Post PM Practice – New Meadowlands Stadium

June 15, 2010

Q:  What is your reaction to working here in the new stadium?
A:  It’s good to be here; really good to be here.  We needed to get in here.  It is a beautiful, beautiful stadium.  I have been in the locker rooms, we have been upstairs.  We were in the Commissioner’s Club.  It a gorgeous place and it is one proud organization, we are, to think of this as our home stadium.  So to come in here, to have an opportunity to work on the turf, to check the wind out – it is different from Giants Stadium.  It is a different venue – it did swirl on us here today.  The crowd, the excitement, the energy to talk to our fans, to tell them how much we appreciate them and to say, hey, this is just a reminder of the 12^th Man Principle and how much we need them as we go into the regular season.  But this has been a very good experience to come in. I’m glad we did this on a beautiful, beautiful spring day.  The guys really appreciated it and it gives us a really good end to our first day – our second practice – our first day of our mandatory minicamp.
Q:  How about getting used to where the clocks are, where the replay is – there is so much that you have to get used to.
A: Yeah there us, but we have three preseason games to handle that. So that will be something that we will address as we come in here, for example, and do a two-minute drill, get ourselves oriented to where those type of things are — the 40-second, straight in front of us – very low.  So we would have to experience that. 

Q:  How is Domenik Hixon?
A:  I’m not sure yet – we’ll see.  This turf kind of snagged his foot.  He didn’t get it up out of the turf.  We are hoping that it is not something serious.  I think he will be sore tomorrow.  The extent of it, I’m not sure right now.  Domenik is a tough guy, now.  He has fought his way through some things in the past.  Hopefully this is not something serious.

JUSTIN TUCK

Post PM Practice

June 15, 2010

……..waiting for him to kind of run out of it but he keeps it going all day, all practice.  That is the biggest thing.  I love it …….

Q:  ………practice.

A:  That is not surprising. You know how New York fans are.  They probably have been champing at the bit to see some football action.  So we are excited about it.  We have the best fans in the world – no doubt about it.  I saw a guy with a Philly jersey on and I thought there was going to be a little trouble.  They kind of exiled him.  I thought he was going to get roughed up a little bit.  But it is great to be out here with our fans. We know that our fans love us and we love them, too.
Q:  Is there any way, even in late June, you can tell something about the way the field will play or the wind conditions – about what it is going to be like?
A:  You can tell. Sometimes when you look up at the goal post and one goal post is blowing in and the other one was blowing in, too.  So the wind is going to play a factor. But we like that.  We will be used to it by the time we play in here, so opposing teams are going to have something to deal with – especially come late fall.
Q:  How do you feel about this place – just kind of getting your bearings down?

A:  It is a different.  This is a new field.  So it has not been broken in yet.  It is still kind of soft.  So you have to wear the right cleats out here right now. But as we get out here on it more and get more comfortable in here, I’m sure it is just going to be just like we are making old memories like we did in old Giants Stadium.
Q:  The fans are out here just kind of hootin’ and ‘hollering.  Training camp is not here yet, ……this team and the enthusiasm of the fans seems to be as good as ever. 

A:  I think it is going to be an exciting team.  Coming off of last year and having the disappointment that we had last year – we are definitely champing at the bit to get out here and play good football.  And we didn’t do that all year last year.  And we are used to playing good football.  So that is what we want to get back to and that is what we are working for. 
Q:  It is a bit of a double edged sword.  The fans are very close to the bench.  When things are good, that can be good.  But that can also be bad. 
A:  We have ways of taking care of …………..  But that I don’t worry about.  The only thing I can do to control that is by playing good.

JOHN MARA

January 4, 2010

 Q:  How disappointing is this?

A:  Probably as disappointed as I have ever been in my life with this team, given the expectations that we had this year, given the roster that I thought we had and given the way we started out and given the embarrassment of the last two games.

Q:  When you say ‘disappointed,’ are you disappointed in the effort?

A:  Everything.  I’m disappointed in everything.  I’m unhappy at everybody.  It is just not acceptable to perform like that.  There are 8-8 seasons and there are 8-8 seasons.  This one felt a lot more like 2-14 to me.

Q:  A lot of times guys will say they don’t want to react too much to what occurred late in the season.  But it sounds like you are in not in that mode right now.

