ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Football people aren’t always known for their ability to open up. So thank you, first of all, to the players, coaches, and executives who are quoted in this book and who were so very generous with their time and their memories. This book was as much about their exploits as it was about how they felt and what they were thinking while achieving such greatness, and they were able to recall details with amazing precision and a fascinating sense of narrative. There were very few doors I knocked on while reporting this book that were not flung wide open for me, and I’ll always appreciate that. I hope I told your stories to the readers with the same passion and nuance and reverence as you told them to me.

Thanks to everyone behind the scenes at the Giants, too, without whose help I would not have been able to get to all of those doors and connect. Pat Hanlon, Jen Conley, and Doug Murphy went above and beyond to try to get me whatever I needed, whether it was an old photograph or an up-to-date cell phone number. Hanlon was surprisingly patient and cordial about it, too, which may have been the biggest Miracle Moment of the process from my perspective!

I write just about every day for Newsday, but writing a book like this was an entirely new experience. So thank you to Julie Ganz at Skyhorse Publishing, who was there to answer all of my silly questions, help me with the pacing of the project, and serve as a veteran presence to this rookie. We worked together on this through the 2018 season, and Julie, a Giants fan, was always on the lookout for one more up-to-date Miracle Moment to spring forth from that campaign. Sadly, the Giants finished 5–11. Maybe this year, Julie. There’s always the second edition.

Thanks to everyone at Newsday who has encouraged and inspired me throughout my nearly quarter of a century (yikes!) working there. Sports Editor Hank Winnicki and Deputy Sports Editor Mike Rose make it easy for me to do my job, and there are plenty of copy editors on the desk there in Melville who make me seem like a much better writer and reporter than I am. Thanks, too, to Newsday’s Research Manager Laura Mann, who was so helpful when it came time to comb through the archives for old photos that would be perfect fits for this book.

There are many colleagues and competitors with whom I work on a regular basis, and I think they’d be surprised to know how helpful they have been in this process… especially since most of them didn’t even know about it! The pregame conversations with Vinny DiTrani, Paul Schwartz, Bob Glauber, and Neil Best were so rich with information and background about the events I wrote about here but did not witness firsthand. Thanks to Steve Serby, Judy Battista, Kim Jones, Hank Gola, Ralph Vacchiano, Art Stapleton, and Mark Cannizzaro for being unsuspecting sounding boards and resources, as well. And thanks to the late Ernie Palladino, who I know would have enjoyed this book and showered me with embarrassing shouts of “Author! Author!” for many years to come.

Two writers I met very early in my career have been influential and helpful throughout. Authors Dan Paisner and Tom Clavin have always been there for me, nudging me along and setting shining examples of the kind of work I hope to create. It was Dan who suggested an idea for a book and Tom who put me in touch with Skyhorse to try to sell that idea. That project never took off, but it led to this book. An audible! So, thank you.

Finally, thank you to my wife, Amanda, and our children, Charlie, Abby, and Spencer. Your patience and support, not only during my work on this book, but in everything and always, can never be repaid. Whether it is a missed lacrosse game, a family dinner interrupted by a phone call, or a temper tantrum I throw in frustration, your understanding in the face of the many disruptions I bring into our home overwhelms me even as I know I should have exhausted it long ago. I love you guys, and I could not have done this—or anything else, for that matter—without you.