One NFL player you forgot played for your favorite team

New York Giants – Larry Csonka

It was hard to narrow this down for the New York Giants because they had two Hall of Fame players who are very well-known for being on different teams than the G-Men. They also each started with, and retired with their original franchise, but had a stop before their career was over in the Big Apple.

Fullback Larry Csonka was a member of the Miami Dolphins perfect team in 1972 and that was the best NFL season. Csonka rushed for 1,117 yards and six touchdowns that season, which was the middle of a three-year stretch of more than 1,000-yards on the ground.

Csonka spent eight seasons in Miami starting in 1968 and ending in 1979 but from 1976 through 1978, he was with the Giants. He had 1,344 yards and 15 touchdowns in that span which was respectable but not what he was capable of. He reminded everyone of this by running for 837 yards with 12 scores in 1979, which was his final season in the NFL.

His tenure was probably even less memorable than Fran Tarkenton’s who was in New York from 1967 through 1971. In those five seasons, Tarkenton made the Pro Bowl in all but one year. Like Csonka, he returned to his original team as the Giants, who traded for him in 1969 from the Minnesota Vikings, sent Tarkenton back to Minnesota in 1972.

When anyone thinks of Tarkenton, it’s as a member of the Vikings, much in the same way Larry Csonka is imagined as only wearing a Dolphins helmet during his NFL career.