Collins Finds Light at End of Tunnel

On a day when storied New York Giants of the past such as Lawrence Taylor, Harry Carson and Ottis Anderson participated in everything from the pregame introductions to the coin toss, the only person missing was Phil Simms.

Simms had work to do, analyzing the Raven-Raider game for CBS in Oakland. But it wasn’t as if he was forgotten. Not with Kerry Collins doing everything he could to evoke--and even surpass--the quarterbacking standard Simms set for this franchise.

The Giants, team-wide, put together as thorough a performance as any coach could demand in their 41-0 trouncing of the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC championship Sunday, but the individual performance that stood out in this jewelry-store window was Collins’.

He completed 28 of 39 passes for 381 yards and five touchdowns.

So it’s Collins who will be the quarterback representing the NFC in the Super Bowl. Not Kurt Warner, not Donovan McNabb, not Daunte Culpepper.

And maybe that’s the way it should be. Warner already had his dream season, with regular season and Super Bowl most-valuable-player awards. When you think of McNabb and Culpepper, you think of early success with even greater things to come.

Collins, 28, has had just about every negative adjective attached to his name: racist, drunk, quitter.

Now you can add these labels: survivor, revitalized, winner.

“It’s just reaffirming,” Collins said. “It’s reaffirming when you get to this point, of the things that you’re doing and the things you’re trying to do the right way.”

Collins racked up a larger collection of baggage than a Tumi store during his days with the Carolina Panthers. It included his use of a racial epithet toward an African American teammate, accusations by his coach that he gave up, and drinking problems.

That might be why he had the most, uh, sober reaction to the Giants’ victory.

“You get beat up and you get beat down and people call you stuff and call you ‘loser’ and call you all that kind of stuff, it’s going to make you tough,” Collins said. “It’s going to make you tough and that’s why it made that moment sweet. But you remember things too. I’m just proud, being in this locker room with these guys, more than anything.”

Collins isn’t just some bum who stumbled into this. He led Penn State to a 12-0 record and was a Heisman Trophy finalist in his senior year. He had the Carolina Panthers in the NFC championship in his second season as a pro.

But all of the off-field stuff overshadowed his skills. When he got to New York, after a brief stop in New Orleans, it was up to the Giants to uncover the buried talents.

“I think you see the arm strength, you see he’s an exceptionally bright guy,” Giant offensive coordinator Sean Payton said. “He picks up the formations and game plans extremely well. I think he’s a great leader. So his leadership is something that all season long we’ve leaned on. We did see those things.”

It also was the perfect environment for him. The defense is the foundation of this team, and defensive players Michael Strahan and Jessie Armstead are the vocal leaders of the Giants.

“Here, he has the opportunity to be himself,” said linebacker Mike Barrow, who played with Collins for two seasons with the Panthers. “In Carolina, he was the poster boy, the franchise child. He didn’t have enough of a support group around him. That’s so important. You need someone not just to treat you as Kerry Collins the quarterback, but Kerry Collins the person.

“Now he’s got guys that he can turn to, he’s got his family that he can turn to, people that knew him when he was Kerry Collins in the diapers and know all about him. I’m just happy for him. I said on the field, ‘This is only the beginning for us. Not just in football, but in life.’ ”

Barrow wasn’t the only player with a message for Collins.

“I told him after the game, ‘I’m honored to play with you,’ ” Strahan said. “ ‘I’m honored to have you as a quarterback.’ ”

That’s some progress for a team that had open warfare between the defense and futile offense during last season’s 7-9 campaign.

But the one who has come the greatest distance is Collins.

“He’s changed, he’s matured a lot as a person,” Barrow said. “So many times we have to handcuff people to their mistakes. But this is America, this is opportunity, [we] give you a second chance.”

This game was Collins’ chance to be the man. In New York’s 20-10 victory over Philadelphia in the divisional playoff, the offense played it safe against the Eagles’ tough defense and didn’t produce a touchdown.

Against the Vikings, the New York strategy was to attack the weak secondary.

Their game plan featured the 20 best plays the Giants ran this season. When Payton faxed it to Collins on Tuesday, he gave it a title, borrowing the name of John Cougar Mellencamp’s greatest hits collection, “The Best That I Could Do.”

“It was a way to communicate to those guys: no new inventions,” Payton said. “This is ‘Jack and Diane,’ all that stuff. This is our stuff.”

Collins executed it to perfection.

The Giants normally have a pass-run ratio of 1:1. Sunday they passed on 75% of their plays in the first half. He zipped passes of 16, 10 and 46 yards to give the Giants a touchdown on their first drive. After the Vikings fumbled the ensuing kickoff, Collins found Greg Comella for an 18-yard touchdown pass play and the rout was on. The running game wasn’t working, and it didn’t matter because Collins kept the Giants moving. He racked up 338 passing yards and four touchdowns by halftime.

“There were a lot of questions: could Kerry step forward and carry this team?” Giant Coach Jim Fassel said. “I think he answered that bell today. He took this offense on his back and put the ball in every spot he had to.”

Maybe he just had to be in the right spot first.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address: j.a.adande@latimes.com

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Kerry-ing the Load

Kerry Collins became the seventh quarterback with five or more touchdown passes in an NFL postseason game. The Minnesota Vikings have twice given up five touchdown passes in the playoffs:

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Player Team TDs Result Date Steve Young San Francisco 6 S.F. 49, S. Diego 26 1/29/95 Daryle Lamonica Oakland 6 Oakland 56, Houston 7 12/21/69 Kerry Collins N.Y. Giants 5 N.Y. 41, Minnesota 0 1/14/2001 Kurt Warner St. Louis 5 St. Louis 49, Minn. 37 1/16/2000 Joe Montana San Francisco 5 S.F. 55, Denver 10 1/28/90 Daryle Lamonica Oakland 5 Oakland 41, K. City 6 12/22/68 Sid Luckman Chicago 5 Chicago 41, Wash. 21 12/16/43

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