Tag: Justin Tuck

Ex-Giants take issue with 2007 Patriots being named one of best teams of century

Several retired New York Giants got a chuckle out of the 2007 New England Patriots being named one of the best teams of the century.

The 2007 New England Patriots were absolutely perfect. Until they weren’t.

Everyone knows the story by now… The Bill Belichick-coached, Tom Brady-led Patriots went 16-0 in the regular before ripping off three playoff wins to reach Super Bowl XLII where they would meet the New York Giants and easily take home the Lombardi Trophy.

Of course, that’s not how things played out.

After showing the Patriots they could hang during an electric Week 17 game, the Giants came to party. And party they did, upsetting the perfect Patriots, 17-14, to win their third Super Bowl title and first since 1990.

The win was magical and is still considered one of the greatest upsets of all-time, except to those Giants. They knew they were going to beat New England that day — it was never a question in their mind.

Still, when looking back at some of the greatest teams of the 2000s and some of the greatest teams of the century, the 2007 Patriots often get the nod and the 2007 Giants don’t.

Such was the case earlier this week when Bleacher Report released their list of the 10 best teams of the decade and had the 2007 Patriots sitting pretty at No. 4.

Retired Giants defensive linemen Justin Tuck and Dave Tollefson got a good chuckle out of the whole thing.

The Giants were relentlessly disrespected in 2007 and continue to be more than a decade later. They will never get the recognition they deserve with many passing them off as a “fluke team.”

In the end however, those Giants will forever have the last laugh. No amount of salt or disrespect will change the fact that they stomped Tom Brady and the perfect Patriots out.

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David Carr lists Eli Manning, Justin Tuck among his top NFL teammates

David Carr says retired New York Giants QB Eli Manning and DE Justin Tuck were among his top five best teammates.

David Carr spent 11 years in the NFL after going No. 1 overall to the Houston Texans in the 2002 NFL Draft, which included two stops with the New York Giants.

In addition to the Texans and Giants, Carr also played for the Carolina Panthers and San Francisco 49ers, so he’s had a wide range of experiences and a wide range of teammates at the professional level.

But which of Carr’s teammates were among the best?

That’s a question Carr pondered recently, ultimately deciding he was comfortable enough to answer it without disrespecting some of the players who failed to make the top five list.

Among those five were 49ers offensive lineman Joe Staley, Panthers wide receiver Steve Smith, Texans wide receiver Andre Johnson and two Giants.

The first was defensive end Justin Tuck.

Tuck, a two-time Pro Bowler, was respected in the locker room and on the field. At 6-foot-5, 265 pounds, he had the build of a running back who was injected with Captain America’s Super-Soldier Serum.

For real, though: Tuck always wanted the tough assignment. When game-planning for a matchup with Robert Griffin III during his rookie season, one of the first questions in the team meeting was “Who’s going to spy RG3?” Tuck immediately replied “I got it.” As you can imagine, people in the room chuckled and I thought (like most others who were present), you’re a defensive lineman, you don’t have it. Well, Tuck had it all right. Of course, the dynamic rookie made his plays but Tuck was always right there with him. During my decade in the league, I learned that there aren’t a lot of guys like Tuck who are willing to take on something so out of the ordinary from their usual position duties.

As high praise as Carr had for Tuck, he had even more for the No. 1 teammate on his list — future Hall of Fame quarterback Eli Manning.

There’s so much that I’ve already said about Manning. He’s a phenomenal leader, but I’m going to discuss his football IQ and anticipation on the field here. He spent so much time in the film room, determined to know not only his role but that of every player on the field. Leading up to Super Bowl XLVI, we had studied the New England Patriots to no end, but Manning insisted that we watch every Patriots game from seven or eight seasons prior to see if what they put on tape matched up with what our game plan was. This sort of thing happened all the time with Eli.

When it came to his anticipation, he was on a different level. There were so many times when Manning made a throw and fans and commentators would say, “What was he thinking on that pass?” They didn’t understand that Manning knew where the soft spot of the defense was and expected his receiver to be in that spot (or close to it). After watching the film of these plays, we often realized that, yeah, you know what? The receiver WAS supposed to be where Eli threw the ball. The rest of our team, myself included at times, wasn’t on his wavelength.

Manning went through a lot in New York and he faced constant scrutiny, weathering storm after storm to finish his career with two titles and a Super Bowl MVP award for each.

Carr’s admission in regard to Manning’s decision-making should give some fans and analysts pause. How many times was he criticized for a bad throw when it was actually the correct decision and he merely shouldered the blame instead of tossing one of his own teammates under the bus?

For that reason, it’s no surprise Carr has Eli as his No. 1 guy.

