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Even after the announcement, rumors continued to swirl. Considering that in February, Tampa Bay had hired Richard Williamson, a low-profile coach, the Parcells-to-Tampa idea was a possibility, as were whatever coaching options opened after the 1991 season. Dismissing the notion that he was leaving the Giants because of a strained relationship with the team’s general manager, Parcells told reporters at his farewell press conference that he enjoyed working beside George Young. Parcells’ resignation inevitably produced more acrimony between the two.

“I knew something was wrong [with my health]; I didn’t know what it was. I asked George Young when both [Bill Belichick and Tom Coughlin] left, ‘Do you want to keep them here?’” Parcells said in 2010. “George said ‘No, let them take their opportunities.’ What he was telling me was that he knew there was a chance I was gonna step down. He knew because I was very clear to him: ‘Do you want to keep them here?’ He said no. He had made up his mind what he would do if I left.

“After the fact, that never came out. He never admitted to that. He said, ‘Had I known . . .’ That’s not true. He did know.”

An hour after learning of Parcells’ intentions, Young promoted running backs coach Ray Handley to fill Parcells’ spot.

The Ray Handley era began auspiciously. In Week One, the Giants trailed San Francisco 14-13 at Giants Stadium. And thirty-two weeks after his field goal erased a one-point deficit to win the NFC championship, Matt Bahr nailed a last-second thirty-five-yarder to defeat the 49ers 16-14.

From that point, however, the Giants were wildly inconsistent during an 8-8 season.

“When the [1991] season started, we played the 49ers and we’re like ‘Wow, we’re back to where we started, we can do this again, let’s try to run the table,’ Stephen Baker recalled.

We had great chemistry the year before. The following year—and that’s so important in sports, chemistry—it was all gone. Not to discredit Ray Handley, he did the best job that he could. But we’d lost the chemistry. It was very frustrating: from being the Super Bowl champion to playing how we played. It was probably the worst time in my life playing football.

I thought we were working hard and the practices were all going well, but maybe it was Parcells. I wish I could put my finger on it, but we were doing the same plays. . . . Change in chemistry messes up everything.

Losing Parcells and Belichick certainly hurt the Giants defense those two seasons. Even with the same starting lineup that finished 1990 tops in the NFL in points allowed, they slipped to twelfth, then twenty-sixth, over the next two seasons. On the other side of the ball, the Giants offense—which featured mostly the same faces, aside from Mark Bavaro who sat out 1991 and signed with Cleveland the following season—also tumbled.

Transitioning from Ottis Anderson to Rodney Hampton went smoothly. By Week Three of the 1991 season, Hampton became the feature back, and Anderson never started another game for New York. After playing thirteen games for the Giants in 1992—carrying the ball only ten times—the MVP of Super Bowl XXV retired from football. Hampton subsequently became a Pro Bowler. But the offense never approached the level of consistency that produced dozens of wins under Parcells.

“When Ray Handley took over that team, I never really thought much about it,” said Bob Mrosko.

And then I remember Handley, when we got to minicamp, talking to a lot of players. He always said in the papers, “This is my team now; it’s not Bill Parcells’ team.” It began to get apparent that he was gonna have a different philosophy. And I always equate it to the way Bill Walsh left the 49ers and George Seifert took over. He just stepped in and took over the team, and didn’t miss a beat. He kept the same team, same philosophy, and he won football games.

And I felt when Handley came in and took over, he wasn’t gonna be content with going in there and winning and having people say, “Oh, that’s Bill Parcells’ team.” He wanted to put his own mark to it. By doing that,