Ernie Accorsi, 84: the Giant who made the franchise-defining bet.

Ernie Accorsi, the longtime NFL executive who served as Giants general manager from 1998 through 2006, died Saturday at 84, the team announced Sunday. The Giants said he passed away peacefully with his family around him.

Accorsi spent 37 years in the NFL, including general-manager tenures with the Baltimore Colts, Cleveland Browns and Giants. New York won two division titles, reached four postseasons and advanced to Super Bowl XXXV during his nine seasons as general manager. The record explains the career. One decision explains why his name became permanent in Giants history.

The trade that will lead every remembrance

In the 2004 draft, Accorsi did not settle for whichever quarterback reached the fourth pick. San Diego selected Eli Manning first. The Giants took Philip Rivers fourth, then sent Rivers, a 2004 third-round choice and first- and fifth-round picks in 2005 to the Chargers for Manning.

It was expensive and unmistakably deliberate. Accorsi had followed Manning at Mississippi and believed he was the franchise quarterback New York needed. Manning played all 16 of his NFL seasons for the Giants, started 234 consecutive regular-season games and won two Super Bowls, earning the MVP award in both.

The transaction is easy to judge after the parades. Accorsi had to judge it before them. That is the hard part of the executive's job: deciding when conviction is worth more than flexibility, then accepting that the result may define you.

A roster built beyond one decision

Accorsi's New York legacy was larger than one quarterback. He helped bring Tom Coughlin back to the organization as head coach in 2004. He also acquired or drafted core contributors to the Super Bowl XLII roster, including Osi Umenyiora, Justin Tuck, Antonio Pierce and Plaxico Burress. The Giants awarded him a championship ring after the 2007 season, his first year in retirement.

Before New York, Accorsi built Cleveland teams that won four AFC Central titles in five seasons and reached three AFC Championship Games. His professional football career began in public relations with the Baltimore Colts in 1970; it later returned to league-wide service through the NFL's General Managers Advisory Committee.

Once a Giant

The Giants inducted Accorsi into their Ring of Honor in 2016 alongside Coughlin and Tuck. On Sunday, John Mara remembered a trusted adviser and friend whose vision helped shape franchise history. Manning said he had called Accorsi during draft week for more than a decade simply to thank him for believing.

That belief became two championships and a generation of Giants football. Accorsi's family described the franchise as far more than his employer: it was family. Their closing words fit the man and the legacy he left in New York—once a Giant, always a Giant.