New York Giants Official Website

Giants Introduce Reese as GM
Former scout worked his way up through the ranks and earned his role.
By Michael Eisen, Giants.com

Take this story to go! -    RSS |  Podcast |  Mobile

January 16, 2007

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - At about noon on Monday, Jerry Reese phones his wife, Gwen, and uttered three words that will have a profound impact both on their lives and the future of the Giants organization: "I got it."

Reese had just learned that he had been formally selected by owners John Mara and Jonathan Tisch to succeed Ernie Accorsi as the franchise's general manager. Reese, 43, has been with the Giants since 1994, the last four as Director of Player Personnel. His formal title now is Senior Vice President and General Manager.

"I am thrilled to be part of recognizing Jerry Reese as absolutely the appropriate person to be the general manager of the New York Football Giants, starting today and for many, many years to come," said Tisch, the team's treasurer. "Today we are reminded that hard work, discipline, integrity, honesty and being somebody who is very thorough are skills that put people at the top in leadership positions.

"Change is not always necessary just for change's sake. Today we are able to continue the continuity that is embedded in this organization, that has been around historically since the Mara family took over and since my family has been fortunate to have been partners for the past 16 years, and reflect upon Wellington Mara and Bob Tisch and move forward with an organization that is strong and wants to put a winning product on the field. That will now happen under Jerry Reese's leadership."

Reese is only the Giants' third general manager in the last 27 years. The late George Young, who hired Reese, held the position from 1979 through the 1997 season. Young was succeeded by Accorsi, who had helped convince Reese to join the Giants, promoted him and championed his cause.

"Ernie and George have two different styles," Reese said. "George was the kind of sit-and-wait and just stand pat with your hand, whatever you had in the draft. He would take what was there, and he thought that was the way to do it. Ernie's style was a little bit different, and I took something from both styles. Ernie believes if you see a guy on the board and you want him, you go get him. If it's time for you to pick and it looks like a guy that should be a third-round pick - hey, don't mess around. If you want him, pick him. Don't mess around. So I got (something) a little bit different - those two different guys, but I got a little bit from both of them in that aspect."

The Giants are not expected to name a replacement for Reese as director of player personnel until after the NFL Draft, which will be held April 28-29.

"Jerry will run the draft this year, just as he has done in previous years," Mara said. "After the draft we will look for somebody to (fill) his roll."

Reese, of course, will work closely with head coach Tom Coughlin, who will enter his fourth year with the Giants having led the team to the playoffs in each of the last two seasons. Coughlin endorsed the promotion of Reese to general manager.

"I'm looking forward very much to working with him," Coughlin said. "Our relationship has obviously grown since I've been here since much of our year is spent on the draft and being involved in evaluating players and working players out, that type of thing.

"It certainly is a great day for Jerry, for Gwen, for their family. It's a tremendous honor. I do join in what everyone else has said in recognizing the way in which Jerry came about this position and the hard work that has gone into this, the fact that he's earned every spot along the way. Because of that he's developed a great level of confidence, a great platform from which to work. There's nothing he's afraid to tackle. And I think as he looked at this particular opportunity, that was pretty obvious."

The Giants last week announced that Coughlin will return for a fourth season - and hopefully many more - as the head coach. A new general manager often gets to choose his own coach. But Reese said he completely supported the decision to retain Coughlin.

"I'm looking forward to Tom being here a long time," Reese said. "We're going to support him 100 percent. Tom is our coach and we want him to be here for a long time." 

The selection of Reese is historic, because he is the third African-American general manager in NFL history, joining Baltimore's Ozzie Newsome and Houston's Rick Smith. It was particularly poignant for Reese to learn of his appointment on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

"I thought about that a lot and it was perfect timing," Reese said. "It was absolutely perfect timing for this to happen. I don't mean to sound cliché, but I really feel it's my time to carry the torch. There are many people who went before me who really suffered through this process, and now it's my time. I'm going to be successful - I have to be successful on a lot of levels. I'm looking forward to the challenge. Actually Doug Williams (the first black quarterback to win a Super Bowl, with Washington 19 years ago) emailed me this morning and Doug said, 'Jerry, I was just looking at my old tape from the Super Bowl,' and he said, 'You know what? It was all worthwhile just to see you in that spot this morning. I'm really proud of you.' It's my time to kind of keep the dream alive, because it's very important to me. I don't take it lightly."

Reese was one of several candidates interviewed by Mara and Tisch. The group of included assistant general manager Kevin Abrams, Director of Pro Personnel Dave Gettleman and Vice President of Player Evaluation Chris Mara, as well as former Washington and Houston GM Charlie Casserly.

Chris Mara was an intriguing possibility.

"He was obviously considered very strongly," John Mara said. "I don't want to get into the strength and weaknesses of each candidate. Chris has had an important role here. I anticipate his role will be even more important going forward. I trust his evaluation of players as much as anybody in the organization."

