Giants must find a general manager who can be the next George Young

It was a remarkably long and successful run of stability, a time when the Giants flourished, a time that seems far removed from the chaos now encircling the franchise.

For more than 35 years — an eternity in NFL terms — the team achieved sustainable success by using an organizational structure with the right people in the right roles that held up remarkably well and was football’s gold standard.

Out of the chaos of the late 1960s and nearly all of the 1970s emerged a reign of accomplishment rarely seen in pro sports. Not long after a banner bearing the words "15 years of lousy football. We’ve had enough" was flown over Giants Stadium came a cherubic, bespectacled man named George Young, and thus began the halcyon days of a team that now is nearly 100 years old.

That time is long past, and Young is no longer with us. But his bust is in Canton, Ohio, at the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and his legacy is unforgettable.

Young brought in Ray Perkins and then Bill Parcells, winning the team’s first two Super Bowl championships, and poured the foundation for his successors, Ernie Accorsi and Jerry Reese, who partnered with Tom Coughlin and won the Vince Lombardi Trophy twice.

The line of succession was remarkable for any franchise and a reminder of just how good things can be. Especially now that things are about as bad as things have ever been.

More than 40 years after the massive cleanup of a dysfunctional franchise began, the Giants need to find their next George Young.

Team owner John Mara thought he had done that when he hired Dave Gettleman as general manager in 2018. Yet for all the similarities that Gettleman bore to Young, including decades’ worth of front-office experience, the franchise has devolved into one of the worst in pro football, a shell of the organization Young left behind.

Mara saw firsthand how Young lifted the Giants from the depths, and he continues to think of him.

"I don’t know if there’s a day that goes by when somebody in our office doesn’t quote George Young or refer to him in some way," Mara told me more than a decade after Young died in 2001 of a rare brain disease. "Some of them are repeatable. Some of them are not."

Young came to the Giants at the suggestion of former commissioner Pete Rozelle as a compromise candidate to bring together the bickering factions within the organization. His impact was immediate and lasting.

"I’ll always revere him for what he did, because he took us from being the laughingstock of the NFL to the top of the mountain," Mara said.

"The effect he had on us made us a better organization for years to come after he left. I’ll always appreciate that."

The man he brought in to fill the Young role has presided over one of the most miserable eras in Giants history. Gettleman’s teams are a combined 19-42, and the Giants haven’t qualified for the playoffs during his tenure.

There is no way the Giants can bring him back in 2022, and the feeling here is that they will let him retire after the season. But what he has left behind will take years to repair.

Mara, as well as co-owner Steve Tisch, now must decide how to replace Gettleman and what to do with coach Joe Judge.

Neither co-owner wants to part ways with a coach after just two years for a third straight time, but the Giants are getting to the point that they are noncompetitive, as evidenced by Sunday’s 37-21 demolition by the Chargers at SoFi Stadium.

Judge insists he has a vision for what this team will look like in the long term, and that there are pieces in place to build properly, but Mara knows it can get complicated when you bring in a new general manager who inherits an incumbent coach. That’s why a new GM must have the freedom to decide on his coach. If that means keeping Judge another year to see if he can do better with a more reliable roster, fine. But if the new GM wants to hire his own coach and chart a new direction, that power must be granted.

Just as it was by Wellington and Tim Mara to Young, who brought in disciplinarian coach Ray Perkins and then Parcells after Perkins left for Alabama.

Mara and Tisch must cast a wide net for a new general manager – unlike the last search, when it was obvious Gettleman was the preferred candidate. They must talk to people such as ESPN’s Louis Riddick, a former player and front-office executive, and former Texans GM Rick Smith, and perhaps even try to coax Ozzie Newsome away from the Ravens or Kevin Colbert away from the Steelers.

Ravens director of college scouting Joe Hortiz and Colts assistant GM Ed Dodds are two other names to consider. Giants assistant GM Kevin Abrams deserves to be heard, although he may be more valuable in his current role overseeing the salary cap because he doesn’t specialize in personnel.

Bottom line: Mara and Tisch must get this right. The future of their franchise depends on it.

By Bob Glauber

Special to NewsdayBobGlauber

Bob Glauber retired in 2022 after covering the NFL for nearly 40 years. He was selected in 2021 for the Bill Nunn Career Achievement Award by the Pro Football Writers of America, and is a three-time winner of the New York State Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. President of the PFWA for the 2018-20 seasons, he is the author of “The Forgotten First” and “Guts and Genius.”