And we welcome you to the Hackensack Meridian Health podcast studio. Hackensack Meridian Health. Keep getting better. It's time for this week's edition of Papa's Perspective, brought to you by Bob's Discount Furniture, the official furniture store and a mattress partner of the New York Giants. And we welcome in two-time Super Bowl champion Carl Banks. And Carl, when you think about the career that you have, when you came to the Giants in 1984 and embarked upon this career coming out of Michigan, playing at Michigan State, could you ever in your wildest dreams imagine that it's gone the way it's gone?
Well, this part of it, I could. The football part of it, not so much. Coming out of Michigan State, we weren't a good football team and we didn't have the social media and the internet. There were two publications, Streets and Smith, and they came out preseason in the summertime and it came out at the end of the year. So, you read about yourself as an honorable mention as one of the good players in college. When the season starts and you see all these other big names and then the season's over with, you're still there. But somehow I was All-Big Ten three years in a row and ended up being an All-American. But I took nothing for granted. So I got my degree in communications, and this is the type of thing I thought I'd be. If you had to ask me to forecast my life, 40 years from when I was at Michigan State, I would say I'd be running an ad agency right now. I mean, that was kind of my thing. I loved writing commercials and just doing media stuff. And so this part I would say, yeah, I would probably be involved in some capacity, but never doubted I could play the game. Never doubted how good I was. And just happy that I was a part of something special with the Giants. And being drafted by the Giants was reinforcement that you can really take nothing for granted because they have four Pro Bowl players, right? And I had to take Bill Parcells at his word when he said he didn't draft me to sit me on the bench. So I knew I had a job to do and I got it done.
For those that don't realize it, one of my childhood heroes growing up was Brad Van Pelt, wore number 10. He was a great player at Michigan State before you.
One of my childhood heroes.
Right? So he was like your... So you knew something about the Giants just because of him, right?
Right. I mean, well, everybody kept track of Brad Van Pelt. He was our Jim Thorpe, right? Like, he played every sport and was good at every sport. And then he went to Michigan State, but he was good in track, he was good in baseball, good in basketball, and great at football. So we always tracked what Brad was doing.
Listen, you had so many great wins. You won two Super Bowls. Is your perfect game though from a personal standpoint Super Bowl 21? Would you, if I asked you the best game you've ever played in your NFL career, would you say Super Bowl 21?
I would say yes. It was the culmination of my best game because my best game before that was the one before that.
Right? And then the best game before that was the one before that. So that playoff run I was in such a zone and it was a good year for me, but I just went into a different zone. And so I knew the task at hand and I knew I put so much into my preparation, but the game felt so much easier. Everything was clearer, diagnosing plays before they even happened. And if I looked at film and you tell me how did I know this was, I couldn't tell you, but it just felt that way. And then by the time I got to the Super Bowl, there was not a play that I didn't think I could make in that game. In 1990, from a team standpoint, was the NFC Championship win in San Francisco where you held them to 13 points and the high-flying Buffalo offense in Super Bowl 25? Were those two of the more satisfying games for you from a team standpoint?
Yeah, I think those games, Bob, were satisfying in 90 because every win that we had that year, it was a... Yeah, but like it was almost like the media had convinced the fans that we weren't very good or weren't as good as we were supposed to be. And it was 'they beat him, but yeah, but yeah, but.' And then we got to the playoffs, people realized we were as good because we did whatever it took from a week-to-week basis in 90 to win games. And that's what happened in San Francisco and that's what happened in the Super Bowl because in San Francisco they were, you know, their three-peat was a foregone conclusion and whatever it took for us to win the game we did it. And then in Buffalo, when we played Buffalo, that game was how are you going to stop them? Traditional defense couldn't and if we played our traditional defense, we'd be a step behind. And we did what we had to do to devise a game plan that was really effective.
So, you're mapping out your career. You're in the prime of your career. And you and I first meet doing the Carl Banks Report on WNEW-AM where we were recorded at the stadium, whatever the case was. Meanwhile, you were getting involved in clothing and fashion which led to G-III Apparel. Where did the passion for clothing come from and where did the passion for business? Because you also would have your own luncheon during that period of time.
