Tag: Justin Tuck

Justin Tuck visits East Rutherford, gives speech to Giants players

New York Giants great Justin Tuck visited East Rutherford on Wednesday and spoke to Giants players.

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The New York Giants entertained a familiar face at their OTA practice on Wednesday when they were paid a visit by two-time Super Bowl champion and former defensive captain Justin Tuck.

Also in attendance was the Stanley Cup, which the New York Rangers are vying for at the moment in NHL Playoffs. Over the years, Tuck has been a regular at rangers games at Madison Square Garden.

Tuck informally addressed the team. Since there was no media access, it is unknown what he told them.

The Giants close out their OTAs this week and will conduct their mandatory minicamp next week, June 7-9.

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Former Giants DL Justin Tuck tweets out hilarious response to receiving cards of Ravens K Justin Tucker

Former Giants defensive lineman Justin Tuck tweeted out a funny response after receiving cards of Ravens kicker Justin Tucker

The Baltimore Ravens have been lucky to have the ability to call kicker Justin Tucker’s name whenever they need three points. Whether it’s in a clutch situation or simply a chip-shot, Tucker is as reliable as they come.

Tucker has been in Baltimore for many years, but one player who never put on a Ravens jersey throughout his career is former New York Giants defensive end Justin Tuck. Tucker and Tuck have very similar names, and sometimes that causes a bit of confusion. In the most recent example of getting the two mixed up, Tuck tweeted out a hilarious response to receiving cards of Tucker that someone wanted him to sign.

This isn’t the first time that Tuck and Tucker have been mistaken for each other based off of their names. Tuck has offered his thoughts on the mix ups.

This was all most likely an honest misunderstanding, but it makes sense why Tuck mentions that everyone should double check, especially when it comes to things that can be easily confused. Tuck and Tucker are awfully similar names, but they both have distinguished NFL legacies that will never be forgotten.

Giants great Justin Tuck to be inducted into Alabama Sports Hall of Fame

New York Giants great Justin Tuck will be inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in May.

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Former New York Giants defensive captain and two-time Super Bowl champion, Justin Tuck, is among the eight Alabama-based figures named to the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2022. Inductions will take place on May 7, 2022.

The other seven inductees are Philip Rivers and William Andrews (football), Jake Peavy, Rusty Greer and Doyle Alexander (baseball), Patrick Murphy (softball) and Keith Askins (basketball).

Tuck was born March 29, 1983 in Kellyton, Alabama and attended the University of Notre Dame where he redshirted his freshman year and played three seasons with the Irish. He set several school records despite struggling with an ACL injury in his final season. His sophomore season he set the school record with 13.5 sacks and 43 tackles for loss. He holds the school record with 24.5 career sacks.

In 2005, he was drafted by the New York Giants in the third round of the NFL Draft.

During his career, Tuck won two Super Bowl titles (XLII, XLVI), was a two-time Pro-Bowler (2008, 2010), second-team All-Pro (2010), first-team All-Pro (2008), and was presented with the New York Giants Ring of Honor in 2016. He had 510 career tackles, 66.5 sacks, 22 forced fumbles, and three interceptions.

Alabama Sports Hall of Fame past inductees with Giants’ ties include: Tucker Frederickson, Ray Perkins, Richmond Flowers, Howard Cross, Jeff Rutledge and David Cutcliffe.

And now, of course, Justin Tuck.

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Notre Dame’s all-time single season sack leaders

Will Isaiah Foskey be atop this list in another month?

Notre Dame is known by some as “Tight End U” or “O Line U” because of the talent they put into the NFL seemingly annually at both of those positions.  Defensive line is another spot they’ve excelled historically and the Irish have another great defensive front this fall.

Part of that unit, Isaiah Foskey, has already recorded eight sacks this season which tie him for the most by a Notre Dame player since a pair of players recorded eight during the 2018 campaign.

Where does that eight rank on Notre Dame’s all-time single season list for most sacks in a year, however?

Here are the top seven (14 individual seasons total) single season sack leaders in Notre Dame football history:

Twitter reacts to Notre Dame’s win over USC

Notre Dame is riding high after reasserting itself as the dominant team of late in its rivalry with USC. After a one-year absence, the excitement for this matchup had not dwindled, and it was great to see the game play out as it did. There will come …

Notre Dame is riding high after reasserting itself as the dominant team of late in its rivalry with USC. After a one-year absence, the excitement for this matchup had not dwindled, and it was great to see the game play out as it did. There will come a season in which the Irish lose to the Trojans again, but 2021 will not be the year. So the only thing to do is celebrate.

Here are some Irish fans who reacted to this game for better or worse:

Joe Judge on Giants legends: ‘I want them involved with our team’

Following a visit from Osi Umenyiora, Justin Tuck and Mathias Kiwanuka, Joe Judge says he wants more legends to be involved with the Giants.

