October 31, 2024 • 12 mins
Bob Papa sits down with Bob Robustelli to chat about his new book, “The Pope of the NFL: The Andy Robustelli Story And the Family That Loved Him”. They discuss the life of his father, Andy, talk about what made him such a revered figure, and tell stories about those great Giants teams. Presented by Bob's Discount Furniture.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to another edition of Papa's Perspective. I'm Bob Papa's
The Giants celebrate one hundred seasons of Giants Football. Papa's
Perspective is brought to you by Bob's Discount Furniture, the
official furniture store and a Mattress partner of the New
York Giants. So on this segment, as we continue our
one hundred season celebration, we have with us as a
(00:22):
very special guest, Bob Robastelli, whose dad Andy is one
of the all time great players in not only Giants
history but NFL history. And Bob has a new book
out and it's called The Pope of the NFL. Bob,
thank you so much for joining us. And what inspired
you to write this book about your dad?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
You know, I think after he passed, I think it
became a situation of a little bit of closure. Started
to do a lot of research. I wasn't sure where
it would go or where it would take us. But
in the end, as we started moving along with and
writing and writing and rewriting and editing, we got it
(01:04):
to a pretty good point where we thought it was
a very good idea to publish. So I worked with
Peter Golenback, who's a well known sports writer in the area.
And it's a it's a legacy to a to a
to a great man, and I think a very very
humble and family orientateed man.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
I mean the family is a big part of the
whole thing, right, and and what your dad meant to
the entire family and the part of the Giants family.
And it's funny we use that word family. But was
there anything in the book that you uncovered of some
stories that maybe you didn't even know about.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yeah, there were certain aspects of it. One of them
was his warriors. He never spoke about the war. He
was on the USS William C. Cole in the Pacific Theater.
He was a gunner and they were a destroyer, escort
vessel and a canal.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
So I learned a lot about that through research.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
The other things that I learned, basically were the way
that the people that he interacted with interacted with him.
He did everything based on I think one basic principle,
and I think that basic principle was do the right thing.
And that was not only with the rope Stelly family,
(02:37):
which is pretty huge, but with this Giant family and
even his corporate service family. I mean Robostelly corporate Services
after his years was playing this girls and ladies and
gentlemen who's still to this day meeting and have cocktails
and reminisce about the family that we were. So I
think it was a combination of a lot of different things.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
But the biggest thing I found was the war year
is very very interesting.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Bob, when you think about your father. Obviously he was
in charge of football operations for the Giants. They didn't
call it a GM at that point in time, right,
But some of the things that I noticed in the
book was his post playing day passion for still being
involved in the sport. Talk a little bit about that
(03:27):
to our audience.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Well, you know, I think that football but naturally within
his blood. I mean I remember being a little boy
and he'd come home after practice and he'd sitting in
our den and he'd just watched film. In those days,
it was the click, you know, the two per eight.
It wasn't what they have now, So I think his
(03:50):
passion for it remained. He did have a stint with
NBC as a commentator for one year.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Didn't think he was doing a good job, so we quit.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
They went walked in and said, look, I just can't
do a good job on this, so I'm leaving. So,
you know, the only one time that I remember him
ever really failing at anything. He then hooked up with
Jackie Robinson for the Brooklyn Dodgers, a semi pro lake
for a couple of years, and then I think in
nineteen seventy three, when the Giants were kind of in
(04:25):
that fifty to fifty ownership situation, they asked him to
come in and try to work things out, and just
because he knew it was the right thing to do,
that's what he did.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
When you think about his playing days and the fact that, yeah,
he comes to the Giants, they start winning championships. The legacy,
you know, my mom could still recite the Giants starting defense.
They made defense, They made defense sexy, the chan of defense.
It was your Dad's group kind of created liking defense
(05:02):
to be cool.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
No question about it. I mean, in those days, they
always introduced the.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Offense first before the game at Yankee Stadium, they started
doing the defense. Those days of the Giants I think
were the best thing that could have ever happened to
my father. I think when he got traded from the
Rams to the Giants because of a family matter. He
(05:31):
just I think blossomed into who he was being home
being in Connecticut. I remember when we were in la
I was very young, but we'd go out there for
five six months and then come back. His base was
always Standford, Connecticut where he grew up. So in that
time he was able to interact with a lot of
different things and a lot of different people, and the
(05:53):
Giant years were the best, and I think there he
also met one of the men that he most respected
in Wellington.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
You know, your father is interesting because, uh he built
this unbelievable business, you know, and how much of what
he was as a football player, as far as his
attention to detail, his discipline, his determination, how did that
carry over into the family business.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Well but I think it was a major part. I mean,
you know when they talk about the four to three
defense from the Giants perspective in Tom Lander, I mean
Tom Landry, he invented it, There's no question about it.
