Carl Banks Is Dominating Again, and So Are the Giants

Heads turned when Carl Banks walked into a team meeting at the New York Giants’ training camp. The linebacker was wearing a T-shirt heralding a “Return to Dominance.”

It was no empty slogan.

After an unproductive season in 1988, when the Giants failed to make the playoffs for the second consecutive season after having won Super Bowl XXI, Banks vowed to lead a return to championship form.

“It was hell last year,” Banks said. “I was struggling. I’d look at things on film and I just couldn’t believe I was playing that way. But there were several factors involved and I got everything ironed out.”

Banks missed all of training camp because of a contract dispute last season. He signed a $3.6-million, four-year contract one week before the season began.

“He said that he’s a better player than what he showed last year and I concur,” said George Young, the Giants’ general manager. “Last year he was a holdout and I think it affected his play tremendously.”

Out of condition after missing training camp, Banks suffered a bruised knee, a bruised shoulder and a sprained wrist. And his effectiveness declined.

An All-NFL and Pro Bowl pick in 1987, Banks has rebounded this season.

Raider Coach Art Shell was impressed after watching film of Banks in preparation for Sunday’s game against the Giants at the Meadowlands.

“He’s so strong at the point of attack,” Shell said. “We go over their personnel as a coaching staff and by the time (assistant coach) Terry Robiskie got done talking about their outside linebackers, I said, ‘You mean we can’t run the ball at all? We might as well go home.’ ”

Banks has led the Giants to within one victory of the NFC East championship, which they can clinch by beating the Raiders.

Although Lawrence Taylor, the Giants’ all-pro linebacker, gets most of the attention because he is such a ferocious pass rusher, some consider Banks to be as good as Taylor. When Taylor was injured earlier this season, it was Banks who sustained the Giant defense.

“It doesn’t bother me at all that Lawrence gets the publicity that he does because he deserves it,” Banks said. “I think he’s a great player. I’m a big fan of his. I think one thing that people should keep in mind is that Lawrence and I are two totally different players.”

With the retirement of linebacker Harry Carson and defensive tackle Jim Burt signing with San Francisco, Banks has become a team leader. Although he is soft-spoken, his teammates voted him and Taylor defensive co-captains.

“Normally I’m not an outspoken type of guy because I try to lead by example,” Banks said. “Upon being named captain, I didn’t feel like I had to change anything because the guys chose me captain for the man that I am.”

George Perles, who coached Banks at Michigan State, always considered Banks a leader.

“When he was about ready to be drafted, I always said that someday he’d be a captain of one of the NFL teams,” Perles said. “He reminded me of Joe Greene, not as a player but as a leader. He demanded respect from opponents without saying a word, like Joe Greene, because he could hurt someone.

“He had the same kind of direction and leadership as Joe Greene. I think it comes from his family. His mom and dad are class people.”

Charles Banks was furious with his son Carl, who stole a crayon at elementary school.

“He brought it home and I knew we didn’t buy it,” Charles Banks said. “He said the teacher gave it to him so I took him back to school to check with his teacher and she didn’t remember giving it to him.”

Carl Banks said: “I remember that like it was yesterday. My father was always telling us never to steal. Ask for things and if you don’t get them, you don’t need them.”

But Banks thought no one would miss one crayon.

“There were hundreds of crayons so I picked one up and brought it home,” Banks said. “My father noticed everything and he knew that he didn’t buy me a crayon. He asked me where I got the crayon and I said the teacher gave it to me and he said he didn’t think the teacher gave me one crayon.

“He said we were going to go to school and ask the teacher and I said fine because I was trying to call his bluff. He told me if I was lying I’d get a spanking in front of the whole class. It’s funny now but it affected me for life. He pulled a chair in front of the teacher’s desk and I had to lay across his lap and I got a whipping.

“And I haven’t touched anything that didn’t belong to me again.”

On another occasion, Banks was grounded for a month after swearing in gym class.

“I was the quietest guy in class from then on,” Banks said. “He did a great job of keeping us on the right track.”

A correctional officer for the State of Michigan, Charles Banks works at a halfway house, where he helps juvenile prisoners prepare to re-enter society.

And he believes that discipline starts at home.

