Hakeem Nicks sees similarities between Colts, 2011 Giants

Hakeem Nicks won a Super Bowl ring with the 2011 New York Giants, a team that barely made it into the playoffs and was a heavy underdog throughout. Sunday, he will be part of an underdog Indianapolis Colts team trying to follow the same path when it faces the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship Game. The symmetry, and similarity, is not lost on Nicks.

"We was the underdogs. We don't mind being the underdogs," he said. "I feel like once everybody doubted us, that gave us hope, that let us know that all we've got is us and all we've got is each other."

Nicks is the only former Giant who will be playing a key on-field role in this week's championship games. He is a part-time player for Indianapolis after having for years been the No. 1 receiver for the Giants. He had career lows in catches (38), yards receiving (405) and yards per catch (10.7) He did catch four touchdown passes after not reaching the end zone last season with the Giants. He also caught a 15-yard touchdown pass last weekend against the Denver Broncos.

Nicks did play all 16 games in 2014, something he had never done before.He had a series of injuries in New York, and appears to believe he didn't handle them the right way:

"I think in New York, I was just having injury after injury and I think I just wasn't taking care of it the right way," Nicks told reporters Thursday, according to an interview transcript from the NFL. "I just kept trying to play through them instead of being patient and sitting and let it heal.

"Now, I am extremely healthy. Looking back on it now, I think that's something that I just had to go through. My body was adjusting."

No doubt Nicks and the Giants needed to get away from each other after the 2013 season. Will you be glad to see it if the ex-Giant makes a couple of big plays for Luck and the Colts on Sunday, or will it just annoy you?