Strahan blinks

Baby Strahan blinked, finally spoke w Coughlin and Reese, and will be deciding whether he wants to retire or not. The Giants have done the right thing by moving forward assuming he is not going to be with the team. And the moves to prepare Tuck and possibly Simeon Rice (visiting this week) have certainly made whatever ploy was being hatched DOA.

To quote George Young, it is always about the money. Strahan was thinking 2007 football all along. He wants more money period. The Giants will not let him out of his contract and that means he is a Giant for 4M/year or he is retired. I do not know what planet this man is from, but when u r 35, have come off of 2 injuries in the past 3 years and are still getting 4M, you take the money if you still want to play. Osi Umenyiora said that when he talked to Strahan this weekend (BEFORE 92 got in touch w Coughlin/Reese!) he felt it was 50-50 he would play. THAT MEANS HE WAS NEGOTIATING.

Memory refresher: back ~4 years ago when Strahan was negotiating his current deal, Accorsi made him a very nice offer, but Strahan wanted more. The Giants said that was their final offer. Strahan would not accept. (It was at this point that Barber stuck his nose in and wondered aloud what Strahan was doing, that at a certain point too much money hurts the rest of the team('s cap resources). The offer lapsed. Time went by, Strahan restarted negotiations, and ended up having to sign for ~5(?) million less.

If Strahan was a smart trader, he would take his losses, pay the fines, show up for camp, and all would be forgotten. That likely will not happen because the person who pulled this stunt in the first place was not very smart. The Giants called his bluff, and it is time to play or fold. The only reason why there is any hope he will return is that he did fold once before.

Team Turmoil

Strahan. Retirement. Holdout. Pick one.

If this team wanted a rudder, Strahan was it. How do you recover from this 11th hour development going into camp? Unless it is resolved amicably it is a disaster.

I am reminded of the Parcells defection in May 1991. The timing was horrible. It was a bitter slap in the face of George Young, most likely a result of more confrontation and disappointment from a late April draft that did not go the way Parcells wanted it to go. The net result is that the Giants organization was left in a big hole, and trying to recruit a new coach at that late hour was out of the question. It set the organization back many years, and Parcells' vindictiveness was felt for quite some time.

In this situation, Strahan indicated as recently as just 2 weeks ago he was looking forward to playing. You do not show up at minicamps and offseason workouts if u r holding out. He says he is retiring, but is that a ploy to keep the negotiating window open while not incurring fines?

The Giant organization moved Kiwanuka to LB because with Strahan coming back it wanted all of these players on the field together, as much as possible. This team had way more questions than answers BEFORE this, and now it has even more questions, if that were even possible. Strahan was a leader. This is not what leaders do because the timing is so difficult to manage.

I was thinking 6-10 before this development. Now I am convinced of 6-10.

Cowher speculation

Fwiw, Jerome Bettis thinks Cowher will coach the Giants in '08. He said this on the NFL Network last Tuesday. Of course, you can find the same speculation that Cowher ends up in Washington.

I would have to think that Cowher is too smart to want Synder's insanity. Cowher thrived with a stable front office, and he knows if he joins the Giants he will get less money but far more continuity. The Giants would still pay him plenty. The other local perk is that his kids play college basketball for Princeton. If I were Reese I would be getting the helipad at the Meadowlands Parking Lot all spruced up.

From Barry Bonds to Lawrence Taylor

As football fans, we watched in horror as baseball whored itself to steroids. With Bonds about to take out Aaron's HR record, feelings are mixed with excitement and resentment. Is Bonds entitled to the recognition as all-time HR king?

A little review first.

Everyone knows that steroids provide more strength. Len Dykstra hit ~5 or 6 HRs per year as a leadoff batter before hitting 19 in a contract year after allegedly taking steroids. (25M later, we never saw that number again.)

Enter 1994, when a player-led strike ravaged fan support and the World Series was lost. TV ratings and stadium attendance plummeted. Yes, there was a degraded state of pitching due to franchise expansion, juiced balls etc.. Home runs were rising and fans liked scoring.

