superpunk
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Posted by Mike Garafolo September 20, 2007 3:32PM
Categories: Regular Season
Tim Farrell/The Star-Ledger
The general is having a bad week.
Here they go again. For the first time since the days following the fourth-quarter blowup in Tennessee last year, the Giants are telling the media they don't know squat.
The defensive troops are uniting under Gen. Antonio Pierce, who today proved Tom Coughlin was wrong when the coach said earlier this week the team's mood was "serious."
Pierce took the early lead in the race for locker-room rant of the year today, though he left the door open for others because he did it with a smile on his face as he always seems to do when he goes off on the media.
But Pierce gets points for his use of a prop: He blew an air horn when the first few questions were being asked, causing several reporters to flinch. (Nope, not me. I'm a manly man.) He did so as an attempt to diffuse the questions he knew were coming.
Pierce was later asked if it's his responsibility to make sure the beleaguered defense's attitude is where it should be. And that's when his sarcastic rant began.
"I'm sorry I haven't been able to come talk to you guys," said Pierce, who hadn't spoken to the media since last week. "But I just read a book, 'Patton: How to be a better defensive leader.' General Patton was a great leader and everybody talked about him. I did finish that book, I have a lot of notes from it and I'm going to try to use them this week."
When asked what he admired about Patton, Pierce said, "Just the way he went about his business as far as being a general, (leading) the troops and everything else." Then, in a reference to reports that defensive players were dodging reporters yesterday, Pierce added: "We had some guys missing from the media, so we decided to read it together."
A book club? "It was a take-home assignment."
Did they have to do book reports? "We did and hopefully on Sunday, we'll see what our grade is."
Well, Pierce gives the media a big, red "F" for their coverage in the last few days.
"You know what, I was actually looking for applications from some guys who know anything about how to play defense," he said. "If there's anybody here. ... I guess y'all have all the Xs and Os and answers for us and you know what our problem is, everybody knows what our defense runs, so we're asking the media and the fans: If you can please help out the New York Giants defense, we'd gladly appreciate it. Fan mail can be sent to Giants.com."
One reporter suggested "cover the tight end." To which Pierce replied, "Do you have an answer for that? Did you write that book: 'How to cover the tight ends?' We don't have the answers in here, so I guess we're asking the fans, the media and everybody else that has the answers to help us out. Please, we are in need of it."
Did he think the media coverage was unfair? "You know what, we love what is said about us. It sells papers. ... We're working. And if we're sitting here holding press conferences like this, then I'm wasting my time doing this, which I love to do, but I could be watching film, which is what I do best."
Then to respond to reports that he's only done interviews for which he receives compensation in the past few days, Pierce said, "I don't get paid for media in the locker room."
Finally, somewhat seriously, he responded to another question on whether the coverage was unfair:
"No, everything was very critical. We love it. It's a fact. The fact that we're 0-2, we gave up 80 points, we're 29th in defense, we are a bad team right now. That is a fact. But it is a long season. There's 14 games left. I've seen a lot of teams 2-0 not go to the Super Bowl; I've seen a lot of teams 0-2 bounce back."
And he said the team isn't happy about its performance.
"The guys that that need to get stuff situated, we're going to get stuff situated. But when remarks are made about how our defense is ran and who does what when you have no idea what we do, that's kind of frustrating. That's what gets frustrating."
When it was finally over, he blew his air horn again and was gone.
Not to be outdone, Pvt. Strahan (I've taken the liberty of demoting him after watching the first two games) laid into reporters who were asking about the FOX sideline reporter Pam Oliver's assertion the sideline was dead in the second half on Sunday.
"Well, you know, anybody can sit on the sideline and go, 'Oh...'" Strahan said while failing to finish that sentence. "That's crap. You know what? That's crap. It's just so disappointing to me when you guys have me come out here to answer questions, you ask stuff that's just - be crea(tive) - that's crap."
So, apparently, is asking about last week.
"You go into this game trying to win this game," Strahan said. "You're not worried about last week. I guess that's what everybody here gets caught up on. Last week is over. You've covered this long enough and I've played long enough to realize the more you hang on to what happened in the past, the more likely you are to repeat it."
So what did Strahan do two minutes later? He revisited the past. Sigh.
"I was watching some film today from playing against the Commanders last year and I realized I just need to be a little more aggressive," he said.
Oh, and Strahan refused to answer a question from one particular reporter, apparently because he read something he didn't like. In fact, as soon as said reporter started asking his question, Strahan turned in the opposite direction.
Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick...
