The week of preparation for Sunday’s NFC East showdown with the Eagles has begun and Chris Snee isn’t ready to partake. Snee, the starting right tackle, yesterday did not practice after missing the entire second half last week against the Cowboys with what the Giants are calling a hyper-flexion of the knee.
Tom Coughlin said Snee “is coming along” and added “there’s always hope” that Snee will be available to play and make his 77th consecutive regular-season start.
Snee answered a question with a question when asked how he’s doing. “What did Coach say?” Snee asked. Informed Coughlin said he’s coming along, Snee added “Then I’m coming along.” Asked to elaborate, Snee smiled and said “Period.”
If Snee cannot play, Kevin Boothe, who started 14 games as a rookie with the Raiders in 2006, will make his first start for the Giants.
The other starter unable to practice was safety Michael Johnson, who sat out last week with a strained groin.
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DE Justin Tuck didn’t have much to say about the $50,000 fine levied against Cowboys LT Flozell Adams for shoving Tuck from behind after the whistle last Sunday. That play prompted Tuck to call Adams “a coward” and “a dirt-bag” and Adams responded by calling Tuck “a nobody.”
The Giants wanted to see Adams suspended.
“I’m a ‘nobody’ so I don’t really need to have the ability to talk to the God of the Universe or talk about him,” Tuck said of Adams. A bit later, Tuck added “I could care less about Flozell or anything he does.”
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TE Travis Beckum also missed last week’s game with a strained groin but he was back at practice. DJ Ware, out last week because of a concussion, was cleared to work and should make his return vs. the Eagles. RB Ahmad Bradshaw (ankles) worked on a limited basis.
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Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the commander of the multi-national force in Iraq and a huge Giants fan, attended practice and spoke to the team afterward.
“All I ask you to do is go out there this week against the Eagles and depend on each other,” said Odierno, from Rockaway, N.J. “And when you come off that field, no matter what happens in the end, you can say, ‘I’ve left everything I possibly could have done on that field.’ “