Steroids provided something else too... increased visual acuity. Baseball chose to look the other way as McGuire and Sosa obliterated a record that stood for so many decades. Clearly something changed. Combine the power to spare of guys like Palmiero, McGuire and Sosa with better vision and you start getting eye popping results. As the story goes, Bonds watched in dismay and disgust as McGuire (and Sosa) was put on a pedestal. Why not him? He decided that if baseball was going to look the other way so that McGuire could save the sport from its 1994 horrors then he would partake as well.

First came the 2001 season when Bonds broke McGuire's record for HRs in a single season. But everyone knew that something was wrong when Bonds hit 45HRs in ~350 AtBats at the age of 40!

1986-2000 494 HRs 7456 AtBats.. 1 HR/15 AtBats
2001-2004 209 HRs 1642 AtBats.. 1 HR/8 AtBats

The human body simply does not get better from 37-40 than it was from 22-36.

So Bonds is turning 43 and he will break the record shortly. Do we applaud? Do we protest? Does MLB strike the record from the books if he used steroids? And what about guys like Palmiero and McGuire, who testified under oath and now have a stench of illegal performance enhancement?

WHAT ABOUT THE COMPLICITY OF MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL?

Lyle Alzado won a Super Bowl with the Raiders, and he admitted using steroids. Do we take that title away too? Guys like Byron Hunt would piss in Lawrence Taylor's cup so that LT would not fail his random drug tests for cocaine. LT would have been kicked out of football if he failed ONE more test. Does this mean that BOTH Super Bowls the Giants won should be negated? And what about the list of NFL players who used steroids? It is so lengthy and embarrassing that it would probably wreck 2-3 decades of winners. Two days ago we found out that an NBA referree was fixing games the past few seasons for the mob. Does this give enough evidence to turn back results?

Professional Sports has a lot of credibility to uphold. We can sit back as fans and judge Bonds all we want, but there is plenty of hypocrisy to go around. I am no fan of Bonds. I will not be watching when he breaks the record. But I have decided that it is a little too late to be judging him.

The Rules for Winning in the NFL

In the spirit of Independence Day, we declare these truths to be self-evident, that not all players and coaches are created equal... THE RULES FOR WINNING IN THE NFL! Please comment, detract, add your own. These rules can be amended (doubtful, but possible!) by your feedback.

1) Do not draft a "versatile" player in Round 1 of the draft. "Dominant" should be there, not versatile.
2) Left Tackle is a rare commodity. A good Left Tackle is better than a great ______ (fill in almost any other position).
3) WRs are a dime a dozen. Do not waste resources here; pick one up when you are close to the prize. They are always available.
4) "Linebackers, I collect'em." - Bill Parcells.
5) Pitchouts do not work in the red zone.
6) Repeat after me, Do not go for the 2 pt. conversion until there are 6 minutes left in the game. If there are more than 8 minutes left in the game, it is a 99% certainty that it was the wrong decision.
6a) The Mike Tomlin Rule- The only thing worse than violating Rule 6 is violating Rule 6 AFTER a penalty makes it a 7 yd (or 12! or 17 yard) attempt.
7) The Devin Hester Rule- If there is a special teams player in the end zone on a FG attempt, it is probably a good idea to fake the kick.
8) Do the unpredictable. Once you are predictable you are dead.
9) Trading down in the draft is good.
10) Investing all of your resources in one player is (now, more than ever in the era of free agency) a mistake. Eli Manning, Herschel Walker, Ricky Williams... the teams that do the best are usually giving the pick and getting multiple players.
11) "Read and react" is for losers. Set the tone, dictate terms of engagement, let others copy your SB blueprint. By the time you copy someone else's, the league has figured out how to adjust, so you are wasting your time.
12) Let the clock wind down to 3 seconds and kick your FG. I have never seen a team muff the (3rd down) attempt and kick on 4th down with the extra time that you left on the clock. I HAVE seen plenty of teams kick the FG and give the other team the oppty/win when they got their hands on the ball again. (ie Dallas Mon Night 2003)
13) The 2 week layover for the SB makes for a lousy game which improves the chances for the favorite.
14) Special teams are always underrated.
15) The only thing the prevent defense prevents you from doing is winning.
16) The only thing the prevent offense prevents you from doing is winning.
16a) The Kenny Holmes Rule- the only thing worse than the prevent offense is the prevent offense when your defense is exhausted/impaired by injury.
17) Players are told to play for 60 minutes. Yet who benches the head coach when he only coaches for 50?
18) The Fassel Rule of Prevent: It is always the coach's fault when a large lead is blown/the game is lost.
19) The Fassel Rule of December: Practice in December w/o pads- your players will appreciate it and win many more games for you with their fresh legs.
20) The Bill Walsh "Quality Win" (winning by 11+ points) is a necessary objective at all times because it enables you to win MORE games that are more hotly contested.
21) After 1st and Goal from the 1-2 yard line, if you fail to score a TD on your first three tries, kick the FG on 4th down.
22) The Carl Banks Rule- You cannot simply turn it on and turn it off in the NFL. Play every game and maintain/improve on your high level of play.
23) Second round draft picks are the best value in the draft. No sizzle, all steak.
24) # of headcases <= strong head coaches. (If you have a strong head coach you can have up to 1 head case in the locker room. If you have a weak head coach you cannot have any. A strong head coach with 2 head cases means a locker room infestation and problems.)
25) The Phil Simms Rule- You must stretch the field on offense. If you do not/cannot pass the ball >20 yards down field, LBers and Safeties will choke off your offense.
26) Defense wins championships.

