Sept 15 Eli Manning practiced Friday, taking about half of the snaps against the defense's first unit. According to a few observers and participants, Manning looked like his old self. Which means that despite coach Tom Coughlin's guarded approach on whether his starting quarterback's injured throwing shoulder will be ready, most everyone around the team believes that Manning will start when the Giants host the Packers Sunday.
Manning, who doesn't speak to the media on Fridays, made about 15 throws during the first half-hour of practice, while the media was allowed to watch. He started by lofting some 15- and 20-yard balls to receivers in some basic route-running drills, before eventually making some harder throws. Some were off-target, behind the receiver and such, which would indicate his timing was rusty after not practicing the previous two days. According to Lorenzen, during the part of practice that was closed to the media, Manning took about half the snaps in all of the drills. "He threw some good balls, and, you know, I think he can go out there and play," Lorenzen said.
Jared Lorenzen, Manning's backup but the primary passer this week in practice because of Manning's bruised shoulder joint, said he and Manning split time Friday, representing Manning's first action since Sunday's opening loss to Dallas when he was injured. "It was awesome to see him out there," Lorenzen said. "He probably took about half of [the snaps] in every session we had. He threw some good balls. I think he can go out there and play."
If Manning is relatively pain-free when the Giants hold their walk-through at the stadium today and doesn't have a setback before game time tomorrow, the Giants are ready to let him start. How much he plays would depend on how his shoulder feels and if he's able to avoid taking any direct hits. Just the fact there's a chance he's going to play is impressive since, according to once source close to Manning, he initially was told that his second-degree sprain came with a normal recovery time of three to four weeks. He was also told he could play much sooner if his shoulder felt OK and his pain tolerance was high.

No matter how Manning's availability works out, be it as a starter, a backup, or standing on the sideline in street clothes, the 0-1 Giants are going to need a solid running game to create openings in the passing game. Derrick Ward, making his first career start, needs as good a performance as his 89-yard, 13-carry night against Dallas. "He'll be ready," Jacobs said. "He'd better be. Why not? He looked good last Sunday." Ward wouldn't argue with the man he calls "my little big brother" because of the 264-pound Jacobs' size. Not that Ward can't hold his own. He may have the height of a Tiki Barber at 5-foot-11, but his frame is a sturdy 228 pounds. He can't wait to show that off tomorrow. "This is four years in the making," Ward said. "Me, Reuben Droughns and Ahmad Bradshaw will share the carries as Brandon Jacobs looks on."

Tom Coughlin remained tight-lipped on Osi Umenyiora's recovery. Even Osi Umenyiora was tight-lipped on Osi Umenyiora's recovery. But Michael Strahan was more than willing to provide a window into the defensive end's road back. "I did notice that (Osi practicing), because he won't let himself go unnoticed," Strahan said. "You know why I notice that? Because he said to me, 'It's a miracle that I'm out here today.' He thinks he's a miracle maker, so I don't know." Strahan didn't give a yes or no as to whether Umenyiora will play, but all signs seem to point to a game- time decision.

Michael Strahan reminded the media he's just as quick to rip into a male reporter as a female, yesterday, when he took umbrage over being asked whether he'd find it ironic to break Lawrence Taylor's Giants sack record against Brett Favre, whose Packers come to Giants Stadium tomorrow. "How did I know six years later an idiot like you would ask me that question?" the touchy defensive end snapped at MSG's Anthony Fucilli. "I'd expect nothing less from you. And yes, I called you an idiot. You know better. I've known you how long? It's six years. You had hair six years ago."

Sept 14 In separate conversations about a half hour apart, Jared Lorenzen and offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride issued the same answers to the only questions asked here all week. No, they didn't know if Eli Manning could play Sunday, and, no, they have no indication as to how much progress, if any, the Giants quarterback has made with what has become the most famous shoulder in New York.
"Jared will be fine," Eli Manning insisted when asked what happens if he can't make the game. "He knows what he is doing. He has been here long enough. But we will see how it goes on Sunday. "Jared and I always meet after practice and watch film together and go over the plan and just our thoughts on different things. So it stays the same way. I told him, 'Hey, I'm here, let's keep our same schedule going, keep our same routine. If you have questions, we'll watch practice and go over certain things.'

Eli Manning didn't practice or take snaps or test his injured right shoulder yesterday, still listed as day to day and possibly a game-day decision for Sunday against the Packers. If he can't play, Jared Lorenzen will - the 6-foot-4, 285-pound lefty known as "J-Load" getting his first NFL start. "You just wait and see how he feels," Lorenzen said of Manning.
"This is his deal. If he can play at all, I firmly believe he's going to get out there. He's one of the toughest guys I know. "I told him, 'If you know, I'd like to know something.' He said, 'I'll tell you when I know.' " Coach Tom Coughlin said he doesn't have to determine a starter until 90 minutes before kickoff - and could take all of that time.

As backup Jared Lorenzen continues his crash course on the Packers, Manning works only on the side, doing what offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride calls "light throwing" and making one think that such an early return may be a bit too ambitious. Whether he can make "all the throws" is going to be difficult to determine if Manning doesn't practice. As Gilbride said yesterday, "It's really going to come down to how sore it is, how much strength he has and not only 'can he make the throws?' but 'can he withstand the potential contact?'" Tom Coughlin said the decision could come down to Sunday, and Manning, who says he has no pain in his AC joint other than stiffness, seemed to indicate he'll have the major part in making it.

Jared Lorenzen said he's tried to pattern himself after the Green Bay legend, "out there gun-slinging, throwing the ball, and making plays - that is what I want to be, that is what I want to do, and if I could have half the career he did, that is incredible. He has won a Super Bowl and a whole bunch of MVPs, so it is a definite mystique to play against them. But you are playing against their defense, not Brett Favre." Favre said it's "not surprising" that Lorenzen grew up idolizing him.
"I am flattered, but I have a lot of guys on our team here that call me 'sir.'" Favre said. "I actually watched the kid play some at Kentucky. I love to watch college football. Of course his size has been, more than his talent, the topic of conversation. I thought he was a fine football player."

Tom Coughlin was questioned about Jared Lorenzen, who might start at quarterback Sunday. He did not report to training camp in 2004 and sat out the season. Coughlin called him the following spring and asked him to come back and try again. Why did he do that? A lot of coaches probably would have just said, 'The guy didn't show up, he doesn't want to play, we are going to move on.' Coughlin gave him another chance.
Coughlin replied, "I had some pretty strong feelings about why he didn't come back (after the spring camps). And I wanted to give him the opportunity - people certainly are worthy of a second chance. There are maturity issues, there are all kinds of misunderstandings coming into the program, especially as he did. And then as heavily-written about as he is - speculated about as he is - I wanted to give him the opportunity to come in here and tell me what the issue was. Did he want to play or didn't he want to play and was he willing to commit himself to the offseason program and to do the things that I wanted him to do, including some weight loss? And he did that and he certainly improved in all areas."

Jeremy Shockey said the loss of running back Brandon Jacobs - and perhaps Eli Manning - can't be an excuse to derail what he believes should still be a potent Giant offense. "There is a definite sense of urgency," the tight end said. "Everyone is working real hard this week and is real excited about playing. We're as good as we want to be. I always say that we work hard and we got all the talent in this room to be a great offense."
How boring was Shockey? Someone asked him about the biggest challenge facing the Green Bay defense and this is all they got: "They're a very good defense up front," he said. "Their defensive line is very good. We have a lot of respect for these guys, and they're a good football team. We just have to know our personnel, who you're going against, very well, because they do some things that we're not used to."

He doesn't have tattoos all over the place or bulging biceps like Jeremy Shockey does, and we don't see him chinstrap to chinstrap with snarling defenders the way Phil Simms used to be with Ronnie Lott and the late Reggie White, and we have yet to hear him tell the trainer, "If you take me out, I'll kill you," and then pack mud up his nose to stanch the bleeding like Johnny Unitas did once.
But the way Eli Manning fights now to be there for his battered team and his 0-1 teammates Sunday at 1 against the Packers, the way he admirably shoulders the burden of the franchise quarterback, ought to be enough even for New York to understand that you cannot tell this skinny, stoic book by its cover. "I'm not trying to prove a point or show any toughness," Eli told The Post yesterday. "I'm just trying to get ready to play a game." I said to him: "So people shouldn't count you out?" Eli Manning said: "I wouldn't."

Although the Giants' quarterback situation for Sunday is undetermined, there is no uncertainty about to whom the quarterback of choice will be handing off. Derrick Ward replaced the injured Brandon Jacobs last week at Dallas and led the Giants with 89 yards on 13 carries. He added four catches for 27 yards and a TD and will start for Jacobs, who is expected to miss three to five weeks with a sprained medial collateral ligament in his right knee.

What happened to that attacking defense we thought we were getting when Spagnuolo came over from the Eagles? Will we see it Sunday against Green Bay? Don't count on it. With Brett Favre and the Packers in town, we're about to find out whether the Giants defense is that bad or whether the Dallas offense and Tony Romo are that good. Romo is what Favre used to be - a gunslinger who likes to move out of the pocket and find the open guy. Favre still moves, but not as fast as he used to. And he tends to make more mistakes now when he's on the run. And he may even let Michael Strahan sack him once or twice. The Giants' defensive players don't downplay Favre's current abilities or the weapons around him.

The late, unlamented Giants of 2006 are on pace to shatter the record for most books to come out of an 8-8 season. So far the list includes one by a fan (Roger Director's "I Dream in Blue"), one about a general manager ("The GM," featuring Ernie Accorsi) and one by a player ("Tiki," by, well, you know.) Next month another is set to hit shelves, by Michael Strahan. Maybe Stray will be nice to Tom Coughlin, because one thing all three books so far have in common is they take shots at the beleaguered coach. (All three are nice to Tiki. Hmm.) The Accorsi and Barber books generated headlines recently, but are they worth your time and money?

Former Giants
DE George Martin was at Giants Stadium on Thursday in preparation for his walk across the country to raise money for 9/11 first responders. Martin, 54, hopes to raise $10 million during his walk, which will start at the George Washington Bridge on Sunday and is scheduled to end at the Golden Gate Bridge in mid-December. Martin said he welcomes the time he'll spend in the vastness of mid-America. "It will give me a chance to do a lot of thinking about my past, where I've been, as well as my future," he said.

Stadium News
A Lot Better? - LYNDHURST -- The township will provide more than 4,000 parking spaces for Giants and Jets fans until 2010 and, in return, will be able to raise money for its schools by selling food and non-alcoholic drinks in the satellite lots. Refreshments such as bottled water, soft drinks and sandwiches are expected to be sold. There will be no beer, he said. Tailgating will still not be permitted. DiLascio said the vendors could be up and running by the Sept. 23 game between the Jets and Miami Dolphins.

