He predicted that New York would make the playoffs when no one gave them much of a chance. Then they marched to the championship game, only to lose to the Ravens.
Jim Fassel, who was a longtime architect of offensive schemes in the pros and collegiate football and reached the pinnacle of his career when he coached the Giants team that reached the 2001 Super Bowl, died on Monday in Las Vegas. He was 71. The Giants reported the death on its website. His son John, the special teams coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys, told The Los Angeles Times that the cause was a heart attack. Fassel, who lived in the Las Vegas area for many years, told sportswriters in late November 2000 that he was “shoving my chips to the center of the table” in guaranteeing that his Giants team,7-4 after a loss to the Detroit Lions, would reach the playoffs. “When I called the staff together the night before to tell them what I was going to say, they thought somebody on the staff was going to be fired,” he told The New York Times. “I just wanted to tell them what I was doing to do, and the next day I did it.” The Giants won their last five games of the 2000 regular season, defeated the Philadelphia Eagles in the first round of the playoffs and trounced the favored Minnesota Vikings,41-0, in the National Football Conference championship game at Giants Stadium. Kerry Collins, one of the many quarterbacks that Fassel worked with over the years, threw for five touchdowns, including two to Ike Hilliard and another to Amani Toomer, his prime wide receivers.
