In Week 7 of the TLL77 season Brad van Pelt significantly helped the Giants stun the reigning Super Bowl champion, Ethnic Insensitivities, 27-7. Truth be told, the entire front 7 of the Giants defense was dominant that day, but van Pelt rose, even above the collective greatness, as he sacked Billy Kilmer 3 times and made 6 tackles. The win put the surprising Giants in a tie for first place in the NFC East with exactly half a season left to go. No matter what happens from here on out, it is a major accomplishment from a team that was thought to be nothing but a whipping post this season.

Van Pelt is known around TLL circles as `BVP the MVP of the Giants D`. In the future, along a parallel universe, van Pelt will become a member of the ‘Big Blue Wrecking Crew’ and the ‘Crunch Bunch’, featuring current teammates Harry Carson and Brian Kelley, along with the ONE simply known as `LT`. It has been said that van Pelt was easily the best player on a series of horrific Giant teams. The Giants had one winning season, while van Pelt was on the team, a (9-7) campaign that saw them defeat the Philadelphia Eagles in the wildcard game before succumbing to an up and coming 49er team in a valiant 38-24 loss. He was a player that could have started for teams far better than the Giants. If not for some of the most inept offenses the league has ever witnessed (see video below), the Giants may have been a team from the 70`s that had us talking. Van Pelt was a rangy linebacker that could fill the gaps against the run, and drop back into coverage, using his speed to blanket backs and tight ends, and long arms to clog up throwing lanes, or knock away passes.

Van Pelt holds the interesting distinction of bucking the NFL`s jersey number policy that was instituted in 1973. Concerning linebackers, players were only to be represented by numbers in the fifties. The rule applied to all players entering the NFL from that time forward. Interestingly for van Pelt, he was listed as the Giants backup kicker his rookie season, and was thus allowed to retain his beloved college jersey number, ten. It was not until he was released from the Giants, finishing up with the Raiders and Browns, did van Pelt become subject to the rules.

Van Pelt was a heart and soul player that was easy to root for. Van Pelt endured a decade of team failures. The Giants began to turn the corner, as the younger Harry Carson began to grow into a star, and the Giants struck gold with Lawrence Taylor. For van Pelt, though, he was by then an aging linebacker that would soon have his spot in the ‘Big Blue Wrecking Crew’ replaced by Carl Banks. For a number of years in the 70s van Pelt begged the Giants, an organization in disarray, to trade him. Finally they did, in 1984, to the Los Angeles Raiders, in a far too late, `thanks for nothing` style dumping, as the Giants were FINALLY a team on the rise. He would go on to have one more solid season as a Raider before drifting off into obscurity as a member of the Browns to close out his career.