Denzel Washington recalls meeting New York Giants player as a kid

Denzel, meet Spider.

Some celebrities only need to go by their first names. That’s certainly the case for legendary actor Denzel Washington. And it was true in the 1960s for former New York Giants safety Spider Lockhart .

One day, long before Washington was an Academy Award-winning leading man, the two crossed paths.

Washington, while recently discussing his new movie “Highest 2 Lowest” with NBC, recalled a childhood memory of the day he met Lockhart, a two-time Pro Bowler who played for the Giants from 1965 to 1975.

“I went to a clinic as a kid, one of those youth football clinics at the old Yankee Stadium,” Washington said. “I met Spider Lockhart. Yeah, I’ll never forget it.”

Lockhart, a Dallas native whose first name is Carl, played at North Texas State University before bein