A:  Well, I’m less than 24 hours after the end of the season.  So I’m sure I’ll cool down at some point and will try to make intelligent decisions going forward.  And I’ll sit down with the coach and the general manager.  We’ll do what we need to do to improve the team.  But, obviously, I’m not very happy right now.  They know that.

 Q:  Did the last two games, particularly, tell you something? 

A:  We had — even before the last two games, there were at least four other losses where we were just not competitive.  And obviously the last two games were the worst.  But when you have that many games where you get blown out, there is something wrong.  That means that something has to be done. 

Q:  You have been around a lot of losing seasons here.  For you to say this is the most disappointed you have been in a team, what was it?

Q:  Was it a lack of fight, a lack of pride, those kinds of things?

A:  Given the expectations that we had, given the roster that we thought we had coming into the season and we start out 5-0.  And you start thinking about the postseason.  We just did not expect it to end this way, particularly the last two weeks.

A:  Lack of mental and physical toughness and, quite frankly, a lack of effort over the last two weeks.  That is just something that I never expected to see from this group of players.

Q:  What message would you want to tell your fans moving forward?

A:  We are going to do what we need to.  We are not going to leave any stone unturned. 

Q:  When you start evaluating, are you going to start evaluating from the top?

A:  That is always the way we do it.  To answer your question, I’m not pleased with anybody right now.

Q:  Both Tom Coughlin and Jerry Reese said today that, by in large, even the last two games, they did not think the team did not give effort.  Sounds like you don’t agree with that?

A:  Well, let’s just say it was not the effort that I expected. 

Q:  Did you address players?

A:  No, I haven’t.

Q:  I know your dad occasionally did that.   Did you consider doing that?

A:  I really didn’t, no.  I just really don’t think it is my place to do that.  But looking back, it probably couldn’t have hurt.

Q:  It seems like Jerry and Tom only think this team needs some tweeking.  You just said something has to be done.  It sounds like you are thinking a little more along the lines of something dramatic. 

Q:  Any changes to the coaching staff?

A:  Well, I don’t know how you define ‘dramatic.’  Obviously our roster isn’t as good as we thought it was.  So we need to take a look at that.  We are going to have to discuss everything at this point.  I don’t think we can take anything for granted after the way this season ended

A:  The status quo is not acceptable on any level.  I’m not going to get into specific positions or anything like that.  But we need to do something, and I will be expecting them to give me their recommendations on what we need to do.  And ultimately we will approve it or not approve it.

Q:  Are Jerry and Tom safe?

A:  Yes…There will be no change to the head coach or general manager, if that is what you are asking.

A:  Well, that is always what you try to do.
 

Q:  Do you want to kind of settle down a little bit and not let emotion drive you here

Q:  How long are you talking, a couple of days?

A:  I have no idea.  It is going to be awhile.  I don’t know that I will ever get over the last two weeks. 

Q:  But you need to get to the point where you can start making logical decisions?

A:  Yes.

Q:  You have no timeframe for that?

Q:  In Jim Fassel’s last year – after that year you characterized the team a certain way – I forget the exact words. 

A:  No, there is no specific time.

A:  Franchise in trouble.

Q: Franchise in trouble.  Is this a ‘franchise in trouble?’ 

A:  I don’t know that I would put it the same way here.  I think we have a pretty good nucleus of players and a pretty solid organization, notwithstanding our performance over the second half of the season, so I don’t think I would be quite that dramatic.  I think I probably made that statement within that 24-hour period.

Q:  We were very interested in the talks you had with Tom after the ’06 season and what kind of changes he made.  Do you think – do you anticipate that maybe again – speaking with him along those lines again? 

A:  I’ll certainly be sitting down.  I only spoke to him briefly this morning.  But I’m not going to tell him how to coach the team.  He has been doing this a long time and he knows how to do that better than I do.  But I am anxious to hear from both he and Jerry about what we are going to do to fix this.  We spent a lot of money this past offseason in free agency.  We didn’t get quite the results that we anticipated.  Obviously we were not as good as we thought we were.

Q:  Is that why it hurts so much?   Were you kind of blindsided by what happened here? 

A:  Listen, when you perform the way we performed over the second half of the season, it hurts, period, regardless of what you have done prior.  I have been around a long time.  I thought I had seen everything.  But I certainly didn’t see this coming.  And I certainly didn’t see the last two weeks coming.

Q: The fact that the closing of the stadium was one of those weeks, was that especially tough for you to take? 