Sept 13 Eli Manning took his injured right shoulder out for a test drive yesterday, and Tom Coughlin insisted he's "encouraged" by his quarterback's progress. But his status for Sunday's home opener remains uncertain. And the mystery surrounding him grows deeper every day. While the Giants continue to say Manning is "day-to-day," a source who has spoken with Manning and is familiar with the team doctors' diagnosis told the Daily News that Manning was initially told by Dr. Russell Warren, the team physician, that his recovery time would be 3-4 weeks.
Eli Manning is in denial. "He refuses to even think he is hurt," Tom Coughlin said yesterday. If mind over matter counts for anything, Manning will make his 43rd consecutive start Sunday, lining up at quarterback for the Giants against the Packers at Giants Stadium. He is preparing to play, though he hasn't cranked up his arm to see if his injured right shoulder can withstand the pain.

Jared Lorenzen didn't sound like a man who expects to play this Sunday when the Giants host Green Bay in their home opener. Still, the third-year quarterback is working harder than ever to make certain that he'll be ready if he does get the call to step in for an injured Eli Manning. "If I were a betting man, I'd say he's going to play," Lorenzen said yesterday. "He's a tough guy. He showed a lot of grit out there last week getting in there (after he was injured), throwing 4-for-4 and throwing a touchdown. So if there's any possibility of him playing, he's going to be out there."

The question about quarterback Eli Manning's health and ability to play this Sunday in the home opener against Green Bay has raised, obviously, many questions. Are the Giants loathe to sit him on the bench because they are insecure about their backup situation (Jared Lorenzen will purportedly start, and Anthony Wright is the third-stringer)? Are they managing news so as not to give the Packers a firm idea as to which quarterback they might actually see taking snaps?
Is Manning's shoulder really hurt? Is it separated? Is it dislocated? Or is it, as the team insists, merely a contusion (a bruise) on the top of the right shoulder at the A/C joint? The bottom line is that the team is upset with the ESPN network, as well as a few others, for coming out with unsupported news Monday afternoon, after the team's 45-35 loss to Dallas on Sunday night, that Manning was going to miss four to six weeks and, possibly, the entire season.

Eli Manning has a streak of 40 straight starts, the fourth-longest in the NFL. His brother, Peyton, has started 145 straight games and is second to Brett Favre, who brings his NFL-record 238 consecutive starts to Giants Stadium with the Packers on Sunday. "It sounds like he won't play, but who knows?" Favre said during a conference call Wednesday.
"There have been a lot of times when it sounded like I wouldn't play. Didn't he throw a touchdown after [the injury] happened? That is impressive. That is very impressive." Plaxico Burress said the Giants are approaching Sunday's game as if Manning won't play. Coughlin said he doesn't necessarily feel Manning has to practice this week in order to play.

While Eli Manning's injury is garnering nearly all of the injury attention on the offensive side of the football, the Giants have just as big of a question mark on the defensive side, where the status of Osi Umenyiora's left knee is still up in the air. While he would not give an update as to whether he will play Sunday, he did stress that he is not the type of person who can play a game after a week of not practicing. Umenyiora also said he believes that the turf at Texas Stadium is the reason he injured his knee. "I think if it had happened on grass, my cleat would have broke off or slipped," he said. "But the fact that it's that sticky turf, it just stuck in there. That turf is bad."
Umenyiora did not make it out of the first defensive series of the season, as he went down with what the Giants are describing as an irritation to the lateral meniscus in his left knee. He's listed as day-to-day but has no legitimate chance to play on Sunday against the Packers. Initial reports from outside the organization stated he'd be out at least a month. Another injured starter, RB Brandon Jacobs, has a sprained medial collateral ligament of his right knee. He vowed to return sooner than the 3-5 week prognosis.

Tiki Barber might be persona non grata around much of the Giants organization, but he still serves as a welcome and motivating voice for Derrick Ward, who said yesterday he hopes to become the next Tiki Barber. Brandon Jacobs, who was walking around the Giants locker room yesterday without the aid of crutches, could be out from 4 to 6 weeks with a sprained right knee ligament suffered in the first quarter of Sunday night's loss at Dallas. Ward, who had just 35-career rushing attempts before Sunday night and zero carries in 2006, took over for Jacobs and ran for 89 yards on 13 carries in the Giants 45-35 loss. It was the first time someone other than Barber led the Giants in rushing since the final game of the 2001 season.

Sept 12 Eli Manning could miss Sunday's game against the Packers with a bruised shoulder. Osi Umenyiora and Brandon Jacobs will definitely be out of the lineup due to knee injuries. What's left for the Giants? A decidedly mixed bag of backups and a potential conversion of a convert - a reconversion, one might say - who must step up. For Jared Lorenzen, that would mean a first career start coming a week after he threw his first career pass and made his first career completion in the Giants' 45-35 loss to the Cowboys.
Lorenzen came into the game following Manning's final touchdown pass to Plaxico Burress and finished up as Manning's shoulder tightened up. "J-Load" finished 1 of 3 for 7 yards and ran for 2 yards. Anthony Wright is the third-string backup and has extensive starting experience. But coach Tom Coughlin appeared committed to Lorenzen if Manning can't go.

If he can't make it this week, the Giants are confident Manning will return Sept. 23 to face the Redskins in Washington. Perhaps believing the Giants are looking for help, the Buccaneers, according to reports, have contacted the Giants to guage any interest they might have in Chris Simms, son of Phil.
DT William Joseph was placed on season-ending injured reserve with what the Giants are calling a back injury. Soon enough, they will come to an injury settlement with Joseph and his Giants career will be over. Joseph never came close to living up to his five-year, $6.95 million contract. The Giants needed to make room on the roster for veteran DT Russell Davis, who was signed Monday.

If Manning's performance Sunday night in Dallas after he injured his shoulder is any indication, his pain tolerance is high. Manning said he hurt the shoulder on a failed two-point conversion with 7:20 left in the Giants' 45-35 loss when he was thrown to the ground by Cowboys rookie linebacker Anthony Spencer. Two plays later, Giants safety Gibril Wilson intercepted a pass, and Manning trotted right back on the field. Despite being in obvious pain, Manning completed four straight passes for 20 yards, including a 10-yard touchdown to Plaxico Burress. "He's tough, man," said backup quarterback Jared Lorenzen, who would start if Manning can't play against Green Bay. "After what he did the other day, right after we got that turnover he went right back in and threw a touchdown? That's pretty impressive."

With a healthy Manning showing the form and maturity he did last weekend in Dallas and merely a semblance of a cohesive defense, the Giants were a good bet to handle the Packers. Substitute Jared Lorenzen for Manning and all bets are off as the Giants stare down the barrel of an inglorious 0-2 start. It did not have to come to this, where the very thought of the backup quarterback taking the field elicits such a shudder and fear of the unknown. For years, the Giants have in effect cancelled their insurance policy when it comes to the quarterback position, entrusting the No. 1 stays upright and the No. 2 stays as far from the huddle as possible.

The Giants had just pulled within three points late in the third quarter after QB Eli Manning shook off a shoulder injury to fire a gorgeous pass for a touchdown to WR Plaxico Burress. Now, the struggling defense had the Cowboys in a third-and-7 with a chance to get the ball back to the offense with just over three minutes to play. Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo had watched Romo pick apart his secondary all night when there was no pressure in his face.
So Spagnuolo tried to create some heat by sending S Gibril Wilson and LB Kawika Mitchell on a blitz off the left side. It almost worked, as Wilson made a leaping attempt to knock the ball down at the line. But when he whiffed and McQuarters was beaten, there was little help deep as Wilson's blitz meant Butler was responsible for the entire middle of the field and was late getting over to make the tackle.

Mathias Kiwanuka is a smart man and a smart football player. If he wasn't, the Giants might not have shifted him from defensive end to linebacker. Or tried to, anyway. Osi Umenyiora's questionable status because of a knee injury means that Tom Coughlin and defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo already may have decided to return Kiwanuka to his original position. If they haven't, they should.
There was enough evidence during the preseason to show that Kiwanuka, 6-5 and 260 pounds, was being asked to make a change he wasn't entirely comfortable with. He zigged when he should have zagged and wrong-footed himself more than a few times, unsure whether to drop into coverage or jump up to stop a run or pursue a quarterback.

Sept 11 If you believe what the Giants are saying, then the results they received Monday from the MRI on Eli Manning's right shoulder brought good news and their quarterback might start Sunday's home opener against Green Bay. If you believe the report from ESPN that Manning has "a slightly separated shoulder" and is expected to miss at least a month, however, then the Giants' season is in jeopardy of being wrecked before they reach October. Giants.com - Injury Report.
The consensus in the organization seemed to be that it had dodged a big bullet yesterday when the MRI on Manning's shoulder showed nothing but a sprained A-C joint. He suffered the injury Sunday night, when he was thrown to the ground by Dallas linebacker Anthony Spencer on a failed two-point conversion in the fourth quarter of the Giants' 45-35 loss. He went back out on the next series and threw his fourth touchdown pass of the game. But after that, his shoulder tightened up and he took himself out of the game.
Never, not in his still-young NFL career, not in college or high school or any junior level of football has Eli Manning ever missed a game because of an injury. That durability streak is in serious danger this week as he looks toward Sunday's home opener against the Packers. Manning, who has started 42 consecutive games, was hurt with 7:20 remaining. If the game had remained a three-point deficit, Manning said he would have tried to go back in and win it. The Giants gave up a quick touchdown on Romo's fourth touchdown pass and Manning decided to sit out the final three minutes.

Manning sustained what the Giants called a contusion of the acromioclavicular joint in his right shoulder and what coach Tom Coughlin called a sprained shoulder. "They have put it in my hands," Manning said of his playing status. "It's how you heal, and when you start to feel good and when you can make the throws. It's not a certain amount of time. It's how long you take to heal. I hope I'm a fast healer."
It's all about Manning's tolerance for the pain, stiffness and soreness. Whenever a righthanded quarterback falls to the turf on his right shoulder, soon followed by a 257-pound linebacker falling on top of him, the fear is days can turn into weeks and weeks can turn into a month or more. But that's not what is expected here. If Manning can't play against the Packers this week, there are strong indications that is all the Giants think he will miss - despite reports that he could be out at least one month, which the team vehemently denies. He is the Giants' only irreplaceable player. The season is gone if he is gone for very long.

