No comeback for Feagles: 'I won't pull a Favre' »

Jeff Feagles woke up a week ago Monday with a sore back and a swollen knee and suddenly feeling every one of his 44 years. So instead of going to workout, he made a pot of coffee for his wife and then told her that his NFL career was done.

That’s the whole story on how Feagles, one of the best directional punters in NFL history, finally decided to hang up his spikes. And unlike some people, once he made his decision, it was final. There will be no changing his mind.

“I’ve taken my last swing,” Feagles said inside the packed auditorium at the Giants’ practice facility. “I’m not going to be the guy that goes back and says ‘Yeah, well, you know I’m going to be training.’ I was trying to train to play this season. If I was going to train, I would play.

“But I’m not going to be the guy that comes back and pulls a Brett Favre on you.”

Assuming that’s true, Feagles put an end to a remarkable career this afternoon - - one that included nearly 41 miles of punts in the regular season alone. In his 22 years, he never missed a game, playing in an NFL-record 352 straight. He punted 1,713 times for 71,211 yards.
That’s 213,633 feet … or 40.5 miles.

No wonder Tom Coughlin hailed him as “in my opinion, one of the greatest Giants of all.”

“I will forever in my mind have a vision of Jeff Feagles, who is an incredibly talented directional punter,” Coughlin said. “My vision is of Jeff lofting the ball down into the corner of the field, inside the 5 yard line, and David Tyree catching the ball before it goes out of bounds and before it goes into the end zone.”

Feagles was one of the best at those “coffin corner” kicks because, as Coughlin said, he was a master of “an art which is fast fading in our game.” Nowadays, punters are more interested in showing off their leg strength, booming kicks down the field. Feagles was more of a technician, especially in his many later years.

But Feagles knew those years in the NFL were at an end, even after he re-signed with the Giants earlier this month. He said that “as I got older, one of my goals was to be able to walk away from the game on my own terms,” but he feared that was growing increasingly unlikely. He also feared that he wouldn’t be able to kick up to his usual high standards.

“I didn’t want to get out there and put my team or myself at risk,” he said. “And I’m miserable when I’m not playing well. (My wife) Michelle can attest to that. So can the kids. I didn’t want to go through that again.”

So instead, he made the decision to walk away while he still could.

“My mind was telling me that I want to go back and do this,” Feagles said. “I think my mind will tell me that I always want to do this. Because it’s a great game. I’ve been doing it half my life.

“But I started working out and my body, it’s just not recovering the way it’s supposed to. I’ve always been very, very hard in my training. That’s why I’ve been able to play so long. But I just can’t do it anymore. My body is just not letting me respond to it. It’s time to move on.”

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Feagles will almost certainly not end up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, because no punter ever has. But kicker Lawrence Tynes, who was at his press conference, believes he should “be a lock.”

Tynes also raved about Feagles’ ability as the holder for field goals and his presence when Tynes was attempting kicks. That could definitely be an issue for Tynes and the Giants this year.

“It’ll be a work in progress,” Tynes said. “We’re going to have to do a lot of work. Jeff was very good. You think about the year we won the Super Bowl when we had two rookies snapping. He was very good. And the thing Jeff was, was a very calming, confident presence on the field, which always made me feel really good.”

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(nydailynews.com)