Die Hard Giants Fan

If you want see what the media is saying about our boys in blue while they are at Training Camp up in Albany then take a look below:

Newsday

• Tom Rock of Newsday stated that Kevin Boss is making the most of taking Jeremy Shockey’s place. Boss caught just about every pass that came his way during the first week of training camp, and he’s working on his blocking.
• The first fight of training camp took place yesterday. It was between Rich Seubert and Danny Clark, but he said that it, “was more a dance while holding on to each other’s face mask than a brawl.”
• MIA from practice: S Kenny Phillips did not participate in either practice with a sore hamstring, Plaxico Burress (ankle), Amani Toomer (leg), and Mario Manningham (quadricep).
• Players worth Noting: WR Domenik Hixon had another outstanding practice in the morning, though it came at the expense of CB Corey Webster, who covered Hixon most of the session … Undrafted rookie S Nehemiah Warrick had a second straight practice with an interception in the morning, playing with the second unit in place of Phillips.

New York Daily News

• Ralph Vacchiano of the New York Daily News says Sinorice Moss is as disappointed as anyone by the way his first two NFL seasons have gone. He suffered a few injuries, but he’s not ready to give up on himself yet. And neither are the Giants.

New York Post

• According Paul Schwartz of the New York Post, “Tom Coughlin gave permission for [Dave] Tollefson to go home to be with his wife, Megan, for the birth of the couple’s first child, a son they plan on naming Tucker. Megan is due on Aug. 15, but will be induced to accommodate Dave’s football schedule. A day or two later, Tollefson will return to camp and hopes to continue his development at defensive end.

The Star-Ledger

• Dave Tollefson cherishes each moment he is on the field.
• Mike Garafolo compiled some notes about Giants training camp.
• Tom Coughlin is still going to be kind and gentle in 2008.
• Mike Garafolo assembled an in-depth 8/1 evening practice report worth checking out.

Sports Illustrated

• Ben Reiter, a writer at Sports Illustrated, recently provided a Giants camp rundown at SI.com. In Reiters “Three Observations”, he writes this of the secondary:
  • I spent several moments observing what I assumed to be the Giants’ linebacking corps huddled up next to the practice field — until I realized the group was actually the team’s secondary. These guys are monsters (only cornerback Sam Madison is under 6 feet), but the most physically impressive of them all is safety Kenny Phillips, the team’s first-round pick out of Miami.

The good news is that everything mentioned about Big Blue is positive. That’s not the norm so enjoy it while it lasts. As mentioned above, Dave Tollefson’s wife is expected to give birth on August 15 so we wish them a healthy child.

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Big Blue Interactive (BBI) presented the “BBI Player of the Year” trophy to WR Plaxico Burress for his play during the 2007 NFL regular and post-seasons after the evening practice yesterday. BBI is one of the most popular Giants fansites out there.

Burress was determined to be the award recipient by a BBI fan vote that occurred earlier in the offseason. For more information on the ceremony, see the Daily News’ Giants Blog update Burress Named BBI Giant of the Year. Pictures of the ceremony are available in The Corner Forum.

Personally, I would not have given my top vote to Burress. I would have given it to somebody on defense or to the Steve Spagnuolo, but Plax is not a bad choice at all so we at Die Hard Giants Fan tip our cap to him for winning the award over at BBI.

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Glad to see you’re on our side once again. Politics, money and rumors are a big part of football now and relieved to see that’s all past now. First, I would like to thank you for the great season you gave us. To watch you divert defenders and make touchdowns was fun throughout the entire season. Even the ones that called you out were left embarrassed running behind you and checking out the back of your jersey. You did concern us last year when you did not attend practice and rumors started to circle, but you came through for us. Now, the same rumors were going around and the approach you have taken of just agreeing that everything will take care of itself was something not heard from many. This season is very promising, but even though we won the Super Bowl last year we still have a lot to prove.

Speaking to out-of-state friends and distant connections there still seems to be a doubt and that the Giants had a lucky stretch (of course I can argue against that all day but in the end it’s our team that will outperform to show these critics)

I’ll leave off with the thought that you’ll do it again and just like that last Superbowl catch…..make it look easy big guy.

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Arash Markazi of SI.com had a Q&A Session with Plaxico Burress on Friday. Here are some of the questions…

SI: First of all, there’s been some confusion about your situation with the Giants. Will you be there for the start of training camp, on the practice field, ready to go?

Burress: Yeah, I’ll be fine. I’m just waiting on the Giants and my agent to get this deal done in the next few days or so, and I’ll be ready to get down to camp on time on the 24th.

SI: So you’re saying a deal is imminent and you’ll be on the field for the start of camp?

Burress: Yeah.

SI: You almost didn’t play in the Super Bowl after spraining your MCL during a fall in a hotel shower. In your book, you mention crying four days before the game after being told you likely wouldn’t play.

Burress: Yeah, I was very scared. I didn’t think I was going to be able to play. I remember I didn’t run for a week and a half before that. I didn’t know how it was going to feel on Sunday. They gave me some medicine to numb it up but the medicine wasn’t working too good because I was still hurting. The first time [it hurt] was during the warm-ups before the game. It was painful and frustrating because I wasn’t able to do the things I wanted to do, because I was hurting so bad, but I kept telling myself, “If there’s one game I can play with a lot of pain it has to be this one.” I found it in myself to somehow perform. I was just so frustrated that whole game — I don’t remember talking to anyone because I was in so much pain coming off the field and going to the sideline. I was hurting so bad that I just wanted to play one or two plays. I didn’t really think I would play the whole game.