Three former New York Giants pass rush legends showed up to training camp to check things out this week.

Justin Tuck, Mathais Kiwanuka and Osi Umnayiora all stopped by the Giants’ training facility on Monday to get an up-close look at this year’s version of Big Blue.

Giants head coach Joe Judge loved the idea of old being new.

“Osi, Kiwi and Justin coming back and talking to the team, that was huge for us. I’ve said it from the beginning, this is a different organization, there is a connection between past players, past history of these teams and the players that sit in these chairs today,” Judge told reporters on Tuesday.

“It’s important our players understand and have respect for the history that they come after. They have to understand what’s happened, the players who did it, and the culture and the standards that remain consistent throughout those great times of this organization.

“Without going into direct specifics of what they said, I would just say that everything you could ever ask to be said to a team and needed to be said, they covered. Covered very direct from a player’s perspective, very strong message, it was very well received. I heard from a lot of players, a lot of coaches, I could say from my own perspective of the impact it had on the team in terms of understanding the standards, the expectations of former players, this is different. Some organizations, you kind of come and go. This is one of the different ones where history matters, history carries over.

“In terms of former players coming back here, if anyone hasn’t heard my voice yet, I hope they hear it now, I want them back. I want them here, I want them involved with our team, I want them here at practice, I want them in meetings, I want them around our players, I want our players to understand the pressure they should have on them from past players who achieved great things here. I want these guys in this program. They were here before us and the history of this program will go on after we’re gone here. I want them to understand they are valued, they are respected and they are important to the players who are currently on this roster and our current players have to understand the significance the players played in establishing the culture here.”

Tuck was the Giants’ defensive captain and a two-time Super Bowl champion. Osi was a second-round pick out of Troy in 2003 and was also a two-time Super Bowl champ as was Kiwanuka, the Giants’ first-round pick out of Boston College in 2006.

Umenyiora is seventh on the Giants’ all-time sack list with 75. Tuck is 10th with 60.5. Kiwanuka amassed 38.5. Umenyiora forced an incredible 35 fumbles in his career. Kiwanuka forced 13 and Tuck 22.

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Colts see some Justin Tuck in Dayo Odeyingbo’s game

Colts see plenty of upside with Dayo Odeyinbgo.

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The Indianapolis Colts are willing to be patient for the potential payoff when it comes to rookie pass rusher Dayo Odeyingbo, who is currently rehabbing from an Achilles tear in January.

Throughout the pre-draft process, the Colts kept going back to watch Odeyingbo’s tape, and the Vanderbilt product quickly became a favorite for general manager Chris Ballard and director of scouting Morocco Brown.

Though they may have to wait a year while Odeyingbo gets healthy, Brown and the scouting department see some shades of former New York Giants pass rusher Justin Tuck in Odeyingbo’s game.

“During the draft process, the Colts’ director of scouting, Morocco Brown, compared Odeyingbo to Justin Tuck, a third-round pick of the Giants in 2005,” wrote The Athletic’s Zak Keefer following a media film session with Ballard. “Tuck became a mainstay on New York’s defensive line, racking up more than 60 sacks in nine seasons and helping them win two Super Bowls.”

It’s easy to see the comparison from Tuck to Odeyingbo. Both pass rushers are explosive and lengthy. They may not win with extreme bend while running the arc, but their skillset and versatility play well in an aggressive front.

It’s hard for Ballard to contain his excitement when it comes to the potential of Odeyingbo.

“I couldn’t be any more excited about a kid,” Ballard said via Keefer. “He’s still young, but he’s got a really unique skill set with his length, his body control. He’s also really grown up in his career. You like to see that maturation each year.”

The Colts didn’t believe Odeyingbo would make it out of the second round and given their questions about how many true left tackles were in the draft, this pick seemed to be pretty easy for Ballard.

If the Colts wind up getting a Tuck-like career from Odeyingbo, no one will remember having questions about the pick on draft night.

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Justin Tuck calls for Giants to trade up, select DeVonta Smith

Retired New York Giants defensive captain Justin Tuck has called for the team to trade up and select WR DeVonta Smith in April’s draft.

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Alabama wide receiver DeVonta Smith is a superstar in the making and literally everyone knows it. If they didn’t before, they certainly do now after watching Smith put up 215 yards and three touchdowns in a National Championship Game victory over Ohio State.

It was Smith’s final live-game audition before the 2021 NFL draft in April and there’s no doubt every single team is keeping a close eye on him. However, only a small handful will have a shot to land him and that number of teams slimmed down a bit after his historic performance on Monday night.

The New York Giants, who are slated to pick No. 11 overall, are likely on the outside looking in. But that didn’t stop current and former players from marveling at Smith’s dominance, with one former defensive captain even calling for the Giant to trade up for Smith.

