Lawrence Taylor became the greatest Giants player ever, but as a rookie, his defensive coordinator liked to remind him that the team had other options when it drafted him.
"The next best dominant linebacker was Hugh Green," Bill Parcells said of the 1981 draft class. "It became one of my ways to get after Taylor’s [butt]."
Green was selected seventh overall by the Buccaneers. While Taylor was tearing up the NFL from his very first weeks on the field, Green was doing pretty well for himself, too. And since the Giants were playing the teams in the NFC West that season, they were watching a lot of tape of teams facing Green and the Bucs.