D-Backs, Cubs, Yankees, Red Sox, and Dodgers.  If the Mets (15-7) are this good, we will know for sure in a month.
Post a Comment
Read more