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NFL Network Announces Hiring of Bob Papa

July 16, 2008 By: Keith Category: Bob Papa, NFC East, NFL, New York Giants No Comments →

A little less than a month ago, Neil Best at Newsday let us know that the NFL Network hired Bob Papa as its new play-by-play man replacing Bryant Gumbel. The NFL Network officially made the announcement yesterday, according to NFL.com. Papa will work alongside analyst Cris Collinsworth. Papa had this to say…

This is a tremendous opportunity to join NFL Network and call the Thursday night games with the talented Cris Collinsworth. Being the new play-by-play voice on prime-time national NFL games after announcing one of the most exciting games in NFL history, Super Bowl XLII, it doesn’t get much better than that.

Like I said when this leaked, I think that the NFL Network’s popularity will increase tremendously with this hiring. If you have no idea who Bob Papa is then you can hear him in this video where some of his calls during the Playoffs have become instantly familiar like, “Lawrence Tynes just kicked the Giants to the Super Bowl.” up in Green Bay.

NFL Network Hiring Bob Papa

June 25, 2008 By: Keith Category: Bob Papa, NFC East, NFL, New York Giants No Comments →

After the NFL Network did something really bad, they did something really good and about to do something even better.  The really bad was when they hired Bryant Gumble to do their games on Thursday night’s.  The first good thing they did was fire Gumble because he was just unwatchable.  Even better than that is they are hiring the Giants radio play-by-play man Bob Papa, according to Newsday.  Papa has been with the Giants the last two seasons and heard on WFAN.  He also does boxing, but none of this should interfere with the Giants schedule.  The article did not state when the announcement will take place.

Other candidates were believed to have included Spero Dedes and Tom Hammond.

Congrats to Bob Papa, or the one-and-only Bob Poppper as Mayer Bloomberg called him while the Keys to the City were being distributed.  At least the games aired on the NFL Network will be watchable.  Unfortunately, they still have so many more characters to fill the remainder of the week which won’t make anyone run out and sign up for the channel.

On June 21, the Wall Street Journal broke the story about the NFL Network and ESPN merging in order “to end an embarrassing dispute that kept live pro football games out of many homes”.  I didn’t mention it at the time because it had nothing to do with the Giants, but I’m mentioning it now while were discussing the NFL Network already.  It’s still somewhat current if you missed it.  The article listed a few possible ways that the two could merge.  It goes to show you that the NFL handled the NFL Network as an absolute joke.  They tried to out-muscle even more powerful cable providers with a channel with only 8 games.  The rest of it is filled with Terrell Owens and Chad Johnson talking to Dion Sanders, and who wants to watch that.  The NFL was unable to get games to their fans which is the worst part about it, and they were too stubborn to negotiate with the cable providers.  The NFL has to make a more than desirable product if they want to out-muscle the cable giants.  So it failed, and now they have to merge and bring on top talent play-by-play announcers to succeed.  Remember Giants fans, we would’ve never got to watch the Week 17 game between the Pats and Giants if the pressure didn’t come down from the politicians.  That was an NFL Network game that we got to see because the Patriots were going for a perfect season.

Wednesday’s Giants News: Plaxico is Holding Out

June 11, 2008 By: Keith Category: Bob Papa, Eli Manning, Jeremy Shockey, Jerry Reese, John Mara, Michael Strahan, NFC East, NFL, New York Giants, Phil Simms, Plaxico Burress, Steve Smith, Tom Coughlin No Comments →

Everything should be smooth and calm in Giants land after they are coming off of a Super Bowl Victory.  However, the Jints still have some clowns to deal with.  The media has been speculating all week as to whether or not Shockey would show up to the mandatory mini camp.  He has, but he’s not participating.  He’s the only injured player not participating.  Mike Garafolo of The Star-Ledger wrote this, “When asked if there was a reason Shockey wasn’t on the field, Coughlin said, “Well, not really.” Asked if he was supposed to be on the field, Coughlin said it would remain “between Shockey and I.”"  It seems like I get more and more pissed off everytime Shockey does something stupid, which is pretty often.  He really needs to figure it all out.  Even after not playing for a while, he still hasn’t matured.  The other clown is Burress who all of a sudden is holding out from mandatory mini camp.  Simply put, he wants a contract extension.  Does he deserve a raise?  It can be justified.  He had a great year last season on one leg.  He was huge in the NFC Championship game and he caught the game winning touch down in the Super Bowl.  At the same time, he was underachieving prior to last season.  He had one great year and a couple of subpar years.  He’s asking for the extension after the great year.  It would be funny if teams asked players for a refund after the subpay years.  Anyway, his request can be justified.  However, I don’t understand the holdout.  You signed the contract so show up and play.  Let your agent do his job.  Honor your conract whether they grant you your request or not.

Plaxico Burress

Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com reported that some of the Giants’ Super Bowl XLII rings were stolen some time last weekend.  Thieves broke into an E.A. Dion Jewelry store in Attleboro, MA., and took about $2 million worth of merchandise.  The police are currently investingating the situation.