Where have you gone, Franchise Linebacker, Giants Nation turns its lonely eyes to you...

On the http://www.giants.com website the following question was asked....

Which unit is the Giants strongest?
Offensive line
6%
Defensive line
49%
Linebackers
8%
Secondary
2%
Receivers
29%
Running backs
6%

How indicative and sad that WR is called our second best unit. But the reason why this makes perfect sense is ALLOCATION OF RESOURCES! When you pick up Sinorice Moss #2, when you pick up Steve Smith#2, when you pick up Burress in free agency, you are directing a lot of resources there. Hey, Justin Tuck#3, Umenyiora#2, Kiwanuka#1... it says a lot. SO WHY IS LINEBACKER SO IGNORED BY THIS FRANCHISE IN THE DRAFT? This is the systemic reason why this team's defense (and overall performance) has suffered through the years.

23 YEARS AND COUNTING SINCE OUR LAST #1 LB was picked.
16 YEARS AND COUNTING SINCE OUR LAST #2 LB was picked.

Keep patching it together with free agents and WITHOUT draft picks and this is what you get. Early returns say Steve Smith looks very good. Another option for Manning to not get the ball to IN STRIDE. Wide receivers sell tickets and jerseys, Defense wins championships.

Minicamp Pt. 3: Inaccuracy and six interceptions

Still the weakest link. Gilbride's squad looked lost. I am not sure what is worse, a retread head coach or a retread coordinator.

Minicamp Part 2: Mathias Kiwanuka

There are so many questions this year.. like how are we going to be ready at Left Tackle? Will Manning continue to flatline at a 75 QB rating? And this one:

How will it go for Kiwanuka moving from Defensive End to Linebacker?

From the media reports on minicamp, so far so good. Apparently he has spent MONTHS at Giants Stadium in the offseason learning the new position, working w the position coach, and most importantly getting informal tutoring from the glue and MVP of the defense.

Antonio Pierce.

Not only does Kiwanuka have to learn a new position, he has to learn a new defense as well. If this experiment works, I will be pleasantly surprised. Athletically Kiwanuka has the tools. Can he hit the ground running and not get taken to school badly during the regular season? No one knows the answer to that. IF THE EXPERIMENT WORKS, and the secondary gets a positive surprise from Ross or Webster, then the defense will be very good. If the experiment takes too much time, or injuries at defensive end forces Kiwanuka to move back to the line, then the Giants will be thin at LB... AGAIN. Lots of questions, waiting for answers. Welcome to 2007, and why a pragmatist has to be sober about this season.

Minicamp Update

1) Finn out for the year. Next stabilizer.
2) Coughlin asks players to talk less and play more. How about if Coughlin would rant less?
3) NY Times: “Coach just has a lot easier demeanor about him,” Strahan said. “When you look at him, you don’t get tense. Before, he just was a very intense fellow. But you look at him, you feel like you can go talk to him. He’s going to come over and joke with you.

“Before, we just didn’t have that rapport. As the years have gone by, the better the rapport has gotten. Guys enjoy playing for him. I can’t always say that, but now guys enjoy playing for him.”

