LOS ANGELES — Jim Fassel, whose bold guarantee of a playoff bid late in the 2000 season seemingly catapulted the New York Giants to a spot in the Super Bowl, has died. He was 71.

The Giants said Tuesday that family friends informed them of his death.

Son John Fassel, special teams coordinator of the Dallas Cowboys, confirmed the death to the Los Angeles Times. He told the newspaper his father was taken to a Las Vegas hospital with chest pains and died while being treated Monday.

Fassel, the 1997 NFL coach of the year, guided the Giants from 1997 to 2003, posting a 58-53-1 record. He was 2-3 in the postseason, including a 34-7 loss to the Baltimore Ravens in the Super Bowl in February 2001.

Fassel’s 58 victories place him behind Steve Owen (153), Tom Coughlin (102) and Bill Parcells (77) among Giants coaches. Owen and Parcells are Hall of Famers, and Parcells and Coughlin each won a pair of Super Bowls.

Fassel coached a number of outstanding players for the Giants, including Hall of Famer Michael Strahan. Strahan, now a co-host of “Good Morning America” and a television personality, called Fassel a big part of his life.

“Just a great man, great coach, and he will be missed,” said the former defensive end, who sent condolences to the Fassel family during Tuesday’s GMA broadcast.

“I enjoyed enjoyed every minute with him as my coach and after my career when we continue to stay in touch and talk,” Strahan said.

Current Giants coach Joe Judge spoke of Fassel’s ties to the team during minicamp Tuesday.

“That’s something that makes you kind of sit back and reflect. It brings up a lot of great coaches who have been through here,” Judge said. “Look, it’s definitely an honor to be in the same position as all of these coaches.”

Fassel was born in Anaheim, California, on Aug. 31, 1949. He played quarterback at Fullerton College, USC and Long Beach State. In 1972, he was drafted in the seventh round by the Chicago Bears. He played briefly in the NFL and World Football League.

Fassel was considered an offensive guru and worked for the Giants as offensive coordinator in 1991 and ’92. He was the coordinator with the Denver Broncos, Oakland Raiders and Arizona Cardinals before returning to New York as head coach after Dan Reeves was fired.

Taking over in 1997, Fassel inherited a team that had missed the playoffs five of the previous six seasons under Ray Handley and Reeves. He quickly turned things around, posting a 10-5-1 mark and leading New York to the NFC East title, its first since winning the Super Bowl under Parcells in February 1991.

The Giants missed the playoffs the following two seasons. They appeared headed to the postseason in 2000 after opening with a 7-2 record, but consecutive losses to St. Louis and Detroit in November had many thinking the team was going to fold.

Fassel had other ideas. On Nov. 22, four days before a game with Arizona, the coach put his reputation on the line, telling the media to target him.

“I’ll take full responsibility. I’m raising the stakes right now,” he said. “This is a poker game, I’m shoving my chips to the middle of the table, I’m raising the ante. Anybody wants in, get in. Anybody wants out, get out. This team is going to the playoffs. OK. This team is going to the playoffs.”

The Giants crushed Arizona 31-7 and finished the regular season on a five-game winning steak that gave them the NFC East title with a 12-4 record. Playoff wins over Philadelphia and Minnesota followed before the Ravens crushed them in the Super Bowl.

New York missed the playoffs in 2001, made it as a wild card in 2002, but Fassel lost the team in `03 and announced two games before the end of the ’03 he would not be returning. He would have been fired.

Coughlin was hired and led them to Super Bowls after the `07 and ’11 seasons.

Fassel played college football before a brief career in the NFL and Canadian football. He was also part of the coaching staffs at Denver, Oakland, Arizona and Baltimore, as well as head coach at the University of Utah. He never served as a head coach in the NFL again, but was the head man for the United Football League’s Las Vegas Locomotives.

Fassel joined Westwood One radio as a color commentator for its Sunday NFL games in 2007. He stayed with the network for two seasons, calling Sunday afternoon games with Harry Kalas and “Sunday Night Football” with Dave Sims. Fassel was also part of Westwood One’s playoff coverage those two years, calling various games, and worked the 2007 and 2008 NFC championship games.

