Getty
Ray Handley and the Giants won two Super Bowls together.
Ray Handley, who won two Super Bowls with the New York Giants as an assistant to Bill Parcells then ultimately succeeded Parcells as Giants head coach, passed away last week at age 81.
Handley was the Giants’ offensive-backfield coach under Parcells for their Super Bowl victories over the Denver Broncos in 1987 and their upset win over the Buffalo Bills four years later in Super Bowl XXV.
He became the Giants head coach after Parcells resigned in May 1991, and then-Giants defensive coordinator Bill Belichick had left to coach the Cleveland Browns shortly after the Giants’ 20-19 win over the Bills.
Handley went 14-18 in two seasons and was let go after the Giants lost six of their final seven games after a 5-4 start to the 1992 season.
Ray Handley Was A Two-Time Super Bowl-Winning Offensive Assistant Coach
Handley was a key member of the coaching staff for arguably the franchise’s most successful run of success. He worked under offensive coordinator Ron Erhardt throughout his seven years as running-backs coach until he was promoted to head coach.
Handley came to the Giants after coaching at his alma mater Stanford for five seasons as linebackers coach. He had been offensive-backfield coach under Parcells when he was the head coach at Air Force for one season in 1978.
The Giants ranked sixth in the NFL in rushing in both his years as head coach and were top-10 in the NFL in three of his seven years as the backfield coach, helping New York’s array of backs like Ottis Anderson, Joe Morris, Lewis Tillman and others.
Of course, Belichick gets the bulk of the credit for the Giants’ run to the Super Bowl in 1990, since they deployed three entirely different defensive schemes in their three-game upstart championship run.
But Handley and the offense found a way to persevere after starting quarterback Phil Simms went down to a broken ankle in Week 14. The Giants rushed for 518 yards in their three playoff games that year, aiding backup QB Jeff Hostetler, and Anderson had 102 yards on 21 carries in their upset of the Bills.
Ray Handley’s Legacy is Unfairly Unkind to Him
The Handley head-coaching era is likely forgotten outside of Giants fans of a certain age. Those who do remember might recall the demure spectacle-faced Handley as a far-less forceful coach than the fiery Parcells, who got less out of the roster than perhaps any coach in Giants history.
But aside from needing to succeed the greatest coach in franchise history, Handley had to do so without Belichick and Tom Coughlin, the then-Giants wide receivers coach who left the Giants to become head coach at Boston College.
There were mistakes made too, since Handley handed the reins to Hostetler — over the face-of-the-franchise Simms — in 1991 until a broken back ended his season. Still, Hostetler was 7-5 as QB that year, and when Simms came in he struggled and lost three of his final four starts.
Still, Handley did not get another job after being fired by the Giants in 1992. Plus, New York went 11-5 in 1993 under coach Dan Reeves — and nearly won the NFC East if not for Emmitt Smith’s heroic performance in the Dallas Cowboys‘ 16-13 win in Week 18 that year.
Pat Pickens is an experienced sports writer and media personality who has written for outlets like NHL.com, the Associated Press, the New York Times and USA Today. He covers the NFL, NBA, NHL and NBA as a breaking news contributor at Heavy. More about Pat Pickens
More Heavy on Giants
Loading more stories