President of G-III Sports Division, G-III APPAREL GROUP LTD
Carl Banks Feature Part 1 and 2
Learn about former Michigan State linebacker, and 2x New York Giant Super Bowl Champion. From his journey to MSU, NFL, and ...
About Carl Banks
Carl Banks, a two-time Super Bowl champion and New York Giants Ring of Honor inductee, has made several media appearances in recent weeks to discuss his career, his role as president of the G-III Sports Division, and the current state of the Giants. On the 1925 New York Giants Podcast, Banks promoted his Starter brand, describing how he was one of the first players signed by the company and how founder David Beckerman's vision made "fandom become fashionable." He also commented on Giants general manager Joe Schoen, saying he believes the organization felt Schoen had "acquired the right amount of talent to move the team in the right direction" and noted that Schoen inherited a "really bad salary cap situation." Banks expressed his opinion that the Giants should have franchise-tagged quarterback Daniel Jones and given running back Saquon Barkley a contract extension, stating, "You put your money where you know the safe contract is." On the Bleav in Bengals podcast, Banks discussed the trade of defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence from the Giants to the Cincinnati Bengals. Banks stated that "Dexter didn't want to be a Giant anymore" and described Lawrence's best play as "demoralizing" to offensive players, comparing his strength to Larry Allen and his interior pass rush to Reggie White. Banks said he hopes the "joy has returned" for Lawrence in Cincinnati. He also commented on the Giants' current roster, expressing optimism about players like Cam Scataboo and Malik Nabers, and said the team is "on their way back."
Transcript (28 segments)
✨ AI-enhanced transcript with speaker attribution
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Narrator0:00
From growing up in Flint, Michigan, to playing linebacker for the Spartans, and he eventually went to Super Bowls. Carl Banks has made a mark in the state of Michigan that will last forever.
Before Carl became a football player, he was passionate about the game of basketball. A player he could relate to at power forward was Magic Johnson, and he got the chance to take on Magic in a game of two-on-two at the Doctor Tucker camp.
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Carl Banks0:27
And Magic owes me a gym bag, by the way, because myself and Terrell Burton, BC, and J Vincent in two-on-two basketball, and it was a really nice gym bag that they were supposed to give anybody that beat them. We beat them, but they called three seconds or something like that, pickup game, so they all stepped back.
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Narrator0:48
When Carl made the transition to football, one of his coaches said that you would have more opportunities. That's pretty much how that decision was made.
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Carl Banks0:56
The interesting thing about it is that I was a football player out of position, because I was an offensive tackle and defensive tackle in high school. So I had to go in and learn a position whatever college I went to, so they were basically offering the scholarship on my athleticism.
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Narrator1:21
Carl started to get recruited by every top school in the country during his senior year. MSU wasn't really on his mind, but he did accept a visit.
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Carl Banks1:32
Some Lewis asked me to come to campus, and I had probably a five-minute conversation with Matt, and he was on his way out, but he said if you come to Michigan State, the people are great, the campus is great, and you'll enjoy your life. No pipeline from Flint had formed to Michigan State. Michigan was going to Michigan and other places. So I wanted to do that first, and I have no regrets about it.
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Narrator2:06
I see he Magic did not lie. The campus life is just incredible. The people in the memory from Michigan State are just countless.
Once Carl attended MSU, he learned the importance of the rivalry against Michigan and how he wanted to make some sort of impact in that game.
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Carl Banks2:23
It was big. I mean, I never beat them, but I always wanted to try to make a mark, you know what I mean? Because I personally turned down Bo Schembechler because whatever recruiter he had didn't think I was worthy of being recruited, so they kind of offered me, you can come visit us and watch a game. We're not gonna give you an official visit, and you know, you can come to Michigan. I almost made it feel like I was gonna be a walk-on or something. So I knew right then I didn't want to be a part of that.
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Narrator3:01
As Carl finished out his career at MSU, he was not invited to any of the Senior Bowl games or the NFL Combine. That was until head coach George Perles came up with an idea.
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Carl Banks3:12
George was a bit offended by it that I wasn't on any of those invites, so he said to me, he says, I can get you to a bowl game. It's gonna be played on Christmas Day, but you're gonna have to post cow spear, and once they see you in this game, there's no doubt in my mind you'll be invited to all the offer games. Answer though, so I go to Birmingham, Alabama to the Blue-Gray Game, and I ended up being the defensive player of the game. By the time I got home, you know, I went to coach Perles' office, and he had every single bowl game and invite to come, most combines, all the Senior Bowl, East-West Shrine Game, and it was one of... I got invited to all of those.