If this is the demise of Tom Coughlin, this shoulder injury to Eli Manning, then it will be a most fitting end. On his very first day as Giants coach, Coughlin did not just announce that injuries are a "cancer." He introduced himself as the cure. Yet there was Coughlin at the mike Monday, making a far more credible claim. "I am not a doctor," he said. Funny how a 25-26 record, including an 0-2 mark in the playoffs, can knock a man's bogus medical degrees right off his locker room walls. "It's very ironic," Tiki Barber said by phone. "It's painfully ironic."
The NBC analyst was the running back that January day when Coughlin interrupted his Pattonesque address to the news media to make a flabbergasting claim. Injuries, the coach said, represent "a mental thing, I believe, as much as anything else." Yep, another figment of a soft athlete's imagination. Another country club perk allowed by that West Coast pushover, Jim Fassel. "It's something that has to be corrected," Coughlin said. Three injury-marred seasons and one injury-marred loss to the Cowboys later, Coughlin no longer sounds like the faith healer who was going to make all those wounded Fassels rise out of their hot tubs on his command.

While Eli Manning sweats out his shoulder problem, two other Giants also must deal with significant injuries. An MRI on defensive end Osi Umenyiora's left knee revealed an irritation to the lateral meniscus, an injury that could keep him out a month, though Coughlin has him listed as day-to-day. "We'll see how he responds," Coughlin said, adding no surgery is called for at this point. "He took a blow to the lateral part of the left knee. It's a soreness situation right now. If he responds to the treatment, we'll see how it goes. If he doesn't and he's sore, we have to deal with that as well."
After a person familiar with Umenyiora's left knee injury said yesterday afternoon that Umenyiora could be out up to eight weeks, the Giants said an MRI exam revealed only what they termed "irritation" in Umenyiora's left lateral meniscus, the cartilage on the outside of his knee. Umenyiora was hurt when he tackled running back Julius Jones on Dallas' fifth play from scrimmage. He did not return. "You'd have to say that," Coughlin said when asked if the news on Umenyiora was better than expected. "He'll be evaluated day-by-day." Still, the same person familiar with the injury and testing done yesterday said Umenyiora is more likely to miss a month than be day-to-day.

Officially, he isn't being ruled out of Sunday's game against Green Bay. If it turns out to be a long-term thing, though, coach Tom Coughlin said there is a possibility that linebacker Mathias Kiwanuka could move back to end. "There'll be more discussions in the next day or so," Coughlin said about a potential move for Kiwanuka. "We need to get a handle on where Osi is." Kiwanuka, who was taken in the first round of the 2006 draft as a defensive end out of Boston College (he played the position in all 16 games last season, and started nine), was switched to outside linebacker this season. But he struggled mightily against the Cowboys -- even though Coughlin refused to say so.
"There are some very, very good football players who did not play well," Tom Coughlin said. Included in that characterization is Kiwanuka, who labored to come up with any semblance of coverage against Dallas tight end Jason Witten, who ran alarmingly free all night en route to a six-catch, 116-yard, one touchdown performance. "He had good plays and he had bad plays," Coughlin said of Kiwanuka. "He attacked the ball as good as he's done." Given Kiwanuka's struggles making the transition to linebacker and Umenyiora's injured status, moving Kiwanuka back to defensive end makes sense. If that happens, Kawika Mitchell likely would be moved from the weak side to strong side linebacker and Gerris Wilkinson, who has been sidelined with a knee injury, could move in on the weak side when he's ready to return.

The Giants bolstered their defensive line by signing tackle Russell Davis, a nine-year veteran who has played for Chicago, Arizona and Seattle. Davis, 6-4 and 310 pounds, was most recently with the Seahawks, who released him on Sept. 4. He has played in 104 games with 83 starts and recorded 348 tackles (212 solo), 11.5 sacks, nine passes defensed, three forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries.

The team and the reporters who cover it agree on at least one thing: Brandon Jacobs is out for a few weeks -- likely three or four. The Giants have a backup plan for Jacobs in Derrick Ward, who picked up 116 total yards on Sunday. But any absence by Manning, who in one excellent regular-season game (312 yards, four touchdowns) went from struggling little brother of Peyton to irreplaceable, would be terrible news for an offense that needs to outscore whatever the Giants' defense will give up this season.
For three years, Derrick Ward has toiled near the bottom of the Giants' roster in relative obscurity, overshadowed by other running backs and kick returners on the team. Sunday night he took his first steps out of the shadow. On Sunday, he'll likely take a few more. The 27-year-old Ward is expected to start in place of the injured Brandon Jacobs when the Giants play their home opener against the Green Bay Packers. Ward took over for Jacobs on Sunday night, rushing 13 times for 89 yards and catching four passes for 27 yards and a touchdown in the Giants' 45-35 loss in Dallas. According to his teammates, that was only a small taste of what the former Ottawa (Kan.) University product can do.

Giants report card - Vinny DiTrani | Paul Schwartz

Sept 10 Giants lose to the Cowboys 45-35.

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On The Game: Game 1 Recap Gamegirl... "......The Giants got hit with a bunch of injuries to key players and that's probably what made the difference. Osi Umenyiora was gone in the first quarter and Brandon Jacobs in the second. Kevin Dockery was gone in the third quarter, and Eli Manning in the fourth......." Mikefan.... ".....The Cowboys brought the heat to the Giants in more ways than one. Their offense played hot, and it was hot and humid on the playing field. It was the first game of the season, and both defenses wore down as the game played on. The Giants defense sacked Tony Romo once, but they never got enough pressure on him to matter. Romo only needed 15 completions on his 24 passes to rack up 345 yards....."

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ESPN - Cowboys open Wade era with win over banged-up Giants.
Giants.com - Giants defense gives up too many big plays.
StarLedger - Extra painful defeat.
StarLedger - Madison makes post-injury debut.
Newsday - Giants' Jacobs not as durable as Tiki Barber.
Newsday - With Tiki Barber gone, Giants have no Plan B.
Newsday - Cowboys burn defenseless Giants, 45-35.
Newsday - Osi Umenyiora hurt, as Giants' Strahan plays.
NYDailyNews - Eli Manning and Giants pounded by Cowboys.
NYDailyNews - Eli Manning's injury ruins good performance.
NYDailyNews - Michael Strahan comes in after Osi Umenyiora hurt.
NYPost - 'Big D' A Big pain for Big Blue.
NYPost - Defense truly rests for Giants.
NYPost - Texas trip unlucky for Umenyiora.
TheRecord - Eli, Jacobs, Umenyiora hurt in loss to Cowboys.l
HartfordCourant - Doomed In Dallas.
HartfordCourant - Barber Not So Quick With The Cuts.
JournalNews - Giant QB Manning's night spoiled by injury.
DallasMorningNews - Giants' D a little rusty.
DallasMorningNews - Atrocious D: Cowboys yield points in win.
DallasMorningNews - Romo leads Cowboys to season-opening win.

NFC East News
Eagles lose to Packers, Redskins win on kick - Rookie kicker Mason Crosby's 42-yard field goal with two seconds left gave the Green Bay Packers a 16-13 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles yesterday. Redskins 16, Dolphins 13 (ot): In Landover, Md., Shaun Suisham kicked a 39-yard field goal 5:36 into overtime to spoil the NFL head coaching debut of Miami's Cam Cameron.

Game 1 Giants vs Dallas
Last year the Giants beat Dallas in the first game, and lost in the second. Their wins came in each other's stadiums. Both teams moved on to playoffs last season.
Dallas - Quarterback. Tony Romo messed up in his last game, but he was key in getting the Cowboys into the playoffs. Romo was an undrafted free agent who didn't throw a pass in his first three years in the league. Tony Romo is not the holder this year.
Giants- Quarterback. Eli Manning completed 68.6 percent of his preseason passes for 345 yards, 3 touchdowns and zero interceptions. Eli usually starts strong at the beginning of the season and here we are at the start. His problem - finding someone healthy to throw to who can last the entire game.
Tiki Barber. Gone, but not easily forgotten (for many reasons). In the last three years, Barber averaged 335 carries and 1,680 yards per season. The Cowboys defense won't miss having the Giants all-time leading rusher off the field. They will have to learn to deal with Brandon Jacobs and Rueben Droughns.
Can Coughlin last? Tom Coughlin was under contract before Jerry Reese was installed as the new general manager, and if he disappoints in any way, he could be gone right after this season quicker than you could say "Luke Petitgout".
Your crystal ball. That would be your TV set if you can get the game. With the Giants playing at night, you can watch the Eagles play the Packers at 1PM. The Giants host Green Bay at the stadium next week, and then Philadelphia on Sept 30.

Sept 9 It's been said for almost three years now, since Manning's first start in November 2004: He's turning the corner, becoming more of a leader, being more vocal, feeling more comfortable and is ready to justify the expectations that come with his last name and draft status. So what's to make us believe it this time? As the Giants' season is set to begin tonight against the Cowboys in Texas Stadium, why should we feel confident Manning's fourth consecutive "make-or-break" season will be any different? "It's kind of a gut feeling," wide receiver Amani Toomer said the other day. "I can't really explain it."
Chris Palmer's dream for Eli Manning ends up in some beach house on Cape Cod. "I told him I'd like to see him complete 30 in a row,'' said Palmer, the New York Giants' new quarterbacks coach, who is charged with bringing the fourth-year pro into the NFL's upper crust. "Win the game and complete 30 in a row. That would be it. "I said, 'If you do it, I may retire right after that.' So he might just do it to help me get out.''
It's now or never for Eli Manning, who has to take big strides forward in his accuracy and consistency for the Giants to succeed this season. He has more targets than ever and has been working on shorter throws with a quicker release for much of the preseason, and done it well. As usual, there's nothing behind him. Jared Lorenzen looked tentative in preseason games, holding on to the ball too long despite playing behind a terrible line. Anthony Wright didn't impress much, either.

No matter how many doubters there are, no matter how many outsiders assume that Brandon Jacobs won't be able to fill Barber's cleats, the new No. 1 has full confidence that all the talk will subside once he takes the field Sunday in Dallas. "I'm going to do a good job," Jacobs said. "A lot of things have changed with me as far as the running, the on-the-field stuff goes. But the mental part ... I'm always going to work hard and always feel I'm going to do my best."

Dallas will go without one of its main offensive weapons in Terry Glenn, set back by a reinjuring of his surgically-repaired right knee, and a big defensive threat in Terence Newman. And nobody really knows what the Cowboys are going to get out of Tony Romo following his meteoric rise from nowhere last year. Philadelphia must hold its breath that aging Donovan McNabb stays healthy. And Washington is going with a young quarterback and a banged-up starting tailback in Clinton Portis. So, of course, the Giants have as good a chance as anyone. Hence the early optimism. "Everything's wide open,'' wide receiver Plaxico Burress said. "It's gonna be a fight between all of us, week in and week out. We have a tough schedule. But we also know about ourselves as a football team."

Mike Garafolo - Giants-Cowboys preview
1. How much will DE Michael Strahan play tonight? The Giants are mum on that.
2. Will RB Brandon Jacobs be a problem for the Cowboys D? Jacobs showed in the preseason he has the capability to wear defenses down with his pounding style.
3. Who's covering T.O.? Who knows?
4. Will the Cowboys be able to run the ball? It hasn't been their strength in the past few years.

