No, Kevin Gilbride isn't discussing footwear with coach Tom Coughlin for upcoming beach vacations. He's talking about the fact that NFL teams are having to fill their rosters by drafting for need later this month, and then filling in the gaps with free agency once the labor dispute has ended. Gilbride, in talking to a group of high school coaches this past week at an awards ceremony, also pulled no punches when suggesting the Giants were taking a look at Florida G/C Mike Pouncey. Gilbride then discussed another topic reporters seem to enjoy, Eli Mannin's mistake-filled 2010 campaign:
"Where he’s under duress a couple of times and you see him with the poor judgment, he’s spinning around and trying to make a play. You have to sometimes accept the sack. He protects the line and there’s not as many sacks statistically. But would you rather have a sack or would you rather have a turnover? That’s the way you have to look at it.....we had some tips and those things… It’s a combination of a lot of things but I know that (Manning) prides himself in overcoming whatever obstacles are in his path. Every other statistic it’s his best year ever."
I think we would all agree with this--that in most cases, we would rather see Eli take a sack rather than make a potentially game-changing mistake.
Cofield might ask to be traded
If Barry Cofield is forced to return to the Giants in 2011 on a one-year contract tender, the sixth-year defensive tackle will consider asking the team for a trade. Cofield, who played last year on a one-year tender as a restricted free agent, said (Thursday night) at an event in New York honoring former Giants defensive end Michael Strahan that he can't see himself returning under the same circumstances...
No big surprise there, but psst, hey Barry....places like San Diego or Oakland are really nice places to live during football season. Unfortunately that would mean Jerry Reese having to negotiate with Al Davis or AJ Smith.
You want to read something interesting and different this off-season? This ESPN fan contributor based in Philly wrote something up on Giants' OL Shawn Andrews. It seems like the interview amounted to a few Twitter exchanges, but I love the message Heck is conveying here--that Andrews is a good guy and was misunderstood for a large chunk of time during his rocky, injury-plagued career with the Eagles.
And while Michael Strahan spoke in March about the lockout, he was asked about it again Thursday night, and mostly repeated what he said earlier--that games could be missed and that overall, the lockout is bad for the game, and especially for players who don't make gazillions of dollars the way the stars of the league do.