Super Bowl XLVI: 10 Players Who Should Have the Best Media Day Sound Bites

Media Day during Super Bowl Week has been degrading into more and more of a free-for-all every year as anyone with a pen and the ability to write seems to be able to get credentialed.

Every year, it seems legitimate writers spend less and less time bothering to fight through the freak shows and embarrassing questions, and every year there seems to be more of both.

That said, there always are, and will be, some good quotes.

Most of the quotes this week will come from the New York Giants because we all know that New England head coach Bill Belichick runs a tight ship. The mantra in the Pats organization is 'be brief, be vague." Not be impolite, not be silent—just don't produce good quotes.

During the 2010 playoffs, we saw Belichick bench Wes Welker for a quarter due to a good-natured shot at Jets head coach Rex Ryan.

There are a few New England players who, given who they are or some outside forces, may end up coughing up some good quote.

The Giants will have no such concerns. They walk proud and talk big. That shadow falling across your front yard might be the enormous chip on their collective shoulders.

Expect plenty of juicy moments from the Big Blue.

I can only hope one tops what Buffalo Bills running back said when he was asked how he got psyched up to play in big games:

"I read the newspapers and look at all the stupid questions you all ask."

Wes Welker

Chances are Welker learned his lesson last year and will keep his mouth relatively shut. That's why he's first on the list.

It's not likely he flaps his gums, but we know he's capable of letting a juicy soundbite pop out, and he has a pretty good sense of humor.

I'd say the chances are no better than 50/50, but if he does let loose, it should be a good one.

Shaun Ellis

If he were still a Jet, we could put money on this one because we know Ellis loves to talk. Or maybe loved to talk since he has most certainly bought into the Patriot way.

Still this is only THE biggest stage and while I don't know that he'll provide us with something as wonderful as he might have with Rex Ryan's crew, I think he'll give us a bit of braggadocio before the media session is over.

Chad Ochocinco

I don't care if he only has 15 catches on the year or 150, one touchdown or a million. Who are we talking about here?

Sure, he's been quiet since he started the season by being in awe of his team and getting shouted down by ex-Pat Teddy Bruschi because of it.

This is Ocho we're talking about. On the biggest media stage EVER. It is entirely possible he never gets this venue again. He knows it. Chad is many things, one of which is that he's career savvy.

Oh, Chad will say something. He's been out of practice though so...I don't know how good it'll be.

Hakeem Nicks

Nicks isn't a huge talker, especially compared to his buddy Victor Cruz (we'll get to Cruz, don't worry). He yaps a bit but tends to make his statements on the field, not at the mic.

That said, he's a premiere wide receiver, and it's in most premiere wide receivers' DNA to talk some trash. Especially before a big game like this.

I don't think he'll talk too much trash, but I have a feeling that he'll be good for a few nice quotes by the end of the media session.

Justin Tuck

We know Tuck is good for a mouthful of foot off and on, right Dallas fans?

It's not 100 percent guaranteed that Tuck will pop off, but I assume he has some words somewhere to describe his love of all things Patriots. It won't take much prodding. Let's be honest. The guy likes to talk.

He's even weighed in on the Umenyiora-Light brouhaha.

I don't think he's going to provide bulletin board material for sure, but I know he's a guy who might enjoy the coming spotlight a bit too much. The man should be good for a quote.

Eli Manning

Eli has come a long way this year. He started off by talking about being an elite quarterback, and recently, the subject came up again.

For myself, I didn't buy into it when he said it in August, but he's played very well this year so the argument can be made.

It's not hard to imagine it coming up many times this week. Add to that the fact that his brother, Peyton, is still in career mid-air and that Eli recently was asked about his brother coming to NY, which the media blew way out of proportion...

I have a feeling Eli will be very, very quotable this week.

Matt Light

This one is going to happen, but it's going to be a situation where Light is put on the spot. For some reason, the offensive tackle has drawn the ire of Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora.

We'll talk about Umenyiora in a few slides, but he's definitely taken a dislike to Light.

The "beef" dates back to 2007—already a huge storyline for this Super Bowl—when they scrapped in the regular-season finale, and Umenyiora called Light a dirty player. They got into it again when the teams played this November.

It's hard to imagine Light not being put on the spot and harder to imagine him not biting a little bit.

You can only get called out so often without firing back.

Brandon Jacobs

For the past few seasons, we've only really heard from Jacobs when he was whining about playing time.

Then Ahmad Bradshaw got hurt and Jacobs became the lead back, got his confidence back and set his jaws flapping again.

The height of his jawing came when he had a little postgame tiff with fellow big mouth Rex Ryan after the Giants pounded the Jets in their regular season matchup.

It's going to be hard to top "And I told him I'll punch him in the face" and “Rex Ryan is a disrespectful bastard. The Jets have a big-mouth, big-belly coach that talks too much.”

I don't expect him to hit that high standard. I know he'll give us something this week though.

Victor Cruz

Cruz does seem to love the spotlight, doesn't he?

Nothing wrong with that, as he continues to play at a high level, and it's not to say he doesn't appreciate what he's got, because he does.

He may stay humble in many ways, but he won't hesitate to call his shots either. Remember the "nobody is scared of Revis" moment?

Cruz had a great day, but it wasn't at Revis' expense. So we know he likes to talk even if he's not always able to back it all the way up.

Hey, it's one of the reasons we love the guy.

Cruz is bound to call someone or something out this week.

Osi Umenyiora

So, remember a few slides back when we mentioned Patriots offensive tackle Matt Light and how Osi Umenyiora didn't like him? We talked about how Light will have to comment as he's bound to be asked about it.

I bet nobody will even have to ask Umenyiora what he thinks of Light, and he'll make a comment. After all, he's talking about "rekindling" their feud on the field, and we haven't even hit media day.

Umenyiora is even talking about getting into an actual fight; the idea being that if they can both get kicked out, that gives the Giants an edge. From the above linked story:

"

"I think he's more important to his team than I am to mine right now," Umenyiora said. "So if we both fight and we both get kicked out, JPP and Tuck will have a field day."

"

Now, we can debate the type of person who enters the game to do that, the righteousness or wrongness of it. We can point to Brandon Marshall saying something similar about getting ejected from a Jets/Phins game this season but he didn't quite back that up.

These things often don't happen because you have to be a special kind of stupid to get kicked out of any NFL game on purpose, much less THE SUPER BOWL.

That won't stop Umenyiora from flapping his gums though and providing us with some outstanding Matt Light-centered quotes this week.

You have to love the guy.