Die Hard Sports Fan

The Giants had to go back to work today, unfortunately. Below you will find a bunch of notes and reports assembled by a variety of beat writers. The Giants play their first game on Thursday so make sure you watch it.

The Star-Ledger

• Since Plaxico Burress has been unable to practice, he is contributing as an adviser to the Giants’ young receivers. Plax is taking on the mentor role even if the young guys don’t ask for it.
• Mike Garafolo assembled an in-depth 8/3 morning practice report worth checking out. Below is a sample of the entire report. There’s much more where that came from so go check out the source.
  • DEs Justin Tuck (foot) and Osi Umenyiora (hip), WRs Plaxico Burress (ankle), Amani Toomer (leg), Mario Manningham (groin) and David Tyree (knee/PUP), LBs Zak DeOssie (back) and Gerris Wilkinson (knee/PUP), CB Sam Madison (sports hernia), RT Shane Olivea and S Craig Dahl (knee) did not practice.
  • There we go again: first play of team drills was a bomb. Again from QB Eli Manning to WR Domenik Hixon. Great tackle on the play by CB Aaron Ross. Too bad it was way before the ball got there. That’s a 40-yard pass interference penalty on Ross.
  • QB Anthony Wright and WR Michael Jennings hooked up for deep in.
  • WR Craphonso Thorpe got the crowd excited with a spinning, toe-tapping catch on a fade to the left side from Wright. Dockery was in coverage on the play.
  • Hall ran a nice route to catch a hook from QB Andre’ Woodson in front of Webster. Hall later went deep on Pope, but the ball from Wright was overthrown and out of bounds.
• Mike Garafolo assembled an in-depth 8/3 evening practice report also worth checking out. Below is a sample of the entire report. There’s much more where that came from so go check out the source.
  • WRs Plaxico Burress (ankle), Steve Smith (groin), David Tyree (knee/PUP) and Mario Manninghan (groin), LBs Gerris Wilkinson (knee/PUP) and Danny Clark (sports hernia), CB Sam Madison (sports hernia) and OT Shane Olivea (back) did not practice..
  • CB Corey Webster would have none of WR Domenik Hixon catching a fade on the left side. He stayed all over Hixon and knocked the ball away. Webster also stayed stride for stride on a go from QB David Carr to WR Sinorice Moss. Webster had such good position it almost looked like he was the intended receiver. Webster knocked it away for a PD.
  • Hixon ran a perfect comeback to get separation from CB R.W. McQuarters and make a diving catch. McQuarters bounced back with a PD a few plays later when WR Craphonso Thorpe ran the same pattern.
  • LB Chase Blackburn keeps making plays. I mean, this guy couldn’t get a job after the draft a few years ago and now he’s a steady backup in my mind. Tonight, he stayed with Boss on a post into the end zone and wrestled with him to grab a ball from Wright for an INT.
  • WR Brandon London made his first nice grab in a few days on a skinny post over CB Kevin Dockery. Not a bad ball at all from Woodson. London then did a great job of accelerating to at least get his hands on a deep incompletion from Manning. The ball was overcooked and I didn’t think London had a prayer of getting there, but he dove and almost made the catch after getting past CB Terrell Thomas.
• Plaxico Burress did some light running for the first time since training camp.

Big Blue Blog

• Paul Schwartz assembled his own morning practice notes. Below is a sample of his notes, but there are not too many more.
  • On Manning’s second pass, Ross made another aggressive play, storming in to bat away a pass in the flat. Unfortunately for Ross, the ball was picked out of the air by RB Derrick Ward for a completion.
  • David Carr could not have thrown a better pass on a deep toss to Sinorice Moss, who had a step on two rookies, S Kenny Phillips and CB Terrell Thomas. The ball floated down perfectly to Moss … who watched as it slid right through his arms and to the grass. Moss looked up to the sky in bewilderment.
  • TE Kevin Boss, who has caught virtually everything thus far in camp, could not make the grab on a lunging attempt from Manning over the middle.

Inside the Giants

• Tom Rock believes that Sinorice Moss is basically playing for his Giants career in this camp so he’s been under the microscope this first week and a half. That means every drop is written about, and to be fair, there have been a lot of them. Moss had a pretty good practice tonight.

The Blue Screen

• Mike Garafolo put together another morning report and another evening report.

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Yesterday, I was wrong about why Tom Coughlin and Jerry Reese were holding those press conferences.  They were holding them to discuss the Combine, not Tom Coughlin’s contract extension.  There is plenty of Giants news today which is surprising because it’s the offseason.  Most of it is revolving around the ongoing rumors about New England videotaping opposing defenses.  Now a story was written about the Giants being videotaped during a Preseason game in 2006, and another story was written on how the Patriots have been doing it since 2000.  Also, there is a rumor that the Giants are interested in trading for DeAngelo Hall of the Falcons.

Newsday:

WFAN’s Boomer, Carton ‘having a blast’ - The G-MEN are not mentioned in this article, but Newsday categorized it as a Giants article. 