I think my father had a pretty good part in
refining it with him. All of that structure for him
and the organization that he found I think within the
(06:47):
Giants at that time helped him in his business. He was.
He was motivated in business from the time he was
ten years old. I mean he was selling you know,
the little ink mix, a little middle park to the
shot down the street to raise four or five dollars.
In college, he sold ties and sporting goods, so he
(07:08):
was always acclimated to that. I think the biggest thing
that he did and what made him so successful in
the morning was disciplined.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
There's no question.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
But he was organized, more so than any man I've
ever known. He'd have organizational charts and he'd changed them
all the time. He'd constantly be working on themselves. His
passion for business and his passion for taking care of
that business as a family, I think is what made
him the man he was.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
In the book, what are some of the like football
related stories that the audience is going to enjoy reading about.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
I think part of the training camp issues when they
were in Fairferral County and how we all hung out
as the kids with the players. I think the games
and what went on before the games, Like on Saturday,
they used to have a run through. All of us
kids would get together to get for the roads and
(08:11):
we'd be up in Roger morris Land and right field
they're playing touch football while they were practicing. So it's
a lot of family fun stuff that I think they'd
enjoy this. There's a lot more in there than just football,
but there's a lot of football too.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
How cool is that you think about those Yankee teams
and those Giants teams and Giants winning a championship the
first year in Yankee Stadium, Yankees won the World Series
that year, Giants are perennially in these championship games, Yankees
are winning most of them. Giants unfortunately, are not winning
most of them. But it must have been a really
(08:54):
cool experience for the players and the families to cross
pollinate with the Yankees in that early part of the season.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
No question about it.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
And the one thing that my father always was amazed
at was that Joe D's.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Locker was right next to my father's locker.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Never forgot it, I mean to him, you know, as
well known as he was, he still knew Joe D.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Was the man. And all of.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
The inter reaction between the players themselves and that time
in New York, it was just a special time. I
mean Yankee Stadium. Yankee Stadium was the mecca. There's no
question I mean, that's where it all happened.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Where does the term the pope come from?
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Well, the pope the pope term comes from.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
The story goes that they were all out one night
and then away the game, and I guess they were
some of the guys who drinking and some of the
guys who you know, doing whatever. And my father basically
went up to them and said, hey, guys, we got
a game tomorrow, let's talk.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Get out of here and go home and do what
we're supposed to do.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
And at that point, Dick Lynch knelt down, kissed his
ring and called him the Pope.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
That's the story.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Why does that not surprise me that it was my
former broadcast colleague, Dick Lynch, that would be the wise
guy to come up with that.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
You know. And and Dick Lynch, would you know when
the guys used to come over with the house, Yeah,
it would be Dick lynn he would be Roosevelt Brown,
it would be Eric Barnes, Jack Stroud. When Dick Lynch
came over, he always brought ice cream. So Dick Lynch
in our house was known as the ice cream Man.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
That I could see too. And I can see him,
I bet you brought a lot of it.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
He did, he would David then, you know, he was
a great guy. They were all just great guys. Cat
and Mow and you know Sam Hoff. They were great,
great people and.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
All part of the one hundred greatest players in the
history of the franchise, including your father who was one
of the great players in the history of the whole
in the NFL. So, where can people buy the book
right now?
Speaker 3 (11:12):
The book is don't play on Amazon, Amazon Books. It's there.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
We're looking for further distribution. We have some meetings with
people that we're going to. We're going to book shows
and and doing a lot of promotions around here, you know,
hopefully in New York. We're looking at getting it's on
good Reads, so you know, it's it's starting to get
out there.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Well, it's good. It's a it's the perfect gift for
someone with the holiday season coming up, a giant fan.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Right, it really is.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
And again it's such a cross section of faith, family, business, football.
I mean, it's it's uh, it's pretty good, I.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Think, Bob, Bob, we appreciate a couple of minutes, Thank
you so much. As we continue the one hundred season
celebration of the New York Giants to be a part
of the Popper's Perspective podcast.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Bob, thank you very much. I appreciate you having me on.
