The Post’s Steve Serby sat down with Giants defensive end Justin Tuck to talk about the Jets game today, the Giants’ trying season and his favorite Christmas memories.
Q: Would you want Tom Coughlin to keep his job?
A: Why wouldn’t I? He’s the only coach I’ve had. I’ve had a lot of success under him — we’ve had a lot of success under him. The only way we can assure that is by going out and winning. We can say a lot about what we feel about Coach Coughlin by how we come out and play [today].
Q: So you’re expecting your team to a) fight for your season and b) fight for him?
A: Absolutely.
Q: Has it been discussed among the players?
A: Not really. We haven’t gotten anything from the Mara’s or Tisch’s or Jerry Reese that we’re playing for Coach Coughlin’s job. There have been times in the past that I have heard other people say Coach Coughlin’s job is on the line.
Q: You expect this team to fight to save him?
Absolutely.
Q: Did you plan on saying something at the Friday night team meeting?
A: Maybe.
Q: As the defensive captain, do you feel the need to speak up?
A: I speak up when I feel as though it’s necessary. With the week of practice we’ve had, the focus we’ve showed in meetings, I don’t think it would be necessary.
Q: Was practice similar to the days leading up to the Dallas game?
A: Similar. A lot of speed in practice, more guys practicing this week.
Q: Your thoughts on Rex Ryan calling the Giants the Jets’ little brother?
A: Both of us get an opportunity to settle that [today].
Q: Ryan handing out the Jets playbook with a bloodied Eli on the front cover, courtesy of Calvin Pace?
A: We’ll have an opportunity to settle that [today] too.
Q: Can Mark Sanchez be rattled?
A: Any quarterback can be rattled.
Q: How physical will this game be?
A: I expect it to be a dogfight.
Q: Will it rival the intensity of a division game?
A: Yeah, I think it’ll be right up there with it.
Q: How would you compare Jets fans to Eagles fans?
A: Similar. They both wear green.
Q: Plaxico Burress?
A: He’s been a tremendous red-zone threat for them. Having two years off and trying to get back in the groove he was in before he went to jail, I think he’s played pretty damn good.
Q: Do you ever wonder what might have been if he hadn’t shot himself in the right leg in 2008?
A: Constantly.
Q: What do you mean?
A: I think we would have been right there in competing for another Super Bowl.
Q: Do you begrudge him for that?
A: Absolutely no grudges there. That would be very selfish of me. The biggest thing is you just wish he wouldn’t have put himself in that situation where he had to spend two years away from his family.
Q: Are you in touch with him?
A: We talk probably twice a month. Our wives are really good friends. We have play dates with his son and daughter and my son.
Q: Were you hoping the Giants would sign him?
A: Yeah, definitely, but I’m just glad he had the opportunity to come back and play football.
Q: How agonizing has this season been for you emotionally and physically?
A: (Chuckle) About 9.9, or a 10.
How have you persevered?
A: You just come every day to work. I realize God never puts more on you than you can bear. I look at it as an opportunity to get stronger. You learn a lot of things when you struggle.
Q: As prideful as you are, how much does not having the kind of success you are accustomed to eat at you?
A: A lot. Tremendously. I think any competitor, it has to. You want to go out there and be at your best at all times. I don’t want to talk about injuries anymore. It’s in the past.
Q: Are you as healthy as you’ve been all year?
A: More than likely.
Do you feel like you have a big game in you?
A: I always feel like I have a big game in me. I’ve played games where I’ve felt like crap and had a big game. Mentally, I do think I am as close as I’ve been all year to what you can call the “old” Tuck.
Q: Does feeling like this again excite you?
A: No question.
Q: Why?
A: Because I know what I’m capable of doing when my body feels good and I’m able to go out there and run around and play the game at 100 percent. I haven’t had that opportunity all year.
Q: Wayne Hunter?
A: He’s going to try to do some things different maybe from what I’ve seen on film. I know some guys have had success against him, and that’s encouraging.
Q: Jason Pierre-Paul vs. D’Brickashaw Ferguson?
A: That’s going to be a fencing matchup — a matchup of two of the longest arms in the league.
Q: Can anyone block JPP one-on-one?
A: Not for an entire game.
Q: What would psychiatrists say about the 2011 Giants?
A: I think they’d be confused.
Q: What does it mean to you to be a New York Giant?
A: It’s awesome to get to play for a club I think is the best ownership in football, maybe even in professional sports in the Mara and Tisch families. Everyone knows how incredible this city is as far as the diversity and the opportunities it brings. It’s been a great opportunity for me to come here and make my name here. I love the place.
Q: Your son Jayce is 21 months old. … How has he changed or impacted your life?
A: I think I look at the little things differently. I don’t take as many risks as I used to (laugh). I want to make sure I do what’s best for him in all circumstances. You’re living for somebody else now.
Q: What kind of risks?
A: Nothing major. I’m very careful with decisions I make now, mostly with investing stuff. I’ve never been like a risk-taker, I guess. Just making sure I’m able to make his quality of life growing up better than what I had. I definitely had everything I wanted, but a lot of things we just weren’t able to get.
Q: Does Jayce watch you on television?
A: Yeah, he knows me on the screen. He’ll see me and start saying, “Dada.”
Q: Would you want him to play football?
A: (Chuckle) It’ll be up to him. I will definitely not push it on him. If I had to make the decision now, I would probably say no. It’s not going to be up to me. I just want him, whatever he goes into, to do his best and be successful at it.
Q: Why?
A: Football’s a big headache (chuckle). In no way am I saying football is not a great life — it is.
Q: But it’s a headache in terms of the toll it takes on your body?
A: No question.
Q: And there are sacrifices you have to make?
A: You do. Being in the quote-unquote entertainment business, it takes away some things in life … your privacy … just being able to be who you are at times. You have to swallow some bullets sometimes (chuckle) and be politically correct.
Q: Not if you play for Rex Ryan.
A: That’s a whole ’nother story.
Q: What would you ask Rex if you sat down with him?
A: I have sat down with him. I would probably ask him why he says some of the things he says. I understand what his purpose is. I’ll probably ask him where that comes from — whether it was something that was always in him or developed over time coaching in this league.
Q: When did you sit down with him?
A: We ended up at a Knick game together. We were getting food at halftime, and him and his wife sat down with me and my wife. He had coached my cousin [Adalius Thomas] at Baltimore. We talked about his time at Baltimore. We talked a little bit about being an athlete in New York. And then we started talking about the Knicks.
Q: Thoughts on the 2011 Knicks?
A: I’d like to see them get a true point guard. I think the pickups of Tyson Chandler and Baron Davis is going to really help them. Obviously, everything is going to be going through Carmelo (Anthony) and Amar’e (Stoudemire). They didn’t really get to play a lot together. I think their chemistry is going to be much better. I’m excited about the team this year.
Q: Favorite Christmas memory?
A: Probably after I went to Notre Dame and came back the first time being away from home. I didn’t know anything about missing my family up to that point.
Q: Were you homesick?
A: A little bit … in South Bend, Indiana in seven inches of snow. I got hurt so I didn’t play that year.
Q: Was there something you wanted for Christmas as a kid?
A: Anything to do with He-Man. It became my nickname. I just loved that cartoon.