Belichick Mentions Jumbo Elliott in Super Bowl Talk

INDIANAPOLIS - Just when you didn't think there would be some Sachem angle to explore at Super Bowl XLVI, Patriots coach Bill Belichick mentioned in one of his press conferences this week.

Belichick, speaking about his time as a Giants coach in the 1990s, said the Big Blue of old were a tough group of players, especially the offensive linemen.

“We had a great staff and great players,” said Belichick, earlier this week at the Super Bowl NFL Media Center in the JW Marriott. “One of the biggest things I learned, that I can’t do today, but I know, is how tough those players were. We practiced every day in pads, every single day in pads.

“That’s the way it was. You went out there and practiced. I know what players are capable of doing because of how demanding we were with them from a physical standpoint, and that certainly didn’t lessen their aggressiveness or their toughness in games.”

The Giants beat Buffalo in 1991’s Super Bowl XXV partially because of Scott Norwood’s botched 47-yard field goal attempt at the end of the game to secure New York’s 20-19 win. The other reason was New York’s physical offensive line.

As former head coach Bill Parcells celebrated his team’s victory in the locker room after the game, he yelled, “Jumbo, you an ass-kicker! You’re an ass-kicker!” referring to Sachem’s only alumnus to play in the NFL, having graduated from high school in 1982.

Make no mistake, Elliott’s physical play on the line was a major reason for New York’s success during his tenure with Big Blue.

“Even getting ready for the Super Bowl against Buffalo, the way we ran the ball in that game,” said Belichick. “That started on the practice field with the tempo in practice. When you get those guys crashing into each other – Jumbo [Elliott] and Mark Bavaro blocking [Lawrence] Taylor, [Carl] Banks, [Jim] Burt and all them – they just lined up and played football. I know it was a different era, but it will never be like that again.”

Another Sachem alum, , was there in Tampa Bay covering the Super Bowl for Newsday at the time. In a story he wrote about Elliott after the win, he said the big man controlled the trenches, opening huge holes and going toe-to-toe with the ferocious Bruce Smith.

“Late in the game, when the heat and humidity had drained most of the players, Elliott still was churning,” Cimini wrote. “Smith was so exhausted he couldn’t get into a three-point stance.”

That year Sachem coaching legend went to the NFC Championship win against Chicago, but never made it to the Super Bowl to see his prized player perform. Most of the people he planned on traveling with either cancelled or were indecisive about going. Elliott eventually sold the ticket once Fusaro realized he was not going.

“How many times in a coaches life do you get the opportunity to watch one of your players play on the biggest stage and win?” Fusaro said. “And that’s exactly what happened.”

For Elliott, that Super Bowl wasn’t just about the playoffs, it was about the entire season and what it took to get there.

“The culmination of the entire season sticks out in my head,” he said. “I think about the solid team we had and all the memories. It’s kind of intertwined.”

Not long after the win over Buffalo, he attended Sachem’s first alumni football game at the high school in Lake Ronkonkoma, N.Y. Nearly 4,000 fans came to support the game and to see Elliott, who had his new championship ring on hand. Kids and even adults mobbed the 6-7, 300-pound larger-than-life man with questions about the big game.

Cimini wrote about the casualness Elliott had with the Sachem community: “An older man approaches, introduces himself as a Sachem alum from ’78 and starts talking about that night in Tampa five months ago,” he wrote. “’When that guy [Norwood] tried that field goal in the last couple of seconds,’ the man says, ‘I was freakin’ dying.’ ‘You mean Norwide? Elliott says, injecting a little Giants’ humor. Everyone laughs.”

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