Allie Sherman wasn't just a football coach
New York Giants coach Allie Sherman. Credit: AP
Allie Sherman, who died at 91 Saturday, left a mixed legacy as a coach, leading the Giants to three championship games in his first three seasons, then presiding over some dark days in the mid-1960s.
But Sherman also left an important media legacy, beginning when he still was the coach and was a pioneer in the sort of regular access to journalists that now is standard procedure for NFL head coaches.
Besides meeting with print journalists more than was common at the time, Sherman produced and starred in his own weekly television show and a call-in radio show, "Ask Allie," groundbreaking concepts for that era.
After his coaching career he became a fixture as a television analyst, notably in the early days of ESPN, including on "Monday Night Matchup" starting in 1984, a forerunner of the current "NFL Matchup" show.
Sherman also was an innovative executive in the early days of cable TV and pay-per-view sports distribution.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
