NFL-Giants: NY Giants football news

We’ve got a couple of updates from Antonio Pierce and Eli Manning.

And in a weird one, the Giants seem to be scouting a soccer player. A bunch of NFL teams seem interested, although this crazy paper thinks someone might pay 10 million a season (5 million pounds). For a kicker?

Here’s an interesting talk with Tom Coughlin who discusses Eli, the defense, and a few other things.

We have a quick Giants mention near the end of this article on the supplemental draft.

This article on NFL defensive schemes doesn’t talk about the Giants, but it does make me even more anxious to see our new defensive system in action.

Here’s an interview with Aaron Ross who likes shopping in Manhattan so much he has 34 new pairs of shoes. I wonder what other teams’ fans will do with this info. I mean we made fun of Dhani Jones (when he was an Eagle) for those neckties…

In other news that doesn’t seem quite right, Aaron Ross’ girlfriend is pitching a reality show to MTV about their practices and lives and whatever. If it were a documentary I’d think it was a cool idea, but a reality show?

This article says the Giants are incriminating themselves by posting videos on their website that show illegal contact happening at practices. They cite Jim Finn’s injury as further proof of illegal contact in Giants camp.

In other news, the NFL is being unusually careful to make sure that season ticket holders don’t profit from the London game. It’s kind of hypocritical that tickets to any game (Superbowl included) can be sold except for the London game.

And in other news, this article on teaching NFL players how to be broadcasters worries me. Not because things could get worse – I think we’ve hit rock bottom in terms of analyst quality – it’s just that the guys responsible for the crap we get know are training the future of broadcasting. Tim Hasselback is one of the announcers.

Here’s an article on Kevin Gilbride who doesn’t know if he’ll have a fullback in his best 11 players. Peter King in his Monday Morning QB gets a little drmatic when he says Eli has to make big improvements to keep his job. We all know Manning has had trouble being consistently accurate, but does anyone really think he needs to worry about his job?

Here’s a nice article on David Diehl with some interesting information about his family.

W’ve got a bit on several Giants players here and here. Seems that Kevin Boss and Ahmad Bradshaw are impressing on offense while Eli Manning and J-Load are not. Diehl is outplaying Whimper at left tackle by a lot.

And in some funny Redskins news, their #1 draft pick got shot in the nuts, possibly by a teammate playing paintball.

“I have been impressed with what Robert Douglas has been able to do,” Giants coach Tom Coughlin said. “But of course we don’t have pads on yet, either.”

Douglas is the Giants only fullback right now though some competition is likely. That article said he was 248 but Giants.com says 230 which is abit small for a fullback. Garafolo says he’s listed at 230 but claims to be 248.

Paul Schwartz implies this was all part of the master plan – the Giants signed Douglas because they thought he could take over for Finn.

Anyway, with Jacobs at 265, Droughns at 235, Ward at 230, and a fullback (whoever it may be) at 240-250, the Giants will have a big backfield. I’m looking forward to it.

Jim Finn won’t be at the Giants’ 3-Day Veteran Mini-Camp and he won’t play for the Giants in 2007 as he’s now on IR. He probably won’t play on the Giants again.

Jessie Armstead retired a Giant, but Petigout sounds like he won’t since he still has some bad feelings.

Speaking of former Giants, Hufnagel might go back to the CFL.

We have a good article on Eli that gives us a fair assessment (he’s not the franchise QB we were hoping he was) and has some interesting quotes from Eli on playing in New York.

The Giants.com OTA report on receivers starts off with something absolutely sickening – the idea that we should throw the ball more. Haven’t we Giants fans been having a hard enough time? We’ve got Droughns and Jacobs plus a good offensive line – let’s run more than we throw from now on, ok?

I know, I know. Without Tiki, the running game is a question mark. Well so is Eli’s accuracy and if there’s one thing we know it’s that the Giants like to start passing when running is working well and leading us to a win. Now I love my team, but sometimes abandoning the run made me sick last season. Can we please not talk about passing more? Less would be OK.

Shockey is bigger than he has ever been – he says it will help his blocking and has made him faster. But he’s still the same Shockey.

Guard Zach Piller is the Giants’ newest arrival.

I’m still recovering from my surgery, and my wife and I rescued our 6th stray Sunday night so my house is a busy place these days.

The Giants are also busy practicing and Giants.com gives us a few quotes in these articles, one on the defensive line and one on the offensive line.