Brad Benson Won NFC Offensive Player of the Week During the Giants' 1986 Super Bowl Run — as a Lineman

When New York needed someone to shut down Dexter Manley in a division showdown, the unheralded left tackle nobody had heard of delivered the performance of his career.

Jan 25, 1987; Pasadena, CA, USA; FILE PHOTO; New York Giants center Bart Oates (left) and tackle Brad Benson (right) hold a gatorade bucket during Super Bowl XXI against the Denver Broncos at the Rose Bowl. The Giants defeated the Broncos 39-20. | Bob Deutsch-Imagn Images

Nobody could figure out what had just happened.

NFL teams were in the middle of the 1986 stretch run, fighting to get into the playoffs, when an unexpected headline emerged: New York Giants left tackle Brad Benson was named the NFC's Offensive Player of the Week.

How could a lineman grab this honor in a league full of stars who put up gaudy statistics on a weekly basis? After all, the NFL created the award in 1984 to spotlight the most spectacular performances in each of its two conferences.

Benson was in the middle of a workmanlike career with the Giants, having played both tackle positions and right guard. They had signed him after the New England Patriots cut him during his rookie training camp in 1977.

Humble and modest, yes. But he also gave maximum effort every time he stepped onto the field, a trait that made him an overachiever and one of head coach Bill Parcells' beloved "Suburbanites," a nickname given to the team's blue-collar offensive linemen for their dedicated work in the trenches.

More specifically, Benson was known more by the fans for the bandage he wore on the bridge of his injured nose than he was for his effective play. The wound had opened when his helmet crashed into his face during the Seattle game in Week 7 and required 12 stitches.

In Week 14, the Giants and Washington were tied atop the NFC East at 11-2, with control of the division uncertain in the nation's capital and the Giants having won the first meeting in October.

Washington owned a Top 10 defense, featuring Dexter Manley, a 1986 Pro Bowler, at right defensive end and his pass-rushing partner, Charles Mann, on the left. So that meant Benson was going to draw Manley, who had 17.5 sacks entering the game, with one having come against Benson in Week 8.

The Giants rolled to a 24-14 victory while Manley was held without a sack for just the fourth time that season, one in which he was named All-Pro.

On the other side of the ball, the 6-foot-3, 222-pound Benson broke the seal for offensive linemen with the NFC's weekly award and was named to the All-Pro second team, the only seasonal honor of his career.

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