George Martin: The Giants' underrated leader

In this issue we reflect on one of the most underrated leaders in the 96-year history of the New York Football Giants, defensive end George Martin.

- JOHN FENNELLY

The six-foot-four, 245pound Martin was selected out of the University of Oregon by the Giants in the 11th round of the 1975 NFL Draft. Martin made the club and played in all 14 regular-season games. The Giants were a mess of a franchise at that time, coming off a disastrous 212 season under head coach Bill Arnsparger and were playing in their third different venue in three years — the dusty, windy, anarchic Shea Stadium. They would finish the ’75 season 5-9.

The next year, in the Giants’ new digs in the swamps of Northern New Jersey, Martin became one of the staples on Big Blue’s defense. He started all 14 games at defensive end on a defense that contained such names as Jack Gregory, John Mendenhall, Brad Van Pelt, Harry Carson, and Brian Kelley. They played valiantly but still managed only three victories.

The next four seasons (’77 through ’80) were not much better. The Giants would wind through a period which is now known as the “Wilderness Years”, a stretch of such exorbitantly bad football that fans revolted to the point where the NFL itself forced the Giants to change the way they ran the franchise.