Jerry Reese believed before anyone else believed. The Giants didn’t have the Dream Team; the Eagles did, remember? His own fans wondered whether the GM was asleep at the switch.
But now that the Giants are 60 minutes from the Super Bowl, Reese does not have vindication on his mind.
“No, it’s not vindication,” the Giants general manager said yesterday in his office, prior to Sunday’s NFC Championship against he 49ers. “We try to do what’s best for the New York Giants organization, for our football team. It’s all about trying to do what’s best, trying to get the best players available with the amount of money that we have. … You know, it’s this thing called the salary cap you have to adhere to. It’s not like fantasy football where you can just get any kind of guy.
“But I understand why fans would be concerned, because fans like splash, and they like sexy, big moves. But that’s not necessarily the right moves for you. And you see teams that do that sometimes it doesn’t work out for.”
Several free-agent moves Reese made over the past three years are paying off in spades now.
Chris Canty: “You get run over if you don’t have big people,” Reese said.
Michael Boley: “We saw him as a cover linebacker [so you] didn’t have to use a safety on the [Jason] Wittens of the world, or [Dustin] Keller. … Those receiving tight ends, you could put this linebacker on them and he could hold his own against those kind of guys. And a guy that if you wanted to blitz him, he’s fast, and can get there on the blitz.”
Antrel Rolle: “We wanted a veteran safety and we thought he was the best safety on the market at the time. … He’s very confident in himself, and he wants his teammates to be confident. We don’t think anything is wrong with that, but you have to let your play do the talking though more than anything else.”
No one could have imagined Victor Cruz, the free agent from Paterson, N.J., replacing Steve Smith and celebrating touchdowns with a salsa dance.
“I’m not big on dances period, but it looks like he’s done a pretty good job of it,” Reese said.
No one could have expected a free agent named Jake Ballard to replace Kevin Boss at tight end.
“He looked like a blocking tight end … not an accomplished blocker yet,” Reese said. “ But he does have soft hands when he gets an opportunity.”
David Baas was this year’s big free-agent prize. “Big, tough, smart,” Reese said.
Then there is coach Tom Coughlin.
“Terrific head coach, focused. [I would] put his record up against anybody’s,” Reese said, “I think the players like to play for him, and players like for you to tell them the truth. They may not like the truth when you tell them sometimes, but at the end of the day, they like for you to tell them the truth, and that guy tells them the truth.”
Reese also has struck gold with first-round picks Hakeem Nicks and Jason Pierre-Paul.
On Pierre-Paul: “That was one of the easiest picks we’ve made around here,” Reese said. “We talked about this guy has the highest upside of any player in the draft.”
The Dream Team might be his team now.
“I don’t have any comments about that,” Reese said. “Everybody does what’s best for their organization. … Sometimes you get it right. Sometimes you get it wrong. That’s just the way it is in the National Football League.”
Reese is asked if this is a better team than the Super Bowl XLII Giants.
“I think it’s a comparable team,” Reese said. “If we win it, we could say, –well this is a better team but the other team won it. This team hasn’t won it,” Reese said. “This team hasn’t even gone to the Super Bowl.”
A message for Giants fans?
“We’re going to try to go out there and get a win for them, and hopefully we can get them back in the Super Bowl and make our fans proud,” Reese said.
Dream Team with a Dream GM, who won his first ring as a rookie.
“I’m most proud for the Giants organization, and for our coaches and for our players,” Reese said. “The Maras and the Tisches have given us all the resources to make this a great product.
“I take a lot of heat sometimes from fans and from media, but it’s a privilege to do that, just because I work for the New York Giants,” he said. “It’s a privilege for me to take that heat. … I think about when the lockout happened the entire time the New York Giants didn’t lay one person off. Not one person. That’s the organization we work for here, man. It’s a privilege to be here.”