TE coach Pope on Shockey

Giants TE coach Mike Pope and the rest of the assistants were made available to the media today. Obviously, the hot topic was Jeremy Shockey, which made Pope a popular guy.

Pope said he hasn't spoken to Shockey "most recently." Apparently that means within the past few weeks because he did say he talked to Shockey around draft time. But Pope still had a pretty good feel for the situation and indicated there are some rough patches that need to be smoothed over, though he downplayed Shockey's frustrations with the offense. The vibe Pope put out there was that any player who misses a Super Bowl victory feels removed from the team and needs to feel welcome again.

"We spoke about that right before the draft and through the winter a little bit, yeah," Pope, who has been an assistant for all of the Giants' Super Bowl championships, said of his chats with Shockey. "A good way to look at that is the picture of Phil Simms in the tunnel out here. We all remember that shot. And Phil has said how difficult that was for him. I don't think you can individualize this. Any player who's a big part of the team and gets out of the roster for a period of time, it's a terrific shock because that's what they do. He had a lot to do with us getting there and it's every player's goal to play in that game and win the game. I know he was very, very upset about not being able to finish what we collectively started. I'm sure there was a lot of disappointment."

There have also been plenty of rumors and reports that this situation could result in a divorce. Pope doesn't expect that to occur and he anticipates Shockey's arrival in time for mandatory minicamp from June 11-13.

"I don't think he's any different than other players. Once the team gets back together and they get involved together, those things - whatever they have been - tend to become less of a factor and they eventually disappear," Pope said. "You start playing together, you start winning and the upside of the game is what you're looking at, then things usually run fairly smoothly."

As for the rumblings his teammates don't want Shockey around, Pope quickly dismissed them by saying, "I haven't spoken to anyone who hasn't texted him or talked to him. He's very close to several of our players. ... These guys are all about winning and if players are here that can help us win, they're usually favorably looked on."

And then of course there are the suggestions Eli Manning was better in the postseason because Shockey wasn't around. Not so, said Pope.

"That's demeaning to both players. To think that one player has to be out of the picture before another player can surface, that's ludicrous," Pope said. "Eli Manning has been on a constant scale of improvement; that's very obvious. ... (Manning's improvement) wasn't (the result of) the absence of anybody; it was the ascension of some other players. You'd have to be pretty narrow-minded to look at things that way. This was not a situation wher the vice president becomes president because something bad happened to the president."

And finally, when asked about Shockey's recovery from a broken leg, Pope said he heard he's coming along well and is running in the sand pits in Miami to strengthen his legs.

"He gets hurt, but he's a quick healer because he pushes himself," Pope said.

(blog.nj.com)