My editorial comment on this is simple- (a) a necessary part of winning in the NFL is to have a coach that is going to get his players to play for him. (b) I have heard this olive branch/spin from the players before, and I am not sold on it. I think Coughlin is still a jerk, he needs to treat different players differently, and we are in another year of purgatory with him.

Shuttle Bus-ted

Football is becoming baseball. The football fan is getting dumped on. It comes in small doses. But it is like the erosion of a beach. Slow, insidious, relentless.

1) You can vote with your dollars and walk. Or take the shuttle bus. Seasons tickets holders with 1-5 seats are getting the 'right' to buy a parking pass for 10 games x $15 = $150 while Xanadu and the new stadium get built. The rest of us get sent to park in Osh Kosh and take the shuttle bus. Tailgating is a thing of the past, and getting home after the game will become a true joy.

2) "Flex" games sound like a great idea because they give the national audience a much better game. Problem is that these are tv concessions where the (overpaying) networks begin to ask for everything. And then, like dominoes, the other networks that lose those competitive games want better games too. So more games get flexed from 1pm to 4pm. Football keeps drifting to later starts which are not nearly as good to attend as the traditional 1PM game.

2) Flex games run amok. Out of 8 home games last season, THREE (38%) were moved. 3 x 77,000 fans = a lot of people whose schedules were bumped around. This is simply disrespectful of the paying audience. Mara remembered how the tickerholder paid the NFL's bills. Now TV pays millions, Mara is dead and the ticketholder is less important.

4) Eagles fans were greeted with $5,000 dollar ticket licenses per seat when they got a new stadium. What will be the over/under on how much the Giants will be charging for theirs?

Insidious? Rules keep the game clock rolling more so that the same 3:00 hour game has more "tv timeouts" that disrupt the flow of the game. This is a great game but we are losing it to the Snyders of the world who want every dollar out of their investment now with no future for the sport. I laughed when Snyder started charging $10 to fans for attending preseason camp practices. What a total f'g jerk. And the joke was on him when that meant that other teams could now 'pay' to attend and scout his team! But the lesson is that you need to speak out about these practices or else we are going to lose this great sport.

Poll: How many wins do we get this year?

How many wins will the Giants get this season?
	>12
	12
	11
	10
	9
	8
	7
	6
	<6
Free polls from Pollhost.com

yet another voice heard from

The Lewis-trashing continues. Add Cofield.

First it was Pierce late last season saying he could not improvise/freelance when he KNEW the play the defense was calling. If there is anyone on the defense who 'knows,' it is Pierce.

Then we heard from Webster (and Madison) that the CBs were made to play off the WRs. They had to read and react, and play softer zone coverages instead of the more aggressive man-to-man at the line of scrimmage.

Then we heard from Wilson that the Safeties too were unable to be aggressive, that Lewis had them playing a conservative style which limited their playmaking.

Now we hear from Cofield, that Lewis had him playing NT with even less chance for performance because of his lack of any previous experience at the position. Cofield contends that he has the natural athleticism for his size that enables him to get in the backfield quickly... something the NT does not get to do (since NTs are to occupy both a C and G).

I am skeptical. Could ALL of this be true? Could the coach have been the reason why ALL of these players were underperforming? The only thing that supports such a conclusion is that Wilson and Pierce were performers before and became less so after. That would lend credence to these claims. Cofield as a rookie was actually extremely impressive. He got the snot beat out of him every game and his presence was still felt (altho by year end he was playing on fumes). We'll see. The one thing I do know is that Spagnuolo will be more aggressive, and that suits me fine. The best defenses always try to take the game to the offense. Whenever I hear Read-n-React I think of Rod Rust, the man who singlehandedly set Giants defense back 20 years until Fox could repair the damage many years later.

the glass is three quarters empty

Before the sugar-coated one-sided pr pieces come out on how wonderful every player is through minicamp and preseason, let's list objective reasons for why we are going to suck this year.

1) You cannot teach accuracy. There is plenty of room for Manning to improve, but the studies show that QB ratings start leveling off in Y3, and Manning's was FLAT. Unfortunately we are not going to see a serious jump in his production.

