Moving on to offensive guard

by Ed Valentine on May 30, 2008 9:00 AM EDT in New York Giants All-Time Team

Hall of Famer Mel Hein bested Bart Oates, 42-25, in voting for the center position on our Big Blue View All-Time Giants Team.

Now we move on to guard, and I have no clue how the voting for this one will turn out. It's not a glamour position in the first place, and scanning the list of nominees I got from 'pot' and from George I can't say I find one truly great player in the entire list. That's amazing to me.

Anyway, here are your nominees. I promise no tainting the vote this week. Shoot, I have no idea who I would vote for, anyway.

Chris Snee: Of course, we know Snee. Tom Coughlin's son-in-law is the best lineman on the current Giants team. He hasn't made any Pro Bowl teams or been named All-Pro yet, but you would have to think a few of those are not too far down the road.
Jack Stroud: Three Pro Bowl appearances in a 12-year career that began in 1963.
Ron Stone: This guy might be the best lineman the Giants have had in the past 20-25 years. He was a 6-foot-5, 325-pound mountain in the middle. The problem is that he only played six of his 10 season with New York. He did make three Pro Bowl appearances, two as a Giant.
Brad Benson: One Pro Bowl in a 10-year career, spent entirely with the Giants. He was a mainstay of the line during the Bill Parcells Era.
Darrel Dess: Spent most of his 12-year career with the Giants and went to the Pro Bowl in 1962 and '63. Other than that, I honestly know nothing about him.

Vote in the attached poll. As usual, you have until next Thursday night.

Big Blue View All-Time Giants Team

Kickers

Punter -- Sean Landeta
Placekicker -- Matt Bahr

Defense

Defensive End -- Michael Strahan
Defensive End -- Leonard Marshall
Defensive Tackle -- Roosevelt Grier
Middle Linebacker -- Harry Carson
Middle Linebacker -- Sam Huff
Outside Linebacker -- Lawrence Taylor
Outside Linebacker -- Brad Van Pelt
Cornerback -- Dick Lynch
Cornerback -- Mark Collins
Safety -- Emlen Tunnell
Safety -- Spider Lockhart

Offense

Center -- Mel Hein

Poll

Who should be the guards on our Big Blue View All-Time Giants Team?

Jack Stroud

14 votes

Chris Snee

23 votes

Ron Stone

26 votes

Brad Benson

12 votes

Darrel Dess

4 votes

79 votes | Poll has closed

Tweet Comment 24 comments | 0 recs |

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Comments

You're right,

this is a tough one. I voted for Stroud because he was there in the Glory Years, had the rep of being the strongest guy on the team and was used on defense when the opponents got close to the goal line. Stone would be my second choice.

by george cronin on May 30, 2008 9:31 AM EDT reply actions

Yes, very tough

No truly obvious choices here. I am guessing that Benson gets a good deal of support, but I really have no idea.

by Ed Valentine on May 30, 2008 9:45 AM EDT up reply actions

Brad Benson was a tackle. Where is William Roberts?

by wrecking crew on May 30, 2008 9:52 AM EDT reply actions

William Roberts?

An all-time great? That name never even occurred to me.

by Ed Valentine on May 30, 2008 10:24 AM EDT up reply actions

This is the toughest pick yet.

Yeah Benson was a tackle. Still how do you pick between Stone and Snee. Based on past performance RS is an easy pick, is Snee any less dominant? No way ,and it seems he might have that extra edge of a nasty on field demeanor. I know nothing about the other 2. I’ m waiting till the end to vote and might just resort to eeny meeny mynee mo!
Who’s the guy with the funny name?

We're only gonna score 17 points?

by big blue wrecking crew on May 30, 2008 10:02 AM EDT reply actions

Guard or tackle

It’s interesting. I didn’t remember, but pot and george listed him at guard. Giants.com also lists Benson as a guard on their all-time roster. So, if you don’t think he belongs here then pass on him and we’ll vote on him again at tackle. All the sources I had, though, show him as a guard.

by Ed Valentine on May 30, 2008 10:23 AM EDT up reply actions

Ed

How can you not remember Godfrey. He was the guy on the 86 SUPERBOWL highlight film who was quoted saying before the season something like”yeah we have the personnel to go all the way, all we need is the breaks(4th and 19!) and the guys to stay healthy.
Just realized how you forgot him, linemen get no mention except for false starts and holding…............aaaaaaaagh

We're only gonna score 17 points?

