Super Bowl Monday_ From the Persian Gulf to the Shores of West Florida - Adam Lazarus [126]
“So even at that [the end of the game], I was standing there on the sidelines with my arms crossed hoping for a fumble, an interception, a bad snap, a bad hold, anything than for him to have the stigma of a missed kick. . . . Unfortunately, that’s kinda the way it turned out. Turned out good for us.”
But the obvious choices for interviews were the pair of former backups who guided the Giants to victory. Holding his two boys, Jason and Justin, one in each arm, and with his pregnant wife Vicky next to him, Jeff Hostetler spoke about the nasty hits he took, his streak of marvelous third-down completions, and becoming an unlikely Super Bowl legend.
“Everybody wrote us off, and we kept fighting, stayed together, hung tough, and this is just a great victory for us,” he told one reporter. “I’ve heard so many guys say that I’d never be able to do it, and, thank the Lord, it’s done and nobody can take it away.”
Hostetler finished the game with twenty completions in thirty-two attempts, 222 yards passing, and the touchdown pass to Stephen Baker. His string of eight consecutive third-down completions, along with the brilliant second-half performance (eleven for fourteen, 117 yards), earned him four-and-a-half votes for the Most Valuable Player Award. But Ottis Anderson’s go-ahead touchdown and 102 yards on twenty-one carries earned him seven-and-a-half votes. The inaugural Pete Rozelle Trophy, which came with a brand new convertible, went to the thirty-four-year-old veteran. [1]
“How he was never the MVP of the Super Bowl is beyond my wildest dreams,” Don Nehlen said years later. “That was the biggest farce. And I have nothing against that Ottis [Anderson], ’cause he played very well. But without Jeff Hostetler, the New York Giants do not win that Super Bowl game. That I’m sure of.”
Other, less-biased observers agreed with Hostetler’s father-in-law.
“Hostetler, of course, deserved the award,” John Markon of the Richmond Times-Dispatch wrote. “As for why he didn’t get it, we can only surmise that there’s a reluctance to bestow a major award on a player with only minor credentials. If the injured Phil Simms had played the same game as Hostetler, Simms would be tooling in that Buick Reatta today.”
Despite second-guessers, the choice of Anderson made sense. The Giants won the Super Bowl by executing—to near perfection—their ball-control, run-heavy game plan. Anderson’s punishing rushes allowed the Giants to eat up time and consistently gain yards via the play-action pass. (Still, at least one columnist suggested the entire New York offensive line should win the award.)
The MVP Trophy and the car (which General Motors announced five weeks later was to be discontinued due to poor sales) were not the most significant accolades lavished upon Anderson that evening. Words from his head coach carried much more weight than those material objects.
“He’s going to Canton (the Pro Football Hall of Fame),” Parcells told reporters. “I don’t see how they can keep the kid out. He’s got too many pelts on his horse. The mettle is the test of time and he’s met it. He’s one of the top eight rushers in the history of this league. He’s got to go. He’s got to go.”
“They brought Parcells into the interview tent,” recalled Ray Didinger.
[I remember] asking him about Anderson; and Parcells, the affection that he showed for Anderson when he began talking about him—the respect and the affection that he showed for him.
He talked about him differently than he talked about other players. You could tell that he really admired the guy. He admired his career; he admired the fact that when Ottis came from St. Louis to the Giants, he had a couple of years where he basically didn’t play almost. And he went from being a star in St. Louis to being this forgotten man in the corner of the