ESPN NFL

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- There was wide-eyed Eli Manning, standing in the back of a flatbed truck in the Canyon of Heroes in the championship parade. There he was with that crooked grin, laughing at the president's jokes at the White House. And there was Manning at Tiffany's, Manhattan's most famous jewelry store, collecting his Super Bowl ring.

On Wednesday afternoon, there was Eli Manning again. With his back pinned to a wall on the second floor of Giants Stadium, Manning was cross-examined by two dozen members of the New York press corps in a manner usually reserved for politicians and perps.

Manning's crime? He had to answer for the terminally unhappy Jeremy Shockey, who showed up at Giants Stadium for the first mandatory post-Super Bowl gathering of the New York Giants. Unlike the rest of the injured players, Shockey decided not to join his teammates on the practice field.

Did Manning talk to Shockey? "I said, 'Hey,'" he said.

What's his reaction to the theory that Manning is more relaxed playing without Shockey? "Not true," he said.

"You all are making a much bigger deal about this than it is," he protested. But the questions kept coming. And Manning, who struggled hopelessly through his fourth NFL season only to walk away with the MVP trophy of Super Bowl XLII, casually slipped into banal player speak:

"We're working out there … to try to get better … get some of these young guys caught up on the offense … so everybody's up to speed by the time we get to training camp" … and on and on and on.

For Manning, it was the only way out. For the Giants, there may be no end in sight. The Super Bowl hangover often includes a mess of distractions and discontent. Cleaning up is never pretty. That's why it's so difficult to repeat. In the salary-cap era, only two teams have done it -- the Denver Broncos and New England Patriots. Nobody since Jimmy Johnson's Cowboys of the early 1990s has done it in the NFC.

So head coach Tom Coughlin knows what he's up against, and he knows the easiest way to get derailed this season is to dwell on last season.

"We are not really interested in going backwards anymore," he said. "We are interested in going forward. … And we are striving for all of our players to recognize the fact that, hey, you know that there are 31 teams preparing for you now because you are world champion. We have been in that situation before where we have done the studying of the Super Bowl champions. So we are well aware of that and the players are well aware of that."

Coughlin said his piece the day after defensive end Michael Strahan decided to call it quits. Strahan, whose last play was sacking Tom Brady in Super Bowl XLII, will take not only his pass rush into retirement, but also his leadership. It was Strahan who had the stature to stand up to Coughlin, who, in essence, changed his coaching style and personal approach last season after it was clear that drill sergeant thing wasn't going to work.

Last offseason, Coughlin invited Strahan to lead a group of players in a grievance council that met with the head coach on a weekly basis.

Coughlin changed. The team jelled, then took off at the right time, shocking the world to beat the undefeated Patriots in the Super Bowl.

Two months ago, Coughlin was rewarded with a lucrative five-year extension. Now some of his players want to reap the same financial benefits.

First there is Strahan's heir apparent, defensive end Osi Umenyiora, who would like to see his six-year, $41 million contract reworked.

Umenyiora, who had 13 sacks last year and was the only member of the Giants to go to the Pro Bowl, signed his deal three years ago -- which makes his contract outmoded in today's NFL economics. (The Giants had the fewest Pro Bowlers of any team that reached the Super Bowl in the 42-year history of the game -- making him a pretty important member of the team.) But Umenyiora said he will let the team and his agent work things out.

"I will be in [training] camp," Umenyiora said after coming off the practice field.

Plaxico Burress, on the other hand, refused to make that guarantee. The last time we saw Burress, he was collecting Manning's game-winning touchdown pass in Super Bowl XLII. Now he wants to collect a bigger check -- a deal commensurate with some of the highest-paid wide receivers in the league. And until he does, Burress said he's not going to participate in practice.

"I'm not saying I'm being mistreated," he said, "but everybody wants to be treated fairly."

Last season, Burress played through pain and injury. Though he didn't practice all year -- which a kindler, gentler Coughlin managed to tolerate -- he caught 70 passes on a damaged ankle. In some of the worst conditions ever in a professional football game, Burress ignored the pain and had 11 catches for 151 yards at Lambeau Field in the NFC Championship Game. And after injuring his knee in a freak shower accident in Arizona, Burress played his heart out in the Super Bowl.

"If I can go out and do things that I did basically on one leg and half a knee in the Super Bowl, what kind of performance am I going to get when I'm 100 percent?" Burress asked.

The wide receiver has three years remaining on a six-year, $25 million deal he signed with the Giants when no other team would look at him. In Pittsburgh, Burress had been labeled as a malcontent. But the Giants took a chance on him, and now he wants the team to step up to the plate -- again.

General manager Jerry Reese seems ready to open up his checkbook. Reese, according to sources, has been quietly talking to Burress' agent, Drew Rosenhaus. But the pace of those discussions has not gone to their liking, so Rosenhaus orchestrated Burress' little protest -- testing Coughlin's newfound patience by showing up on the field as a spectator.

So far, the Giants are willing to play along. Burress is listed on the team's injury report, and Reese insisted all will be handled "internally." And if Burress hasn't permanently damaged a new deal by taking matters public, his problem may be relatively easy to solve with more money.

Shockey is another story. Shockey, who is another Rosenhaus client and suffered a broken leg late last season, stayed in the training room. He was the only one of eight injured players who did not come out to the practice field and work in the rehab area.

Coughlin, clearly rankled by the line of questioning, was asked whether Shockey was supposed to be on the field. He replied, "that's between Shockey and I." When asked whether there were any medical reasons Shockey needed to stay inside, Coughlin replied, "No, not really."

The relationship between Shockey and the organization seems to have reached a point where there is palpable regret on both sides that he was not traded in the offseason. His old offensive coordinator with the Giants, Saints head coach Sean Payton, offered Reese a second-round pick for Shockey. Reese rejected the offer.

Shockey was the only member of the team to be a no-show at the Super Bowl parade, the White House and ring ceremonies. He has told friends he was annoyed the Giants would not let him watch the Super Bowl from the sidelines on crutches -- which is standard operating procedure in the NFL for a player who is not ambulatory.

There are grumblings that Shockey felt he was underused last year. He had only 57 catches and three touchdowns when he got hurt.

But more important, in Shockey's absence many analysts in print and on the tube concluded that the Giants -- particularly Manning -- flourished because Shockey's histrionics and needs were sidelined.

Manning's curt "not true" denial was not terribly convincing. The late-season heroics of Shockey's replacement, rookie tight end Kevin Boss, will not be easily forgotten. Manning hasn't.

As the morning practice wound to a close Wednesday, Coughlin called for the Green Zone drill: red zone first-team offense against first-team defense. On the first play, Manning dropped back and looked for Boss, who was wide open in the right corner of the end zone. Manning overthrew him.

Manning's second pass attempt in the drill hit Boss on a crossing pattern, a play that set up a touchdown on the next snap.

That'll likely inspire Shockey to get back on the field.

Sal Paolantonio covers the NFL for ESPN.

Related Video
NFL.com: Giants Minicamp
NFL.com: Giant concerns