The New York Giants and the Houston Oilers didn’t have much of a relationship the first decade or so after the 1970 NFL-AFL merger.
In late September 1981, that changed. The two teams had met on the field only once, in 1973, and had done little to no business with each other. The Giants’ running game needed a jolt, and the Oilers had an expendable back the Giants had coveted in fullback Rob Carpenter.
Houston head coach Ed Biles changed his strategy to an I-formation backfield featuring future Hall of Famer Earl Campbell, pushing the need for Carpenter aside. Carpenter was traded to the Giants for a 1982 third-round draft pick.
”Every time I’ve seen him play, he’s played well, and I’ve seen him play a lot,” Giants general manager George Young said at the time. ”I always said to myself, ‘I wish he was on my team.”’
The Giants had been struggling to find consistency behind a running game that featured Doug Kotar, Billy Taylor and fullback Leon Perry. The 230-pound Carpenter would walk right in and take over as the team’s No. 1 back.
In 1981, the Giants were coming off one the worst seasons in franchise history. But there was hope in the building. They were hanging on the notion that Phil Simms could still be a franchise quarterback, and the team was on the verge of being transformed into winners by head coach Ray Perkins and his defensive coordinator, Bill Parcells.
And they had just drafted a kid out of North Carolina that was creating a buzz with his dominant defensive play. His name was Lawrence Taylor.
Carpenter arrived as a full-service back. In his four seasons in Houston after being drafted out of Miami (Ohio), Carpenter ran for the tough yards and was a reliable pair of hands out of the backfield.
For the Giants, it was his impact in 1981 that fans remember the most. The team was 2-3 before inserting Carpenter into the lineup in Week 6 against the St. Louis Cardinals. He took the offense on his back, rushing for 103 yards and a touchdown and catching two passes for 23 yards in a 34-14 victory.
The Giants went 6-4 the rest of the way and qualified for the postseason for the first time since 1963. Carpenter had the best year of his career, rushing for 822 yards, including four 100-yard games.
In the wild-card game against the Eagles in Philadelphia, Carpenter carried the ball 33 times for a franchise postseason record 161 yards. He also caught four passes for 32 yards in the 27-21 win.
“(That game) meant so much for me,” Carpenter said. “When I was with Houston, what I did might have meant a first down or keeping a drive alive. But what I did against the Eagles affected the outcome of the game. For the first time, I had a major role in determining a playoff game. That’s a big change, and that’s why this was the greatest football day of my life.”
And for young Giants fans who had never seen their team in the postseason, it was the greatest game of their lives, too. Little did they know what lay ahead.