Here’s a look at a few other reactions to Smith’s remarkable championship performance:

Smith to the Giants seemed like a long-shot prior to Monday night’s performance — now it feels like a pipe dream. But maybe general manager Dave Gettleman will heed Tuck’s advice and move up for a shot at the game-changing wide receiver, which is exactly what New York needs.

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Throwback Thursday: Giants, Victor Cruz crush Jets’ spirit on Christmas Eve

In our latest Throwback Thursday, we revisit Christmas Eve in 2011 when the New York Giants crushed the New York Jets’ spirit.

The New York Giants have never played a game on Christmas Day. In fact, only four teams had done so before 1989 and that was in the 1971 playoffs when the league couldn’t avoid playing games on Christmas that year.

The Giants have played on Christmas Eve, however. Six times as a matter of fact. The first game was in 1989 against Bo Jackson and the Los Angeles Raiders in the bitter cold at Giants Stadium (I’m still cold from that game).

The latest game was in 2017 when they were shutout, 23-0, at the hands of the Cardinals in Arizona. In between there was a 9-7 victory against Dallas in 1994, a 35-20 loss in Washington in 2005 and a 30-7 home loss to New Orleans in 2006.

The most memorable Christmas Eve game occurred in 2011 against the New York Jets. Both teams were in playoff contention heading into this Week 16 matchup and needed to win out to qualify for the postseason. This was perhaps the most important game in the history of the rivalry due to the elimination factor.

Tensions were a bit high as the Jets tore down some the Giants’ Super Bowl banners in the runway on the way out onto the field. Head coach Rex Ryan then tried to psych the Giants out by sending former Giants star receiver Plaxico Burress out to handle the opening coin flip.

The Jets (8-6) scored first on a five-yard pass from Mark Sanchez to Josh Baker. The Giants countered in the second quarter with a Lawrence Tynes 21-yard field goal and the longest play from scrimmage when Eli Manning hit Victor Cruz on a short pass and Cruz did the rest, racing past several Jet defenders for 99-yard touchdown.

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The Giants never looked back. The defense played a stellar game. Ahmad Bradshaw’s 14-yard touchdown run near the end of the third quarter extended the Giants’ lead to 17-7. Tynes opened the fourth quarter scoring with a 36-yard field goal.

The Jets narrowed the Giants’ lead to six with a one-yard Mark Sanchez sneak but the Giants kept the Jets at bay the rest of the way. Chris Canty forced Sanchez into an intentional grounding penalty in the end zone for a safety and then Bradshaw iced the game with a 19-yard touchdown run to give the Giants a 29-14 victory.

“They did a lot of talking and we let our play do the talking for us,” said safety Kenny Phillips. “We will just leave it at that.”

“We know it’s going to be hyped up – it should be,” Giants defensive captain Justin Tuck said. “I know we did a good job of saying, ‘Talk is cheap, play the game’ all week, but we knew they were going to talk a lot and we talked a little bit ourselves. We’re not that innocent. The thing we did is we came out and backed it up. That’s the most important thing. It was a must-win game for us and we get to go off to the next round, play for a playoff berth.”

The next week, the Giants took out the Cowboys at home, 31-14, to win the NFC East crown. Four games later, they were Super Bowl champions for the second time in four seasons.

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Justin Tuck, Tiki Barber among modern-era nominees for Hall of Fame’s class of 2021

Nine former members of the New York Giants are among the modern-era nominees for the Hall of Fame’s class of 2021, including Justin Tuck.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame announced the names of 130 modern-era nominees for the class of 2021 on Wednesday, and nine former members of the New York Giants made the cut.

Among them is defensive end and team captain, Justin Tuck, who is in his first year of eligibility, and running back Tiki Barber.

Tuck was a third-round pick of the Giants in the 2005 NFL Draft out of Notre Dame and went on to win two Super Bowl titles with the team over his nine-year stint in East Rutherford. He spent the final two seasons of his career with the Oakland Raiders before retiring as a member of the Giants (one-day contract).

In 2016, the Giants inducted Tuck into their Ring of Honor.

Barber was a second-round pick of the Giants in the 1997 NFL Draft out of Virginia and earned three Pro Bowl nods and one All-Pro honor during his 10-year stint with the team. Barber retired in 2006 and was indicted into the team’s Ring of Honor in 2010.

Barber remains the Giants’ all-time leading rusher (10,449).

The seven other former Giants who were listed among the 2021 Pro Football Hall of Fame modern-era nominees are running back Herschel Walker, tight end Jeremy Shockey, guard Chris Snee, punters Jeff Feagles and Sean Landeta, kick returner Brian Mitchell and offensive tackle Lomas Brown.

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