LIKE every year, Giants defensive line coach Denny Marcin this week will make sure there’s a Christmas tree in the meeting room his guys occupy in the dankness of Giants Stadium. No imported cheer, though, can brighten a gloomy situation that soon will make the popular Marcin a former Giants assistant.
Those who thirst for Jim Fassel’s job and take delight in those “Fire Fassel!” chants might not be so ravenous for change if they studied the deeper ramifications of Fassel’s impending dismissal. When he leaves, out the door and into the unemployment line goes an entire staff, displacing wives, children, grandchildren, homes, lives.
“People don’t understand that part of it,” Marcin said. “You’ve got to pick up and move, that’s pretty tough. It’s tremendous, really, when you think about it.”
Marcin is one of four assistants who have been with Fassel for his entire seven-year run with the Giants. Defensive coordinator Johnnie Lynn, offensive line coach Jim McNally, and strength and conditioning coach John (Mother) Dunn are the others. Receivers coach Jimmy Robinson has been on the scene six years. Mike Pope (tight ends) and Tom Olivadotti (linebackers) are in their fourth year; Eric Studesville (running backs) is in his third year; Bruce Read, in his second year, is Fassel’s third special teams coach. DeWayne Walker (defensive backs) is completing his second year, and Turk Schonert (quarterbacks) is in his first.
Then there is Mike Priefer, a special teams assistant who was brought in this year to help Fassel with time management. A Naval Academy graduate and a former helicopter pilot, Priefer, 37, has a wife and four kids and no doubt figured he was coming aboard a Giants ship set to sail into the playoffs. When the staff goes, Priefer goes with it, just as he did a year ago when he was wiped out of Jacksonville after one year when Tom Coughlin was fired.
It’s not easy.
“Most of us have had some kind of experience with it before, so you kind of have Plan A and Plan B,” Marcin said. “Every assistant is probably in a little different boat.”
As Fassel has confronted and, grudgingly, accepted the fate that will befall him, he has steered clear of referring to his job in the past tense.
“I don’t really go in and talk to ’em about it,” Fassel said of his staff. “We’ve all been doing this a long time. I’ll say something like, ‘If anyone has any questions you can see me’ and tell them it’ll be fine.”
Stating “I’ve got good coaches,” Fassel will be able to help some of his loyal assistants if, as expected, he quickly lands with another team. He likely would re-hire several of them.
“That would be their hope, that I do bounce back right away,” Fassel said.
None of the members of Fassel’s current staff is expected to outlast him in New York.
“This is 22 years for me, I’ve been through a lot of these things, more good than bad, fortunately,” said Pope, who helped the Giants fine-tune both Mark Bavaro and Jeremy Shockey. “You just plan to move on.
“I’m just sad this has happened the way it has for this franchise and for Jim and for everybody involved with it. If you’re in this business you’re going to be pushed around.”