SUPER BOWL XXV / NEW YORK GIANTS vs. BUFFALO BILLS : Pepper Spices Up Giants’ Linebacking Corps

All the New York Giants ask of their linebackers is to make sacks, force fumbles, and win the big games.

If the guy revolutionizes the position and constantly inspires his teammates, well, that’s nice, too.

Pepper Johnson, the New York Giants’ newest dominating flavor, peers into the future and isn’t sure he can meet those requirements, since only one player has managed to do it.

But Carl Banks, an expert in Lawrence Taylor-ology and patient teacher of Johnson, sounds rather confident that, yes, Pepper Johnson is a player on whom the Giants’ defense can count when Taylor is through being Taylor and is awaiting enshrinement in Canton, Ohio.

Can Johnson, a starting inside linebacker who made his first Pro Bowl this season and is expected to be a key player when the Giants play the no-huddle Buffalo Bills in Sunday’s Super Bowl, be Taylor II?

“The torch has been passed,” Banks said. “Lawrence kind of passed it to me, he kept on burning, and now we’ve passed it to Pepper. L.T. has shown the way.

“I think you have to say right now that Pepper is our best defensive player. He’s making all kinds of big plays. He’s a big-play inside linebacker.

“I’m not shy, Pepper’s been the best linebacker in football, period. Not inside linebacker, not outside linebacker, and I’ve seen a lot of linebackers, Pepper’s been the best. Take a look at it, and I’m a big fan of (the Bills’) Cornelius Bennett, but I don’t think any linebacker has played better than Pepper.”

Banks, who with Taylor fueled the Giants’ defense the last time the Giants made it to the Super Bowl--after the 1986 season--now watches Johnson and Taylor key the defense as the Giants return to the title game.

Taylor, acclaimed as the best linebacker of his time, has gone into both of his Super Bowl appearances widely considered as the team’s second-best linebacker that season. In ‘86, Banks was the stalwart to Taylor’s fire. In ‘90, Banks has been hurt and Johnson has been both fire and stalwart, while Taylor concedes to age.

Against the Bills’ no-huddle offense, Johnson is even more important. He is expected to drop back quickly on pass plays to deny the Bills’ their crossing routes while making sure Buffalo doesn’t slip in a quick draw to Thurman Thomas for a big gain.

“We have to constantly know what we’re doing, always be aware that they’re coming at us with another play real fast,” Johnson said. “What they start you doing is, say you almost tip a pass, you’re thinking, ‘Man, that was mine,’ and all of a sudden Thomas is running past you on the next play.

“I’ve got to make sure I don’t do that, and make sure the other guys on defense don’t either.”

Great inside linebackers, the experts say, can stop the Bills’ hurry-up. Is Johnson a great inside linebacker?

Johnson, in his first year as a full-time starter, led the Giants with 119 total tackles and 83 solo shots, had 3 1/2 sacks, forced three fumbles and got an interception.

Now, with Taylor slowing down at 31 and less able to run over double-team blocks, Johnson is being deployed as the key weapon in the arsenal, lining up as a stand-up end or crashing up the middle at wary quarterbacks.

“I’ve always thought I could play in this league,” Johnson said. “I just never thought it was going to take so many years.

“I’ve been begging and nagging about a front-line role for a while now, and I finally got my opportunity, and it was like, I better do it now or else.”

It took Johnson, a second-round pick from Ohio State in 1986, four years to get that shot while Coach Bill Parcells went with veteran players. And last off-season, Johnson was all but set to be sent to the Atlanta Falcons so the Giants could draft Darion Conner as Taylor’s heir apparent.

But the trade never came off, Johnson earned the starting role, and now Banks says Johnson, not Taylor, is the team’s main intimidator.

“I heard rumors up to the draft that I was going to be traded, so if I didn’t play well this season, I knew I was outta here,” Johnson said. “Now, that opportunity has gotten me to the Super Bowl.

“I’ve got some newspaper articles stuck to my refrigerator right now that I look at every morning, kind of for inspiration to go out and play or I know what’s going to happen.”

Johnson was a rookie backup on the Giants’ 1987 Super Bowl championship team, played a little at the end of the game, but says that game doesn’t compare to this one.

“In my first Super Bowl, I loved it, but I was a backup, I really wasn’t crucial to the team,” Johnson said. “Now, I’m a starter, and play a major role in the defense, it sure means more.”

But there are other things on Johnson’s mind, even though he tries to block it out before the biggest game of his life. His cousin, Nedrin Loving, is part of the U.S. Army’s deployment in the Persian Gulf War and could be in combat even as Johnson zeroes in on Thomas Sunday.

“It’s kind of hard right now because we’re still riding the high of winning the NFC championship,” Johnson said. “I know I am.

“So you want to celebrate, then you turn on the news or even just the TV and it’s all about the crisis in the Middle East.

“I’m just taking it day to day--there’s nothing I can do about it except pray for my cousin and the rest of those guys over there.”