Mike Garafolo - Giants season preview
Three reasons they'll succeed:
Eli Manning's preseason. The receiving corps. New coordinators.
Three reasons they won't:
Barber is gone. The secondary. Because, until further notice, you still spell turmoil G-I-A-N-T-S.

Michael Strahan: The seven-time Pro Bowler was expected to be activated Saturday, but it's still anybody's guess as to how much he'll contribute. As of now, he's down for a rotation at left defensive end with Justin Tuck. Strahan went through practice well during the week, taking a heavier load inside the classroom and on the field each day with no adverse affects. He might be used on passing downs only, with Tuck having the job of handling tailback Julius Jones and short-yardage back Marion Barber on first and second down.

If the Giants ever can find a way to escape Texas Stadium tonight with a victory over the Cowboys, perceptions will change in a heartbeat. A team expected to struggle all season instantly would blossom into a team owning a coveted road victory against one of the power clubs in the conference. All the background noise of what Tiki Barber said and how long Michael Strahan stayed away and how tenuous Tom Coughlin's hold on his job is gets swept away, at least for a week. A loss furthers the popular notion that the Giants are in for a long, hard season.

The 2007 Giants are keen on slogans. For training camp, the players and staff wore T-shirts that said, "Talk is cheap, play the game." Those have been supplanted for the season opener by bright red shirts with the Giants logo on the front and this two-word phrase on the back: "Prove it." That's a loaded statement for this group. Sunday night's season opener is a prove-it moment for a whole host of Giants, starting with Tom Coughlin. The fourth-year coach has been the one behind the T-shirts and catchphrases because he's needed a big change in the attitude of his players after last season's constant stream of distractions.
All the turmoil of the 2006 Giants season ended on a last-second field goal by David Akers that lifted the Eagles over the Giants in the wild-card round of the playoffs. And after all the turmoil of the intervening eight months - the near-dismissal of Tom Coughlin, the hiring of new general manager Jerry Reese, the retirement of Tiki Barber and the holdout of Michael Strahan - the folks in charge of the 2007 version that opens the season Sunday in Dallas have legitimately high hopes. Not too many other people around the league believe that, though, and on the surface, it's hard to argue with the prevailing logic.

Mangini and Coughlin: 2 very different story arcs
One coach is at the beginning, coming off a stunningly effective season with a bright future filled with possibilities. The other is close to the end, coming off a controversy-filled year that nearly cost him his job; he might have just months to go before he's out.
The Coughlin-player relationship has been a contentious one ever since some players complained about his schedule during his first off-season program in 2004. The inflexible disciplinarian has been fingered by Tiki Barber as one of the reasons the running back retired from the game after last season. "I'm not going to back down from my core principles," Coughlin emphasized when he said he would try to change a few of his spots this season.
All it will take tonight is Tom Coughlin chasing after Mathias Kiwanuka and getting in his face if he doesn't finish off a sack of Tony Romo, or Coughlin's veins popping out of his neck screaming at an official or a couple of condescending answers at his post-game news conference. Then we'll know the real Tom Coughlin is back after an imposter took over his mind and body this summer.

Mike Vaccaro - I want to believe there is still room in professional sports for a man who coaches the way Tom Coughlin coaches, who preaches what he preaches, who instills what he instills, who suffers and bleeds and roars and rambles the way he suffers and bleeds and roars and rambles.
I want to believe that in a time of Herman Edwards and touchy-feely "players' coaches," in a time of Eric Mangini and boy-wonder, new-age coaches, there is still room in the game for men out of the old school, men with raspy voices and faces landscaped by too many days in the sun and too many nights spent staring at game film. I want to believe that Bill Parcells didn't take that philosophy of coaching home with him when he left the Cowboys last year.

Gary Myers - The Giants will finish 6-10, miss the playoffs and cost Tom Coughlin his job. They play the Cowboys, Redskins and Eagles this month, so they will have a pretty good idea if they have a shot at winning the division. Here's how I evaluate the Giants: Tiki Barber, their best player, retired. He had over 2,000 yards total offense in each of the last three years. Michael Strahan, their second-best player, missed all of camp, is coming off a serious foot injury, a bitter divorce and turns 36 during the season. Jerry Reese didn't improve the personnel in his first offseason as GM. So, unless Eli Manning suddenly shows a lot more than he has his first three years, Coughlin will be gone and major changes will come after the season.

John Mara was asked how his first-year general manager had handled his toughest test thus far, the Michael Strahan holdout. This was a few days before Strahan caved and returned to the Giants on Monday, ready to play and without any extra incentives - in other words, the way Jerry Reese wanted it. "He's handled it exactly the way I'd hope a general manager of the New York Giants would handle it," Mara said.
There's a new GM in place (Jerry Reese) with fresh ideas on how to build a team, which makes it unlikely all of the talent in the room can survive yet another mediocre (or worse) season. And then there's the coach, Tom Coughlin, who despite what everyone says publicly, knows he has to make the playoffs for a third straight year or he'll pay for the failure with his job. So, it's possible that if these Giants don't at least equal last year's 8-8 record and first-round loss in the playoffs, or perhaps exceed it, they will enter the 2008 season with an entirely new coaching staff and a mostly new team.

Growing up in Miami, Sinorice Moss used to watch his brother Santana and his older cousins playing football. Not only did young Sinorice want to emulate their moves, he also wanted to copy their look. "You see the different things they have on: the long socks, the big thigh pads and everything," Moss said. "You grew up watching that stuff and you wanted to do the same thing when you had the opportunity." Moss did. When he started playing football, he made sure everything he wore on the field was clean, in order and in the right spot on his body.

Sept 8 He knows getting hit and knocked down and double-teamed and smacked around is completely different than what he has put his body through the past six weeks, but Michael Strahan yesterday declared himself ready to play in tomorrow night's season-opener in Dallas. "I feel good enough right now, yes," Strahan said. Officially, the Giants will wait until today to reveal the plan, but there's no way Strahan won't be on the field at Texas Stadium, lined up at left defensive end. He'll probably even start the game and then share the snaps with Justin Tuck.

Tom Coughlin was asked to elaborate on the 10-player leadership council. "My whole thing is just try to do whatever it is we can do to enhance communication and to make sure that we are all on the same page and that our voice is one and that everybody understands what we are doing and why we are doing it. I think the best way to do that is to ensure that, whereas in the past there may have been something very clear to me, as I have expressed it to the team - they may not have understood it that way. So maybe we can do a better job of that."

For the first time in Tom Coughlin's 12 seasons as an NFL head coach, one of his teams will have permanent season-long captains. Giants players today voted five players to be captains of the 2007 team: Eli Manning and Shaun O'Hara on offense, Antonio Pierce and Michael Strahan on defense and Jeff Feagles from the special teams. In the past, Coughlin had always named game captains.
The Giants' coach went against his history as an NFL coach Friday, and had his players elect permanent captains for the 2007 team. Coughlin had selected game captains on a weekly basis, but the league has been pushing this year for teams to have permanent captains.

The election of Strahan raised some eyebrows, considering he stayed away for the team much of the summer during a 36-day holdout. "To be voted in is an accomplishment for Strahan, especially missing all of camp and everybody thought we'd turn our backs on him," Pierce said. "It tells you how tight this team is." Strahan said he was not surprised his teammates did not hold a grudge.
Strahan's co-defensive captain admitted there aren't many NFL players who could have sat out all summer, then come back and been declared a leader by player vote. "There ain't too many at all," Pierce said. "That's just what he's meant to the guys that are here. He's a guy that for 14-15 years has been a productive player as well as a leader on the team."

Think about where Ahmad Bradshaw was on draft day. Seventh-round pick as a junior. Doubts swirling around him, not about the Marshall tailback's running ability, but his character after a couple of brushes with the law. Now flash to tomorrow. As the Giants' newly anointed kickoff returner, Bradshaw will have a chance to be the first of Tom Coughlin's squad to touch the ball in 2007 if the coin toss works out right. Even though he had never returned a kickoff in his life, he won the job with an impressive preseason, solidified after front-runner Michael Jennings went down with a torn Achilles' tendon in Baltimore. Bradshaw's chances increased the final two preseason games, and he took advantage by compiling a 28.7-yard average on seven returns, including one for 43 yards against the Jets. That's more than 8 yards better than the 20.1-yard average last year's kickoff returners compiled. Their average field position at the 25.3-yard line ranked 27th in the league.

Osi Umenyiora got off a plane yesterday morning and went straight to Giants practice. The fifth-year defensive end had been granted permission to miss Thursday's practice to be present for the birth of his son, Tijani. But once everything was over there, Umenyiora wasted no time getting back work. And, instead of his son's birth causing his mind to wander from the workout, Umenyiora said it actually provided inspiration to be sharp during practice.

Sept 7 Michael Strahan appears ready to play Sunday in Dallas. Was there ever any doubt? "Mentally, I'm doing everything in the playbook," Strahan said. "I ran basically every play in the defensive period [Thursday]. There were a few things you were a little confused about. But for the most part, it's not that. We all know if I do suit up, I will have to play. They're not limiting me or holding back at all." Coach Tom Coughlin was more hesitant, wanting to wait and see how Strahan feels today and Saturday before activating Strahan from his roster exemption status. Coughlin said he would wait until Saturday to make a decision.
Michael Strahan said yesterday that if he "feels good," he'll "be out there" against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night. But he also knows he has no say. "That doesn't matter," he said. "Because it's not my decision." Giants coach Tom Coughlin will decide whether the seven-time Pro Bowl defensive end plays or sits. And even though Strahan looked sharp in yesterday's practice at Giants Stadium, Coughlin is reserving judgment. "I think he is in very good running shape," Coughlin said. "But the rest of it is subject each day to review in terms of the physical part of it ... so, we'll see."
If Strahan progresses to the point where he starts the game, he would supplant Justin Tuck as the first team left defensive end. But Spagnuolo said everyone in uniform will have to contribute, particularly with the high temperature Sunday in Dallas expected to be in the 90s.
"They will all play," Steve Spagnuolo said. "On any team when you only have seven or eight or nine linemen, especially in the first game when it is hot, everybody is going to play. We are going to need everybody." Strahan's teammates not only expect him to respond to the call but demonstrate the skills that made him the finest defensive end of his generation. To them, the fact that he missed all of training camp and the four preseason games is little more than a footnote.

