NEW YORK (AP) — Longtime NFL executive Ernie Accorsi, who built the New York Giants core that won the Super Bowl twice after his retirement has died. He was 84.
The Giants and Accorsi’s family announced Sunday that he died Saturday. A cause of death and where Accorsi was when he died were not provided.
Accorsi was general manager of the Giants from 1998-2006 and received championship rings from their title runs in the ’07 and ’11 seasons. He also became the second GM enshrined in the franchise’s ring of honor.
“Ernie helped shape the course of New York Giants history through his vision, leadership and unwavering belief in building a championship organization,” owner John Mara said in a statement. “Beyond his accomplishments as a football executive, he was a trusted advisor and dear friend. His legacy will forever be part of the Giants, and he will be greatly missed.”
Accorsi was in charge when New York hired Tom Coughlin as coach and traded for quarterback Eli Manning after the Chargers took him with the first pick in the 2004 draft. The Giants made the playoffs four out of six seasons from ’05-11.
“I call Ernie every draft week for the last 12 years, maybe longer than that, and just thank him for making the trade and believing in me and bringing me to the New York Giants," Manning said in a statement. "I know he was the believer in me and kind of the reason I got here. I appreciated him so much for building such great teams and giving us the opportunity to win some championships here.”
Accorsi, a native of Hershey, Pennsylvania, got a communications degree from Wake Forest, served in the U.S. Army and was a sportswriter before working in public relations at Penn State and for the Baltimore Colts. He spent time at the league office before rejoining the Colts as assistant general manager.
“Ernie Accorsi was one of the most respected football minds in NFL history and a dear friend whose wisdom and perspective I valued tremendously,” Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement. “Throughout his remarkable career, he shaped championship-caliber clubs and earned the admiration of everyone who worked with him.”
Accorsi was promoted to Baltimore’s GM in 1982, then served in that role with the Cleveland Browns from 1985-92 before going to the Giants. They won two NFC East titles during his tenure with them before breaking through with Manning, Amani Toomer, Antonio Pierce and Michael Strahan.
“Ernie was very decisive, very opinionated,” Coughlin said in a statement. “His mind was as sharp as a tack. He loved to laugh. He was a great storyteller, great storyteller. He loved to have an audience and laugh, and then everyone else would laugh with him.”
Accorsi’s family said the Giants were more than a team to him and expressed gratitude to the Mara family for its loyalty and friendship.
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FILE - Newly named New York Giants general manager Ernie Accorsi answers a question after a news conference at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., Jan. 8, 1998. (AP Photo/Mike Derer, File)
BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Friedrich Merz suffered a bruising electoral setback in two state elections on Sunday, including a historic defeat for his party, but vowed to press ahead with potentially painful reforms to Europe’s biggest economy.
Exit polls by public broadcaster ARD on Sunday night indicated that Merz's center-right Christian Democratic Union, or CDU, came in with just 5% in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania — the lowest result ever since World War II for the party in any state. The anti-migration, Russia-friendly Alternative for Germany, or AfD, party made significant gains Sunday.
Merz acknowledged his party's result as a “disaster,” but struck a defiant note, rejecting any retreat from his government’s reform agenda. He argued that Germany’s economic and political problems made difficult and potentially unpopular reforms more urgent, not less so, and pledged to press ahead.
“What needs to be done now requires backbone, steadfastness, and patience,” Merz said in a statement shortly after the exit polls were announced on public television. “I will demonstrate these qualities as chairman of the CDU and, above all, as chancellor of our country.”
In Berlin, the CDU was projected to come in second with 20%, behind the Left party at 24.5%, according to ARD's exit poll.
Merz’s authority was already damaged by CDU's stinging defeat to AfD in the Sept. 6 election in the small eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt. That result shocked many Germans who had believed their country had developed an immunity to nationalism and assertions of racial superiority after confronting the horrors of its Nazi past through education and laws to outlaw persecution.
On Sunday, AfD was projected to make big gains in both states. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, it garnered 37% of the vote, and in Berlin it achieved 15.7%, according to ARD. But it was nowhere close to being able to form a regional government.
AfD’s national co-leader, Tino Chrupalla, told ZDF television that “the chancellor’s statement today really was more than feeble — he announced that he’d carry on as before, instead of finally drawing the consequences and resigning.”
However, in an apparent reference to the far-right party, Merz said that his government’s reforms would be “the antidote to the poison of authoritarianism, which is penetrating ever deeper into our society as the fascination with authoritarianism grows.”
The government’s reforms include cuts to income tax for low- and middle-income families, an overhaul of the creaking pension system and a reduction of Germany's stifling bureaucracy.
Merz, 70, became Germany’s leader 16 months ago with promises to turn around an economy that has barely grown in years. But he has failed to lift a sullen national mood and become deeply unpopular.
The strong showing of AfD in the Saxony-Anhalt election, where it has the best chance yet of forming the country’s first far-right regional government since World War II, had further weakened the chancellor's standing on the national level as well.
In the past two weeks, there had been calls, even from within his own party, for him to be replaced as chancellor, although no top-level allies have called publicly for his departure, and many warned against “personnel debates.”
Philipp Amthor, a prominent CDU figure from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania who now manages relations between the federal and state governments at the chancellery, said Sunday night that one problem in the campaign had been “the difficult personnel discussions” of recent weeks — an apparent reference to the speculation about Merz.
“It is good and right for these personnel discussions not to be continued now,” he said.
From right, Franziska Brantner, Federal Chair of Alliance 90/The Greens; Claudia Müller (Alliance 90/The Greens), the Greens' lead candidate in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and a member of the Bundestag; and Ole Krueger (Alliance 90/The Greens), state chair of Alliance 90/The Greens in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, react to the projections for the state election at their party's election party at the tisch coworking space, in Schwerin, Germany, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (Ulrich Perrey/dpa via AP)
Amira Mohamed Ali, right, reactss to the first projections at the BSW election party in Schwerin, Germany, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (Philip Dulian/dpa via AP)
Supporters and members of the Left Party react to the projected results of the House of Representatives election at an election party in Berlin, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (Sebastian Gollnow/dpa via AP)
Alice Weidel (AfD), the party's federal chairwoman, reacts to the projections for the State Parliament election at the AfD election party in Berlin, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (Fabian Sommer/dpa via AP)
Russian citizen line up to cast their vote for Russian parliament elections at the Russian embassy in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Voters sit at a voting booth in Schwerin, Germany, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026, as the vote for the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state election, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (Philip Dulian/dpa via AP)
A man casts his vote at a polling station during the Berlin state election in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Social Democratic Party Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and the party's top candidate for the upcoming state election Manuela Schwesig poses in front of an election campaign poster reading "The Woman Against Blue", in Schwerin, Germany, Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. ( Jens Buettner/dpa via AP)
Leif-Erik Holm, the AfD's candidate for state premier in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, speaks at the campaign's closing rally in Neubrandenburg, Germany, on Friday, Sept. 18, 2026. (Philip Dulian/dpa via AP)
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz arrives for the Cabinet meeting at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
