Former Giants GM Ernie Accorsi dies at 84

Ernie Accorsi, the former Giants general manager who brought Tom Coughlin and Eli Manning to the organization while building the infrastructure for two Super Bowl-winning teams, died Saturday, the team announced. He was 84.

“Ernie helped shape the course of New York Giants history through his vision, leadership and unwavering belief in building a championship organization,” Giants president and CEO John Mara said. “Beyond his accomplishments as a football executive, he was a trusted advisor and dear friend. His legacy will forever be part of the Giants, and he will be greatly missed.”

Added NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell: “Ernie Accorsi was one of the most respected football minds in NFL history and a dear friend whose wisdom and perspective I valued tremendously. Throughout his remarkable career, he shaped championship-caliber clubs and earned the admiration of everyone who worked with him.”

Accorsi was already a long-time NFL executive before he arrived in New York as the assistant general manager under George Young in 1994 and then took over the top position in the front office upon Young’s retirement in 1998. Prior to those jobs he had been the general manager for the Baltimore Colts from 1982 to1983 – he resigned just before the franchise abruptly moved to Indianapolis -- and for the Cleveland Browns from 1985 to 1992. In Baltimore, he had the first overall pick in the 1983 draft and wanted to select John Elway with it, but Elway did not want to play for the Colts and strongarmed the team into trading the pick to the Broncos.

Years later, with the Giants, Accorsi would find himself in a similar situation when Eli Manning and his family did not want him to play for the Chargers. Accorsi engineered the draft day trade with the Chargers that sent Manning to the Giants after he had already been selected first overall. The Giants picked Philip Rivers fourth overall in that draft and promptly sent him to the Chargers as part of the trade package.

At Manning’s retirement in 2020 team president and CEO John Mara thanked Accorsi for “the foresight, the patience and the guts to pull off that trade” which he said was “probably the best trade in franchise history."

Manning said he would call Accorsi each April to discuss their shared experience in 2004.

“I’ve called Ernie every draft week and just thank him for making the trade and believing in me and bringing me to the New York Giants,” Manning said. “I know he was the believer in me and kind of the reason I got here. I appreciated him so much for building such great teams and giving us the opportunity to win some championships here.”

Manning would go on to lead the Giants to two Super Bowl titles, but both came after Accorsi retired following the 2006 season and handed control of the organization to his assistant, Jerry Reese.

“Ernie was very decisive, very opinionated,” Coughlin said. “His mind was as sharp as a tack. He loved to laugh. He was a great storyteller, great storyteller. He loved to have an audience and laugh, and then everyone else would laugh with him. He was great with punchlines.”

Coughlin recalled that when he interviewed for the Giants head coach job with Mara and Accorsi in2004 he didn’t realize Accorsi was getting ready to retire.

Said Coughlin on Accorsi’s defining move of acquiring Manning: “Was it risky? Sure it was risky. Ernie did it. Shut the door, went in, he did it on his own. It was his move. He had followed Eli from the time Eli was a very young player at Ole Miss, and he was convinced that Eli was the franchise quarterback that the Giants needed. He was not going to be deterred.”

Accorci would remain a trusted advisor to the Maras and the Giants. Not all of his advice worked out as well as the Manning trade did. He was the impetus in their hiring of Dave Gettleman as general manager and advocated for other head coach hirings after Coughlin left following the 2014 season.

He was inducted into the Giants’ Ring of Honor in 2016 along with Coughlin and Justin Tuck.

“I will always cherish the memory of Wellington and Ann Mara and Bob Tisch, who gave me the opportunity to be a general manager, and George Young who brought me here 22 years ago,” Accorsi said at that ceremony. “If I can take a line from the great Yankee Clipper, I want to thank the good Lord for making me a New York Giant.”

Accorsi was born in Hershey, Penn., on Oct. 29, 1941, and later attended Wake Forest University. He served in the Army before getting his professional start in sports as a reporter for The Charlotte News and he later wrote for The Baltimore Sun and The Philadelphia Inquirer before moving to the college athletics and serving as Penn State's director of sports publicity in the 1960s. He moved to the NFL as the Colts’ director of public relations in 1970 and joined NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle’s staff in 1975 before returning to the Colts as an assistant general manager in 1977.

Accorsi lived in New York for most of his life after he retired from the Giants but during the COVID pandemic moved back to Hershey where he lived, near his childhood home, until his death.

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.