Super Bowl Monday_ From the Persian Gulf to the Shores of West Florida - Adam Lazarus [19]
“Nothing seemed to go right in the first half,” he said. “But I’m proud that the team had the confidence in me and the coaches stuck with me.”
To jump-start the team, Nehlen opened the second half with a successful onside kick, and minutes later, Hostetler found Rich Hollis for a sixteen-yard touchdown pass that evened the score at ten. Playing in his final college game, Hostetler set up the go-ahead score, keeping the ball on the option, to charge thirty-seven yards to the Kentucky two. On the next play, he hit Rob Bennett for the winning score. After the game, Norm Hostetler told reporters that his son battled through the fourth quarter with a concussion.
Hostetler had now given the Mountaineers a pair of bowl appearances, eighteen wins in twenty-four games, and consecutive top-twenty finishes in the national poll.
Not winning the Heisman Trophy didn’t bother the modest Hostetler. He claimed his share of personal accolades that year. The first team academic all-American won the Hall of Fame Bowl MVP for his gritty performance in the win over Kentucky and earned spots on both the Blue-Grey Bowl and the Hula Bowl rosters.
During his week in Honolulu for the Hula Bowl, Hostetler received word that the Pittsburgh Maulers of the USFL selected him with their first “territorial” draft choice. A less-than-impressive financial offer from the Maulers quickly caused Hostetler to abandon any considerations of playing USFL games just a few dozen miles from his birthplace in western Pennsylvania.
As a finance major graduating in a few months with a 3.92 grade-point average, Hostetler could afford to be selective about his future. That spring, the University of West Virginia’s Finance Department nominated Hostetler for a Rhodes scholarship. He turned down the prestigious honor—“a great educational experience, but it would not have fit with pro football. Too much time lost”—to pursue his dream of quarterbacking an NFL team.
That dream started to materialize in early May when the New York Giants selected Hostetler with their third-round choice. (Boomer Esiason, who went to Cincinnati in the second round, was the only quarterback taken ahead of Hostetler.)
“I didn’t know anything about the Giants, had no idea. Hadn’t talked to them at all before the draft. I didn’t have any idea. And so I actually didn’t even know who their coach was. So when I got told that I was going there I didn’t know what their quarterback situation was or anything so I was kinda in the dark with it.”
Phil Simms was the Giants incumbent, but injuries, inconsistent play, and a complicated relationship with head coach Bill Parcells sidetracked his career. Scott Brunner took over when Simms was injured or ineffective, only to be traded to Denver a week before the 1983 draft. The other veteran vying for playing time was Jeff Rutledge, a former Los Angeles Ram for whom the Giants gave away a fourth-round pick.
“I thought that it was a great opportunity once I found out that they had a couple quarterbacks there, but nobody had been there playing and had the job locked up. So I thought this would be a great opportunity to at least see the field.”
A month after marrying coach Nehlen’s daughter, Vicky, Hostetler signed with the Giants in June. The new Hostetler family was even more delighted when Giants coach Bill Parcells refused to cave to the New York media, who speculated that the quarterback position belonged to Simms.
“After all our changes, wouldn’t it be crazy for me to say someone who has hardly snapped the ball in three years, ‘You have the job?’” Parcells asked reporters. “That’s not the way things are going to work this year.”
Training camp was wide open: Simms, Hostetler, and Jeff Rutledge each believed they could win the job. By the first exhibition game, Parcells decided that Simms and Rutledge would split time and Hostetler should watch from the sidelines.
“He’s not ready, and I told him so. I don’t want to throw him