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 four sportswriters to have covered all the Super Bowls.
Dave has allowed TEAM GIANTS to reprint some of his articles.

PEPPERS, DANSBY ABOUT TO BECOME FREE AGENTS;
GIANTS ADD GILBRIDE JR TO THE COACHING STAFF

By Dave Klein
Around the league and around the team, rumblings always signal news not quite yet breaking.

For instance: The Carolina Panthers are going to let defensive end Julius Peppers walk off into the sunset, meaning that on March 5 he will be eligible to sign with any of the other 31 teams.

That is being kind, of course. The All-World sack artist, who is 6-6 and 290 is either too fast to be that big or too big to be that fast, is going to try to get himself on a championship roster so that he and his Super Bowl ring can warm each other when retirement arrives.

This means you may eliminate probably 20 of the 31 teams, but the fact remains that the Giants would still be one of his preferences. In fact, his head coach in Carolina, John Fox, was once the Giants' offensive coordinator and has spoken favorably about the team and its organization.

Oh, what's that? The Giants don't need a defensive end. Wrong again. If Peppers decided he wanted to play here, and if the team decided (in this soon-to-be uncapped year) that it would agree to put up astronomical numbers on a contract, it is a safe bet that they'd find a place for him.

And my, oh, my, wouldn't that annoy the hell out of Osi Umenyiora?

At the count of three, you may start drooling about a front four of Justin Tuck, Peppers, Barry Cofield and Chris Canty.

And if the team loses its fiscal sanity and wants to find a quick fix for the sudden absence of middle linebacker Antonio Pierce (and the absence of a reliable replacement) additional millions might be poured into the Karlos Dansby fund in an effort to sign the Arizona Cardinals' Unrestricted Free Agent.

So let's see, the dream now includes Peppers at defensive end and Dansby at middle linebacker with healthy and healed defensive players all around them and Osi sitting on the bench sobbing hysterically.

San Diego seems intent on trading Pro Bowl cornerback Antonio Cromartie, and while the Giants don't actually need someone expensive at that position, it might be nice - and a warm touch - to make sure the defense doesn't have to do without another Antonio this season, you know?

CLOSER TO HOME -- Reports on the progress of rookie Andre Brown, the running back who electrified training camp last summer before suffering a ruptured Achilles tendon, are highly positive. He is said to be running well, working out daily and all that remains is to see if he can plant on the bad leg and push off with power and speed. ... Assuming the fourth-round pick makes it back, the Giants' running game might be solid. ... On the other hand, most medical folks tell you that an Achilles rupture, much like surgically repaired knees, could take as long as a full year before reaching 100 percent.

For the record, March 5 begins the "new calendar year" for the NFL, which means that is the first day teams can begin wooing the veteran free agents. ... With no Collective Bargaining Agreement in place, some of the rules have change ... For instance, a player with four years of experience was automatically a Restricted Free Agent, but this year, and for as long as there is no CBA in place, that becomes a six-year burden. ... So of all the Giants currently without contracts, only four are of the true UFA category - punter Jeff Feagles, defensive tackle Fred Robbins, quarterback David Carr and linebacker Danny Clark. ...It might be safe to assume that none of them will receive juicy new contracts. Well, maybe Feagles.

That leaves 11 players without contracts who will fall into the wider boundaries of Restricted Free Agents, all of whom can be kept with a "tender" offer. ... But since the tender offers guarantee a fixed salary for one year, and since the range is fairly expensive, you might not see many (or any) of them back. ...The full list includes guard-tackle Kevin Boothe, tackle Guy Whimper, safety C.C. Brown, defensive tackle Barry Cofield, defensive end Dave Tollefson, wide receivers Sinorice Moss, Domenik Hixon and Derek Hagan, cornerback Kevin Dockery, tight end Darcy Johnson and linebacker Gerris Wilkinson.

The Giants appear to be on the verge of signing up for a 15th consecutive summer training camp on the campus of UAlbany in upstate New York despite the presence of their multi-million dollar training facility in East Rutherford, N.J. ... Oh, well, go figure.

The Giants have announced the signing of Kevin Gilbride Jr., 30, as their new offensive quality control assistant coach. ... He replaces Sean Ryan, who became the team's wide receivers coach last week to fill the vacancy created when Mike Sullivan played musical chairs and turned into the quarterbacks coach. ...Gilbride is, obviously, the son of the Giants' offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride Sr., and he spent the last three years as the wide receivers coach at Temple University.

For those of you with a longer background with the Giants than most fans, it should be pointed out that a few former players have passed on. ... They include defensive tackle Mike Bundra (he was 70) and quarterback Randy Johnson (he was 65). ... Bundra was a starting tackle on what was arguably one of the worst teams the Giants ever put on the field (1965). .. The tackle starting next to him was Roger LaLonde, and one Monday morning, when the head coach was Allie Sherman and he allowed the beat writers to sit with him at a Manhattan hotel for his first viewing of the game film of the previous day, he stopped the projector and yelled: "What the hell is Bundra doing?" ... Someone offered this: "Making the best of insufficient talent?" (Information on the two deaths are courtesy of the Professional Football Researchers Association.)

Sherman loved that.

The agreement, incidentally, was that he would let us watch the films, would explain things (I learned a lot about football in those years) and the only condition is that we could not write what he said if it was negative, and in those seasons there wasn't much positive. When Sherman left, his replacement was Alex Webster and he allowed us to do the same.

Then Bill Arnsparger was hired to replace Big Red, and when someone approached him and told him what had been going on and would he agree to the same procedure, he fixed the guy with a cold, cold stare and said: "Are you out of your mind?"

Things changed considerably after that.

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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