Giants' Super Bowl-winning offensive line happy to see current group clicking

Eli Manning won the MVPs. The edge rushers executed the game plans. David Tyree, Plaxico Burress and Mario Manningham made the iconic catches. But the backbone of the past two Super Bowl-winning Giants teams was always the five guys who did the dirty work of blocking and protecting.

On Thursday night, many of them came together at MetLife Stadium.

The offensive linemen from the 2007 and 2011 championship squads were the guests of honor at the 20th annual Tom Coughlin Jay Fund Champions for Children Gala. Kareem McKenzie, Chris Snee, Shaun O’Hara, Rich Seubert and Kevin Boothe may no longer look as menacing and formidable in their suits as they once did in helmets and shoulder pads, but they fell right back into the same roles they played in each others’ lives when they were literally at the forefront of their teams’ successes.

“We’re like little school kids when we get together,” Seubert said. “We truly love each other and we are buddies and we all had kids and did stuff off the field and we pretty much spent our lives together in this building and at the facility. We have a group text together with everybody where we still make fun of each other every week.”

Coughlin, the host of the event, was tickled to have his boys back together.

“This is a fun group to be with,” he said, noting how excited he was to “bust their chops” on stage that night.

While the gala was a success, raising just under $2 million — it has raised close to $30 million in 20 years to help families affected by childhood cancers — it also was a reminder of how high the bar has been set for that all-important position group . . . and how far from reaching it the Giants have been for most of the time since those beloved players patrolled the line of scrimmage.

A lot of effort and money and draft capital has been spent in pursuit of re-creating the special unit in the past decade-plus, but Thursday’s event served to emphasize how long it has been since anyone came close.

“It has been a while, yeah,” Snee said with a smile.

But those blockers of yore do have hope in this year’s attempt at the rebuild and the possibility that the current crew— a collection of three free-agent veterans assembled this past offseason, a pair of homegrown players and an experienced position coach — finally could be worthy heirs to what those 2007 and 2011 lines accomplished.

“It’s how quickly a unit meshes together when they haven’t been together for a while,” said Snee, now a senior scout for the Giants. “Our group, it took us a year and a half before we kind of hit our full stride. I think they are showing what they can do as far as communication, pass protection. Carm [Bricillo] is a good O-line coach. Last week, we could run the ball, and that’s going to help us moving forward. I think they are playing well and I think it’s a good collection of guys.”

The five current linemen — Andrew Thomas, Jon Runyan Jr., John Michael Schmitz, Greg Van Roten and Jermaine Eluemunor from left to right — did not play a single practice rep as a group until about a week before the regular season. Since then, though, they have all played every snap of the five games.

Said Boothe: “Health and luck plays a lot into it. To be able to have the same person next to you for an extended period of time helps, especially on the offensive line. Fingers crossed, hopefully they can continue to have that good health and continue to find ways to improve.”

Schmitz said the legendary lines of the past give this group something to strive toward.

“I mean, they were tremendous offensive lines,” he said. “That was a special group of guys they had and it’s something you take pride in. You take pride in having a great O-line. It’s tremendous having them in our backyard and right here.”

Eluemunor was glad to hear the ring-wearing retirees are optimistic but recognizes that there is still a big gap between where the current line is and where it wants to be.

“They had great offensive lines back then, an impact offensive line,” he said. “But for us, it’s only Week 6, so I wouldn’t throw any parades just yet. We have a lot of work to do and a lot we want to accomplish. We won a game in Seattle, had a good performance, but that’s what we expect from ourselves.”

Giants coach Brian Daboll understands — just as Coughlin did — how important it is to have competence and cohesiveness from those positions.

“It starts up front,” Daboll said. “Those five guys seeing the game through the same set of eyes.  Without those guys, you’re not getting plays downfield or an efficient passing game and pass protection or the screen game. And same thing with the run game, that’s where it starts.”

Daboll said there is something else this group has in common with those of the past: a camaraderie.

“There is good chemistry in that room,” he said. “A lot of extra meetings, not just with the line, but they’re staying late on Wednesdays and Thursdays and getting all sorts of food. Running backs are staying in there. You know, it’s good food, too. They’re a close-knit group. That’s what you need to be offensive line-wise.”

They still have plenty to do before they are recognized as peers of the 2007 and 2011 teams, though, both on the field and in their relationship with each other.

Snee’s advice to them in that regard is to enjoy it while it lasts. He wishes he did more of that.

“We all kind of knew we were doing our job up front, which at the end of the day is all you can ask for from offensive linemen, but you reflect after it is over,” he said.  “You are always trying to move on to the next week, the next game.  We did hang out, but it’s almost like you want to savor every moment. That’s hard to do because before you know it, your career is over and it’s not the same five every year. When you are kind of rolling and you don’t miss games and you are always out there together, you just kind of take it for granted.”

Said Boothe: “You don’t really appreciate it until after you are done. You look back on it and you realize it is not as easy as you think it is to have that kind of continuity and success.”

The last 12 or so years definitely have proved that. Perhaps this year can at least rekindle a little bit of that magic.

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.