2) Jerry Reese's plan for Left Tackle is a bust so far. He has been trying to get Cleveland's LT, but even that would be yet another "stabilizer." Speaking of stabilizers...

3) LB Kawika Mitchell, DT Marcus Bell, DB Michael Stone, QB Anthony Wright, K Marc Hickok, P Cory Ohnesorge.

4) We still do not have a kicker. Another stabilizer coming.

5) There are still medical questions about lisfranc foot injuries in terms of Strahan's ability to come back at the same pro-bowl level of play. He is 36.

6) There are no medical questions about ACL injuries- Toomer will not be 'effective' in his first year back. Considering his age, he is headed toward being cut or becoming that classic "third-down" possesion receiver.

7) You lose something when you take your most recent #1 (Kiwanuka) and try to change his position. Dialing up this guy's weight like a video control and making him into a different player is rarely pulled off at the level of the NFL. I agree that it would be good to have Kiwanuka and our pro bowl ends on the field at the same time but Kiwanuka is not likely going to be a pro bowl LB, certainly not this year. In fact, he is going to make a few mistakes during games that will cost us.

8) Gilbride and Palmer are retreads. Gilbride deserved a promotion after being part of the problem in Manning's lack of improvement? Someone explain to me how THIS GUY is going to help Manning. Was Hufnagel the root of all evil and Gilbride blocked from succeeding? I doubt it highly.

9) Coughlin is a retread in a retread year. No one wants to play for us this season because we are dead Coughlin walking. I do not think he motivates his players properly. He treats them equally and that is a mistake. His undoing will come in the latter part of the season when he has them out in pads yet again in practice, sucking whatever energy they have so that they can get the first score and pack the rest of the game in.

10) We still have the same problems at LB and Secondary that we had last year. We are getting the 2006 history lesson that the Lewis system was truly a harm to Webster (and Pierce and Wilson) making plays. I am hopeful this can be the case and that our new coord will make a difference... but either Webster is going to make big improvement or he is gone.

Please note that I specifically did not list the departure of Tiki... I am very bullish on Brandon Jacobs. Of course he will not be able to fill Tiki's shoes but he will do a very good job wearing down defenses.

Randy Moss + Keyshawn Johnson

What does it mean when a former #1 Pro Bowl WR gets cut? What does it mean when another #1 Pro Bowl WR gets traded for a 4th round draft choice? IT MEANS WRs ARE A DIME A DOZEN. The Giants tried to pickup Star Johnson last year but were outbid by the Panthers. The fact that Johnson is all of a sudden available right after we used our #2 for a WR comes as a complete shock to me... I am shocked to find gambling in this establishment!

While I am the first to admit that the game has changed and the NFL's rules encouraging passing has put more demands on teams to have more CBs and more WRs, I will still firmly state that WRs are fringe players who you cannot build your franchise around. Calvin Johnson is a "can't miss" WR. Give ME a can't miss Left Tackle. Matt Millen the genius Lions GM has now picked FOUR (?) HIGH first round WRs... and he has built a house of garbage. Last year the Jets drafted Ferguson and Mangold. They could be anchored by those guys for 10 years! In 1997, we took a WR, Ike Hilliard at #7 in the first round. The Seahawks took Walter Jones (#6), the Pro Bowl LT who had a mildly larger impact on his team. The WR is the hare, and the Tackle is the tortoise. The tortoise almost always wins.

Kiwanuka is moving to LB

KIWANUKA IS BIG, and this story is bigger. The poker playing is obvious... by disclosing this AFTER the draft the Giants were able to look at whatever was out there and be a little more flexible. My perception is that if the Giants had found a LB (Wilson trade going through, draft) that this would not have happened. Kiwanuka, Strahan and Umenyiora all deserve to be on the field at the same time. To line up Kiwanuka on the strong side versus the TE is a logical place, because what this will do is give the Giants 5 rushers. But I have to think that Kiwanuka is simply too big to go into any serious pass coverage. The Giants dropped him into coverage INFREQUENTLY last year simply to keep opposing offensive schemes off-balance. Kiwanuka is going to have to lose 10 lbs to keep up w the TE- he is listed at 265.

Separately, I like the DeOssie pick... Steve DeOssie's son, if anything like his father he will overachieve and be a keeper.