GIANTS: Running back Saquon Barkley isn’t going to work out with teammates on the field until his rehabilitation from a major knee injury is complete.

Barkley, who was hurt in the second game last season, was not on the field as the Giants opened a three-day mandatory minicamp at their headquarters near MetLife Stadium.

“In terms of where he’s at right now, he comes in every day, he attacks every day from a rehab standpoint,” Judge said. “He’s had a phenomenal attitude and great motivation, he’s been tremendously positive. We are going to make sure that we take Saquon’s rehab at the correct rate for his individual body and injury.”

Barkley tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee while being tackled against the Bears on Sept. 20. He had surgery on Oct. 30.

Judge is happy the way the rehab has been going and he said Barkley is eager to get back on the field. The No. 2 overall draft pick in 2018, he was the NFC Offensive Rookie of the Year and rushed for at least 1,000 yards in each of his first two seasons.

PACKERS: Aaron Rodgers wasn’t with the Green Bay Packers for their first mandatory minicamp session, the latest chapter in the standoff between the team and its MVP quarterback.

Rodgers also hadn’t participated in the Packers’ voluntary organized team activities, which represented change from his usual offseason routine. The Packers have the option to fine Rodgers just over $93,000 if he misses all three minicamp sessions this week.

The three-time MVP has spent his entire career with the Packers, who selected him with the 24th overall pick in the 2005 draft. But his future with the team has been uncertain ever since ESPN reported in the hours leading up to this year’s draft that Rodgers doesn’t want to return to Green Bay.

Rodgers was noncommittal about his future in an ESPN interview that aired May 24 but did discuss his frustrations with the organization.

“I think sometimes people forget what really makes an organization,” Rodgers said. “History is important, the legacy of so many people who’ve come before you. But the people, that’s the most important thing. People make an organization. People make a business, and sometimes that gets forgotten. Culture is built brick by brick, the foundation of it by the people, not by the organization, not by the building, not by the corporation. It’s built by the people.”

RAVENS: The Baltimore Ravens have signed guard Michael Schofield, the team announced Tuesday. Schofield played 11 games last season for the Carolina Panthers, starting three.

Prior to that, Schofield played for the Los Angeles Chargers and Denver Broncos. The 30-year-old Schofield has appeared in 87 career games with 69 starts. Schofield started all 16 games for the Chargers in 2018 and 2019. He spent time last season on the COVID-19/reserve list.

Denver drafted Schofield in the third round in 2014 out of Michigan.

JAGUARS: Quarterback Trevor Lawrence was held out of parts of practice because of tightness in his left hamstring.

The No. 1 overall draft pick returned after getting some treatment on the field and threw two interceptions that were returned for touchdowns. Backup quarterback Gardner Minshew also had a pass tipped and returned for a score.

Coach Urban Meyer said Lawrence is expected to be good to go for Thursday’s workout.

49ERS: The San Francisco 49ers lost two more backups to significant injuries during offseason workouts.

The team announced that safety Tarvarius Moore tore his Achilles tendon and offensive lineman Justin Skule tore the ACL in his knee during Monday’s practice.

Moore and Skule join running back Jeff Wilson Jr. on the offseason injury list for San Francisco. Wilson tore the meniscus in his knee last month and will miss at least the first six weeks of the season.

Because all of those injuries happened at the team facility instead of when the players were working out on their own, the contracts for the players aren’t impacted.

AWARD: Retired quarterback Philip Rivers has won the Pro Football Writers of America’s Good Guy Award for his cooperation with reporters.

Rivers, who retired at 39 after one season with Indianapolis in 2020 following 16 years with the San Diego and Los Angeles Chargers, earned praise for consistently tackling all topics, even in a Zoom setting, and offering answers with perspective, wit and originality during his career.

The Good Guy Award is given to an NFL player for qualities and professional style in helping pro football writers do their jobs. The award has been presented annually by the PFWA since 2005.

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