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 Michael Strahan is aware of the great challenge that lies ahead.
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Jessie Armstead says Giants defense coordinator John Fox didn't want any points on the board.
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Thursday, January 18
Armstead, Strahan finally in Fassel's corner
By Wayne Drehs
ESPN.com
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Should the New York Giants find a way to win Super Bowl XXXV next Sunday, there's little doubt that the midseason guarantee of Jim Fassel will rank side-by-side with the bold prognostications of another high-profile New Yorker, Joe Namath.
|  | | Jessie Armstead voiced his displeasure about the Giants' offense to the media last season. |
But, as Fassel himself will tell you, all the guarantees in the world wouldn't have mattered if he didn't have players to back it up. And without a heated airing-out session with Pro Bowl defenders Jessie Armstead and Michael Strahan following last season, Fassel may have very well butted heads this year with what turned out to be two of his strongest supporters.
Ask Armstead and Strahan about Fassel now and all you hear are showers of praise.
"The type of guy you go to war with," Strahan says.
"A hard-working competitor that does everything to win," says Armstead.
But the words weren't always so kind. Just a year ago, Armstead and Strahan, the team's emotional leaders, were at odds were their head coach as the frustrations built during a 7-9 season and began publicly second-guessing Fassel, particularly his decisions on offense.
Though all the parties involved downplay the incidents now, there's little doubt that they tore at the core of the team's unity.
"I knew we needed help around here," Armstead says now of last year's aggravations. "I knew we just couldn't make a lot of changes, but we needed some help. I lay it on the line everyday and I expect everyone else to lay it on the line also. And my thing is if you're not laying it on the line, I hope they get you out of here and if I'm not laying it on the line, I hope they get me out of here."
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Staying Focused
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While Jesse Armstead and Michael Strahan have had their differences with Jim Fassel, both have played well during his tenure. Armstead and Strahan were drafted by New York in 1993 and put up respectable numbers over their first four years, but they have blossomed since Fassel's hiring in 1997, drastically improving their output and helping make up for a sometimes lackluster offense.
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Armstead
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Strahan
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Tackles
'93-96
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232
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164
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Tackles
'97-00
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459
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259
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Sacks
'93-96
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6.5
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18.0
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Sacks
'97-00
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22.5
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44.0
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--Rico Longoria, ESPN.com
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The relationship between Fassel, who was hired in 1997, and Armstead, who was drafted four years earlier, began to deteriorate last season after a 23-13 late-November loss to the Redskins. After that game, one that the New York defense held the potent Redskins to 16 points (Washington scored its other touchdown on special teams), Armstead hinted there were problems with the feeble New York offense.
"What does everybody want, a miracle?" he said. "The Redskins have one of the top offenses in the league, and we held to them about 13-16 points. You've got to play on both sides of the ball."
After those and other comments found their way into the New York newspapers, Fassel called Armstead into his office and essentially told him to "shut up." He went a step further by banning Armstead from talking to the media about anything but himself or the defense for the rest of the year.
Privately, Armstead was irate. Enter longtime teammate Strahan, who held an 80-minute press conference the next day, defending his teammate while taking his own shots at the offense.
At the time, Fassel was in California for the funeral of his recently deceased mother.
"How can you be a team leader when you can't say nothing about this team?" Strahan said of Armstead's muzzling. "You're telling a leader he can't lead. Half the team is off limits. You've got a lion and you've taken away his heart. You tell the lion to stop roaring. The lion is not going to be the same lion in the den, and the locker room is the den."
Regarding the offense:
"It's frustrating to sit here and watch the Indianapolis Colts, with an offense that was absolutely terrible, turn itself around. Our scenario doesn't change. Have the Giants ever had a great offense?...It gets tired year after year. It gets discouraging after a while. After a while, defensively, you get worn out, man, not just physically."
Needless to say, Fassel was not happy when he returned to New York. Strahan and Armstead, both chastised in the media for their un-team-player-like comments, said their words were misconstrued. The tension remained between players and coach until last offseason, when in separate February meetings, Strahan and Armstead both voiced their displeasures with Fassel.
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A lot of it came out of the frustration of losing. My conversation with Michael was good. My conversation with Jessie was good. They said, 'Whatever you need us to do, Coach, we'll do it.' Those guys have been unbelievable. ” |
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— Jim Fassel, Giants head coach |
The players told Fassel of their frustrations with where the team was headed and Fassel told them about his displeasure with their attitudes. At that point, a promise was made. The locker room would be the player's sanctuary to say what they want, as long as they were fully committed to the mission of the Giants on and off the field.
"You know, a lot of times coach Fassel has an ego, and I have an ego," Armstead said. "I let my ego get in the way a lot. I had time to think about things and I apologized to him. I think it was an apology from both of us. A lot of things were understood between us, a lot of he said, she said.
"During that time I was very upset, I was just trying to get to the house and stay at the house -- I wasn't coming down here (from his Dallas home) for the offseason," Armstead said. "But he told me some things I needed to hear. So we talked a few times, cleared everything up and put it 100 percent behind us."
The situation was similar with Strahan. In fact, Fassel came out of both meetings downplaying there was ever even a major problem with his two defensive stars.
"That sounded like a huge thing and it wasn't," Fassel said. "A lot of it came out of the frustration of losing. My conversation with Michael was good. My conversation with Jessie was good. They said, 'Whatever you need us to do, Coach, we'll do it.' Those guys have been unbelievable."
Though the air was officially cleared between the two parties in those February meetings, Fassel was reassured things were settled during a training camp showing of the movie "Gladiator." After inviting the entire team to the screening, Fassel asked if there was anyone who wouldn't be attending. That's when a few rookies gradually began raising their arms, until a voice chirped up from the back of the room. It was Armstead.
"Put those arms down -- now," Armstead said. "We're all going."
A few weeks earlier, Armstead, who grew up in Dallas' inner city, sacrificed his self-pride and dignity by playing in a team golf outing -- and looking silly while doing so. It was Armstead and teammate Keith Hamilton's first-ever trip to the links.
"At first we were like, 'Hey, man, we don't play no golf.' Some guys do, but the majority of the boys, we don't play golf," Armstead said. "But I said, 'Let's do it for the team.'
"It wasn't pretty. We swung and missed a few times. We called 'em practice swings. There was a lot of laughing and joking. We did a lot of things we weren't supposed to. I'm pretty sure they won't invite us back to that course. But you know what? It was good for us to get together like that. I understood what coach Fassel was trying to do."
And should things workout next weekend, the Namath-like picture will become even clearer.
Wayne Drehs is a staff writer for ESPN.com.
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