Everyone knew Justin Tuck spent much of last season battling through painful neck issues and, as much as he didn’t enjoy the discomfort, the Giants defensive end understood it was part of the game as offensive linemen tugged on his facemask, yanked at his helmet and basically tried to get that aching neck to feel a whole lot worse than it already did.
Identifying injuries and ailments are significant details included in the scouting report each week, a part of the study of the upcoming opponent considered required reading and vital knowledge. If you’re injured, stay off the field. If you’re hurting, you’re fair game. Anyone who doesn’t realize this and is partial to linking a few innocuous comments the Giants said about the 49ers’ Kyle Williams after the NFC Championship and the borderline-sadistic urgings of Gregg Williams to the Saints’ defense one week earlier needs an education on the legal brutality of NFL football.
That filmmaker Sean Pamphilon sees a connection between the Giants and what Gregg Williams perpetrated with the Saints is Pamphilon’s problem, not the Giants’ problem. It was Pamphilon, working on a documentary on a former Saints player, Steve Gleason, who is stricken with Lou Gehrig’s Disease, who leaked the audio of Gregg Williams’ rants in the team hotel prior to the Saints-49ers NFC divisional playoff game.
Even before this disturbing audio, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell saw fit to suspend Williams indefinitely — at least this season, and, perhaps, forever — for his lead role as defensive coordinator in the Saints Bountygate scandal. This audio more than justifies Goodell’s harsh but fair penalty, because Wiliams was heard imploring his players to do all sorts of dastardly physical harm to several 49ers, including returner Kyle Williams, who has a history of multiple concussions.
Of course the next week the Giants already knew all about Kyle Williams’ health issues before he committed two critical turnovers on punt returns, the first when the ball glanced off his knee and Devin Thomas came up with the recovery and the second when rookie linebacker Jacquian Williams stripped the ball away clean and Thomas again made the recovery to set up the winning Lawrence Tynes’ field goal in overtime.
Afterward, Jacquian Williams explained, “We knew he had four concussions, so that was our biggest thing, to take him out of the game.’’
Thomas added, “He’s had a lot of concussions. We were just like, ‘We’ve got to put a hit on that guy.’ ”
Poor choice of words? Perhaps. In forcing the turnovers, the Giants barely laid a glove on Kyle Williams but after those comments the NFL investigated and determined there was no conduct that could suggest intent to injure. Thomas later explained identifying Williams’ concussion history was strategic, just as important as knowing if a running back is coming off a bad ankle or a cornerback might be slowed because of a sore knee.
“It was more about understanding personnel,” Thomas said to Newsday in the days between the NFC title game and Super Bowl XLVI. “You want to find every strength and weakness you can. The whole concept of him having concussions is you know he’s been hit a lot. I’ve had a concussion. When you get rattled like that, your judgment sometimes changes. You worry about getting hit instead of worrying about protecting the ball. There’s things like that that you key on putting an emphasis on, putting a good hit on him. Legal hit, no cheap shots. Let’s see if we can get a turnover.’’
There are those who won’t give it up, who will go with the “See, everyone does it’’ theme and throw a wide net that entangles the Giants somehow in this sordid affair despite nary a shred of evidence. Can you imagine a team coached by Tom Coughlin intentionally attempting to injure an opponent? There’s enough blame within the Saints organization without the misinformed attempt to throw some of it where it doesn’t belong.