Giants By The Numbers: 37 Is For ...
by Ed Valentine on Jun 3, 2010 1:00 PM EDT
in New York Giants By The Numbers
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PrintYes, believe it or not, THAT James Butler. The guy who started at safety for the 2007 Super Bowl-winning team, but whom many Giants' fans could not wait to run out of town after the 2008 season.
Hold your nose, and admit the truth. Re-signing Butler rather than letting him walk away as a free agent before the 2009 season, even over-paying him a bit, would have been preferable to the mess the Giants ended up with. Butler might not be great, but he is better than C.C. Brown or Aaron Rouse. And he's probably better than Michael Johnson, too.
Butler was never fast enough. And he never had great ball-hawking skills. But, at least, he knew how to line up and where he was supposed to be. And at least he could make a tackle rather than wave and watch a guy just run by with the ball.
Oh, and yes this is another one of those uniform numbers with a head-scratching Giants' history. How did it happen that no one better than Butler has ever worn the number 37 with the Giants? Bizarre.
By the way, there was really one other other player worthy of consideration here. That would have been Larry Flowers, a safety with the Giants from 1981-85. If you remember Flowers, he was basically the 1980s version of Butler. He was a terrific special teams tackler who really should not have been on the field as much defensively as he was even though he started just two games in his Giants' tenure.
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Horay someone I know!
the Butler did it!!!
"What's your plan?? Rob Fort Knox on elephant back? That's the dumbest thing I ever heard....."
Butler
It’s pretty sad if James Butler is our only choice for #37.
It’s amazing with the long history of the NY Giants how many numbers have not been worn by quality football players. One would think in the 85 year history of the Giants we’d have at least one good player for each number.
Not just the Giants...
I’m sure if we looked up the best players by number for other old NFL franchises like the Bears, Browns, Packers, etc., they’d have some real nobodies at some numbers. Some teams stunk up the joint during more eras than the Giants did, like the Browns for one. I mean, what, they were good with Jim Brown back in the day, and then pretty decent with Bernie Kosar in the 80s. Other than that, pretty crappy. Same thing with the Bears. They were good back with Butkus and the Monsters of the Midway stuff, and then again in the 80s with Walter Payton, but that’s pretty much it, right? I’m sure the Giants stack up just fine. We’ve had some pretty strong stretches in the 50s, the 80s, late 90s, and just recently. Not too shabby.
Before anyone heard of Jim Brown
the Cleveland Browns were in 6 consecutive championship games, winning 3 times. (keep in mind they joined the NFL in 1950; they also won the AAFL four consecutive years before that.) And the Bears won championships (since the NFL split into divisions in the 30s) many more times than the Giants. The Giants have a great history, but there is no need to short change other teams with history arguably as great or even greater, especially they had a stretch of about 15 years (approx 1965-80) where they actually quite bad.
From Fred to Jeff
and O to Jerr
Funny things
Are everywhere
- Dr. Seuss (if he were a Mets fan)
Bears I believe
Hold the most NFL championships, followed by the Pack.
So they were good a long time ago, less a long time ago, and some time ago.
Not now.
Against all odds, against all circumstance were you don't have a shot, you succeed
-Michael Strahan
All you hear about is the past, the past... the past is the !@#$ing past, this is the present.
THIS IS TEMPORARY! A CHAMPIONSHIP IS PERMANENT
-Same as above
cbssports.com
Is a good reference for this info. Each team page has a ‘history’ tab which lists all of their championships from both eras. It looks like the Pack is the top of the bunch with 12 total. The Bears and Browns both have 9 and our Giants have 7.
That's righ
Mixed ’em up.
Wikipedia is great for this also.
Against all odds, against all circumstance were you don't have a shot, you succeed
-Michael Strahan
All you hear about is the past, the past... the past is the !@#$ing past, this is the present.
THIS IS TEMPORARY! A CHAMPIONSHIP IS PERMANENT
-Same as above
That is a great site...
After looking it through, all in all, the Giants have performed pretty well. In the upper echelon of teams in the league for sure.
WoW Butler
This numbers exercise is starting to make our history seem like the Houston Texans or something. Anybody know how many Hall of famers played for the the Giants?
It's a great history
Just not a great one for every single uniform number.
Here are all your Giants Hall of Famers.
http://history.giants.com/page/NY+Giants+In+the+Hall
I have been wondering if I missed anybody, but numbers prior to 1950 are scarce. I honestly don’t think we are going to find many more like this one, though.
One thing, Late
Not all of the players are in becasue of what they did with the Giants ( Thorpe, Guyon—like Thorpe, Native American, went to same school ), Maynard (Jets), McElhenny (49ers, and part of the million$ backfield with YA), Herber (Packers). Czonka (Miami). Flahetry, Landry and Lombardi are in as coaches of other teams (although Flaherty was an elite player as well, but maybe so much so as to deserve HOF recognition
Correction
Thorpe never played for the Giants
He never played for the football Giants
He did play for the baseball Giants.
hold up....
are you sure about that blue?
I have to disagree with you on this one….and you know I never disagree with you…..
"Throw the damn ball to Kevin Boss" - Andiamo708
he played for the baseball giants from 1913-15, and again in 1917-18
and wikipedia lists him as signed by the football giants in 1925, but there’s no statistical record of him playing and he was in his late 30s by then anyhow
"No disrespect to the batter," Figueroa said, "but tacos are good."
by inventor frank on Jun 3, 2010 4:33 PM EDT up reply actions
thanks...i only bring it up...
because someone just posted a Giants History video in the fan post section and they specifically mentioned the NY Football giants getting an aging Jim Thorpe. Even showed him in the Giants uniform (aka T-shirt)
IDK….but it’s kinda fresh in my mind so that’s why i bring it up.
"Throw the damn ball to Kevin Boss" - Andiamo708
the pro football hall of fame
also lists him as a member of the 1925 giants, but nowhere in that season’s or the team’s history do i find the name jim thorpe.
curiouser and curiouser…
"No disrespect to the batter," Figueroa said, "but tacos are good."
by inventor frank on Jun 3, 2010 4:38 PM EDT up reply actions
ok, last comment on the topic
the statistical record of the 1925 is really, really incomplete (http://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/nyg/1925.htm), but due to the fact he was 37 at the time and it was the inaugural season for the giants in the NFL, maybe it was a move made in recognition of his celebrity more than anything else.
"No disrespect to the batter," Figueroa said, "but tacos are good."
by inventor frank on Jun 3, 2010 4:41 PM EDT up reply actions
http://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/nyg/1925.htm
"No disrespect to the batter," Figueroa said, "but tacos are good."
by inventor frank on Jun 3, 2010 4:42 PM EDT up reply actions
Remember the goal line stand
in DC 2007. I was in the stands for that and Butler actually made one of those stops for us. Will always be thankful for that one.
I remember K. Mitchell making 2 plays during that goal line stand....
one on a running play, the other on a pass to the TE.
Can’t remember what Butler did though….
"Throw the damn ball to Kevin Boss" - Andiamo708
I never complained
about Butler because he was always in the right place at the right time. Plus the front 7 was so good he was rarely exposed. As CC got a raw deal, the entire defense especially dline played like trash and he had to fend for himself
The Giants' opponents should've been the ones paying CC
We didn't even have a chance for the "perfect season", but we did have the perfect ending.
somebody
let james butler know he is the greatest player to wear the number 37 jersey in a giants uniform!! in 85 years!
Toney does what the douglas do. And no one can do what he does b/c doing it without being Toney Douglas just doesnt make it do what it do
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