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2008 Giants still tormented by what could have been

Members of the 2008 New York Giants are still tormented by what could have been more than a decade later.

When looking back on some of the greatest teams ever assembled, it’s easy to forget about the 2008 New York Giants. After all, they finished the regular season with a modest 12-4 record and were embarrassed by the Philadelphia Eagles in the divisional round of the playoffs.

Still, players from that team are tormented by what could have been…

Following a Super Bowl XLII victory over the New England Patriots a year prior, the Giants started the 2008 as hot as any team in history, cruising to an 10-1 start that featured dominating win after dominating win.

“That year, I tell people all the time, was the most fun I’ve ever had playing football in my entire life,” retired center Shaun O’Hara told the New York Post. “That year we literally kicked the snot out of people. I couldn’t wait to get to the stadium on Sunday, on game day, because we were that good.

“It wasn’t like we were airing it out, either. We’re gonna run the football. They knew it, we knew it, and there was nothing they could do about it. I know we won the Super Bowl the year before but we were a better team in 2008, we were a better offense in 2008 than we were in 2007. It was by far the best team I’d ever been on.”

Entering November, the Giants had hit their stride. They felt it was a mere formality that they would become back-to-back champions and had no intention of taking their foot off the gas.

“I think that was the best team we had,” wide receiver Amani Toomer said.

“Back-to-back,” running back Brandon Jacobs also told The Post. “We were easily better than every team in the NFL that year. Easily. I’m talking about a touchdown, I’m talking about 10 points better than everybody.”

But then everything changed…

Just prior to a Week 13 game against the Washington Redskins, superstar wide receiver Plaxico Burress accidentally shot himself in the leg with an illegal handgun while he and teammates were out at a club. He was rushed to the hospital and later sentenced to prison time.

That series of events was obviously more involved, but everyone knows that story. What they forget is that the Giants were cruising — they were unbeatable following a Week 4 loss to the Cleveland Browns.

That is, until Burress had his accident and everything fell apart.

“I think about it every year around the Super Bowl, because everyone talks about how tough it is to go back-to-back and had we won that year people would have started saying the [dynasty] word,” O’Hara said. “That’s how things would have changed. Who knows the trajectory of the franchise, how different that would have been for everybody?

“We still were a good team, but when we struggled to run the football or teams found ways to stuff us a little bit we really lost that go-to guy in the passing game. That kind of made us one-dimensional at times.”

“I thought if Plaxico didn’t shoot himself, we were the best team in the NFL that year,” defensive end Justin Tuck said.

Following a 20-19 Week 17 loss to the Minnesota Vikings, several Giants player recognized that the window of opportunity had closed. The team had resigned itself to losing.

“I think going into the playoffs on a loss like that was totally different than going to play us after a hard-fought loss against the Patriots the year before,” Toomer said. “I felt like we didn’t learn from what made us great the year before. I felt aside from Plaxico shooting himself, I think we dropped the ball in a sense, we took our finger off of the trigger and kind of let up. It’s hard to turn it on and off, especially at that point we had played so much football, we had the No. 1 seed, but still, you can’t let up. I felt we let up.”

In the end, the Pittsburgh Steelers topped the Arizona Cardinals to win the Super Bowl that year, which didn’t make the Giants any less sour. After all, they had dominated each of those teams during the regular season.

“Two teams we kicked the snot out of during the regular season,” O’Hara said of Super Bowl XLIII. “If we had beat Philly, the Cardinals would have had to come up and play us at MetLife, that would have been a disaster for that offense and Kurt Warner. If we had gotten past Philly, I have no doubt we would have beaten Arizona. And we would have beaten Pittsburgh.”

“That was our best team,” former offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride said. “There’s no doubt about it. We were good in every aspect. I think we could have won. Whether you do win or don’t win, who knows? But we showed we were good enough to win another Super Bowl, I don’t think there was any question about that.”

It’s draining to think about what could have been for the franchise — what Tom Coughlin and Eli Manning’s legacy might have looked like if things didn’t go off the rails.

Where would Domenik Hixon’s career have gone? How different could life have been for Burress?

Unfortunately, all that remains are the what ifs.

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WATCH: Star-Filled Notre Dame Zoom Meeting

The fun started with Lou Holtz and Digger Phelps jumping on a Notre Dame Zoom meeting but it certainly didn’t end just there!

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before…

Lou Holtz and Digger Phelps log into a Zoom meeting…

And Justin Tuck, Rudy, Tim Brown, Raghib Ismail, Ian Book, Hannah Storm, Brandon Wimbush and a ridiculous amount of other former Notre Dame stars are there to join them.

That’s exactly what happened Tuesday night and the Twitter account @NDLoyal was there to share it with all.