Michael Strahan has made it through three practices just fine, that means it was time to talk some football out at Giants practice yesterday. So here's the question asked to Steve Spagnuolo, the Giants' first-year defensive coordinator: Is the Giants' banged-up and inexperienced secondary ready, willing and able to handle Tony Romo, Terrell Owens and the rest of the Cowboys' passing attack in front of a national TV audience Sunday night? "Oh yeah," Spagnuolo said confidently. "It's time to play, and I think our guys will respond."
When coordinator Steve Spagnuolo's defense took the field for the first time about a month ago, the players felt prepared. They knew the scheme, they knew where to be. But the results were awful. It was only the preseason, but the Giants looked off. The Panthers marched down the field and easily scored on their first series. It could have become a lot worse than that. Spagnuolo had been positive and instructive in his sessions with the players. If he'd gotten too negative after the poor showing against the Panthers, they could have tuned him out, the way many of them tuned out former defensive coordinator Tim Lewis.
The Giants had a vulnerable, injury-riddled defense during last year's 8-8 campaign, finishing 25th in the overall rankings. They were 28th vs. the pass. Then the read-and-react, zone-oriented philosophy was discarded -- along with fired coordinator Tim Lewis. Spagnuolo arrived as a disciple of the Eagles coordinator known for pressuring the passer, Jimmy Johnson, serving eight years on his staff in various capacities. So there would figure to be more blitzing and more bump-and-run, man-on-man work for the corners, although Spagnuolo said he uses a mix of man and zone.

The Giants and the Cowboys each will be featuring two new coordinators in their opening game of the 2007 season. So that means a lot of borrowing from here and splicing from there has gone on this week in the development of the game plans. "We have to look at all the places he's been and things he has done," Giants new defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo said of Cowboys new offensive coordinator Jason Garrett.
Garrett, meanwhile, has been watching a lot of the Eagles' tapes in preparing for the Giants since Spagnuolo used to coach the linebackers under defensive coordinator Jim Johnson in Philly. Garrett's counterpart, Kevin Gilbride, has been watching a lot of the Chargers' tapes since both Dallas head coach Wade Phillips and defensive coordinator Brian Stewart were in San Diego a year ago.

Sunday night is huge for Amani Toomer. National television, division rival, season opener - a surgically repaired knee. There were no setbacks during a cautious preseason. Now it's for real. "Only the game will tell where I really am," Toomer said. "Hopefully I can still do the same things that I've done in the past." The past has been good; record-setting, in fact. A second-round draft pick in 1996 out of Michigan, Toomer is the franchise leader in reception yards (8,157) and 100-yard receiving games (22). He is second in receptions (561). Toomer always has been more about consistency than the spectacular. The injury never was career threatening. "The Giants organization never looked at me as someone that was done," Toomer said. "Now I'm back."

Book publishing is in the air around the Giants, bursting forth from former players (Tiki Barber), former general managers (Ernie Accorsi) and even former holdouts (Michael Strahan). This is all well and good, except that Brandon Jacobs come Sunday night is planning on running, not reading. In a sense, though, Jacobs also is writing something new, but he's not using a pen, paper or a laptop. "The book most definitely turns to a new chapter for me," Jacobs said. "I'm a starter in the National Football League. It's a dream that everyone who plays ball wants. Number two, it's a Sunday night game. The Cowboys. I'm ready for it. I can't wait. I'm so excited."

Tiki Barber's presence in the Giants' backfield was immense, but Troy Aikman said he believes Barber's attitude off the field is one of the reasons the team did not win a Super Bowl during his career. "When you look at the Giants, and you say, why haven't they been able to accomplish more, and you see some of the things we have witnessed, like Tiki Barber's comments regarding Eli Manning, I don't think you have to look much further than that and say maybe now I understand why that team has underachieved," said Aikman, a former Cowboys quarterback now an NFL analyst for FOX.

On Sunday night, NBC will run 90 seconds of Tiki Barber video dominated by highlights of him running his mouth about Coughlin and Manning. NBC Sports suits' message to viewers will be clear: We are giving you a former player who already has something to say. Not some mealy mouthed ex-jock who is still part of the fraternity. "(Barber) will not play favorites," Michael Weisman, the veteran network sports producer, hired by NBC Sports boss Dick Ebersol to rescue "FNIA," said yesterday. "Tiki will criticize (his twin brother) Ronde if the situation warrants it."

Tiki Barber isn't about to take back negative comments he made recently about his former team, though he did clarify one about coach Tom Coughlin. In an interview with Matt Lauer on the "Today" show Thursday to promote his new book, Barber said although Coughlin was not the sole reason he retired from football after 10 seasons with the Giants, the often irascible coach was a contributing factor. "People are looking for something concrete, one simple explanation of why I retired, and I'm not that simple, I'm not that shallow," he said.
"It's a confluence of things. The pounding, the opportunity to do other things, the fact that I wasn't having fun doing it anymore. "He is part of the reason why I retired from the game. I have a choice and I lose no matter what. I can say nothing, which is cowardly, I can lie, which is immoral, or I can tell the truth, which will upset people."

Sept 6 Tom Coughlin in his three previous seasons as Giants coach insisted the lines of communication between himself and his players were always open. Yet, somewhere along the way, the message too often failed to connect. "Tom said to us his door has been open for a long time," punter Jeff Feagles said, "and nobody walked through it, basically." Sensing the problem, Coughlin for the first time in his coaching career has assembled a 10-player Leadership Council, designed to create greater harmony within the locker room and better dialogue between Coughlin and his team.

Tom Coughlin, has lightened up and warmed up to his players. No quotes from anonymous Giants have reared their ugly heads. In fact, after spending nearly every day of the last six weeks together with his teammates, Antonio Pierce insisted the team, as it heads into its Sunday night opener in Dallas, is "tighter than it's been the last three years." "It's probably the tightest-knit team I've been a part of with the New York Giants," Pierce said. "Guys talk to each other. Offensive players even talk to defensive players. Before it was kind of segregated a little bit. "I think that's key. With all the stuff we're going to deal with this year, we've just got to stay focused. Everything we do is more team-oriented."

If such a thing is possible for any season opener, the Giants might be catching the Cowboys at the right time for the first of two go-rounds in 2007. Sure, they're headed down to Jerry Jones' little villa in Dallas, where things are sometimes victorious but almost never fun. But when they hit Dallas-Fort Worth Airport Saturday afternoon, they'll do so as a team approaching wholeness. They are getting players back. That's just the opposite of what's happening in Dallas. The Cowboys are losing players, with key wide receiver Terry Glenn and their best cover cornerback Terence Newman both question marks for the game.
Amani Toomer could be a key player this weekend, as the Cowboys are expected to go with career backup Jacques Reeves as a starting cornerback in place of injured Terence Newman (plantar fascia tear, right heel). Reeves, a seventh-round pick, has started one game in four years. "I wouldn't be surprised," Reeves told reporters in Dallas when asked if the Giants will target him.

The Giants face a load of questions on both sides of the ball, and two of them are at wide receiver, where they should be set. But Plaxico Burress and Amani Toomer - the team's No. 1 receiver for Eli Manning and the No. 1 receiver in team history - are a bit unsure as to what they will bring to the Texas Stadium field on Sunday night. Toomer missed the final eight games last season after he had his left knee reconstructered in November. Burress missed every preseason game with a variety of ailments.
Cornerback Sam Madison, who has missed several weeks with a hamstring injury, returned to work Wednesday and as Coughlin said, "Took nearly a full turn." Linebacker Kawika Mitchell, who suffered a groin injury against the Jets, worked the entire practice. Backup tackle Guy Whimper, an ankle victim in the final exhibition game against New England, returned on a limited basis.
And, of course, Michael Strahan worked for the second day as he looks to get himself into condition to play against the Cowboys. That left only three players, none of them a starter, on the bikes: wide receiver David Tyree (broken wrist), linebacker Gerris Wilkinson (kneecap) and fullback Robert Douglas (knee scope). "That is what we are moving toward," Coughlin said when reminded he might have his entire starting team ready to go against Dallas.
Tom Coughlin will decide whether Madison will suit up and/or start, and he is revealing little, in part because he doesn't know how Madison's hamstring will respond to the workload. "Sam did a lot (in practice)," Coughlin said. "He did pretty much a full turn today. He worked right until the end. We will have to see how he does and how he is tomorrow." If Madison does not play, third-year pro Corey Webster will start in his place.

Giants coach Tom Coughlin said his choice of Lawrence Tynes over Josh Huston for the placekicking job was a tough one. "I told Josh that," Coughlin said. "Josh had done some very good things in camp. I think he will one day play in this league and he needs to work on a lot of little things that go along with driving the ball on kickoffs." Coughlin added that despite trying out several kickers, including former Packer Dave Rayner, early in the week, Tynes will be the kicker Sunday night.

The Giants are not the favorites to win the NFC East this season. Brandon Jacobs says they should be. "We're the team to beat," the confident running back said yesterday. Jacobs, who will be making his first start in place of the retired Tiki Barber on Sunday, said one of the main reasons why the opener is "super important" is because "We don't like Dallas." He nearly provided some more bulletin-board material by vowing to "go to Dallas this Sunday and whoop their (butts)," but he quickly amended that statement. "I just think we'll go play well. I'll say that," Jacobs said. "We're going to play well and hope we can come out with a victory."
A fourth-round pick in 2005 out of Southern Illinois, Jacobs' part the past two seasons has been mostly in short-yardage situations. He was a devastating weapon in goal-line situations, scoring 16 touchdowns combined in those two seasons, on only 134 carries. But he swears he can run around people, and not just over them, as an every-down back. And though he hasn't carried more than 12 times in a game with the Giants, Jacobs said he's ready to take on a greater workload. "Whatever they want to do, I'm fine with it," Jacobs said. "Whatever they want to do, just let's do it. Just let's get it rolling. Let's do it."

Cowboys QB Tony Romo was asked - Do you think the Cowboys should be the favorites to win the division?  "I don't know. Really it is the first week of the season and you really don't know a lot. That is the neat thing about football is that at the end of the day every season brings about new teams and new championship contenders I think. I just think that it is another situation where we are going to find out a lot about a lot of teams real quick."
Cowboys Head Coach Wade Phillips was asked - From what you have seen how different is it when you look at film of Tiki Barber vs Brandon Jacobs? Do you guys do things differently with a bigger back in there?  "Well, yeah, I think every back has his own style, his own strength. But they have looked really good running the ball in the preseason. They averaged 5.1 in the preseason. Tiki made 1,600 yards but he had to have a line blocking for him and I think they have a strong run blocking team and a good back. But, sure, it will be more power stuff than what Tiki ran, although Tiki ran inside. But you would think it would be more inside stuff than outside. That is what we are planning on."