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Narrator4:20
Every girl does that. On the day of the draft, Carl didn't have to wait long to hear his name be announced.
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Carl Banks4:28
Then on draft day, I ended up getting the number three player chosen overall, which was just amazing. The house was hoping to get drafted at that point. I didn't know how I ranked among some of the other players, but I was the number three player drafted by the New York Giants. And I guess that was supposed to be good news, because I didn't know anything about the Giants. Then I looked it up and they had like four All-Pro linebackers. My work was cut out from day one, but I was okay with that.
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Narrator5:11
As Carl continued his football journey, playing for one of the best linebacker crews in the NFL that had their own name, the Big Blue Wrecking Crew.
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Carl Banks5:21
Who came up with the name? I know I was instrumental in putting together this poster, because the prior regime was called the Crunch Bunch. Myself, Gary Reasons, and a few other players, to earn a decent sum, how we came up with the name Big Blue Wrecking Crew. I had a friend who had a construction company, so he had all of this equipment, and so we decided to shoot this poster as a demolition crew, which we thought we were, and that's kind of the birth of the Big Blue Wrecking Crew.
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Narrator5:57
Once the 1986 season hit for the Giants, they made it all the way to Super Bowl 21.
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Carl Banks6:03
Probably didn't enjoy the experience as much as I could have, but I did enjoy the game as much as I could, because I was probably one of the top two players on the field that day. I just wanted to make sure I had my best game, because you know, you're always here, what do you consider your best game? Well, it's in the biggest game of the year and you have your best game of your career, that's pretty special, and I think that's what happened with me in '86.
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Narrator6:33
Entering the 1990 season, the team faced adversity heading into the playoffs, where quarterback Phil Simms would get injured and then entered backup quarterback Jeff Hostetler.
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Carl Banks6:47
I already knew what Jeff Hostetler was because we got a chance to practice against the first-team defense, and the first team and the second team defense. So there was a great deal of confidence in Jeff, and plus we had a really good defense that we could count on. And Jeff could sit in the crowd and relax and play his game. But that was a huge game because Buffalo's potential was really big as well in that Super Bowl. But we felt confident that the defense would do our part, we can show Jeff that we had his back.
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Narrator7:21
With the quarterback change, the Giants made it to the NFC Championship Game against reigning Super Bowl champs the San Francisco 49ers.
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Carl Banks7:28
I believe this game was a steal all of their equipment to Tampa because they thought this game was a foregone conclusion, and it was... Rob3 key, and we were able to chip on my shoulder. Our quote was, if you don't plan on packing for two weeks, they'll get on the plane. He put a big suitcase in the middle of our meeting room. So at that point, we went there with the objective of winning and leaving them glowing in Tampa.
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Narrator8:05
The Giants made it to Super Bowl 25 and they prepared for a talented Buffalo Bills team. The game was close to the very end, and it was left on the foot of Bills kicker Scott Norwood.
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Carl Banks8:19
That moment was one of those... if he makes this, they deserve to win, because he was one of those heavyweights. We were throwing our best shot and we were finally able to stop him. We stopped him far enough out where he didn't hit the field goal. I mean, that also started a lot of people. I'll give this guy credit: they shot my dad? I had a great punt, send them down and make the drive long for them, so that helped. And then our defense was able to stop them.
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Narrator8:57
Once Carl's football career came to an end, he was inducted into the Giants Ring of Honor and the MSU Athletic Hall of Fame. Even though he is done with football, he still invests his time into the game that he loves.
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Carl Banks9:10
I'm the color analyst for the Giants broadcast. I do all the Giants football games. And then I have two radio shows here, one on Sirius XM and the other one on CBS WSA in New York. And then I have my account business, licensing for all the major sports leagues and colleges, and I own the Starter label, which is one of the more iconic brands in sports. So we do a lot of great merchandise as well. I've been in that business since I started my NFL career, so it's been about 30 years now.
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Narrator9:49
Carl looks back on his football career from MSU to the Giants and how he kept his winning mentality.
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Carl Banks9:55
You want to leave a positive mark on the program. You don't want to be that guy that came through there that no one liked. But it was tough because we'd get beat a lot, and I hate losing so much. They say it builds character, but when you have such a desire to win... I was a winner in high school, we won a lot in high school. We didn't go to the state, we won a lot of everything, and I was angry after every game. I was just miserable. But I kept getting up every week and giving 100% in hopes that my effort would be contagious and spark my teammates. That attitude helped me when I got to the NFL, because I approached the NFL with a winning attitude.