Jeremy Shockey broke his
post-Super Bowl silence yesterday.
"Everybody said that I agreed to get traded and that I
would welcome a trade or that I'm unhappy. . . . But
you can't find one article that had my direct quote,
except from an anonymous source or from this person or
from that person, OK?" Shockey was saying yesterday at
the POWERade Pro Challenge for children and
heat-stricken media at Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
That was the good news.
It doesn't mean Shockey and the Giants don't
desperately need to sit down and clear the air.
His broken leg isn't 100 percent yet and his broken
relationship with some member or members of the front
office requires immediate healing.
To wit: why was he watching the Giants shock the
Patriots from a skybox?
"And the truth is, I went to the Super Bowl game to go
watch my team play; the Giants wouldn't let me sit on
the sidelines with my teammates - I was forced to sit
up in a box," Shockey said.
I said to Shockey: "And that ticked you off."
"Words can't explain," he said.
I asked him: "What is your relationship with the front
office right now?"
"That's between the management and myself," Shockey
said.
I asked him: "Do you want to and expect to play for the
Giants this year?"
"Tough questions," he began. "I'm not the Giants front
office, because they feel like they have to tell the
world about things that happened . . . when it's a
situation like this that's so severe, you don't leak it
in the media. I'm not ever going to be a leak, its a
team. But they feel like they're obligated to put their
feelings in the media, which really hurt my family and
myself, with the things I've done for them."
Shockey said he had texted yesterday morning with
co-owner Steve Tisch.
"I consider him a father figure to me - and he would
never betray me, like some other people that are
there," Shockey said.
I asked him: "Would you welcome a trade?"
"I'm not saying that - no comment," Shockey said.
"Whatever's happened between the Giants and myself is
gonna stick between the Giants and myself."
I asked him: "Will you be at minicamp?"
"I plan on fulfilling my contractual obligation but the
No. 1 thing that I'm going there for is to be with my
teammates (who) I miss so much," he said.
When he arrived, wearing a black POWERade T-shirt and
shorts, he had offered a statement: "I'm here for
POWERade, fellas, and the statement I would like to
make about the Giants and the speculation in the
offseason is that whatever happens between the upper
management, the lower management, the owners, any
management, is gonna stay between my representation and
them. Unlike the Giants, I'm gonna be quiet. They've
released multiple things about myself and if you look
back into the media, there's always a source. Well I'd
like to know who the source is, and we'll go over here
and we'll deal it out ourselves because I haven't said
one negative thing towards the Giants."
At the event, he instructed youngsters how to catch a
football. "Concentrate . . . it's all in your eyes!" He
eagerly helped a young child off with the Jets jersey
he was wearing: "Take your shirt off, take your shirt
off!" He stopped and posed for pictures and signed a
football for Jake Weingarten, my seven-year-old nephew.
Antonio Pierce reiterated yesterday that the Giants
would be fools to trade Shockey. Yes they would. They
need to make him wanted again. It was hell for him
watching that magical run on crutches from afar. Their
best chance to repeat is with a happy, healthy Shockey.
They are a better team with him. Time for a group hug.
(nypost.com)