Every Zoom call I’ve ever been on I find myself being like Ian Book is for the majority of that two minutes.

Pretty cool to see that many familiar faces getting together on a random Tuesday night.

Retired Giants Eli Manning, Michael Strahan join ‘Rise Up New York’

Retired New York Giants Eli Manning, Michael Strahan, Phil Simms and Justin Tuck have joined the “Rise Up New York” benefit.

On Monday, May 11 at 7:00 p.m. ET, Robin Hood, New York’s largest poverty-fighting organization, iHeartMedia and various other television and radio stations will present the “Rise Up New York!” virtual telethon.

“New York City is at the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. This crisis has created a whole new set of challenges for the millions of New Yorkers who already struggled to make ends meet,” said Robin Hood CEO Wes Moore in a statement. “This is a moment where we must all come together and rise up together as a community in support of our neighbors and in support of one another.”

The purpose of the benefit is to, “to raise awareness and funds to help New Yorkers whose lives have been dramatically impacted by COVID-19. … 100% of donations will provide support for food, shelter, cash assistance, health and mental health, legal services, education and more – helping fellow New Yorkers rebuild their lives as the city moves towards recovery and beyond.”

Celebrities and personalities such as Jimmy Fallon, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Robert De Niro, Mariah Carey, Billy Joel and New York City mayor Bill De Blasio are slated to attend/perform at the event, which will be hosted by Tina Fey.

But fans of the New York Giants may recognize a few other faces as well.

In addition to Phil Simms and Justin Tuck, retired quarterback Eli Manning and Pro Football Hall of Famer Michael Strahan will also be taking part in the event.

“People have to step up and raise to this occasion to help your neighbor,” Manning said during a SiriusXM NFL Radio interview on Monday.

“From a Giants standpoint and my teammates, these are the people that have cheered for us and been there for us in tough times and celebrated with us when we’ve won championships and gone through the Canyon of Heroes. They were there cheering for us and had our back during rough times and supported us during tough times and now it’s our time to return that favor. They need our help.”

The ultimate goal of the event if to get one million New Yorkers to donate $10 each.

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Retired Giants DE Justin Tuck joins the All In Challenge

Retired New York Giants DE Justin Tuck has joined the “All In Challenge” by offering an impressive Notre Dame VIP package.

Retired New York Giants defensive end Justin Tuck heard the challenge from Michael Strahan, and now he’s stepping up to the plate.

Tuck is the latest in a long line of current and former Giants to join the All In Challenge, which was created by Fanatics founder Michael Rubin to help provide food for children, the elderly and frontline workers during the coronavirus pandemic.

On Sunday morning, Tuck officially announced his involvement via Twitter.

“I think any time I can use my platform to raise much-needed funds for those who have been affected by this disease, not only in our national but around the world. . . We’ve all been affected in some way or another,” Tuck said. “So, I definitely am all in.”

Tuck went on to add that since so many current and former Giants have offered Big Blue-themed packages, he wanted to take things in a different direction by going back to his alma mater, Notre Dame.

Tuck’s Notre Dame VIP package includes round-trip airfare for the winner and one guest, hotel accommodations, access to pre-game festivities and the pre-game pep rally, breakfast and dinner with Tuck in South Bend and much, much more.

If you’d like to donate, bid or enter for a chance to win some of these amazing prizes and more, check out the All In Challenge website.

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Osi Umenyiora was Giants’ highest-graded player in Super Bowl XLII

Eli Manning and Justin Tuck got all the love, but Osi Umenyiora was the New York Giants’ highest-graded player in Super Bowl XLII.

On Sunday, New York Giants fans across the globe will get to re-live the elation of a Super Bowl XLII upset of the New England Patriots as FOX re-airs the game at 3:00 p.m. ET.

As part of that, a debate is likely to be rekindled: should Eli Manning have been named the Super Bowl MVP?

The easy answer is yes, but many still believe that honor belonged to defensive end Justin Tuck, who recorded two sacks and five stops in the game.

However, the use of advanced analytics has taken off in the years since that Super Bowl and now, 13 years after the fact, the entire game has been graded courtesy of Pro Football Focus and we’re able to see their interpretation of events.

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For arguments sake, Eli Manning earned an overall grade of 84.2, while Tuck earned an overall grade of 85.9.

On the surface — and assuming all other things are equal — that lends credence to those who believe Tuck deserved the MVP Award. But as it turns out, Tuck wasn’t the highest-graded Giant. He wasn’t even the highest-graded defender. That distinction goes to defensive end Osi Umenyiora.

Umenyiora earned a team-high grade of 86.9 in Super Bowl XLII, which just barely edged out defensive end Michael Strahan (86.5). And Osi’s 86.4 grade against the run was far and away the best on the team. His 83.6 pass rush grade was also second on the team, behind only Strahan (86.2).