by big blue wrecking crew on May 30, 2008 2:14 PM EDT up reply actions

Benson

Was a Pro Bowl tackle, but I do believe he was drafted as a guard

William Roberts was also a tackle

I believe the 86 O-line was from left to right Benson-Godfrey-Oates-Ard-Roberts

Giants fan from the womb to the tomb

by Jim Schmiedeberg on May 30, 2008 10:47 AM EDT reply actions

Benson

If he doesn’t win a spot here I’ll just add him when we vote for tackles. Geesh, how can you remember Chris Godfrey? Useless stuff like that rattling around in your brain, but can you remember your wife’s birthday?

by Ed Valentine on May 30, 2008 11:19 AM EDT up reply actions

Mrs Jim

12-20-73

But yes, out of the many file cabinets in my brain, the Giants one is definitely the biggest

Chris Godfrey came from the USFL, along with Oates and Landeta.

Ed, no knowledge pertaining to the Giants is “useless”

Giants fan from the womb to the tomb

by Jim Schmiedeberg on May 30, 2008 12:18 PM EDT up reply actions

I think the right tackle was Karl nelson

We're only gonna score 17 points?

by big blue wrecking crew on May 30, 2008 2:15 PM EDT up reply actions

I went for Stone

just because Snee hasn’t done enough yet, but this is a pretty weak group. Give Snee a few more years and he should be at the top of the list. Are we taking the top 2 vote-getters here?

by cjmulrain on May 30, 2008 11:01 AM EDT reply actions

Yes

We will take the top two. Should be a pretty good split, and no reason to spend 2 weeks on it.

by Ed Valentine on May 30, 2008 11:17 AM EDT up reply actions

What happened to Doug Van Horne

by cmcc on May 30, 2008 3:52 PM EDT reply actions

I think it gotta be Stone.

My only hesitation is that he didn’t spend a time of time on the Giants, but he was good.

by losangelesmets on May 30, 2008 11:53 PM EDT reply actions

I just had a hard time voting

a former cowboy to the Giants all-time team. And Snee? He’s played about twenty minutes. It’s way too soon to name him all-time anything.

by TerraByte on Jun 1, 2008 6:43 PM EDT reply actions

So ....

Who did you vote for? I do agree about Snee, though I think he could belong here when his career is done.

by Ed Valentine on Jun 1, 2008 7:58 PM EDT up reply actions

Benson

I thought he deserved to be on the team and with Elliot and Nelson in the vote for OT, his chances were slim.

by TerraByte on Jun 2, 2008 4:39 AM EDT up reply actions

Yeah, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense

to vote a guy to the all-time team who has never been All-Pro. I know most BBVers aren’t familiar with him, but Stroud was All-Pro 3 times and spent his whole career with the Jints (12 years.) I thought he’d get more respect. Of course, he never made the HOF and we haven’t voted in a couple of them. No denying Snee is a good one, though, and will get more acclaim the longer he plays.

by george cronin on Jun 1, 2008 9:55 PM EDT up reply actions

Stroud

George, I think there is an obvious - and natural - slant toward the players who the readers have seen. A guy like Stroud probably belongs here, but few readers have probably ever even heard of him. so, understandable.

by Ed Valentine on Jun 2, 2008 12:53 PM EDT up reply actions

I agree. It's what you have to expect.

I have no problems with it as long as universally acclaimed all-time greats aren’t overlooked. Not including Robustelli bugs me a bit, and Weinmeister, but as Wolf said in the article you posted here, no one remembers him (or Spec or Otto, for that matter.) We haven’t overlooked HOFers like Tunnell, Hein and Huff, and that’s good. If we overlook Rosey Brown, I’ll be frosted. He has to be included on any list of the top five OTs. I suspect that at least some of the votes for Rosey Grier were the result of confusing him with Brown.

by george cronin on Jun 2, 2008 9:35 PM EDT up reply actions

I hear you

No way this team will be perfect, but it’s a democracy (for the most part). Anyway, if you’re willing when it’s all said and done I might ask you to write something reviewing the old-timers you feel were jilted, and why.
As we’ve found out, I think BBV readers love to hear and learn about the old days.
We will chat about that more.

by Ed Valentine on Jun 4, 2008 2:02 PM EDT up reply actions

Voted for Stone

All things considered , he was a physical Giant of a man,dominating at the point of attack ,the only trouble he ever consistently had was Ron Dayne running top speed in to his back. In fact Dayne never hit a hole as hard as Stone back. Come to think of it he never hit anything but Stones back.

We're only gonna score 17 points?

by big blue wrecking crew on Jun 2, 2008 10:08 AM EDT reply actions 1 recs