New York Daily News:

Giants: We’re open to new Strahan deal - Ralph Vacchiano provided us with a few notes about Big Blue.

• The Giants announced that they might be open to redoing Micheal Strahan’s one-year deal which is currently $4 million.
• John Mara stated that all of the Giants’ Assistant Coaches were given 2-year or 3-year contracts with raises.
• Last, rookie S Craig Dahl had a torn ACL which led to him failing his physical so he was cut by the Giants.

New York Post:

GIANTS TAKING CARE OF THEIR OWN - Paul Schwartz lets us know how the Giants are taking care of their own:

• The Giants and Tom Coughlin are still working on the contract extension.
• Tom Coughlin will speak at the Combine today, and Jerry Reese will speak at the Combine tomorrow.
• Gibril Wilson and Kawika Mitchell are set to become unrestricted free agents so the Giants want to re-sign them before they hit the open market.
• The Giants already re-signed Jeff Feagles and Lawrence Tynes, but they want to bring back Reggie Torbor and Derrick Ward.
• “For the second consecutive offseason, the Giants do not figure to be huge players in free agency. However, according to a published report, they are exploring the possibility of trading their first-round draft pick (31st overall) to the Falcons in exchange for cornerback DeAngelo Hall.”

REPORT: PATRIOTS* TAPED GIANTS IN 2006 - The NY Post continues to use an asterisk next to anything related to the Patriots.  The Post Staff Report wrote this “The Patriots were caught videotaping Giants assistant defensive coaches in the final preseason game of 2006, according to a new report.”  Nowhere does it say ‘allegedly’.  But seriously, nobody cares about the Preseason.  Following that, the Post Staff Report went on to say “The incident led the NFL to send out a letter to teams detailing interpretations of the rule against taping an opposing team’s signals, the New York Times reported today.”  It’s funny though.  You never heard of any of this stuff until the Jets allegedly tipped off the NFL about the Patriots stealing signals in Week 1.  Since then, other teams keep adding their two cents.

New York Times:

New Claim of Taping Emerges Against Patriots - When you open up the article, the picture is of Bill Belichick and Drew Bledsoe so you know it’s old.  John Branch and Greg Bishop wrote that this videotaping of opposing teams supposedly began in the preseason of 2000 (which is when Belichick became the Head Coach of the Pats), and those are the words of a “former Patriots player”.  I find that interesting because in 2007, supposedly none of the players knew what the coaches were doing…hmmm, makes me wonder.  Belichick told Commissioner Goodell that he misinterpreted the rules.  Many people have been questioning how much of an advantage this gives the Pats, so Branch and Bishop included on-the-field examples of how the Patriots would execute play calling by recognizing the formation of the defense.  I wrote it when the New York Football Giants won Super Bowl XLII, and I’ll write it again…God set things straight in the Super Bowl because the Patriots cheated.  The same thing happened in the World Series when the Tigers cheated and lost to the underdog Cardinals.

Giants Set to Reward Coughlin With Multiyear Deal

The Star-Ledger:

Coughlin’s press conference - Mike Garafolo provided the transcript of Tom Coughlin’s press conference.

DeAngelo is in Indy - Mike Garafolo lets you know the rumors why Hall is in Indianapolis.

NY Giants pursuing Falcons’ CB Hall - I already included the rumor about DeAngelo Hall, but he went on to discuss the topic more in depth.  The Giants originally were interested in Marcus Trufant (Seattle) and N’namdi Asomugha (Raiders), but both of them were franchised by their respective team.  Good thing we didn’t end up with Trufant because he was part of that Seattle team that quit once it started snowing in the Divisional Playoffs in Green Bay.  Trufant looked soft and did nothing.  Another player that the Giants were interested in was Asante Samuel (Patriots), but the Giants believe that most of his success has been due to the scheme rather than his individual talent.  Now back to Hall, he’s the real deal as far as Cornerbacks are concerned.  With that said, Hall comes with a whole lot of baggage.  He was fined $100 thousand last season for shouting at the Coach of the Falcons, Bobby Petrino.  Personally, I don’t want any part of DeAngelo Hall.  I don’t want the clowns of the NFL on the Giants.  We have Strahan and that is more than enough for me to handle.  The Giants are expected to cut R.W. McQuarters very soon, and they would cut Sam Madison as well if they work out this deal with Hall.

Coughlin’s deal a matter of time - We already covered the status of Coach Coughlin, but here’s a sidenote at the bottom of the article that I found interesting, “The Giants coaches and scouts had dinner last night at Shula’s Steakhouse in the Westin Hotel that’s connected to the RCA Dome. The irony of dining in a restaurant owned by the coach of the 1972 Dolphins a few weeks after preserving their spot as the only perfect Super Bowl champ in history wasn’t lost on Mara.  “I was a little disappointed to find out Coach Shula wasn’t picking up the tab,” Mara joked.”

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