George Martin Turned Two Plays Against Denver Into Giants Immortality

If it's really better to be lucky than good, well, how about when somebody turns out to be both?

Witness the case of New York Giants defensive end George Martin. Martin may have been one of the most underrated pass rushers of his era, despite ranking third in team annals with 96 sacks in 201 appearances from 1975-88.

His tenure included four seasons with at least 10 sacks; however, he never received any Pro Bowl or All-Pro recognition.

Rather, this defensive end drew more headlines for scoring than he did for trapping quarterbacks behind the line of scrimmage.

At the time of his retirement (after 1988), Martin's seven career touchdowns—six of which came on defense and one of which came on offense as a tight end— were the most scored by any defensive lineman in NFL history.

Perhaps it's fitting that his two most well-known plays were scores, one a touchdown and the other a safety, that came in different games against the Denver Broncos during the 1986 championship season.

In Week 12, Martin read John Elway's swing pass to the right side, deflected the ball to himself, and raced 78 yards down the sideline for a touchdown.

Along the way, he tossed aside Elway with a stiff-arm and had to step over running back Sammy Winder (decked on a block from cornerback Mark Collins) at the Denver 10 before linebacker Lawrence Taylor jumped on him from behind in the end zone.

The second-quarter score put the Giants ahead, 10-6, and they held on for a 19-16 victory that marked their fifth straight on their way to finishing the regular season with nine in a row.

Head coach Bill Parcells remembered Martin's interception return several years later: “It was one of the greatest plays I ever saw. People forget that Denver had gone the length of the field.

"The defense was exhausted, and for a lineman who had been chasing Elway for seven or eight plays in a row to run the ball all the way back like that was something else.”

Martin bedeviled Elway and the Broncos again in Super Bowl XXI.

The Broncos were hoping to build off a 10-7 lead when they took over after a punt to their own 15 with 3:33 left in the first half.

Defensive end Leonard Marshall ruined their first play with a 2-yard sack, and they followed with a second-down incompletion.

On third down, Elway took a deep drop out of the shotgun, and Martin beat right tackle Ken Lanier around the edge to dump the quarterback just inside the goal line, and bring the team within a point.

It was the first of the Giants' five unanswered scores that resulted in a 39-20 win and the franchise's first Super Bowl title.

Sign up for our free newsletter and follow us on Facebook and X for the latest news, and send your mailbag questions to us.

Add us as a preferred source on Google