I really do thank you.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
That's Bob Robistelli joining us here on this edition of
Popper's Perspective, brought to you by Bob's, the official furniture
store and a Mattress partner of the New York Giants.
Welcome to another edition of Papa's Perspective. I'm Bob Papa's
The Giants celebrate one hundred seasons of Giants Football. Papa's
Perspective is brought to you by Bob's Discount Furniture, the
official furniture store and a Mattress partner of the New
York Giants. So on this segment, as we continue our
one hundred season celebration, we have with us as a
(00:22):
very special guest, Bob Robastelli, whose dad Andy is one
of the all time great players in not only Giants
history but NFL history. And Bob has a new book
out and it's called The Pope of the NFL. Bob,
thank you so much for joining us. And what inspired
you to write this book about your dad?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
You know, I think after he passed, I think it
became a situation of a little bit of closure. Started
to do a lot of research. I wasn't sure where
it would go or where it would take us. But
in the end, as we started moving along with and
writing and writing and rewriting and editing, we got it
(01:04):
to a pretty good point where we thought it was
a very good idea to publish. So I worked with
Peter Golenback, who's a well known sports writer in the area.
And it's a it's a legacy to a to a
to a great man, and I think a very very
humble and family orientateed man.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
I mean the family is a big part of the
whole thing, right, and and what your dad meant to
the entire family and the part of the Giants family.
And it's funny we use that word family. But was
there anything in the book that you uncovered of some
stories that maybe you didn't even know about.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yeah, there were certain aspects of it. One of them
was his warriors. He never spoke about the war. He
was on the USS William C. Cole in the Pacific Theater.
He was a gunner and they were a destroyer, escort
vessel and a canal.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
So I learned a lot about that through research.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
The other things that I learned, basically were the way
that the people that he interacted with interacted with him.
He did everything based on I think one basic principle,
and I think that basic principle was do the right thing.
And that was not only with the rope Stelly family,
(02:37):
which is pretty huge, but with this Giant family and
even his corporate service family. I mean Robostelly corporate Services
after his years was playing this girls and ladies and
gentlemen who's still to this day meeting and have cocktails
and reminisce about the family that we were. So I
think it was a combination of a lot of different things.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
But the biggest thing I found was the war year
is very very interesting.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Bob, when you think about your father. Obviously he was
in charge of football operations for the Giants. They didn't
call it a GM at that point in time, right,
But some of the things that I noticed in the
book was his post playing day passion for still being
involved in the sport. Talk a little bit about that
(03:27):
to our audience.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Well, you know, I think that football but naturally within
his blood. I mean I remember being a little boy
and he'd come home after practice and he'd sitting in
our den and he'd just watched film. In those days,
it was the click, you know, the two per eight.
It wasn't what they have now, So I think his
(03:50):
passion for it remained. He did have a stint with
NBC as a commentator for one year.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Didn't think he was doing a good job, so we quit.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
They went walked in and said, look, I just can't
do a good job on this, so I'm leaving. So,
you know, the only one time that I remember him
ever really failing at anything. He then hooked up with
Jackie Robinson for the Brooklyn Dodgers, a semi pro lake
for a couple of years, and then I think in
nineteen seventy three, when the Giants were kind of in
(04:25):
that fifty to fifty ownership situation, they asked him to
come in and try to work things out, and just
because he knew it was the right thing to do,
that's what he did.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
When you think about his playing days and the fact that, yeah,
he comes to the Giants, they start winning championships. The legacy,
you know, my mom could still recite the Giants starting defense.
They made defense, They made defense sexy, the chan of defense.
It was your Dad's group kind of created liking defense
(05:02):
to be cool.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
No question about it. I mean, in those days, they
always introduced the.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Offense first before the game at Yankee Stadium, they started
doing the defense. Those days of the Giants I think
were the best thing that could have ever happened to
my father. I think when he got traded from the
Rams to the Giants because of a family matter. He
(05:31):
just I think blossomed into who he was being home
being in Connecticut. I remember when we were in la
I was very young, but we'd go out there for
five six months and then come back. His base was
always Standford, Connecticut where he grew up. So in that
time he was able to interact with a lot of
different things and a lot of different people, and the
(05:53):
Giant years were the best, and I think there he
also met one of the men that he most respected
in Wellington.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
You know, your father is interesting because, uh he built
this unbelievable business, you know, and how much of what
he was as a football player, as far as his
attention to detail, his discipline, his determination, how did that
carry over into the family business.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Well but I think it was a major part. I mean,
you know when they talk about the four to three
defense from the Giants perspective in Tom Lander, I mean
Tom Landry, he invented it, There's no question about it.
