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Simply Super Collins makes up for past transgressions in big way
Updated: Monday January 15, 2001 8:15 AM
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- He has been called many things in his checkered six-year NFL career, but Super Bowl quarterback is a new one for Kerry Collins . His play has been described in many different ways. But until Sunday, perfection was not among them. But on a day he has waited a football lifetime for, Collins discovered that sometimes the mistakes of the past can be made up for in one glorious afternoon. And how could one day, any day, turn out better than Sunday did for Kerry Collins? "You get beat up and you get beat down, and people call you stuff and call you 'loser,'" Collins said. "It's going to make you tough, and that's why it makes this moment sweet. But you remember things, too." Remember this about the New York's 41-0, NFC title-game humiliation of the Minnesota Vikings: The Giants had the courage to put the game in Collins' hands, and he rewarded them. In the most improbable fashion imaginable.
Collins threw an NFL/NFC title-game record-tying five touchdown passes, to four different receivers. He set individual Giants playoff records for passing yardage (381 yards), completions (28) and touchdowns. He led New York to team playoff marks for first downs (31) and total offense (518 yards). And he authored the second-largest margin of victory in New York postseason history. "Today, Kerry was as good as you can be at that position," Giants offensive coordinator Sean Payton said. "He was outstanding. I told him he's come a long way and I was proud of him. It is a credit to what he has done and it is really a neat story." But the best thing Collins did Sunday was make us all take a fresh look. Forced us, really. By his sheer brilliance on the field, and his calm confidence off it. Whatever it is we thought we knew about Collins, it's all changed now. "I've always felt if I don't hurt myself, I can be successful," said Collins on Friday, in a session with the media at a midtown Manhattan hotel. "I'm proud of where I've come from. Proud of where I'm at, and proud of where I'm going." Not all that long ago, we watched Collins make the quick transformation from phenom to punch line in the span of three NFL seasons. He looked finished after bombing out in Carolina and New Orleans, and we readied to label him just another wasted talent who couldn't figure out what he had until it was gone. Collins sobered up and grew up just in time, resurfacing last season with the Giants. But he had never really stepped up until Sunday, when his New York team determined the only way to beat the powerful Vikings was to open the throttle wide and let Collins give it the gas. He responded by flooding the air with footballs.
At the half, it was 34-0. Collins had four touchdown passes, 338 yards passing, and 23 completions on 34 attempts. On their eight possessions in the opening two quarters, Collins drove New York to four touchdowns, two chip-shot field goals, and threw two interceptions. The turnaround was stunning. Last week, in the Giants' play-it-safe 20-10 victory against Philadelphia in the divisional round, New York's 14 possessions produced just two field goals and zero touchdowns. Collins had just three 300-yard passing games all season entering this game, and the Giants' year-long high in total yardage had been 409 yards at Chicago in September. But these Giants were a team possessed. New York racked up 386 total yards in the first half alone, and had 415 yards after their first drive of the third quarter. "When he hit Ike [Hilliard] up that seam [46 yards and a touchdown on New York's first drive], I knew it was curtains," Giants receiver Amani Toomer said. "Curtains." By day's end, Collins' performance was being mentioned in the same breath with a five-touchdown Sid Luckman game against Washington in 1943. Sid Luckman and Kerry Collins. The odds are good they had never before graced the same sentence. "There have been a lot of questions: 'Can Kerry step forward and carry this team?'" Giants head coach Jim Fassel said. "He answered the bell today. No doubt about it. There's never been a doubt in my mind, and he stepped up and did it today. Any questions ought to be erased. "Kerry is evolving into an elite quarterback in this league. One of the top guys who is going to play this game. And as he goes on, there's no limit to him right now. He's come so far and handled himself so well. There's no limit. He's got tremendous talent." No one ever doubted Collins' talent, of course. Remember, four years ago Collins played in his first NFC title game, when expansion Carolina made its surprising 1996 run. The Panthers lost that day at frigid Lambeau Field, but the feeling was that they and their second-year quarterback would be back knocking on the door very soon. Instead, within two years, Collins was out that door, and locked in a downward spiral that centered around his well-documented alcohol abuse problems. He signed with the Giants last year, he said, because no one else was interested. It was last-shot time. "Sure, you wonder," said Collins, asked if he ever saw himself being in this position after the depths of 1998. "It is that unknown that you don't know about, what the future holds. My attitude was I'm going to take care of what I need to take care of today. That's going to give me the best chance to do good things later on. "It's just reaffirming to get to this point, when you're tying to do things the right way. It would not have been possible without this opportunity, and I'm very humbled by that." Don Banks covers pro football for CNNSI.com.
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