Stadium News
The Giants and Jets unveiled their new Meadowlands football stadium Wednesday - a $1.3 billion, state-of-the art facility whose exterior will change color, depending on which team is playing. The as-yet-unnamed stadium will seat 82,500 - about 2,500 more than Giants Stadium, though most of the extra seats will be in the additional 80 to 100 luxury suites in the new building. The stadium, which will open in 2010 after Giants Stadium is demolished, will take up 2.1 million square feet on 40 acres of the Meadowlands Sports Complex.
It will host at least 20 NFL games per season, more than any other stadium in the nation, as well as numerous other events ranging from college football to international soccer, concerts and more - as many as 80 a year, in addition to Giants and Jets games.

Sept 5 Michael Strahan was staked out by the media Monday like Paris Hilton outside a Beverly Hills nightclub, and he eluded the pack by entering Giants Stadium through the team's executive offices instead of the players' entrance. Yesterday, he greeted many of the same reporters with a familiar smile. "I missed you guys so much," Strahan said, standing on a wooden platform in one of the end zones at Giants Stadium.
How fitting that a few hours after yet another Tiki Barber rip job of Tom Coughlin, the Giants' other bookend of controversy should utter his first public words since ending his disappearing act. With the buzz still fresh about Barber's latest claim that he might still be playing had it been more enjoyable around the Giants' demanding coach, Michael Strahan walked through the end zone tunnel at Giants Stadium, hopped up on a makeshift stage and said he's ready to play some football. This after nearly six weeks of keeping his coaches and teammates in suspense about whether he'd ever come back.
What swayed Strahan were a couple of other things on the West Coast: Giants fans who saw him pleaded with him to play, and Giants co-owner Steve Tisch paid a visit and told him it was not the way he should want to leave the game. Talks with Warren Sapp and Marshall Faulk also helped. Both have been on Super Bowl winners.
When Strahan asked Faulk how he felt about retirement, the response was interesting. "Great!'' Strahan recalled him saying. "You have a ring, don't you?'' Teammates were pleased to see Strahan in the locker room again. None seemed overly concerned that he missed all of training camp while they sweated through two-a-day workouts.

Michael Strahan joined his teammates for the first time this season and immediately picked up a new nickname. "He's The Fugitive," Antonio Pierce said. Yes, Strahan did arrive with a new beard that everyone insisted made him look like Harrison Ford in the 1993 movie, "The Fugitive." He also came, he said, with a renewed commitment to the Giants and to football after missing all of training camp in the preseason while deciding whether or not to play this year.
"I wasn't concerned at all about the reaction of my teammates because I have talked to those guys throughout everything," Strahan said. "From (Jeremy) Shockey to Plaxico to Antonio to William Joseph, every day to Osi (Umenyiora), I kept in contact with those guys just about every day. The reaction when I came in here was the same - they all said I looked like Harrison Ford from 'The Fugitive' and that was it. The guys jumped on me from the beginning, they haven't let up, and that is what it is all about. It is about family and these guys understood what I was going through and hopefully they play long enough where they can get to the point where they have that decision to make."
Strahan talked about a number of things. He characterized his camp-long absence as "not a holdout, but a break," in keeping with his claim that it had nothing to do with the lack of a raise on his $4 million contract. He left open the possibility of playing out the final year of his contract in 2008. "Who knows?" he said. "2007 is just another year in my career. This could be one of my best years. If it turns out to be one of my best years, why wouldn't I come back for another?"
He said his father Gene, among other family members, encouraged him to quit. "When he looked at me and said, 'Well, you know what? You don't have anything else to prove to anybody. If you want to retire, you should retire, and I think maybe it's time,' " Strahan said. "There was the one guy I always looked up to and wanted to prove my worth to, and he basically told me, 'You did good enough, son.' So that was definitely one of the things that was very hard for me to go against. But I decided to."

As expected, the ransom for the fugitive was slightly less than half of what it was supposed to be. According to someone involved in the negotiations to lower the fines, Strahan's penalties were reduced from more than $500,000 to $200,000. The person, who requested anonymity because all parties involved agreed not to speak about the fine publicly, said the Giants reduced them with one caveat: The NFLPA agreeing that no player in the future could use their leniency in this case as a precedent to reduce his fines for a holdout or a similar situation. But forget the money. It's not about the money.
And so the 2006 season, segues into September, 2007, and there is at present no particular reason to believe the Giants' 2-7 finishing slide (including a playoff defeat) will be quickly reversed. About the only things they have going for them are a strong preseason showing from Manning and the notion that anything can happen in the ragged NFC.
The Giants' mediocre outlook is not really Strahan's fault. The guy can be a selfish athlete, we all know that, but he arguably had earned this brief sabbatical after 14 years of preseason practice tortures. Who wants to hang out in Albany with Coughlin? Many of the other Giants might have done the same thing, if they owned Strahan's leverage.

The other juicy topic of the day at Giants practice -- besides Michael Strahan -- was the news that retired RB Tiki Barber writes in his new book that if Tom Coughlin hadn't remained as the coach, he might have returned for another season. The Daily News yesterday printed excerpts of the book, a memoir titled, "Tiki: My Life in the Game and Beyond," in which Barber said Coughlin "robbed me of what had been one of the most important things I had in my life, which was the joy I felt playing football."
Barber really has to stop obsessing about the Giants. He has to understand there isn't one Giants fan in creation who will shed one teardrop over this ridiculous notion that Barber cost himself $10 million in salary playing for the team, nor will even one Giants fan feel guilty for not understanding the pain and sacrifice players endure to suit up every Sunday, as he purportedly writes in his book.
Coughlin refrained from commenting, saying, "I don't know anything about the book." After a brief pause, he added sarcastically, "I haven't had a chance to read it." Linebacker Antonio Pierce had even less to say. "Who?" he said several times with a smile when Barber was mentioned. Center Shaun O'Hara did comment. "That's what everyone does when they retire," O'Hara said with a laugh. "They write books. Doesn't mean you have to read them."

Tom Coughlin said the team will provide some extra contact for Strahan during the week to help get him ready for Sunday night. He added Strahan needs to brush up on what he learned of Steve Spagnuolo's new defensive scheme in the spring, before he went into his uncertainty mode, which ended late last week. "There were a lot of factors that went into it, but it just boiled down to the fact that I looked and said, 'Hey, I want to play,' " Strahan said of his decision to return. "I decided that I wanted to play. I wanted to get in here before I changed my mind.
Early in practice, once the offense and defense separated, it was Tuck, not Strahan, who lined up as the starting left defensive end. Strahan worked with the second team. Coughlin said Strahan did OK and "appears to be in good shape." The heavier contact comes later in the week. Coughlin no doubt will wait until Saturday before deciding whether to remove Strahan from the roster exemption list and activate him for the game. "Stray looked good,’’ Tuck said. "A lot of guys thought that he was just on the beach drinking margaritas and looking at pretty women, but he definitely knows what it takes to play in this league.".
No one should expect Strahan to show up Sunday night in Dallas and sack the quarterback three times, which is what Lawrence Taylor did in the 1990 opener against the Eagles with no training camp. Strahan still makes the Giants better, and he sure makes them louder and more interesting, because there never seems to be a dull moment in his football life or in his personal life. But when you are going on 36, and you are coming back from a foot injury that cost you half of the 2006 season, the burden of proof is on you, even if you are about to pass Taylor as the Giants’ career sack king.

When Giants ownership met to decide Tom Coughlin's fate in January, co-owner John Mara said the lack of development of Manning was "a major part of our discussions." That's partly why Coughlin shook up his offensive staff, promoting Kevin Gilbride to coordinator and bringing in Chris Palmer to replace Gilbride as QBs coach. Palmer, who designed his drills to help Manning improve his accuracy, has paid early dividends. In parts of four preseason games, Manning completed 68.6% of his passes (35 for 51) for 345 yards, three TDs and no INTs. His quarterback rating was 107.1. That's not bad for a player whose career completion percentage is only 54.1%. Perhaps more importantly, Palmer also has seen signs of Manning emerging as a leader.
Offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride is designing game plans better tailored to Manning's set of skills. "You always look to find the right magic button that's going to get him to play the way we think he can play," said Gilbride, former head coach of Southern Connecticut and the San Diego Chargers. "He's somewhat enigmatic in that we see moments of brilliance and moments of poise and physical toughness and skill that are just almost dazzling. Then the frustration that sometimes comes because you don't see necessarily the consistency that you'd like to see. The biggest challenge we're going to have is getting Eli to play as we see in moments over the course of a whole season."

Brandon Jacobs was lying in a hospital, staring up at the ceiling and not really sure what was going on around him when he found the strength to roll over. His startled doctor stared at him for a moment, then turned to look at his mother. "You have a football player here," he told her. Brandon was 10 pounds, 15 ounces - and only two hours old. "When Brandon was three months old he was wearing size 18-month clothes," his mother Janice Jacobs says. "He went straight from baby formula to table food. He never ate baby food. He couldn't even fit in the incubator at the hospital."

Stadium News
The Giants and Jets will unveil the design for their new Meadowlands football stadium at a press conference in the Giants Stadium parking lot today -- about nine months later than originally planned. National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell will be joined by Governor Corzine, state Senate President Richard Codey, and other elected officials.

Sept 4 The first practice in preparation for Sunday's season-opener in Dallas comes this morning, with Strahan on the field, hoping to convince the decision-makers that he can be ready to face the Cowboys in five days. "The past few weeks are behind us," Reese said. "We're moving forward. We're looking forward to opening the season in Dallas. As I have stated several times since the beginning of training camp, Michael Strahan is a Hall of Fame player and we are a stronger team with him."
Reese earlier this summer did a little trash-talking when he said the Giants could "win without him." Bringing in Simeon Rice for a visit - he and Strahan don't get along - seemed like a premeditated way to infuriate Strahan. The Strahan camp was also upset when Reese revealed information about a phone call they had last week. But Reese insisted everything was fine between them after yesterday's meeting. Umenyiora said there is no resentment towards Strahan for waiting this long to show up. "I promise you nobody cares. Trust me, I got a lot of other things on my mind," Umenyiora said. "Nobody cares." No worries. No sense of urgency. The season starts in five days in Dallas.
Strahan was not at the stadium earlier in the day, when his teammates were in attendance for a conditioning session and a benefits meeting. "His arrival time here at the stadium is no reflection on his desire to be part of this team." general manager Jerry Reese said after Strahan left his office. "There were some practical, administrative issues that needed to be finalized. Obviously, we are glad that Michael is back, that he wants to be back and that he wants to continue his playing career. The past few weeks are behind us." Strahan met with head coach Tom Coughlin following his meeting with Reese. "Michael came in this afternoon and we had a good conversation," Coughlin said.

