Coughlin, Simms remember Stacy Robinson

A day after Stacy Robinson passed away, his former quarterback and position coach with the Giants remembered him for his eternally positive attitude.

“He was a class act who was always a real, real pleasure to be around,” said Tom Coughlin, who was Robinson’s wide receivers coach on the Giants from 1988-90. “Stacy was just a great guy to coach. Great guy to be with, be around. He was always positive, always thinking in terms of how he could help benefit the rest of us, the team.”

“We always hear that ‘so and so is a nice guy,’ but it really was true about Stacy,” said Phil Simms. “He might be one of the few people that I’ve ever met or known that everybody truly liked. I think that’s just personality. He could get along with everybody, no matter what the situation. Stacy had a tremendous sense of humor and if you were going to say something about him, you better get ready, because man it was coming back fast. He was so quick it was hilarious. He was definitely a match for a guy like Bill Parcells or anybody that has that really quick wit.”

Robinson died on Tuesday. According to a family website he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2009.

“My gosh, I don’t remember him being in a down mood. I swear, never,” Simms said. “I don’t know if I can say that about anybody. We all have mood swings. I’m sure he had them, but it never showed. He always had that little smile on his face. It’s funny, he did get a little heavy after his playing career. So that was the butt of many jokes and it didn’t faze him. Like I said, he had the ammo ready. Man, he would tear up anybody that started picking on him. I think that’s how most people remember him and that’s why so many people thought so highly of him.”

“Stacy was very smart, logical, he understood the big picture and he reinforced what you believed in as a coach – the hard work and the effort,” Coughlin said. “He was always a great team guy who was very supportive of his teammates. He was a pro. He worked his butt off. You could always talk to him. Whether he was a starter or a backup or however it worked out, once he understood, he was very supportive.”

Robinson was on the Giants teams that won Super Bowls XXI and XXV, although his major contributions came in that first title season. He was the team’s leading receiver in the game against the Broncos. And it was against the 49ers during the regular season that year that he made one of the most memorable catches in franchise history. In a come-from-behind Monday night victory in San Francisco, Robinson caught an acrobatic 49-yarder that set up Ottis Anderson’s go-head one-yard touchdown run.

“If we had the rules that we have now, they would have reviewed it and Stacy’s catch would have been a touchdown,” Simms said. “But they marked it on about the half-foot line. That was a huge catch.”

Robinson also had a catch in Super Bowl XXI that set up a fourth-quarter touchdown.

“He had a couple of big catches in the Super Bowl – and he could’ve had many more,” Simms said. “Stacy and I must’ve talked 10 times during the Super Bowl. We looked at each other and I’d go, ‘I know it’s there, Stacy. I’m trying to get it to you.’ I couldn’t get to him. Finally, in the fourth quarter I threw that seam pass down the left sideline and hit him after he and I had been talking about it for three quarters. So we hit it – I think it’s even on TV – you see us walk by and give each other a really vigorous hand slap because, ‘Alright. There. We finally got that one done.’ We had talked about it on the bench, during timeouts and in the huddle. We knew there were certain plays that I could throw to him where he knew he was going to be wide open, but we just couldn’t get to him.”