Your New York Sports Blog

• It has been reported that rookie WR Mario Manningham's performance during last week's mini camp was disappointing. Apparently he had a tough time tracking down deep passes and ran a few incorrect routes. I've read specifically from Mike Garafolo's report that Manningham had dropped a pass in the end zone in which he had to jump to go get. Other than that I haven't read any specific troubles he has had besides mixing up some routes. I think the media is overplaying this situation because 1. He is a rookie learning a new playbook at the WR position which is said to be one of the hardest to learn as a first year player and 2. He only scored a 6 on the wonderlic test, he obviously isn't Albert Einstein, let's give the guy a break.
• Plaxico Burress released a statement yesterday saying he expects his contract dispute to be resolved before training camp in July and that he would like to play another five or six years and retire as a Giant. His ankle must be feeling a lot better if he plans on playing another five or six seasons.
  
• Ahmad Bradshaw behind bars?! Thats right, according to Skip Wood of USA today, the Giants second year running back has been incarcerated since June 15th for violating terms of his probation. No word yet on what he did to violate probation but he is only on probation in the first place for stealing a students video game from the Dorms back at Marshall. What a joke.

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Mini camp has not been all smiles for the Giants. First we had Plaxico Burress stating that he may hold out because he wants a contract extension and more money added onto his contract and now we have Jeremy Shockey in a fight with the front office.

At mini camp last week Jeremy Shockey and Jerry Reese got into a shouting match. No one knows what was exactly said, but we do know what Jeremy Shockey's agent Drew Rosenhaus had to say on whether or not Jeremy Shockey wanted to remain a Giant.

“I don’t specifically have a way to address that at this time because Jeremy’s been very adamant about avoiding any public discussion about a situation. The best thing I can say about Jeremy’s situation is that we are talking to the team about some of the issues that exist and we hope to get that resolved.”

...Speculation says that Shockey was upset that the team would not allow him on the sidelines during the Super Bowl and that they were spreading rumors that he was upset with the organization and that he wanted to be traded from the team that drafted him.

It's hard to take a side because if they did indeed spread rumors you could see why Shockey was pissed. Not only were they trying to get rid of him, but they turned the fans on him and made them feel that a rookie tight end would help this team more than one of the best and most talented tight ends in the league.

If a trade wasn't going to happen one may now, but we will see how things play out.

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The last memory we have of Plaxico Burress is a good one and that is of course the game winning Super Bowl catch against the Patriots. That catch capped of the perfect season and a great season for Plaxico himself. Each and every week he skipped practice and each and every week he came out and performed with a final season of 70 receptions, 1,000+ yards, and 12 TD catches with almost 15 yards per catch.

With the accumulation of his great season and spikes in prices for receivers Plax is not satisfied with his current contract status. At today's mandatory mini camp everyone showed up including Jeremy Shockey who was rumored to be skipping out and so did Plax, but he did not participate in any drills.

According to Plaxico he is not happy with his contract at all and demands he gets more money and more years added onto his contract.

This is a very similar case to the one the Jets had with Coles. He is not being a prick about the way he is going about it and ESPN has some stats to back up Plaxico's case.

By current standards, Burress is being underpaid. Terrell Owens of Dallas and Randy Moss of New England recently signed three-year contracts for $27 million, while Larry Fitzgerald of the Arizona Cardinals got a four-year, $40 million contract with a $30 million guarantee.
Burress and Eli Manning have combined for 29 touchdown catches since 2005, the most by a receiver-quarterback tandem in the league during that time.

If you are the Giants you are eventually going to have to give in. He is on of the top wide receivers in the league, still performing at a high level, and can lead for example to newly drafted Mario Manningham. Plus if you take Plax at of the loop what do you have? Toomer, Tyree, and Smith? It is plausible, but it will not get you to the Super Bowl any time soon.

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