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
The world famous potpourri of all things Giants, some direct, some indirect, some pertinent, others impertinent-- just the right mix to get back to business after the bye week.

For the remainder of the season, the Giants will wear number 79 decals on the back of their helmets in honor of the late Rosey Brown, who died last summer. ... He was the best offensive tackle the team ever had and one of the best in the history of the NFL. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1975. Incidentally, his Hall of Fame ring was the largest ever ordered.

Wearing his number as a helmet decal brings to mind the not-so-warm story of the NFL versus Jake Plummer, quarterback of the Denver Broncos. He asked for permission to wear the number 40 decal on his helmet in tribute to his friend and teammate, Pat Tillman, who was killed in action in Afghanistan last spring. The NFL said that he could not, since he wasn't on the same team when Tillman died. What nonsense! Plummer and Tillman were college roommates and teammates at Arizona State and later were teammates with the Arizona Cardinals. Tillman left a multi-million dollar contract to join the U.S. Army after 9/11, and when he was shot he was a member of the elite Army Rangers.

What possible harm could it do to let him honor his friend? It isn't like the NFL allows such names and logo identifications as Nike and Reebok and the like on its jerseys and football shows, you know. Oh, it is allowed? Well, maybe Plummer needs to pay a ton of money and then he'll be allowed to wear the number 40 in gigantic enlargement.

The Giants play Detroit on Sunday, their first encounter since Nov. 19, 2000. How many remember the importance of that game? It was a blowout, of course. The Lions rolled to a 28-0 lead and coasted in with a 31-21 decision. The fact that they were lousy that year (well, relatively lousy at 9-7) wasn't lost on the Giants' head coach, Jim Fassel, who knew his team had more to give.
So the defeat, which also resulted in the firing of Bashir Livingston, a return specialist, gave birth to the famous "Guarantee Speech," when the following Wednesday Fassel publicly announced that the Giants would win their final four games, make the playoffs, will all the playoff games they had to win and get to the Super Bowl. He guaranteed it.

You'll remember, of course, that it all happened just as the guarantee predicted.

The Giants recently signed an undrafted rookie running back, the 5-11, 233-pound Derrick Ward from tiny Ottawa College in Kansas, and no, fellas, he isn't a fullback. He's a halfback, the kind head coach Tom Coughlin wants to run inside with power, just the way he had envisioned it for Ron Dayne but hasn't been able to get the former first round pick to achieve that bit of expertise. He also signed another running back a few weeks ago, Michael Cloud, and it is beginning to look as though TC is auditioning for the position rather than trying to scare Dayne into doing something he clearly cannot do.

How about we play with some numbers? Tiki Barber has gained 577 yards in 96 carries through five games. That's 115 per game and 1,846 for the season, which would blow away the 1,516 all-time team single season record (1986, Joe Morris). It would also be more than 500 yards higher than Tiki's personal single season high of 1,387. Quarterback Kurt Warner (hey, how's Kerry Collins doing in Oakland?) has completed 95 of 147 passes (that's 64.6 percent) for 1,125 yards, three touchdowns and just one interception. This all combines to give him a 91.8 NFL QB Rating number, pretty hefty for a guy who was discarded by the St. Louis Rams because he was done.

Last season the Giants had 10 interceptions in 16 games (yet another reason why they were terminally lousy) and this year, in five games, they already have 10 picks. Three guys lead with two apiece -- cornerback Will Peterson, free safety Brent Alexander and rookie strong safety Gibril Wilson. Wide receiver Amani Toomer had 24 catches for 321 yards; tight end Jeremy Shockey, in addition to becoming a devastating blocker, has caught 24 passes for 234 yards and two touchdowns. In fact, he has had five receptions in each of the last three games.

The Lions will come into Giants Stadium with quarterback Joey Harrington, the second player picked in the 2002 draft immediately behind Houston Texans' quarterback David Carr. This is the first season that Harrington has looked the part of such a high draft pick, giving additional credence to the theory that it takes two to three years for a quarterback to absorb it all while other positional players (i.e., running back, defensive linemen, wide receivers) can step out of a college uniform into an NFL uniform and not even miss a beat). What does that say to Eli Manning? Probably the same future, unless Warner takes a hike after this season is done. He can, you know, and it will be of intense interest to see how the Giants squirm on that hot plate.

Someone asked defensive coordinator Tim Lewis (during the bye week, on the day allotted, of course) whether blitzing has become more of a defensive trend in the NFL lately. ... His response? ... "Pressure is never a bad thing." ... Golly, he has all the makings of as witty and incisive a conversationalist as his boss.

Nice outcome on Sunday with Dallas and Seattle losing. Kind of tightens up both the Giants' division and the conference in general, you know?

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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