He Will Give It His All : Pro football: Giants’ Anderson, returning to stardom at 32, knows there will be no second chance against Rams.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. —  With a grimace and an exaggerated limp that proclaimed his martyrdom to the ravages of age, Ottis Anderson inched toward the stool positioned near his Giants Stadium locker. “I’m an old guy. I’ve got to sit down,” he said.

But Anderson, a former all-pro running back, didn’t take his 1987 relegation to limited duty sitting down. Slowly, improbably, at the age of 32, he has worked his way back toward being the consistent and durable runner he was for so many years in St. Louis. It’s a rebirth he is savoring with quiet satisfaction as the Giants approach their NFC divisional playoff game against the Rams Sunday.

“You can’t take anything for granted in football or anything at all,” said Anderson, who gained 1,023 yards rushing this season--his sixth 1,000-yard season--and set career and team highs by scoring 14 of the Giants’ 17 rushing touchdowns. “First of all, you’ve got to say to yourself, ‘Forget football. Take it one step further. Will I be alive next year?’ You’ve got to look beyond yourself. That just shows how selfish we are as humans, taking things for granted. We’re going to wake up, we’re going to play football, we’re going to do this and that. You have to be thankful for your health and for just being around to play football. Yes, this is a big opportunity, and if we don’t do well, we won’t be in it. Each year, it gets harder.”

Times could not have been harder for the 6-foot-2, 225-pound Floridian than in his first two seasons with the Giants. Phased out by the Cardinals and traded to the Giants in October of 1986, Anderson suffered a pulled hamstring in his first game with his new team. He rushed for only 81 yards in 24 carries and considered himself a spectator at the Giants’ Super Bowl despite running two yards for the touchdown that clinched their 39-20 victory over Denver. “I was never a part of that. I contributed nothing,” he said.

He contributed even less in 1987. Restricted to appearances in only four games, he carried only twice and had two pass receptions. He began to have doubts about his future, and he recalled watching Joe Morris come out of the backfield to catch passes during one game, as Anderson used to do. Anderson said to teammate Maurice Carthon, “I’ll probably never get the chance to do that again.”

He got more chances last season, rushing for 208 yards and eight touchdowns in 65 carries, but his return wasn’t complete until this season. Thrust back into a regular role after Morris was injured in the Giants’ final exhibition game, Anderson responded with his best season since 1984. He finished the regular season by carrying seven consecutive times in the Giants’ NFC East-clinching, 34-17 victory over the Raiders. Included was a seven-yard gain in the second quarter that lifted him over 1,000 yards, and the one-yard plunge that broke a 17-17 tie.

“You have to look at the offensive linemen. They have more of a challenge than I do,” Anderson said Friday. “It doesn’t matter who’s back there doing the running sometimes. The challenge is up to those guys to find a way to let us run the football. Anybody could run the football the way I do.”

The Giants’ plans for Sunday center on a deliberate running game intended to preserve their offensive line and wear down the Rams’ defense. To do that, however, they’ll have to improve significantly over the total of six yards rushing they gained in their 31-10 loss to the Rams on Nov. 12 at Anaheim Stadium.

“I think we have the weapons to put points on the board, but we don’t want to play that kind of game,” Anderson said. “We want to play a control game and we don’t want to get into a shootout. They have a very potent offense, and it wouldn’t be to our advantage to get into a shootout. The Rams are the only team that downright beat us and didn’t give us a chance to utilize the weapons that we used best. We know as a team the Giants didn’t play well. The Rams didn’t play that great, but you have to give them credit. I think we’re a better team now than when we played them.

“We have to control the ball however we can get it, if it’s a two-yard pass to the running back or dump-it-off to the receivers. We’ve got to get production out of our tailback position and we have to use the clock. That’s our best strategy, utilize the clock to save our defense and keep their high-powered offense off the field. It’s going to be tough, with the way (Jim) Everett has started to play and be the quarterback they drafted him to be. He’s been in the league a while now and he’s got things down with his receivers. He knows you don’t have to throw 60, 70 times--you can just hand off. That’s what makes a quarterback great, not whether you throw the ball consistently. I thought their whole team looked impressive against the Eagles. They were a team on a mission.”

So, too, is Anderson. Not only is he in the last year of his contract, he knows that Sunday’s game could be the Giant finale for several veteran players.

“It could be the last time for all of us,” he said, “guys like (Jeff) Rutledge, Johnie Cooks, Joe (Morris). But guys like (Lewis) Tillman, (Dave) Meggett, no way. (Jeff) Hostetler, no way. For all of us it could be, just like it was for Harry (Carson) and George (Martin)--in ‘86, that was their opportunity. As for me, it depends. I’m just taking this game and this year as another opportunity to do it. I’ve been telling some of these younger guys that they might not get a chance like this again, that they’ve got to want it. They’ve got to go out and don’t hold back. They’ve got to let it all out.”

Notes

Coach Bill Parcells has appointed the team’s veterans as surrogate assistant coaches in charge of preparing the younger players for what, for many, will be their first playoff experience. “There’s always a couple of key things you can remind that group of, but they’ve been there before and they’re aware of what goes on,” Parcells said. “It’s more reinforcement. I’m the coach, and they hear me talking every day so I just said, ‘Hey, give me a little help here, guys.’ Having young players is not necessarily a detriment. In the Super Bowl, the whole second half, we played five young players. The point to get across is simple: This is sudden death here, fellas. There’s no next week. You can’t improve as the season goes along. One mistake, one offside, one illegal motion, one undisciplined play, one gamble at the wrong time costs all of us. You can’t wear a suit and tie and be a tin soldier in this game. Not being offside on fourth and one, that’s being disciplined in this game.”

Parcells declined to reveal whether Raul Allegre or Bjorn Nittmo will be the kicker Sunday. Why not? “I don’t feel like it,” he said.

Asked to recall his first playoff game, Parcells displayed a rare smile. “It was 1981 in Philadelphia,” said Parcells, who was then the Giants’ defensive coordinator. “It was the day they booed Santa Claus. That’s when I knew it was going to be a rough day. There’s not too many cities in the country where they boo Santa Claus, but Philly’s one of ‘em.”