Strahan was originally expected at the stadium yesterday morning, but he missed the early lifting and conditioning session and an 11 a.m. player benefits meeting. The delay apparently had to do with getting NFLPA approval for the reduction of his $542,944 fine, which the Giants were believed to be willing to cut in half.
It's unclear at this point if Strahan will be on the field Sunday night. The Giants asked the league for a two-week roster exemption for Strahan and they received it. That means, through the first two games, the 15th-year veteran doesn't count as one of the 53 players the team is allowed to keep. But it also means he can't dress for a game until the team activates him. At that point, the Giants will have to cut one player to make room for him. "We'll see how he does in practice this week," Reese said. "If he's ready to go, we'll cut somebody."
Teammates think Strahan will be ready for the opener. "Considering he's put in seven or eight years more than anyone here, and he's been to more training camps than anyone here, he's fine,'' veteran receiver Amani Toomer said. Fellow defensive end Osi Umenyiora said Strahan just has to get used to wearing a helmet and shoulder pads again. He isn't worried about Strahan playing in defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo's new system, noting he got a taste of it in minicamp.

Being in football shape is far different from being in good physical condition, however. Strahan might have worked out all summer in southern California, but getting into contact and putting his body through the stresses of game speed is something else. One did get the idea that at least some of Strahan's teammates weren't entirely pleased with his continued absence. Antonio Pierce, for one, wasn't really in the mood to talk about No. 92 as he walked to his car following a player benefits meeting at about noon. Strahan's word that he was playing was plenty for Pierce. Whether Strahan missed a few conditioning drills was of no concern to the middle linebacker.
With Justin Tuck playing well in Strahan's left end spot, how much can we expect to see Strahan come Sunday night? "Stray doesn't like to come out of football games," Umenyiora said. "I think he'll try to play the whole game." When reminded it's highly unlikely that could happen, Umenyiora replied, "He played the whole game last year against New Orleans." Actually Strahan came out of the Christmas Eve game against the Saints in the third quarter after aggravating the Lisfranc injury that had kept him sidelined for the previous six weeks. He had played nearly every snap prior to reinjuring his foot, however.

Craig Dahl is one of two rookie free agents currently on the roster. The other is tight end Michael Matthews of Georgia Tech. Wide receiver Anthony Mix was not drafted, but he spent last season on the Giants' practice squad. All three players might have a chance to contribute when the Giants open the 2007 season Sunday night in Dallas. When training camp began, Dahl, like all undrafted rookies, was considered a longshot to make the final roster.
The Giants, after all, had both returning starting safeties (Gibril Wilson and Will Demps), incumbent veteran backups (James Butler, Jason Bell), a veteran free agent (Michael Stone) and a draft choice from a big school (seventh-round selection Michael Johnson of Arizona). Then Bell was placed on injured reserve before training camp opened. Stone hurt his hip during camp and went on I.R. Demps lost his starting job to Butler, dislocated his elbow at Baltimore and Saturday was placed on injured reserve.
For now, Dahl and another rookie, Michael Johnson (a seventh-round draft pick from Arizona) fill out the depth chart as backup safeties. Dahl impressed the coaching staff with his work on special teams. Dahl admitted it was "quite nerve-wracking'' as he hoped his phone Saturday morning would not ring, bringing bad news. He arrived at the stadium for treatment at 10 a.m. and Charles Way, the team's director of player development, approached him with a smile. "He came up and handed me a list of apartments and housing and said 'Congratulations,'" Dahl said. "That was the way I found out I made the team."

Former Giants                                      
Tiki Barber says he would still be playing football if the Giants had a new head coach. The recently retired star running back has used his new memoir to rip Big Blue boss Tom Coughlin, blaming his former head coach for driving him from the game he loved.
"If Tom Coughlin had not remained as head coach of the Giants, I might still be in a Giants uniform," Barber wrote in his upcoming book "Tiki: My Life in the Game and Beyond," excerpts of which were obtained by the Daily News. "[Coughlin] robbed me of what had been one of the most important things I had in my life, which was the joy I felt playing football," Barber wrote. "I had lost that. He had taken it away."

Sept 3 There are regular-season openers against teams from another division or the other conference. There are overhyped openers pitting brother against brother at quarterback in a game against teams that could meet again only in the Super Bowl. And then there's the Giants' opener in six days against the Cowboys in Irving, Texas. That's a game that will give the winner an early jump on the loser in the NFC East. That could be a good thing for the Giants. If they get a win on the road, they'll have broken serve on Dallas with their home game coming later in the year.

Michael Strahan returns to the Giants today, ending the mystery of his 36-day holdout but perhaps not clearing up whether the defensive end will be ready to play in the season opener Sunday at Dallas. A person familiar with the Giants' thinking regarding Strahan told Newsday yesterday that the team expects Strahan to be a significant contributor this season because he felt miffed that general manager Jerry Reese was unwilling to bump up his salary for this season or let him go to another team. "He's playing for a big payoff," the person said. "You know he's going to try and prove to everyone that he's still Michael Strahan."

Sometime today, the door to the Giants' locker room will open up and Michael Strahan is expected to finally walk in. When he does, the 2007 Giants will be whole again. In more ways than just that one. Strahan isn't the only missing piece to the Giants' puzzle that's finally been found. Plaxico Burress is due to return to practice tomorrow when the Giants begin preparing for their Sunday night opener in Dallas. Linebacker Kawika Mitchell (groin) should also be back at practice. And judging by his impressive, one-series performance in the preseason finale in New England on Thursday night, Jeremy Shockey is back and ready, too.

Plaxico Burress' issues have been many. First, he sat out the off-season training program following cleanup surgery on the left ankle. Then, on Aug. 3, he turned his right ankle, an injury that cost him 18 days of practice and the first two preseason games. He appeared ready to take some preseason work against the Jets a week later, but a 103-degree fever kept him sidelined for that. And then back spasms, an intermittent problem for him that caused him to miss the Houston game last season, kept him out of the New England finale.

The fact that Lawrence Tynes is currently on the Giants' 53-man roster does not necessarily mean he will be the kicker for Sunday night's season-opener against the Cowboys in Dallas. The Giants reportedly have legitimate interest in Dave Rayner, who did not survive the final round of cuts by the Packers. Rayner is expected to visit with the Giants as early as today.

Throughout training camp, Jared Lorenzen was treated like the backup quarterback. He was next in line behind Eli Manning during every practice and once the preseason games arrived, Lorenzen was first off the bench. The widespread belief was that Manning, Lorenzen and Wright would line up in that order for the season and Tim Hasselbeck's time with the Giants was finished after two years (and no pass attempts). Hasselbeck predictably didn't survive the last round of cuts and Wright probably didn't do enough to supplant Lorenzen. In other years.

The Giants continued to reshape their roster, adding two players and deleting one. The newcomers will join the team after the Giants acquired them via waiver claims: guard Kevin Boothe from the Oakland Raiders and cornerback Dovonte Edwards from the Minnesota Vikings. Both players were waived this weekend. The Giants also terminated the contract of veteran guard Zach Piller. With the changes, the Giants are at the regular season roster limit of 53 players.
Boothe, a 6-5, 315-pounder from Cornell, played in all 16 games and started the final 14 at right guard as a rookie last season with the Raiders. He also played on special teams.
Edwards, 6-0 and 182, spent the 2006 season in injured reserve with an arm injury suffered in a preseason game at Dallas on Aug. 31. He played in all four of the Vikings' preseason games last month and had an interception against the Jets in Giants Stadium.
Piller signed with the Giants on June 7 after spending eight seasons with the Tennessee Titans. He was the second-team left guard throughout training camp. The Giants signed four players to their practice squad: Wide receiver Brandon London, guard Matt Lentz, defensive end Marquise Gunn and cornerback E.J. Underwood. All were waived by the Giants yesterday.

Sept 2 Quarterback Tim Hasselbeck was the most notable player cut. Anthony Wright was retained as the third quarterback behind Eli Manning and Jared Lorenzen. Meanwhile, the Giants traded running back Ryan Grant, a Don Bosco grad, to Green Bay. The Giants received a sixth-round pick in next year's draft from the Packers in exchange for Grant, according to someone who has been informed of the terms of the trade who requested anonymity because they hadn't been announced publicly.
Will Demps won't see the final four years of the five-year, $12 million deal he signed before last season. Once he is released and recovered from his injury in a few weeks, he will be free to sign with any team except the Giants. Demps gave up several big plays last season and, according to someone familiar with the Giants' thinking, he wasn't perceived as a "team guy." The person, who requested anonymity because the Giants' intentions were to remain private, said Demps' decision to train elsewhere in the spring was what led to his being demoted to a backup before camp began.
It's a stunning fall for Will Demps, who might not have been ready for next Sunday night's season opener. Demps, 27, would not have been out much longer, meaning this was a decision based on his ability and not his availability. Demps ends a one-year run that certainly goes down as a wasted dip into the free-agency pool. Demps, coming off reconstructive knee surgery after solid seasons with the Ravens, did not have a strong 2006 for the Giants but did improve down the stretch. He was not happy to learn Butler had taken his place in the starting lineup but was one of the standouts during the early preseason games. His roster spot did not appear to be in any danger.
Will Demps imminent release leaves the Giants with two rookies, Craig Dahl and Michael Johnson, backing up Gibril Wilson and James Butler at safety. The team also waived J.R. Reed. "We thought the improvement of those two young kids in the secondary [Johnson and Dahl] had warranted that they have the opportunity to stay," coach Tom Coughlin said.
"Dahl played well [in New England on Thursday] in a convincing fashion. Michael Johnson had the same kind of response the week before [against the Jets]." The Giants also cut rookie kicker Josh Huston, who performed better in camp than veteran Lawrence Tynes. Expect the Giants to audition a few kickers before next Sunday's opener against the Cowboys.

The process of trimming the roster was complicated by people who are injured and might not be unavailable. Tyree had wrist surgery this week and is expected to miss at least a month. Douglas (knee), Madison (hamstring), Ruegamer (ankle) and Wilkinson (knee) have been sidelined. "Whenever you cut down to the final roster and you have a certain number of guys that can't work, that is always a problem," Coughlin said. "It has to be adjusted with your practice squad. There's always a give-and-take there, because you have to make sure you can practice." Coughlin spoke about other issues and decisions regarding the final cut.

Michael Strahan should not be honored with a hero's welcome when he walks back into the locker room tomorrow at Giants Stadium, showing up one week after another tedious training camp is over with the real fun starting Sunday night in Dallas. It will be interesting to see if his late arrival causes resentment among his teammates, who have learned to live without him even as they insisted they wanted him back. Skipping camp could make him more susceptible to getting hurt early in the season.
The Giants have been planning for Strahan's retirement for years by drafting Osi Umenyiora, Justin Tuck and Mathias Kiwanuka. All summer, Giants GM Jerry Reese and coach Tom Coughlin refused to beg Strahan to come back. It seemed they simply wanted an answer and were content either way.

