New York Giants Notes: Locking Up While Locking Out Edition

With a possible NFL lockout looming next week, there is a lot of chatter around the NFL about the possibility that team employees will also be left out and lose salary. That's not the case with the New York Giants, as Ed Valentine reported Thursday. But amid all of the labor talks, the Giants are also trying to lock up head coach Tom Coughlin for a few more years. There isn't much more to the story than what is being reported in this article, but I know many of you have been debating the TC tenure question for months and even years now.

But what appears likely is that Coughlin will be offered a contract extension and accept it, and he will coach the Giants for at least the next two to three seasons. Are you on board with that? I think many of us are providing the Giants realize that they are still paying Tom Quinn to be their special teams coach, and do something about that. For those of you who would have preferred a change at head coach, I ask you, "Who would you rather have that is a current NFL head coach?" I bet you can't realistically come up with more than three or four.

Giants WR Steve Smith is staying busy with family, knee rehab | NJ.com
Steve Smith is doing just fine right now, thank you very much. His knee injury, his status as a free agent and the looming lockout? Yeah, all that stuff is still there. But so is Carter Smith, born Feb. 18 — Steve’s first child, and a welcome reason to smile in otherwise hard times.

It sure is nice to hear and see Smitty talking about rehabbing that knee, but it is going to be a long and sometimes painful process. And we all have to hold our collective breath that his knee heals the way it's supposed to. And then the part about Smith endorsing tofu is pretty funny. I mean, no disrespect to you vegetarians out there, but blech!

Mediator Cites ‘Strong Differences’ in N.F.L. Talks - NYTimes.com
The federal mediator working with N.F.L. team owners and the players union said Thursday that "very strong differences remain on the all-important core issues that separate the parties." With a week to go before the collective bargaining agreement expires, and after seven days of lengthy talks, it was an indication that it was unlikely a new deal would be done by next week, setting up possible decisions by team owners about whether to lock out players and by the union about whether to decertify.

Oh, boy. I thought all of the meetings this past week had been productive, but I guess not. With talks to resume March 1, there will be three whole days to nail a deal down, but right now that doesn't seem to be a reality. I think we all should accept the fact that there will be a lockout, but the questions that will remain are how long that lockout will last and how much it will impact the 2011 season.

So, now that February is about to turn into March, with a somewhat lame sports calendar, and with an impending lockout putting a damper on even the free agency signing period, I have a suggestion -- it's time to break out the 2007 Super Bowl season DVD again. Are you with me???? I bet these folks are. Either way, have a great weekend....