Coming into their week 3 match up against the Falcons the `Big Blue` knew they would be without both their starting QB and starting RB. Most of the worry, though, resided at the QB position, as coaches felt Larry Csonka was basically already a starter, splitting carries with the injured Doug Kotar. Starting QB Joe Pisarcik is no legend behind center, but Jerry Golsteyn sure makes him look like one.

However, at the start of the game, Golsteyn looked like he was going to quiet the critics, as he connected on a 34-yard TD to Johnny Perkins, after the Giants defense forced a Falcon fumble. Frank Reed was consistently returning Joe Danelo`s kicks past or near midfield, giving the Falcons good field position for most of the game. Reed`s ensuring kick return proved no different. Eventually Haskel Stanbeck, on his best run of the day, punched it in for a 9-yard score to tie the game.

Then the Jerry Golsteyn honeymoon abruptly ended. Midway through the second quarter, Golsteyn went back to pass. He looked short to Jim Robinson, who appeared to be open. However, the CPU controlled Ray Brown made a magnificent break on the ball, catching it in stride, collecting his first of two picks on the day. Brown was corralled at the 1-yard line (Chaos dubbed this a pick 5.99), and a single play later FB Mike Esposito barged the rock into the end zone. Atlanta was settling into the game nicely, leading now 14-7, while the Jerry jitters were becoming more and more apparent in Giant-land. As the New York offense slowly lost its early sizzle, the defense was actually playing rather well. With about 20 seconds left in the half, the Giants forced the Falcons into a 3rd and 38 from their own 26-yard line. Coach Cheap Catch called a timeout, hoping to get one last play off before the half ended. Atlanta opted to go for it, and the Giants did what they were doing all game long, rushing QB Steve Bartkowski with LBs Brad Van Pelt and Brian Kelley. Van Pelt was the impetus that forced the Falcons into the long yardage situation. On the fourth down play, Van Pelt cut too quickly toward Bartkowski, getting chipped and held up by the tackle. Meanwhile Bartkowski retreated backwards, gaining plenty of time to unleash a last second heave-ho. Indeed sir. As the clock expired, so did the Giant confidence, as Alfred Jenkins hauled in the 74-yard bomb for a TD in front of two trailing defenders. The shell shocked Giants, once lively and fierce, strolled dejectedly into the locker room now down 21-7.

At least the Giants were receiving the second half kick off. Last week against the 49ers Clyde Powers was a monster at kick returner. Could he be so bold to repeat his performance? Powers took the kickoff two yards deep, swerving around the first wave of Falcon defenders. As Powers began heading up field he entered a second-wave swarm. Powers attempted to bully his way through, but instead…..bloop, bloop, bloop. No sooner did the rock hit the ground did the Falcons scoop it up and cross the goal line. 28-7. A game once so close was quickly getting out of hand.

On the next possession the Giants actually put together a decent drive behind the bruiser Zonk and the arm of Golsteyn….oh wait, not the arm of Golsteyn, just Zonk. The Giants managed to get within two scores at 28-14, still in the third quarter. Frank Reed had yet another decent kick return but the Giants held. The Falcons attempted a 60-yard FG, but it fell far short, setting up New York with good field position.

Back to the legs o` Zonk. Zonk at this point was fired up, catching the ire of Coach Bad Moon, as he beasted through the tough Falcon defense on run after run. After spinning and bull rushing, Zonk toted the ball into the end zone from 8 yards out. Improbably the Giants had turned the once one-sided affair into a game.

Frank Reed was looking to impart more of his magic when instead he did his best Clyde Powers impression, fumbling the ball on the ensuing kickoff. The Giants quickly recovered the ball, and by all means it looked as though New York was going to tie the game. Instead the Giant runner jumped at the 3-yard line right into the waiting arms of a diving Falcon defender. Following a series of bumbling and unproductive plays, which included Jerry Golstyn losing about 10 yards on a sack, an incompletion, and a run where Larry was himself zonked, the Giants opted for a short field goal. 28-24.

The Falcons regained the ball, but the up and coming Giant defense stopped Atlanta on downs, forcing a punt. New York ended up with decent field position. After Golstyn hit one of his few nice passes of the day, getting the Giants down to the Falcon 32-yard line, New York no sooner surrendered it, as two plays later Golstyn was harried by a Falcon CPU defensive lineman on a play action pass. Golstyn nimbly spun out of the waiting arms of the defender, stepping up in the pocket, lauching a….duck of a pass that traveled five yards downfield before it fell into the waiting hands of Ray Brown.

The Giants were able to stop the Falcons again, but a wasted timeout earlier in the quarter, allowed the clock to reach zero, after the Giants stopped Mike Esposito short of the first down on 4th and 1. So, there is it. The Falcons survive a wacky game, filled with frills, thrills, crappy QB play from the Giants, and a poor running display by the Falcons. Despite that, this game was entertaining to the hilt, with both teams getting their fair share of spoils from the Tecmo gods.

No Movie (Yet)

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.

Brian Kelley
LB, NYG


Brian Kelley has a lot of "friends." 

Back in July of 2009, Brian Kelley called a former teammate to share some good news.  "Hey Lawrence - I was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame," Kelley told Lawrence Taylor.  "Great," LT said.  "Call me when you get induced into Canton." 

That same day, Brian Kelly was hired as the head coach of Notre Dame.  Before the induction ceremony, Kelley was on a golf course in South Bend, Indiana with fellow inductees.  His phone started to blow up with calls, emails, and texts of congratulations.  It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy, these messages said.

To one such message, Kelley replied, "Well, it did."  It was Brian Kelly who had been hired as the head coach, not Brian Kelley.

You'd like to think your friends know how to spell your name. 

One of Kelley's "friends" almost certainly knew how to spell his name.  Back in 1992, Kelley owned a bikini bar called Satin Dolls in Lodi, New Jersey.  The bar would later become famous as the filming site for the Bada Bing! club in the HBO series The Sopranos, but back then it was drawing attention for another reason. 

According to a New York Times article from February of that year, Kelley turned state's evidence against Vincent Ravo, a man he described as a "consultant," but who was later indicted as a member of the Genovese crime family.  The consulting fee?  $500 a month left in an envelope under the bar for Ravo to pick up. 

During his playing career, Kelley was famous for being a member of the "Crunch Bunch" - the New York Giants' linebacking corps that included Kelley, Brad Van Pelt, Harry Carson, and Lawrence Taylor.  In 1992. Kelley seems to have gotten himself involved in a bunch that could deliver a different sort of crunch.

Kelley asserted to New Jersey state investigators that he knew nothing of Ravo's criminal connections.  When asked to explain the fact that no payments to Ravo ever appeared on the Satin Dolls' books, Kelley replied, "I don't handle the books." 

Whether or not Kelley really handled the books for Satin Dolls, he certainly handled the Dallas Cowboys in Week 13.  In the upset of the week, Kelley turned the Cowboys into satin dolls, racking up 13 tackles as the Giants snapped their cold streak and whacked the 'Boys' division-title hopes.  As Kelley ran off the field, he could be heard exclaiming, "Bada bing, baby!  Bada bing!"