Michael Fabiano of NFL.com takes a look at soon-to-be third year wideouts to unearth potential sleepers in the world of fantasy football.  Fabiano made a list of 10 receivers, and Steve Smith made the list.  This was Fabiano’s analysis:

While he missed much of the regular season with an injured shoulder, the “other” Steve Smith did make his presence felt throughout the Giants’ postseason run. With some NFL experience under his belt and a more confident Eli Manning under center, Smith could develop into one of the better No. 3 wideouts in the league. He will have to contend with Plaxico Burress and Amani Toomer, but Smith still has the potential to catch 50-plus passes in 2008.

Giants.com:

Strahan goes out on top

Reaction to Strahan retirement - A compilation of excerpts from various people in the NFL.

Transcript: Coach Tom Coughlin - Michael Eisen had a Q&A Session with Tom Coughlin about the first day of the mandatory mini camp.

Papa’s Perspective (Video) - Giants Play by Play Announcer Bob Papa will give his latest thoughts on Strahan’s Giants career.

Coach Tom Coughlin Presser - (Video) - Coughlin introduced Strahan in the Press Conference.

Michael Strahan Presser Part 1 (Video) - Part 1 of Strahan’s retirement Press Conference.

Michael Strahan Presser Part 2 (Video) - Part 2 of Strahan’s retirement Press Conference.

Michael Strahan Presser Part 3 (Video) - Part 3 of Strahan’s retirement Press Conference.

Giants GM Jerry Reese (Video) - Jerry Reese answers questions from the media about Strahan.

Giants President John Mara (Video) - John Mara answers questions from the media about Strahan.

In My Own Words: Strahan Part 1 (Video) - Strahan talks about his early childhood memories up through his rookie season in 1993 playing with L.T.

In My Own Words: Strahan Part 2 (Video) - Strahan discusses offensive formations.

In My Own Words: Strahan Part 3 (Video) - Strahan teaches viewers a few of his moves as a Defensive End.

Newsday:

Strahan makes retirement official

Some famous un-retirements - Babara Barker wonders if Strahan is serious about his retirement and made a list of 10 athletes that came out of retirement.

Giants lose a leader in Strahan

Strahan blessed to go out as Super Bowl champ

New York Daily News:

Plaxico: No new contract, no minicamp - Ralph Vacchiano reported that Plaxico Burress is holding out from mandatory mini camp until he gets a new contract.

Michael Strahan retires after Hall of Fame career with the Giants

Without Michael Strahan, road to repeat will be tougher for Giants

Jerry Reese at ready with Giant plan

Michael Strahan gets push for Hall of Fame from co-owner John Mara

New York Post:

TRUE BLUE MIKE ‘A GIANT FOR LIFE’

A STRA DOG, BUT WITH PERSONALITY

WITHOUT NO. 92, SOME ENOURMOUS SHOES TO FILL

RING-ING IN A NEW CAREER - Phil Simms had this to say about Strahan as he heads into his broadcasting career, “Michael Strahan’s naturally a very outgoing guy. He’s a lot of fun. He’s a professional athlete who’s had tremendous success. He’s somebody who can succeed in television, no question. He’ll bring his perspective and I think we all know he’s not gonna be afraid to speak about it.”

ELI: GOAL TO GET BETTER, NOT REPEAT - Eli Manning stated, “We’ve said we’re not going to talk about repeating or doing that, just becoming a better team. We have a lot of work to do. You look at a lot of things from last year that we did not do well. From an offensive standpoint, there’s a lot of things.”

STRAHAN LEAVES AS A CHAMPION

New York Times:

Strahan Flashes a Smile as a Giant for the Last Time

Manning Says the Focus Is on Improving

Super Bowl Ring in Hand, Strahan Says He’s Retiring

The Star-Ledger:

And then there’s Shockey… - The Star-Ledger snapped a picture of Shockey.

Rosenhaus on Shockey and Burress - Mike Garafolo provided the brief conference Drew Rosenhaus just had about Shockey and Burress.  As usual, Rosenhaus had nothing to say about either one of them.  Think back to T.O.

More from Plax Pt. 2

More from Plax Pt. 1

Burress sitting out in contract dispute

Shockey’s in Jersey, but not practicing

Strahan’s last play: A glittering goodbye

Strahan played for passion, fans

Sunday’s Giants News: Jints Can’t Repeat?

June 08, 2008 By: Keith Category: Bob Papa, NFC East, NFL, New York Giants No Comments →

Over at CBSSportsline.com, Clark Judge asks, “Why do few believe Giants can do it again?”  I got to tell you that I don’t like the question.  In this article, Judge included a quote from Jay Kornegay, sports book director for the Las Vegas Hilton said,

I can’t think of anyone in recent memory that’s been as disrespected as the Giants since they won the Super Bowl. It’s been many, many years. When people out here look at them it’s, ‘Congratulations for what you did, but you’re still not one of the premier teams in the NFL.’

Clark also provided the odds which seem to back up his question.  I hope that the Giants can use this as a motivating factor like they did last season when nobody believed in them.  That worked before so it could work again.  They need something to keep them on edge because they may have a different mindset next season because they are the Champs rather than the underdogs.  If the Media and Vegas still thinks that they are the underdogs then the Giants can keep on doing what they’ve been doing.

Giants.com:

Papa’s Perspective - Giants Play by Play Announcer Bob Papa released another video clip of ’Papa’s Perspective’.  First, Papa took a walk through the night when the Giants picked up their Super Bowl rings last Thursday.  Then he explained what the coaches and players will be doing in the upcoming weeks as they prepare for ‘08.