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Jeff Hostetler was an NFL nobody when his big moment arrived. He was a third-round pick buried on the Giants bench, relegated to mop-up duty for six long years. He was frustrated, unable to find a better opportunity in the era before free agency, even willing to consider a position switch just to get onto the field as something besides the field-goal holder.

Then Phil Simms broke his foot late in the 1990 season, with the Giants in the heat of the Super Bowl chase. Hostetler led December wins against the Cardinals and Patriots to guide the team to a 13-3 finish. He threw a pair of touchdowns in a 31-3 drubbing of the Bears to start the playoffs. He took some nasty hits in the fourth quarter of the NFC title game against the 49ers, briefly leaving the game. But he returned to lead a pair of field-goal drives for a 15-13 Giants comeback victory.

Hostetler capped his 1990 relief performance with one of the greatest management efforts in Super Bowl history. He led the Giants back from an early 12-3 deficit, then orchestrated a long field-goal drive to give the Giants a 20-19 lead in the fourth quarter, all the while running a game plan designed to keep the clock ticking and the final score low. The Bills nearly staged a comeback of their own, but you know how that story ends.

Hostetler gave his teams an effective one-two punch of mobility and efficiency. His rushing statistics don't leap off the page, but he was a tricky change-up to the stationary Simms and could scramble for critical first downs when needed. As for efficiency, Hostetler did not throw any interceptions during his entire 1990 relief appearance, from December through the Super Bowl. He was the perfect quarterback for the Giants of that era, which is why he traded the starting job with Simms for a couple of years after the 1990 season, with neither staying healthy long enough to seize the job for good.

Hostetler later had several fine seasons with the Raiders. The team won when Hostetler was healthy, but Tim Brown was his only true weapon, and Hostetler's scrambles-and-short-passes game never meshed with the Raiders philosophy.

Hoss' career would have turned out differently if NFL free agency existed in the mid-1980s. He may have put up huge career numbers if he was not trapped on the bench for so long. But we may never have enjoyed the magic of that 1990 season, when Hostetler proved what a mobile, risk-averse quarterback can do off the bench for a team with an outstanding defense. Hostetler didn't quite fit the mold, but the best quarterbacks in crunch time are often the ones who do things a little differently.