Jon Bon's Giants Secret...
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Jon Bon Jovi's secret life on the NFL sidelines
We know that Jon Bon Jovi is a big football fan. He's friends with a few NFL owners and coaches, his son plays for Notre Dame and he tried to buy the Buffalo Bills last year.But what is not widely known is that Bon Jovi was a regular on the sidelines of New York Giants games during their 1990 championship season. His exploits as a pseudo photojournalist and Giants fanboy were recently detailed on Giants.com.
Early in the 1990 season, he met Giants punter Sean Landeta in a New York City nightclub and the two concocted a plan to get Bon Jovi on the sidelines during a game against the Dallas Cowboys as a photographer. Bon Jovi wore a camera around his neck, sunglasses and stuffed his hair up under his hat, but his true identity was almost revealed.
“One cheerleader looked at me kind of funny and then was staring at Jon,” said veteran photographer Mike Malarkey, who was in on the plan, according to Giants.com. “And he ran real quick to get some water or Gatorade or something, and she’s staring at me and she said, ‘I know that guy.’ And she was staring at his arm and she saw the Superman tattoo and was kind of catching on."
Malarkey asked the cheerleader not to tell anyone Bon Jovi was on the sidelines.
“When he came back, she was just staring at him and you could tell she was kind of excited. But she kept it a secret," Malarskey said. "That was the only person that caught on as well. Even in the photographers’ room and during halftime, no one had a clue.”
Bon Jovi would attend games during the 1990 season as his schedule allowed. He was in the cross-hairs of coach Bill Parcells at one point.
“I was yelled at by Parcells early on in the relationship,” Bon Jovi said. “But here was the difference-maker: there were rap stars who will go unnamed that were very flamboyant on the sideline at certain NFL games. Parcells yelled at me, and as soon as he yelled at me, I thought, ‘Oh, that’s funny. He’s my Pop Warner coach. I’ve been getting yelled at like this my whole career.’ But it’s: ‘act like a man, put the hair (up)’ and you were looking like an assistant, not a rock star getting on a motorcycle. So because of that, the photographers did the same kind of thing, and that’s how I was able to make friendships. It wasn’t about me. It was about the game.”
The Giants were rolling in 1990 and won their first 11 games en route ot the playoffs. When the team went down to Tampa Bay to play in Super Bowl XXV against the Buffalo Bills, the players found a gift from the rocker in their locker room stalls: a T-shirt with the words “Show No Mercy" written on the front with Giants and Bon Jovi logos on the sleeves.
"We’re all wearing (his) shirt underneath our jerseys,” Landeta said in the article. “I don’t know if you believe in things like that or whatever, but it was a little spark, you know what I’m saying? You say to yourself, ‘Wow, look what he did for us, how he feels about us, how he wants to be a part of this.’”
Bon Jovi was kicked off the field at the beginning the Super Bowl, which featured another Jersey superstar, Whitney Houston, performing the National Anthem in early 1991.
"Security came and they took me off,” Bon Jovi said according to Giants.com. “And Phil Simms said, ‘He has the same pass as I do. He is with us.’ And they said, ‘This is a different story.’ This is the Gulf War. They said, ‘You gotta go.’ And they sent me up to a box.”
Bon Jovi was later asked to come down to the field.
"They’re trotting out to kick the game-winning field goal and I feel a tap,” said Landeta, referring to the game ending field goal attempt by the Bills, which failed. “I turn to my left, and there [(Bon Jovi) is. I’m like, ‘Where have you been? I’ve been looking all over for you … All right, whatever, let’s watch this.’ So we stood there and watched him line up and kick that ball. Fortunately, it sailed a little to the right.”
The Giants won 20-19. Bon Jovi ran out onto the field with the team.
"When the kick went wide, we ran out on the turf, and to have been allowed to do that -- I tried to buy the Buffalo Bills last year. None of this would have happened had it not been for meeting Sean Landeta, when he introduced me to all those people who then I’ve become such good friends with," Bon Jovi said. "Everybody took a knee (after the game). Mr. Young (the general manager of the Giants, George Young) said come on into that dressing room. Before they closed the doors, before anybody got in, when they took a knee, I was there! That was crazy ridiculous for a singer for a rock band from New Jersey."
“I was yelled at by Parcells early on in the relationship,” Bon Jovi said. “But here was the difference-maker: there were rap stars who will go unnamed that were very flamboyant on the sideline at certain NFL games. Parcells yelled at me, and as soon as he yelled at me, I thought, ‘Oh, that’s funny. He’s my Pop Warner coach. I’ve been getting yelled at like this my whole career.’ But it’s: ‘act like a man, put the hair (up)’ and you were looking like an assistant, not a rock star getting on a motorcycle. So because of that, the photographers did the same kind of thing, and that’s how I was able to make friendships. It wasn’t about me. It was about the game.”
"We’re all wearing (his) shirt underneath our jerseys,” Landeta said in the article. “I don’t know if you believe in things like that or whatever, but it was a little spark, you know what I’m saying? You say to yourself, ‘Wow, look what he did for us, how he feels about us, how he wants to be a part of this.’”
Bon Jovi was kicked off the field at the beginning the Super Bowl, which featured another Jersey superstar, Whitney Houston, performing the National Anthem in early 1991.
"Security came and they took me off,” Bon Jovi said according to Giants.com. “And Phil Simms said, ‘He has the same pass as I do. He is with us.’ And they said, ‘This is a different story.’ This is the Gulf War. They said, ‘You gotta go.’ And they sent me up to a box.”
Bon Jovi was later asked to come down to the field.
"They’re trotting out to kick the game-winning field goal and I feel a tap,” said Landeta, referring to the game ending field goal attempt by the Bills, which failed. “I turn to my left, and there [(Bon Jovi) is. I’m like, ‘Where have you been? I’ve been looking all over for you … All right, whatever, let’s watch this.’ So we stood there and watched him line up and kick that ball. Fortunately, it sailed a little to the right.”
The Giants won 20-19. Bon Jovi ran out onto the field with the team.
"When the kick went wide, we ran out on the turf, and to have been allowed to do that -- I tried to buy the Buffalo Bills last year. None of this would have happened had it not been for meeting Sean Landeta, when he introduced me to all those people who then I’ve become such good friends with," Bon Jovi said. "Everybody took a knee (after the game). Mr. Young (the general manager of the Giants, George Young) said come on into that dressing room. Before they closed the doors, before anybody got in, when they took a knee, I was there! That was crazy ridiculous for a singer for a rock band from New Jersey."
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