SI: There’s some stuff in the book that’s going to come back at you during the season, especially the weeks you play the Cowboys. You wrote: “The Cowboys don’t talk a lot of trash. They don’t want to get me riled up. You know, their secondary is not that good anyway. Terrence Newman is a good player and I like Kenny Hamlin. But outside of them, there’s not much.” Any concerns?

Burress: Not at all. I’m a very honest person and when I look in the mirror and be honest with myself it’s easy to tell the truth and tell the things that you see. I didn’t have any problem writing or saying anything that was in the book.

SI: The hardest thing for a champion to do is repeat; especially in the NFL where lately we’ve seen Super Bowl teams not even make it to the playoffs the year after a title. What’s your mindset going into this season?

Burress: I want to win another just as bad. When you get one, you want to do it again. That’s what we play for, and when you put that ring on, it’s a daily reminder of all the hard work you put in to get to that point. I think we’re going to be better than we were last year, and I expect us to win it again.

Training Camp is only days away so it seems like Burress won the battle against the Giants. I expected that all along because the Giants couldn’t have made an example of Plaxico and Shockey at the same time. They wouldn’t have any playmakers left if they did that so I figured that they would’ve given into Burress and gotten rid of Shockey. However, it seems like the Jints caved into both players at this point in time.

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About a week ago, Plaxico Burress stopped by the Sirius NFL radio studios in Manhattan which was part of the tour to promote his book. When he was there, he noticed that there was a New England Patriots dynasty recliner inside the control room. So Burress signed the chair, right over the Pats logo. He wrote “Plaxico Burress, #17, XLII CHAMPS!” Way to go Plax. Not quite sure why there is a Patriots chair in Manhattan. Maybe it’s reserved for when Tom Brady comes to town for an interview. Next time, Brady will get to see the signature of the man who caught the winning catch in the Super Bowl. By the way, Ralph Vacchiano of The Blue Screen included a picture of the chair.

Mike Garafolo of The Star-Ledger offered his thoughts on Plaxico’s new book if you haven’t read it yet and want to know what others think about it.

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SportingNews.com has been busy ranking players:

The first article is titled, Ranking the top 25 NFL wide receivers. Only Plaxico Burress of the G-MEN made the list at No. 9. Here is what they had to say about Burress, “What Burress did last season despite struggling through a myriad of injuries is nothing short of remarkable. Blessed with unbelievable skills and physical tools, he is definitely a top-10 receiver when his head is on straight.” It seems about right when you look at the players on the list ahead of him.

The second article is titled, Ranking the top 20 NFL tight ends. Only Jeremy Shockey made the list at No. 5, and they wrote, “Shockey’s greatest weaknesses are his head and his mouth. If he would just stop complaining long enough, he would be recognized for the outstanding receiving threat he is. He is also a better blocker than most think — he just doesn’t like to block.” It seems about right, but I never saw Kellen Winslow of the Browns play. Winslow is hogging the No. 3 spot so I’m not sure if he deserves it or not.

Last, Clifton Brown made his NFC predictions. Brown has the ‘Girls winning the NFC East with a 13-3 record, but he has the Giants with a 13-3 record but making the Playoffs as a Wild Card. Brown made all of his NFC picks in the article, plus who’s beating who in the Playoffs, and he has the Chargers winning the Super Bowl over the Cowboys.

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Over at ESPN.com, John Clayton noted that Plaxico Burress‘ new contract will most likely be an extension of one or two years.

The reason Plaxico Burress is optimistic about a new contract before the start of camp because the deal will be good for both sides. The Giants can extend his contract a year or two, potentially making him more committed to the team’s offseason program. In return, Burress can collect a nice signing bonus and more money.

From everything I’ve heard about Plax, it seems like the situation will be resolved by the time training camp begins.

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Plaxico Burress talks about golf carts and fishing on ESPN’s First Take.

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Keith Kidd of Scouts Inc. ranked the Wide Receiving Corps for all NFL teams. The New York Football Giants ended up being No. 11 on the list. Here’s Kidd’s analysis…

Plaxico Burress was dominant last season despite struggling with injuries. Burress is a huge, athletic receiver with long arms and physical play strength. He has good hands, can out-jump defenders downfield and is valuable in the red zone. Amani Toomer is a solid possession receiver with outstanding experience. He is a good route-runner with good catching skills and can be effective in the short and intermediate areas. Steve Smith displayed good receiving skills late in 2007 after dealing with injuries throughout his rookie season. Sinorice Moss has been disappointing in his development but David Tyree was amazing in the Super Bowl. Tyree is a solid No. 4/5 receiver with tremendous value on special teams coverage units. Incoming rookie Mario Manningham could be a steal as a third-round pick, depending on how he matures and learns the Giants’ complicated offense.

I consider that to be one of the most accurate analyses that I’ve read in a while.

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This morning, Plaxico Burress joined Boomer and Carton of WFAN to talk about his contract dispute with the Giants and his new book where he reveals just how hurt he was at the Super Bowl. Boomer asks Plax how he met his wife which was pretty funny. To hear the interview in its entirety, click here.

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