Tom Coughlin does not like this public image. Never has. But he never thought to do much about it until now. At 61, he is trying to recast himself, if only slightly. He is applying a little medium-grit sandpaper to the sharp edges of his personality. For years, Coughlin's wife and children have been telling him that they do not recognize the man on the sideline exploding in fury, and that they do not understand how one seemingly innocuous question at a news conference can rile him into a rant that ends up on nightly newscasts. He did not change.

Former Giants                                      
Bill Parcells - Hours before a big Giants-Cowboys showdown last December, then-Cowboys coach Bill Parcells sat in a car outside Giants Stadium and made it clear to the Giants that he was interested in their soon-to-be-vacated general manager's job. That's one of many surprising revelations in "The GM: The Inside Story of a Dream Job and the Nightmares That Go With It," by Tom Callahan (Crown Publishing) - a story about the 2006 Giants told with the help of retiring GM Ernie Accorsi. A copy of the book, due to be released on Sept.18, was obtained by the Daily News.

Sept 1 Michael Strahan will return to the Giants, officially rejoining the team Monday, when they start preparations for the season opener Sept. 9 in Dallas. Strahan called general manager Jerry Reese Friday to end his 36-day holdout and any thoughts of retirement, finally deciding to tell the team he'll play a 15th season after spending the entire training camp in Southern California. Reese decided to start imposing a fine, $14,288 a day, which swelled to $514,368 by Friday - more than the $500,000 roster bonus Strahan received in March. Agnone said the Giants agreed to reduce the fine, but Strahan still will pay a significant amount.
Michael Strahan skipped four weeks in Albany, 11 two-a-days, 31 total practices, four meaningless preseason games and a whole lot of other stuff he's been through 14 times already. Now, after 36 days in the California sunshine, it's time for Strahan to play football. Strahan was on his way back to the area last night and will report to Giants Stadium for practice on Monday, according to his agent, Tony Agnone. The team declined to comment. "He just wanted to be back with his teammates," Agnone said when reached on his cell phone yesterday afternoon."
"He went with his heart, or as he said, his gut," Tony Agnone, Strahan's agent, late yesterday afternoon told The Post. "He said he missed the guys and that he thought he could help them. His broadcasting career will start at some other time." Agnone said Strahan informed him Thursday night, "I'm gonna play" rather than retire but that Agnone suggested Strahan sleep on the decision. He did, and then, Agnone said, Strahan contacted the Giants to finally alert them of the news they always wanted to hear but were growing frustrated waiting for.

Seven-time Pro Bowl defensive end Michael Strahan has decided to end his holdout and return for a 15th NFL season with the New York Giants. "He went with his heart instead of his head,'' Tony Agnone, his agent, said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press on Friday evening. "He felt at this point he was part of the team, and he was going to go to battle with them.'' The decision came a day before the Giants had to cut their roster to the 53-man limit and a little more than a week before the season opener at Dallas.
"He knows he'll be ready to go,'' Agnone said of playing in the season opener. "He's been working out like crazy.'' Strahan left the West Coast on Friday and planned to be at Giants Stadium on Monday when the team begins preparing for the Cowboys. He will have four practices before the game. And Strahan might play more than the 2007 season.
While he has been working out in California, Strahan, who turns 36 in November, has not had any football work since the team's minicamp in June. While his experience should help him get ready for the Sept. 9 regular-season opener against Dallas, the question remains how much can he play in that game? "That should take him three minutes," Agnone said about the time it should take Strahan to get back into football shape. "If he doesn't play in Dallas, I would be shocked."
At least one teammate, however, voiced a concern about Strahan's readiness for the Cowboys. "How many snaps can he take? Maybe 20?" he asked while contemplating a Monday return by Strahan. Justin Tuck should start at left end in Dallas, and running mate Osi Umenyiora said the third-year man is ready for the challenge. "He's absolutely ready," Umenyiora added. "He has all the physical abilities. But is he Michael Strahan?"

At least one of the Giants' walking wounded - one of the most important hobbled players - declared himself ready for action yesterday. Receiver Plaxico Burress said, "I haven't felt better than I am right now in four or five months." That's good news for the Giants, who this summer haven't seen much of Burress on the field. He arrived at training camp practicing once a day after having bone spurs removed from his left ankle during the offseason.
On Aug. 2, he sprained his left ankle, forcing him out of more than 20 practices and the first two preseason games. Just as he was ready to return, Burress was felled by a 103-degree temperature on the eve of the game against the Jets. He had to sit out the preseason finale against the Patriots because of severe back spasms. For now, he's healthy.

Manny Wright believes he's done everything possible to show the Giants he belongs on the final roster they will announce at 6 p.m. today. If he's not, he said it won't be because of what he did during practices and games. "Worse comes to worst, they can cut me, but I know it's not going to be based on my football stuff," the 340-pound defensive tackle said. "I know it's going to be something else or another player. On the football field, it won't come down to me not being able to play." There's no question Wright has the ability to play in the NFL. That's never been in doubt. What has been a concern is his mental state.

Aug 31 Giants lose to the Patriots 27-20.

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On The Game: Preseason Game 4 Recap Gamegirl... "......Eli Manning looked good once again, but all the rest of his backups came in, and none looked sharp. It was good to see Jeremy Shockey on the field, and he caught four passes for 47 yards......" Mikefan.... ".....The Giants looked good last week playing against the Jets until the start of the second half, then the tide changed fast. Why? Well, the Giants second string was in against the Jets starters. This game against New England started out with the G1 unit in against their E2. Of course the Giants looked good with that matchup and they went up 7-0 (though only after a tough struggle on fourth and goal). Once the Giants took their starters out, they fell behind. ......"

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ESPN - Patriots 27, Giants 20.
Giants.com - Giants fall to Patriots, 27-20.
StarLedger - Giants starters sharp vs. Pats reserves.
Newsday - Manning continues his strong play for Giants.
NYPost - No casualities as Giants drop final tuneup.
NYPost - Lorenzen a Giant flop.
TheRecord - Giants drop one to Patriots' subs.
Courant - Manning Sharp In Final Tuneup.

Aug 30 Frank Gifford was the honoree, Tom Coughlin excited the crowd and the entire Giants team was introduced, but Eli Manning and Antonio Pierce stole the show at the 41st annual Kickoff Luncheon at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Manhattan. Manning and Pierce deviated from the printed schedule of events to make short speeches on behalf of the offense and defense respectively.
Manning received the day's loudest cheer - and laugh - when his first line played off Tiki Barber's recent criticism of his leadership skills. "Since this is my first time speaking at the Kickoff Luncheon, I'm going to try my best not to be awkward or comical," Manning told the crowd of approximately 1,000 fans.

At 6-5, he has used his height and athletic ability to catch 13 passes -- the fourth most in the NFL this preseason. And with two touchdowns, he has been the Giants' best offensive threat in the last three weeks. No, not Plaxico Burress. Anthony Mix. Who? An undrafted free agent from Auburn last year who spent the 2006 season on the practice squad. At the time, that was a blessing for a player who caught only one pass in the preseason and thought for sure he'd be out of a job altogether once the regular season began.
Plaxico Burress will miss tonight's game against the Patriots with back spasms, one of the reasons why Anthony Mix will play the majority of the game. His health has been a factor too. In addition to Burress, the Giants have been without Amani Toomer (recovery from knee surgery), Michael Jennings (torn Achilles), Sinorice Moss (sprained ankle) and David Tyree (broken wrist) at various times through the preseason. Burress, Toomer, Smith and Moss are seemingly established as the top four receivers. But as has happened in camp, injuries drop in at any time, so Mix not only has a good chance to make the roster, he could be on the field in a regular-season game at a moment's notice.

Jared Lorenzen will get the bulk of the work at quarterback, while Coughlin said he's not sure whether Anthony Wright and Tim Hasselbeck will take any snaps. "We will be looking for the team to move down the field, for plays to be made, and for us to have a little sense of momentum," said Coughlin, who did not pooh-pooh the thought of carrying just two quarterbacks. Another area under close watch will be the special teams, where neither Lawrence Tynes nor Josh Huston has clinched the placekicking job. With Ryan Kuehl out for the year, Coughlin also has to decide whether to go with rookies Jay Alford and Zak DeOssie as his long-snappers or bring in a veteran to handle the chores. And running back Ryan Grant can help his chances of making the team with a strong showing as Tyree's replacement at gunner on the punt team.

The Giants starters will go at it for a maximum of one quarter and then watch as second- and third-team units battle for their NFL lives. Ideally, this is a useful exercise in shaping the bottom of the 53-man roster, but the Giants are so banged up that even that goal cannot be realized. For instance, second-year cornerbacks Kevin Dockery and Gerrick McPhearson normally would play as much as three full quarters. One but probably not both of them will gain a spot on the team. The rash of injuries, though, hit both Dockery (hamstring) and McPhearson (ankle), and it's likely neither will be able to play at all. "It's unfortunate we have two corners who would be getting a ton of work and it is questionable whether they will make it," Coughlin said. "We may have to make some adjustments." The Giants already have placed eight players on season-ending injured reserve and as many as 12 others might not be able to play because of assorted maladies.

Heading into tonight's preseason finale against the Patriots they have seven players on season-ending injured reserve (not including those who were waived with an injury settlement), six more players declared out of tonight's game and another six who are questionable. Those lists include a starting receiver (Plaxico Burress, back, day to day), linebacker (Kawika Mitchell, groin, day to day), cornerback (Sam Madison, hamstring, out) and fullback (Robert Douglas, knee, out).
It includes the player who would have been their starting fullback (Jim Finn, shoulder, IR) and their second tight end (Darcy Johnson, knee, IR), as well as special teams ace David Tyree (wrist, out) and long-snapper Ryan Kuehl (calf, IR). Of the Giants' projected starters, only Madison is in danger of missing the opener, although Burress' status won't be clear until he's back on the practice field.

Despite making the playoffs the past two seasons, expectations for the New York Giants aren't that high. Tiki Barber, the Giants' all-time leading rusher and offensive catalyst, retired for a television career. The wait for Eli Manning to live up to expectations continues. And who knows what to expect from seven-time Pro Bowl defensive end Michael Strahan, if anything. Then there's the Tom Coughlin factor. The no-nonsense coach is on the hot seat after failing to get past the first round of the playoffs two straight years amid all kinds of turmoil. If the path gets bumpy again, things could get ugly fast.

Former Giants
Frank Gifford has been part of America's public consciousness for more than 50 years. He was a star for the Giants in the 1950s and 60s, a player so good he is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Gifford was a renowned broadcaster in the 1970s, 80s and 90s. He headlined the telecasts of numerous Super Bowls and Olympic games and for 27 years he was the constant voice on one of the country's most popular primetime shows, Monday Night Football. In 1986, Gifford married Kathie Lee, a television star who helped open a new realm of celebrity for him.

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