“I tried to keep Carl in check,” Charles Banks said. “But he didn’t have time to get into a lot of trouble because he was always playing sports.”

Recruited by Oklahoma and Michigan State, Banks chose Michigan State so his parents would be able to see him play.

While in college, Banks dug graves at a cemetery to earn extra money. The job earned him a nickname, Killer.

“The work wasn’t easy, but I enjoyed it,” Banks said. “As a matter of fact, I worked there year after year, so I had to enjoy it.”

But Banks quit digging graves after he was selected third in the 1984 draft by the New York Giants.

After signing a $1.6-million, four-year contract, Banks offered to buy his parents a house. When they chose not to move, Banks had their old house remodeled and bought a satellite dish so they could watch all of his games. He also bought a Cadillac and a Mercedes-Benz for his folks, and is paying the college tuition of his younger brother, Bankston.

If Banks’ childhood dream had come true, he would be playing in the NBA instead of the NFL.

“Basketball was always my first love,” Banks said. “But what spoiled it for me was (fellow Michigan State athlete) Magic Johnson, and you can tell him I said it because we’re good friends. Before he came into the NBA as a 6-9 guard, guys like me could be a small forward.”

An undersized but rugged center at 6 feet 4 inches and 235 pounds, Banks led the basketball team at Beecher High in Flint to three conference titles. An all-state selection, he averaged 19 points and 10 rebounds as a senior in leading his team to a 24-2 record and the semifinals of the state tournament.

Although Banks was a good basketball player, Moses Lacy, his coach, knew Banks’ future was in football, where he earned all-state honors as a defensive tackle.

“He could play above the rim,” said Lacy. “He had strong moves inside. We had a lot of schools after him for basketball, but his family and I are real close and I told them he was a good high school basketball player, but he would make one hell of a college football player.”

Banks said: “I didn’t want to hear it, but Lacy was right.”

Indeed.

After moving into the starting lineup midway through his freshman season, Banks started 43 of 44 games for Michigan State, where he finished his career with 279 tackles, third most in school history.

“It wasn’t easy for me at Michigan State at first because I didn’t have a position,” Banks said. “It was either tight end or linebacker and the only reason I became a linebacker is that we were running a pass-catching drill. The coach would throw me the ball and I would run it back to him. And he said, ‘No, that’s what defensive players do. You’re supposed to run the opposite direction.’

“But I just couldn’t get it out of my mind and they sent me over with the linebackers and there I was.”

Banks credits Perles, who coached him only as a senior at Michigan State, with giving him direction and helping his development.

“He came down hard on me and I couldn’t understand it because I had good grades and I was always on time,” Banks said. “But for some reason, he had to make an example out of me so he started at the top. It seemed like everything I did on the field was wrong.”

During one meeting, Perles told Banks that he had a lot to learn and wasn’t as good a player as he thought he was.

“It’s amazing how these things come back as positives,” Perles said. “When you’re getting after them, you worry about it. I think he was bright enough to see that he had a chance to be a pro if he worked hard and dedicated himself.” Banks’ work paid off. He became a consensus All-American as a senior and played in the Hula Bowl, Senior Bowl and the Blue-Gray game.

Though he is a successful pro, Banks hasn’t forgotten his roots. He returns home each summer and conducts a football camp. He also buys shoes for the Beecher High football team and bought new warmup uniforms for the basketball team several years ago. “Carl came to a game and afterward he asked me if those were the same warmups he was wearing when he was playing,” Lacy said. “He said he was going to buy us new ones. We were ranked No. 1 in the state at the time and I wouldn’t let the kids wear them until we got to the state tournament.”

Wearing its new warmups, Beecher won the state tournament. No one was prouder than Carl Banks.

“I like to do things like that because these are people who influenced me greatly,” Banks said. “When the going gets tough now, I think back on some of (Lacy’s) teaching to get me through tough times, be it in a game or in life.”

Raider Notes

Mike Haynes, who has not played since November, will be used to replace backup safety Russell Carter in the team’s six-back defensive scheme on passing downs. Carter, hobbled by a hamstring pull, was put on injured reserve. To replace him, the Raiders waived, then re-signed backup wide receiver Timmie Ware.