I'm telling you, the boom is coming...MG
Categories: Regular Season
Tim Farrell/The Star-Ledger
The general is having a bad week.
Here they go again. For the first time since the days following the fourth-quarter blowup in Tennessee last year, the Giants are telling the media they don't know squat.
The defensive troops are uniting under Gen. Antonio Pierce, who today proved Tom Coughlin was wrong when the coach said earlier this week the team's mood was "serious."
Pierce took the early lead in the race for locker-room rant of the year today, though he left the door open for others because he did it with a smile on his face as he always seems to do when he goes off on the media.
But Pierce gets points for his use of a prop: He blew an air horn when the first few questions were being asked, causing several reporters to flinch. (Nope, not me. I'm a manly man.) He did so as an attempt to diffuse the questions he knew were coming.
Pierce was later asked if it's his responsibility to make sure the beleaguered defense's attitude is where it should be. And that's when his sarcastic rant began.
"I'm sorry I haven't been able to come talk to you guys," said Pierce, who hadn't spoken to the media since last week. "But I just read a book, 'Patton: How to be a better defensive leader.' General Patton was a great leader and everybody talked about him. I did finish that book, I have a lot of notes from it and I'm going to try to use them this week."
When asked what he admired about Patton, Pierce said, "Just the way he went about his business as far as being a general, (leading) the troops and everything else." Then, in a reference to reports that defensive players were dodging reporters yesterday, Pierce added: "We had some guys missing from the media, so we decided to read it together."
A book club? "It was a take-home assignment."
Did they have to do book reports? "We did and hopefully on Sunday, we'll see what our grade is."
Well, Pierce gives the media a big, red "F" for their coverage in the last few days.
"You know what, I was actually looking for applications from some guys who know anything about how to play defense," he said. "If there's anybody here. ... I guess y'all have all the Xs and Os and answers for us and you know what our problem is, everybody knows what our defense runs, so we're asking the media and the fans: If you can please help out the New York Giants defense, we'd gladly appreciate it. Fan mail can be sent to Giants.com."
One reporter suggested "cover the tight end." To which Pierce replied, "Do you have an answer for that? Did you write that book: 'How to cover the tight ends?' We don't have the answers in here, so I guess we're asking the fans, the media and everybody else that has the answers to help us out. Please, we are in need of it."
Did he think the media coverage was unfair? "You know what, we love what is said about us. It sells papers. ... We're working. And if we're sitting here holding press conferences like this, then I'm wasting my time doing this, which I love to do, but I could be watching film, which is what I do best."
Then to respond to reports that he's only done interviews for which he receives compensation in the past few days, Pierce said, "I don't get paid for media in the locker room."
Finally, somewhat seriously, he responded to another question on whether the coverage was unfair:
"No, everything was very critical. We love it. It's a fact. The fact that we're 0-2, we gave up 80 points, we're 29th in defense, we are a bad team right now. That is a fact. But it is a long season. There's 14 games left. I've seen a lot of teams 2-0 not go to the Super Bowl; I've seen a lot of teams 0-2 bounce back."
And he said the team isn't happy about its performance.
"The guys that that need to get stuff situated, we're going to get stuff situated. But when remarks are made about how our defense is ran and who does what when you have no idea what we do, that's kind of frustrating. That's what gets frustrating."
When it was finally over, he blew his air horn again and was gone.
Not to be outdone, Pvt. Strahan (I've taken the liberty of demoting him after watching the first two games) laid into reporters who were asking about the FOX sideline reporter Pam Oliver's assertion the sideline was dead in the second half on Sunday.
"Well, you know, anybody can sit on the sideline and go, 'Oh...'" Strahan said while failing to finish that sentence. "That's crap. You know what? That's crap. It's just so disappointing to me when you guys have me come out here to answer questions, you ask stuff that's just - be crea(tive) - that's crap."
So, apparently, is asking about last week.
"You go into this game trying to win this game," Strahan said. "You're not worried about last week. I guess that's what everybody here gets caught up on. Last week is over. You've covered this long enough and I've played long enough to realize the more you hang on to what happened in the past, the more likely you are to repeat it."
So what did Strahan do two minutes later? He revisited the past. Sigh.
"I was watching some film today from playing against the Commanders last year and I realized I just need to be a little more aggressive," he said.
Oh, and Strahan refused to answer a question from one particular reporter, apparently because he read something he didn't like. In fact, as soon as said reporter started asking his question, Strahan turned in the opposite direction.
Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick...
I'm telling you, the boom is coming...MG