In total, Umenyiora took 67 defensive snaps, recording four tackles, two stops, two QB hits and a team-leading six QB hurries.

We’re not saying Umenyiora deserved the MVP Award, but it is interesting to look back now and evaluate how the players were graded. So if you’re re-watching the game on Sunday, be sure to keep an eye on Umenyiora, whose performance had previously been lost in the shadows.

Also, be sure to join Pro Football Focus for grades, advanced analytics, game breakdowns, player rankings, draft guides and just about anything else you heart desire. Use promo code SCORE20 for 20% off.

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Best Giants draft picks by round since 2000

Draft season is upon us, so travel back in time as we look at some of the best New York Giants draft picks by round since 2000.

With the free agency frenzy now in the rear-view mirror and April just around the bend, it’s time to begin looking ahead (and back) at the NFL Draft, its impact and what it could mean for teams in 2020 and beyond.

While there will be weeks of coverage ahead of the 2020 NFL Draft, we here at Giants Wire decided to kick off draft season with a look back at the New York Giants’ best draft picks by round since 2000.

Here they are in reverse order:

Chris Trotman/Getty Images

Round 7: Ahmad Bradshaw (2007)

Bradshaw is far and away the Giants’ best seventh-round pick since 2000. Unless, of course, you wanted us to tab Matt Dodge or Bobby Hart for this position. No? Didn’t think so.

Bradshaw immediately took the Giants by storm in 2007 and helped propel them to a Super Bowl XLII title (and later, a Super Bowl XLVI title).

In total, Bradshaw spent seven seasons with the Giants and then three more with the Indianapolis Colts before retiring following the 2015 season.

In 103 career games, Bradshaw gained 4,928 yards and scored 36 touchdowns, adding an additional 1,493 yards and 12 touchdowns through the air.

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See it: Giants’ Saquon Barkley, Justin Tuck featured in NFL 100 commercial

Watch: New York Giants RB Saquon Barkley and retired DE Justin Tuck were featured in Super Bowl Sunday’s NFL 100 commercial.

One of the best commercials during Super Bowl LIV came courtesy of the NFL themselves.

The ad featured a group of current and former NFL players from Steve Young and Joe Montana to Christian McCaffrey and Ray Lewis. Additionally, it had a few guest appearances from other athletes including skateboarder Nyjah Huston and women’s soccer player Carli Lloyd.

Oh yeah… New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley and retired defensive end Justin Tuck also played a major role in the commercial.

Check it out:

The latest NFL 100 commercial comes as an essential sequel to the first NFL 100 ad that was used to kick off season No. 100. That ad featured Giants quarterback Eli Manning.

“When you’re dealing with something that’s highly successful, it’s always a challenge to basically not be too conservative and try to repeat what you’ve done. We took the more risky approach, and it’s paid off,” NFL executive vice president and chief marketing officer Tim Ellis told USA TODAY.

Paid off it did. The NFL continues to hit it out of the park with these commercials and we hope they keep it going for season No. 101.

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Justin Tuck on Giants’ hire of Joe Judge: ‘I like it!’

Justin Tuck approves of the New York Giants’ hire of head coach Joe Judge, but cautions that failure will not be tolerated.

When the New York Giants hired Joe Judge, the move took a lot of people by surprise. Judge became the 19th head coach in Giants history and their fourth head coach in the last five years.

In Judge’s introductory press conference, he was impressive to say the least. Prior to Pat Shurmur and Ben McAdoo, the Giants had a steady head coach with Tom Coughlin for 11 years. They now hope that with the hire of Judge, the revolving door at head coach stops.

Co-owner John Mara has already said that he expects Judge to be here for a long time. Accordingly, the Giants will seek to get back to being a winning franchise as they were during the Tom Coughlin era.

Coughlin, of course, won two Super Bowls with the Giants during his tenure with Big Blue.

One of the most important players during Coughlin’s tenure with the Giants has endorsed the Giants pick of Judge.

Justin Tuck, who was a part of both Super Bowl teams Coughlin coached, was asked about the Giants hire of Joe Judge and gave his endorsement.

“I like it,” Tuck told TMZ Sports. “New York is big enough for two Judges.”

The other Judge that Tuck was referring to was New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge. The Yankees’ Judge is a fan favorite and one of baseball’s best players. If the Giants’ new head coach can be as loved as the Yankees slugger, this will be looked upon as a great hire.

“Listen, what does it matter what I think,” Tuck continued “If he wins games, we’re going to love him. If he don’t, he’s going to get fired!”

Although the first press conference was impressive, fans still want more than lip service. So as Tuck alludes, we’ll all now need to see some wins from Judge.

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