Rams special teams coordinator John Fassel has special memories of the New York Giants

Veteran running back Ottis Anderson was a good tipper. Likewise, quarterback Phil Simms and linebacker Lawrence Taylor.

Those former New York Giants players stick out in the mind of Rams special teams coordinator John Fassel, who worked as a training camp ball boy for the Giants during the early 1990s when his father, Jim, was a Giants assistant.

“Great, great guys,” said Fassel, who returns to East Rutherford, N.J., on Sunday when the Rams play the Giants at MetLife Stadium.

Fassel, 43, had been around college football for years during his father’s career, but the Giants provided his first exposure to the pro game.

“If I was ever home, I was at the stadium and offices,” he said. “I just lived in there like any coach’s kid.”

Jim Fassel was the Giants’ head coach from 1997 to 2003, but it was his stint as an assistant that left an indelible impression on John, who was in high school when he worked Giants training camp at Farleigh Dickinson University.

John Fassel said he was responsible for putting pads in Anderson’s pants, for putting his jersey over his shoulder pads and for making sure he had ice water waiting in his locker after every training camp practice.

“We were like the players’ personal assistants,” Fassel said of the ball boys. “We all split up Phil Simms and Lawrence Taylor, and they tipped like maybe $200 a week.

“All those guys really took care of the ball boys.”

Fassel also worked as a “cord holder” for his father’s sideline headset.

“This was before wireless,” he said, laughing.

Fassel began his own coaching career in 1999 as the receivers coach at Bucknell. In 2005, he joined the Baltimore Ravens’ staff as an assistant special teams coordinator, and then was special teams coordinator for the Oakland Raiders from 2008 to 2011.

He joined the Rams’ staff in 2012.

Last season, after the firing of coach Jeff Fisher, Fassel served as interim coach for the final three games.

New Rams coach Sean McVay retained him to be part of a staff that has helped the Rams to a 5-2 start.

Fassel said his ball boy experience with the Giants helped shape him as a coach.

“Learning how to treat people and how to be a pro,” he said. “Without thinking, ‘Ah, I’m going to be doing this in 25 years,’ but maybe subconsciously it all matters.

“Just being around football as a young kid was just the best. I’m very grateful for it.”