Shockey gets a chance to make good on promise to Giants

"If the team trades me, I promise you I’m going to make them pay. If I ever get a chance to play against a team that trades me, it’s not going to be a pretty site." — Tight end Jeremy Shockey to a group of journalists about a month before the Giants traded him to New Orleans on July 21, 2008.

Shockey gets a chance to live up to that promise Sunday when the unbeaten Giants (5-0) travel to New Orleans to face the undefeated Saints (4-0) in the Superdome. His conflict with the front office, which spilled over into a shouting match with general manager Jerry Reese, punched his ticket out of town.

He since has become part of that high-scoring Saints offense engineered by quarterback Drew Brees and orchestrated by coach Sean Payton. He has caught 18 passes for 162 yards and two touchdowns in four games this season.

He’d probably like to double those season totals Sunday.

"Things that happened between some people and myself, that bitter taste will always be in my mouth," he said in an interview in Monday’s New Orleans Times-Picayune. "It’s just something that if you cross me once — it’s hard enough to gain my trust as it is — and if you lie to me and if you say something behind closed doors between that person and myself ..."

Shockey still is upset by the way he felt the team treated him after he broke his leg late in the 2007 season, the year the Giants went on to win Super Bowl XLII. He felt excluded from the team when he showed up for the game in Arizona.

"I did some things to help the organization, marketing-wise," he said. "I know they made a lot of money off of jersey sales and the things I’ve done for them. Going to the Pro Bowl four out of six years is a very big accomplishment, and I was expecting a little more respect than I was receiving."

Shockey may be on a one-man mission Sunday, but the Giants look at him as just one of 11 offensive forces on the field for New Orleans. Any vendetta does not cross team lines.

"I am sure he is excited for the game," said Giants quarterback Eli Manning. "I think he gets excited for every game. I am sure he will be ready to play.

"There were no ill feelings. Shockey was a tremendous player. I am sorry to see him go. We had a good relationship when he was here and everything was fine."

"He plays with the passion that I think you should play football with," said linebacker Antonio Pierce. "There is not a better, more competitive guy in the National Football League on offense than Jeremy Shockey. They are playing against us. He is going to be riled up. He is going to want to obviously prove a point that they made a mistake.

"But it is not Shockey vs. the Giants; it is the Saints vs. the Giants."



(bostonherald.com)