Had Bill Parcells been invited to the Quest Diagnostics Giants Training Center this week leading up to Sunday’s pivotal game in Seattle, he might have strutted into the offensive line room and asked, “Is this a meeting of Club 26?”
Because the Giants rushed for 26 yards on “Thursday Night Football” against the Cowboys.
This was before the Giants would meet the Joe Montana 49ers in the 1986 divisional round. A month earlier, even though the Giants had defeated the 49ers because Phil Simms threw for 388 yards, they had rushed for an embarrassing 13 yards.
Tyrone Tracey, getting tackled by KaVontae Turpin during the Giants’ loss to the Cowboys, could be the starter against the Seahawks if Devin Singletary (groin) isn’t ready to play. Robert Deutsch-Imagn Images
So Bill Parcells, Hall of Fame motivator, strutted into the offensive line room and asked: “Is this a meeting of Club 13?”
Silence.
“The last time we played the 49ers, we got 13 yards rushing,” he said. “We could’ve run 13 quarterback sneaks and done better than that.”
The Giants, led by Joe Morris’ 159 yards and two touchdowns, turned into Club 216 in their 49-3 demolition of the 49ers.
“I loved the way that Bill coached. I responded to it,” former center Bart Oates told The Post. “I knew all along what he was doing was trying to get us to motivate to do the best that we can. … We had 13 yards, so we deserved it.”
Former offensive tackle Karl Nelson: “We knew what that was about. He was just trying to crank people up. Bill’s always messing with your head. And he’ll use anything he can to try to mess with your head. But the reason we were Club 13 was I don’t think he did a very good job of putting us in a position to run the ball.
“In my humble opinion, Parcells hated Bill Walsh. Hated him. He wanted to stick it to Bill Walsh and show him that, ‘Hey, I’m from Jersey, we’re tough, we’re badasses, we’re not this esoteric genius. I’m gonna show you what a genius I am, I’m gonna run the ball down your frickin’ throat.’
Bill Parcells celebrate after the Giants’ win over the Broncos in Super Bowl XXI. AP
“What do you think Walsh was thinking? ‘I bet Bill Parcells wants to run the ball on me. What am I gonna do? I’ll stick nine guys on the line of scrimmage.’ We couldn’t run the frickin’ ball. Bill was so set in his mind that he wanted to run the ball that he wouldn’t call any pass plays.”
Until the second half, when Parcells turned Simms loose to unleash the passing game and convinced Walsh to change his strategy for the playoff game.
I relayed the Club 13 tale to left tackle Andrew Thomas.