Giant similarities between current team and '97 squad

It was an even 25 years ago that the Giants shocked the football world with a first-year NFL head coach known for his prowess on offense and a roster that was more than the sum of its apparent parts.

Well, here we are again, and for fans over 35 or so, the anniversary of that team and its similarities to 2022 are as good a reason as any for some bye- week nostalgia.

It has been a while, after all.

Take Danny Kanell. He now is older than Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll, the Giants’ current general manager and coach.

In 1997, Kanell was a wide-eyed, lightly regarded fourth-round draft pick in his second season, but he somehow quarterbacked the Giants to an NFC East title.

Tiki Barber, a rookie that season, is one week older than Daboll.

The franchise was in a deep funk when it turned in ’97 to new coach Jim Fassel, who quickly changed the culture and eventually the results.

After a slow start, the Giants went 10-5-1, making Fassel NFL Coach of the Year, the most recent time a Giant coach has won that honor.

Now Daboll is 6-2 and a clear front-runner for the award in 2022.

The formula is not exactly the same as in 1997, even if both teams had an overachieving vibe, including ACC quarterbacks — Kanell from Florida State and Daniel Jones from Duke — who overcame doubters to produce.

But the fun and freshness feel familiar. Even if the 2022 Giants sometimes seem to be getting it done with mirrors, the results reflect well on them, just as in ’97.

“It was the unlikely nature of it,” Kanell told Newsday. “It was at a time when you were kind of coming out of the [coach] Dan Reeves era, coming out of the [quarterback] Dave Brown era, and the fan base was restless.

“There’s always something about when you struggle, you appreciate the success more. And that’s what I felt like Giants fans were going through that season like, ‘Hey, this feels great. This is where we’re supposed to be.’ ”

It was a strange amalgam of a team. Its best players were in-their-prime defenders such as Michael Strahan, Jessie Armstead and Jason Sehorn. On offense, future stars such as Barber and Amani Toomer had not yet fully formed.

The leading rusher was Charles Way, a fullback with bulky shoulder pads and a neck roll. The leading receiver was Chris Calloway, a workmanlike pro whose 849 yards that season were a career high.

Kanell replaced an ineffective Brown in Week 5 and started the last 10 regular-season games, going 7-2-1.

“We were almost winning for a little bit there despite the quarterback,” Kanell said. “It was ugly. We were not getting much production.”

After a 20-8 loss to the Buccaneers dropped the Giants to 7-5-1, Kanell found himself with six touchdown passes, six interceptions and a meeting in the coach’s office.

“He kind of put me on the spot and said, ‘If you don’t turn your play around, we’re going to go back to Dave Brown; I’m going to have a pretty quick hook,’ ” Kanell recalled.

He responded with touchdown passes to Barber, David Patten and Calloway in a 31-21 victory over the Eagles, even if there was a 64-yard pick-6 by Brian Dawkins in the middle of it.

“I remember thinking, ‘Oh, man, I’m done; I’m toast,’ ” Kanell said of Dawkins’ play. “But Fassel gave me a little bit longer . . . That was a huge confidence boost for me. I think the team then was like, ‘OK, this is your team.’ That was a significant change.”

The Giants swept their last three regular-season games, then blew a nine-point lead in the final 90 seconds of a wild-card playoff game and lost to the Vikings, 23-22.

Kanell went 3-7 to start the ’98 season, then lost his job to Kent Graham. He was 7-2-1 in 1997 and 3-11 for the rest of his NFL career.

After retiring as a player, Kanell followed many old teammates into the media business. He hosts two shows on SiriusXM — one on Mad Dog Sports Radio and one on ESPNU Radio — and is an analyst for CBS.

“As a player, people would tell me, ‘Man, if you win a Super Bowl in New York, it will change your life forever,’ ” Kanell said. “You’ll always be able to get a free meal or get into the best restaurant or whatever example they gave.

“I just got a small glimpse of what that was like. And it truly was incredible.”

Like the 2022 team, the ’97 Giants found creative ways to get things done.

“I think they appreciated that it really was a collective,” Kanell said of ’97. “I didn’t do much as a quarterback. But the defense was phenomenal. They were physical and they were tough. We just figured out ways to win games.”

By Neil Best

neil.best@newsday.com@sportswatch

Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.