But Reese was considered the front-runner and he received Accorsi's endorsement. The coach asked Reese for his opinion on the plusses and minuses of the Giants, who finished 8-8 after a 6-2 start and lost a Wild Card Playoff Game last week in Philadelphia, 23-20. The owners were impressed with Reese's evaluation and his vision and plan for the future.

"The answers I got were the ones I wanted to get," Mara said. "A few were somewhat surprising to me, but that was good. I need somebody to think out of the box a little bit. He has some good thoughts and plans going forward. I think he has a very good handle on the strengths and weaknesses of this team and the strengths and weaknesses of our organization. I think he has some good solutions.

"The interview for me was not that big a factor. He's been here for 13 years. I've had a chance to see him work, I've had a chance to hear his evaluation of players. I've had a chance to watch how he conducts himself in the draft room, the leadership he shows in that room - which is not an easy room to work unless you have a certain inner strength and have certain leadership skills. There's not one person in that room, to my knowledge, that doesn't have the utmost respect for him. They all know he's in charge."

Reese, Coughlin and the owners largely avoided specifics in saying how they plan to retool the roster. But all agree that the new decision-making group will work well together.

"There are several things that I think we can get better at," Reese said. "Ernie has left us with a strong core of players, and it really kind of makes me sick to look at the playoff games going on right now - even with all of the injuries and the bad situations that happened to us this season, the tough schedule and all of that is well-documented. Our team is good enough to still be playing right now. It's no question in my mind. So there are some hot spots that our personnel staff and I ... we'll evaluate our team and we'll evaluate where we think the hot spots are. We'll talk to Coach Coughlin and hear what he thinks about where we need to delete some guys or add some guys, so we're in the process of doing that right now. The process is already underway."

"We will be on the same page in all areas," Coughlin said. "We've just gotten into that. That's something that will go forward. We've always had these discussions at the end of the season in which management and Jerry and pro personnel have all been together in these discussions. As we go through it, we get a singleness of purpose with regard to priorities and the direction you have to take out of free agency and out of the draft. We've always been able to do that and I look forward to this."

Reese and Coughlin seem to be of one mind regarding Eli Manning. They support him fully, they believe he will be a great quarterback - but they agree that Manning can and should play better.

"Eli's progress right now is not where we want him to be," Reese said. "Obviously, it's not where we want it to be. We want him to be a Pro Bowl guy that can lead us into the Super Bowl. That's our goal and that's what we're going to do with Eli. He's our quarterback and we're going to go forward with him, we're going to evaluate him and see what other things we can do to help him in this process. Eli has played for two full seasons as a starter, so he's really not that far behind. I think it's over-exaggerated how far (behind he is). Look at the quarterbacks that are playing now, still in the playoffs. Are those guys that much greater than our quarterback? I don't think so. So Eli is our franchise quarterback and we hope he'll be here for a long, long time. Again, we're going to do everything possible, whether we have to get a quarterbacks coach, a quarterbacks guru - whatever Coach Coughlin needs, we're going to get it for Eli because we're depending on him to take us where we want to go."

And the Giants are depending on Reese to lead them there.

Prior to serving as the team's Director of Player Personnel, Reese was the Giants' Assistant Director of Pro Personnel for three years. The 43-year old Reese, a graduate of the University of Tennessee at Martin and a member of the school's Hall of Fame, originally joined the Giants scouting department in December of 1994. Prior to joining the Giants, Reese was a member of the football coaching staff at his alma mater.

While serving as the Giants' Director of Player Personnel the previous four years, Reese oversaw all aspects of the team's college scouting and he had primary responsibility for organizing the Giants' drafts. During Reese's tenure as personnel director, the Giants drafted stalwarts such as Osi Umenyiora, David Diehl, David Tyree, Chris Snee, Gibril Wilson, Justin Tuck, Brandon Jacobs, Mathias Kiwanuka and Barry Cofield.

Reese originally joined the Giants' scouting department on Dec. 15, 1994. In the spring of 1999, he became Gettleman's assistant in the pro personnel department. In that position, he scouted the Giants' upcoming opponents and evaluated NFL players. Reese was promoted to Director of Player Personnel on May 1, 2002.

Reese came to the Giants after a successful playing and coaching career at the University of Tennessee at Martin. During his college playing career (1981-1984), Reese was honored as a two-time All-Gulf South Conference pick. He is among the leaders on UT-Martin's all-time career list in interceptions. Reese was GSC Defensive Player of the Week three times during his career and was named team MVP following his senior season.

Following his playing career, Reese served as a student assistant and as a graduate assistant before becoming a full-time coach of the secondary from 1988 through 1993. He moved to coaching the receivers and assumed the assistant head coach title in January of 1993.

Reese has his bachelor's degree in health and physical education and earned his master's degree in education administration and supervision. In the fall of 1995, Reese was inducted into the U-T Martin Hall of Fame.

Reese, born on July 22, 1963, is a native of Tiptonville, Tenn. and is married to the former Gwen Moore. They have two children, Jasmyne Danielle and Jerry II.