It’s only customary to provide a Sachem angle to the recent news of Bill Parcells being named as one of this year’s inductees for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Jumbo Elliott, Sachem’s only alum to play in the NFL and win a Super Bowl, was coached by Parcells during his career on the Giants and the Jets. They won a Super Bowl together with the Giants in 1991.
Elliott had the good fortune to play for hall of fame coaches at every level from Fred Fusaro at Sachem and Bo Schembechler at Michigan to Parcells in the NFL. Fusaro is a member of the Suffolk County Sports Hall of Fame, while Schembechler is in the College Football Hall of Fame.
Following a 20-19 win over Buffalo in the Super Bowl, Parcells looked at Elliott in the locker room and yelled, “Jumbo, you’re an ass-kicker! You’re an ass-kicker!”
Elliott had jumped ship to the Jets in 1995 and Parcells was hired by Gang Green in 1997.
“I don’t think Jumbo was thrilled about it because he had to work harder,” said Sachem alum and sportswriter Rich Cimini, who covers the Jets for ESPN New York. “He liked having played for him though. If you asked Parcells, he would say he was one of his favorite linemen.”
The story goes that Parcells originally wanted the Giants to select Elliott in the first round of the 1988 NFL Draft, but Giants General Manager George Young wanted Eric Moore, an offensive lineman from Indiana State. Young got his wish and Elliott fell to the second round where the Giants took him at 36.
“That pissed off John,” Fusaro said. “Here’s a kid that was just nominated for the Outland Trophy as one of the nation’s best interior linemen and he thought he was going in the first round. Moore was not near the lineman that John was.”
Either way, it worked out for Elliott, who grew in the system as a player with Parcells, just as he did at Sachem under Fusaro.
“It’s funny because our approach towards football is pretty much the same,” Fusaro said. “We’re disciplined guys, who kick you in the ass when you had to be kicked in the ass.”
-Words by Chris R. Vaccaro
Editor’s note: The quotes used in this story were taken from my book “Sachem High School Football: The History of the Flaming Arrows.”