E-GIANTS
Dave Klein was the Giants' beat writer
for The Star-Ledger from 1961 to 1995.
He is the author of 26 books and he is one of
only five sportswriters to have covered all the Super Bowls.
Dave has allowed TEAM GIANTS to reprint some of his articles.

By DAVE KLEIN
With the hunting season open for NFL free agents beginning March 2, which isn't as far off as you may think, the Giants are making plans to establish a source of talent which would otherwise be available to them high in the draft.

They don't have a first round pick, you see, and this spring it would have been the 12th overall selection.

So to make up for that they must sign a few studs and general manager Ernie Accorsi has assured one and all that the Giants will have sufficient money under the salary cap to deal with the needs and wants of head coach Thomas Richard Coughlin.Despite the fact that the unusual amount of injuries cost the team roughly $4.5 million during the season chasing after and signing free agents -- you thought this was an inexpensive hobby, perhaps? -- there will be enough money around.

How they spend it is another matter. In past seasons, their free agent forays haven't been exactly fruitful, but on the other hand it hasn't been as woeful as most fans perceive. So off they go, armed with money and those suave folks who convince players to sign with them, earnestly in search of things like left offensive tackles and experienced fast wide receivers and an experienced backup quarterback and a few other items too numerous to mention.

But there is a caveat that must be addressed, and its name is Coughlin.

The idea is this: Players around the league talk to each other. Many have played together on other NFL teams. Many were college teammates -- academic accomplices, if you will. Once the season is over they play golf together and they go hunting together and they go fishing together and whatever else guys do who have no concern about money and at the same time have plenty of free time on their hands.

And you know what? Billy Joe is going to ask Donny Bill how it is to work for Coughlin and the moaning will begin. The horror stories and the endearing little anecdotes and the confirmation of that famous scenario in which being on time is being late and being early is being on time and being way too early can constitute a fine anyway.

There are lots of guys who won't want to deal with this. After all, it isn't like the Giants are just returning from a Super Bowl victory. They were 6-10, which followed an even worse (4-12, remember?) season and unless you deal in tea leaves and tarot cards, there is no reason to expect that they will be anything but slightly improved in 2005

. Money is money. If one team doesn't convince you, another one will. If you don't like the sound of the screaming coming from one training camp, you might like the sound of the laughter coming from another training camp. Remember, to a large extent, the pro football players run the game, not quite as iron-fisted as the Major League Baseball guys but close enough.

They got Coughlin on charges of working them too hard in June, of all things, and he lost a day of "group activity," which to this man was like cutting off a few fingers. Players who would very much like a multi-million dollar contract are generally confident they can get it from two or three different teams, or more, and why ask for agony if it isn't necessary.

So when the veterans on the roster, who are locked in and unable to leave unless they decide not to play football any more, are asked to "recruit" certain Unrestricted Free Agents, what are they going to tell them when they get asked pointed questions? In the past, a guy like Jesse Armstead recruited his old college buddy Mike Barrow. Then it was Barrow's turn to convince Kenny Holmes that the Giants would be his best bet.

It happens like that all around the league, and Accorsi and other upper management must be aware that many of the veterans, under promise of anonymity, are going to "tell it like it is" when some blue-ribbon stud asks them how it really is to play for Coughlin.

It could be a problem, and it is the kind of problem the Giants neither need nor seem able to avoid.

E-GIANTS FAN FORUM -- The residue is still settling after the final game victory over Dallas, the Sunday night 28-24 thriller which thrilled far fewer viewers than the ESPN folks would have wanted. Strangely, most of the fans were uplifted, and now stride into the unknown of this off-season with heads high and hopes even higher.

Listen to Scott L., for instance -- "A couple of observations for your consideration. We have gone from having very little we could count on in the interior of our offensive line to somewhat of a crowded field of talent. If you assume Rich Seubert will be back next year, which everything I have read would indicate, and remember that he was our best lineman before his injury, you are looking at Chris Snee, Seubert, David Diehl, Jason Whittle, Shaun O'Hara, Barry Stokes and Wayne Lucier at the three interior positions [clearly, he means the two guards and the center]. Snee has All Pro potential and must play. Diehl seemed very good as a guard in his rookie season. Seubert was emerging as a stud. If you move Snee to center, it is possible to get all three into the starting lineup, which means benching O'Hara and Whittle.

"Then you move Luke Petitgout back to right tackle and go get the stud you have been calling for at left tackle. A line of New Stud, Seubert, Snee, Diehl and Petitgout would be light years ahead of the line we finished with at the end of 2003.

"Also, has there ever been a more embarrassing, naive, misplaced comment by a Giants' head coach than Coughlin's sneer at the injury situation under Jim Fassel being a "cancer in the locker room" and more about attitude than anything else? Now, one year later and after a far worse injury year, how foolish he must feel about that asinine comment. If it was a cancer under Fassel, it must be an "Ebola" under Coughlin, based on the hard facts."

Come on now, Scott. You're going to have to learn to say what you mean. You know, just say it straight out.

Check out Dave's website at E-GIANTS where you can subscribe to his newsletters which run much more frequently than what is available here.
- Team Giants

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