I think my father had a pretty good part in
refining it with him. All of that structure for him
and the organization that he found I think within the
(06:47):
Giants at that time helped him in his business. He was.
He was motivated in business from the time he was
ten years old. I mean he was selling you know,
the little ink mix, a little middle park to the
shot down the street to raise four or five dollars.
In college, he sold ties and sporting goods, so he
(07:08):
was always acclimated to that. I think the biggest thing
that he did and what made him so successful in
the morning was disciplined.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
There's no question.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
But he was organized, more so than any man I've
ever known. He'd have organizational charts and he'd changed them
all the time. He'd constantly be working on themselves. His
passion for business and his passion for taking care of
that business as a family, I think is what made
him the man he was.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
In the book, what are some of the like football
related stories that the audience is going to enjoy reading about.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
I think part of the training camp issues when they
were in Fairferral County and how we all hung out
as the kids with the players. I think the games
and what went on before the games, Like on Saturday,
they used to have a run through. All of us
kids would get together to get for the roads and
(08:11):
we'd be up in Roger morris Land and right field
they're playing touch football while they were practicing. So it's
a lot of family fun stuff that I think they'd
enjoy this. There's a lot more in there than just football,
but there's a lot of football too.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
How cool is that you think about those Yankee teams
and those Giants teams and Giants winning a championship the
first year in Yankee Stadium, Yankees won the World Series
that year, Giants are perennially in these championship games, Yankees
are winning most of them. Giants unfortunately, are not winning
most of them. But it must have been a really
(08:54):
cool experience for the players and the families to cross
pollinate with the Yankees in that early part of the season.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
No question about it.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
And the one thing that my father always was amazed
at was that Joe D's.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Locker was right next to my father's locker.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Never forgot it, I mean to him, you know, as
well known as he was, he still knew Joe D.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Was the man. And all of.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
The inter reaction between the players themselves and that time
in New York, it was just a special time. I
mean Yankee Stadium. Yankee Stadium was the mecca. There's no
question I mean, that's where it all happened.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Where does the term the pope come from?
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Well, the pope the pope term comes from.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
The story goes that they were all out one night
and then away the game, and I guess they were
some of the guys who drinking and some of the
guys who you know, doing whatever. And my father basically
went up to them and said, hey, guys, we got
a game tomorrow, let's talk.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Get out of here and go home and do what
we're supposed to do.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
And at that point, Dick Lynch knelt down, kissed his
ring and called him the Pope.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
That's the story.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Why does that not surprise me that it was my
former broadcast colleague, Dick Lynch, that would be the wise
guy to come up with that.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
You know. And and Dick Lynch, would you know when
the guys used to come over with the house, Yeah,
it would be Dick lynn he would be Roosevelt Brown,
it would be Eric Barnes, Jack Stroud. When Dick Lynch
came over, he always brought ice cream. So Dick Lynch
in our house was known as the ice cream Man.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
That I could see too. And I can see him,
I bet you brought a lot of it.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
He did, he would David then, you know, he was
a great guy. They were all just great guys. Cat
and Mow and you know Sam Hoff. They were great,
great people and.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
All part of the one hundred greatest players in the
history of the franchise, including your father who was one
of the great players in the history of the whole
in the NFL. So, where can people buy the book
right now?
Speaker 3 (11:12):
The book is don't play on Amazon, Amazon Books. It's there.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
We're looking for further distribution. We have some meetings with
people that we're going to. We're going to book shows
and and doing a lot of promotions around here, you know,
hopefully in New York. We're looking at getting it's on
good Reads, so you know, it's it's starting to get
out there.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Well, it's good. It's a it's the perfect gift for
someone with the holiday season coming up, a giant fan.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Right, it really is.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
And again it's such a cross section of faith, family, business, football.
I mean, it's it's uh, it's pretty good, I.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Think, Bob, Bob, we appreciate a couple of minutes, Thank
you so much. As we continue the one hundred season
celebration of the New York Giants to be a part
of the Popper's Perspective podcast.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Bob, thank you very much. I appreciate you having me on.
I really do thank you.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
That's Bob Robistelli joining us here on this edition of
Popper's Perspective, brought to you by Bob's, the official furniture
store and a Mattress partner of the New York Giants.
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