Boomer & Gio wonder where Phil Simms will rank on the list of Top 100 Giants

Phil Simms called in to give Boomer & Al some ribbing Wednesday…well, that, and to talk about the 100th anniversary season of the Giants and all that’s going into it.

Part of that is the unveiling of the 100 Greatest Giants, and that led Boomer to wonder later in the show where his former NFL Today counterpart is going to land? Boomer Googled the Giants’ list of Hall of Famers, which is extensive, and Gio had a laugh about it.

“I’m sorry, but if Phil Simms isn’t ahead of Tuffy Leemans? Nobody remembers Tuffy Leemans,” Gio said.

“Well, remember, they are celebrating their 100th anniversary, so they are like the original NFL football team,” Boomer replied. “I often tell you that if Wellington Mara back in the day didn't decide to share revenues with other teams, those other teams would have folded, and there would never have been an NFL.”

Boomer read off some of the Hall of Famers and Gio was still stuck on Tuffy Leemans, who was a halfback in the 1930s, which led Gregg to say that ‘Phil Simms has to be a Top 10 guy.’

Is recency bias going to put Phil, and maybe even Eli, further up on this list?

“I doubt some of these guys will take a back seat to Phil, but it’s a lot of guys,” Boomer said. “Benny Friedman, who played quarterback for the Giants, was inducted in 2005. Harry Carson went in in 2006, Michael Strahan in 2014, Lawrence Taylor back in ’99.”

Surely our guy Tiki Barber will be up there, but given he cut his career short and left right before the first Super Bowl run of this era, maybe he won’t be Top 5 or 10. But who will?

“So gotta be LT 1, Strahan or Eli 2 and 3?” Gio asked.

“Well Strahan’s in the Hall of Fame and right now has the sack record,” Boomer replied. “Eli’s not in the Hall of Fame yet, so it could be anybody. You have to take into account the entire history of the franchise.”

And Boomer’s example of recency bias: where would Aaron Judge rank among the Top 100 Yankees?

“If you went to the Yankees and said give me the Top 100 Yankees – where’s Aaron Judge gonna be? Oh my God, he’s got to be No. 2!” Boomer said.

“Here’s the difference though: the Yankees in the 1920s and 1930s, we know those names,” Gio said. “Tuffy Leemans, we don’t know that name.”

“But you’re not a Giants fan,” Boomer shot back. “Older Giants fans know that, and they don’t want their teams to be forgotten.”

Gio can’t get over Tuffy, but we’ll see where everyone lands soon enough!