A:  No question; no question.  That is not the way we wanted to go out in that building.  I felt that loss probably more deeply than any other, particularly the way we were so non-competitive in that game.

Q:  How much stock- if much at all – do you put in former players like Harry Carson or Carl Banks on the radio really questioning heart, character, that kind of thing?

A:  Well, I have my own eyes and ears.  I go to practice.  I’m at the games.  So I can see for myself. 

Q:  When you talk about ‘lack of physicality’ did you notice this all season?  Did you see this coming on?

A:  I think more toward the second half of the season.  I just think that — we always used to pride ourselves on being a tough team both physically and mentally.  And I didn’t see any evidence of that over the second half of the season.

Q:  Do you have any theories on why?

A:  I don’t know why.  I know we had some injuries, but I don’t think we had catastrophic injuries.  There is no excuse for performing the way we performed over basically the last 11 weeks.

Q:  This could be a very unique offseason with the CBA and everything.   There could be an opportunity for a team to kind of break the bank if they really wanted to.   What is your sense of what it is going to be moving forward and how much of a bank do you want to break? 

A:  Well, I think it has been proven that that doesn’t work.  If there are players that we are interested in, we are going to go after them.  But how many times do we have to see evidence of the fact that spending a lot of money on free agency doesn’t necessarily improve your team.  It is a lot of times about chemistry and having the right nucleus and having leadership in the locker room.  We are going to look at the free agency market and we will make decisions if we think we can improve the team. 

Q:  This could also be an opportunity for a team to unload some of the contracts without cap repercussions.

A:  Well, that is true.  But again we are not going to do anything that is going to hurt the product on the field.  If we think a guy can be a contributor, we are going to keep him.

Q:  Coach Coughlin’s contract – he has two more years on the contact.  Is that enough time for him to rebuild what you had here? 

A:  Well, I don’t know.  Two years is a lifetime.  I’m worried about next season right now and I am still trying to recover from this one. 

Q:  Do you question the leadership in that locker room?

A:  I think there was a lack of leadership in the locker room this past season.  I am disappointed that nobody emerged to act like a leader.  I think some guys tried.  I think a lot of guys have that in them. But for whatever reason, it didn’t come out this year. 

Q:  What do you make of this Osi situation?
A:  I don’t make a lot of it.  I can remember being in the locker room with Harry Carson where he was going to retire and lead a rescue mission into Iran to rescue the hostages.  You can’t place too much emphasis on it. Osi is a competitor, and I expect him to be a big part of this team in the future.

Q:  Do you see other guys on the field executing like Eli.

A:  Not enough.

Q:  When you talk about some guys having it in them to be a leader and you didn’t see it, was Eli in that group?

A:  Well, I’m not going to get into criticizing individual players.  It is just not the way I want to …..

Q:  Do you find it ironic that going into the season receivers were the big question mark and they may have been the best part of the team? 

A:  They probably were; they probably were.  That happens a lot in football, though.  You always have to expect the unexpected.  What I didn’t expect was – and probably the biggest area of disappointment – was the lack of pressure on the passer.  We thought that would be our strong suit coming into the season.  For whatever reason we didn’t generate consistent pressure on the quarterback.  And I think that hurt us tremendously this year.

Q:  Is the lack of a defensive identity tougher for you to swallow because of the history of the franchise or does it not matter? 

A:  I don’t think it matters what of side of the ball.  What disappointed me the most was the just the lack of physical and mental toughness.  Even in the game against Carolina, we go down the field – we get the touchdown called back with the penalty.  We fumble the ball and it is like we collapsed. 

Q:  Guys admitted they were demoralized. 

A:  I just don’t understand that.  It is still 0-0.  Just stop them, get off the field and go back down and score.  There were just too many instances where that occurred this year.  And that, to me, comes back to the mental toughness.  And maybe a lot of that is confidence, I don’t know.  But there was just a lack of that this year.

Q:  Regarding the evaluation process – are you waiting for Jerry and Tom to get back to you with their evaluations first or are you going to be a part of it?
A:  Tom is obviously going to talk to his coaches.  He and Jerry will meet.  I will be meeting with them on the procedures.  There will be a lot of discussions over the next couple of weeks.

 Q:  You said the status quo is not acceptable.  If Tom came to you and said, “I can turn this around with these guys,” would you be more inclined to let him do what he wants to do?

A:  You like to let the head coach made the final decision on those things. But that would be a tough one as well.  The status quo, after what we just went through, is just not acceptable.