Giants-Saints: Shockey Eager To Face Old Mates

(Photo by Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images)

Outspoken TE Hasn't Learned His Lesson

Maybe the New Orleans Saints will buck four decades of ineptitude and finally win a Super Bowl this year.

Perhaps then, we might listen to what Jeremy Shockey has to say.  That is, if he contributes.

You see, if Jeremy Shockey isn't at the center of something, he wants no part of it.  The definition of a team player is just the opposite: sacrificing one's self for the good of the whole.

So, the Saints will need a different Jeremy Shockey than the world knows if they plan on beating the Giants or the Vikings en route to that Super Bowl.

From where I stand, Shockey hasn't changed. He still has a schoolboy mentality.

This week, instead of saying positive things about his time in New York, he told The Times-Picayune that he "still had a bitter taste in his mouth" about the way his Giants career ended.

"It's just something that if you cross me once—it's hard enough to gain my trust as it is—and if you lie to me and if you say something behind closed doors between that person and myself ..."

Meanwhile, the Giants, who never asked anything more of Shockey than to simply just show up, have said little.

Eli Manning, who bore the brunt of many a Shockey public barbs, was asked if he thought Shockey would come to Sunday's game with extra incentive.

"Yeah, I'm sure he's excited for the game," Manning said. "I think he gets excited for every game. I'm sure he'll be ready to play."

"Shockey was and is a tremendous player, a great talent and a great teammate of mine for a number of years," Eli said. "He scored a lot of touchdowns, made a lot of big plays for us. When he got hurt, we struggled for some time without him."

Giants' coach Tom Coughlin had this to say:

"Jeremy Shockey is an excellent football player," Coughlin said. "He was an outstanding player here. When I first came here, I don’t think that the world was aware as they should have been of the quality of the player he was, in terms of the all-around player. I thought he was an outstanding blocker. We all know about his vertical abilities and the seams and all the other things he does so well. Jeremy Shockey is a heck of a football player."

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