There is less than a week before the Giants and Cowboys knock heads for real in a game that counts, but the first hits have already been delivered.
Giants linebacker Mathias Kiwanuka yesterday morning took a playful yet pointed jab at Cowboys owner Jerry Jones as those two fierce NFC East rivals get set to kick off the season with Wednesday night’s primetime opener.
Kiwanuka, speaking on WFAN, was asked to respond to Jones’ early summer promise to a season-ticket holder rally that the Cowboys would: “Beat the New York Giants asses.’’
Kiwanuka figured he understood Jones’ sentiment: “He should … the Giants have been whupping his ass for a long time.’’
The Giants beat the Cowboys twice last season en route to a second Super Bowl triumph in four years. The second victory, in the final game of the regular season, clinched the division title for the Giants and eliminated the Cowboys from the playoffs.
“It’s got to be tough on the outside looking in on all of these championships lately,’’ Kiwanuka said in response to Jones. “That’s the feeling everybody in the league has and everybody should have because we’re here on top and everybody should be wanting to knock you off.’’
Later in the day, Justin Tuck said he liked what he heard.
“Why not?’’ Tuck said. “I don’t see why everybody else can talk about us but we can’t fire back. I ain’t got no problems with it. I’m still laughing it off, but Kiwi’s a confrontational guy so I’m not surprised by it.’’
Former Giants running back Brandon Jacobs heard about Kiwanuka’s retort to Jerry Jones and on Twitter wrote: “He has never been so right. I like it Kiwi.’’
Of course, this is nothing new for the Giants, who all of last summer heard all the noise about how many players they lost and how many stars the Eagles gained. Tuck isn’t surprised by the Giants, despite being Super Bowl champions, not garnering much respect as far as repeating or even winning the NFC East.
“It’s very similar to what happened last year, if you all recall,’’ Tuck said. “There were some teams already fitting their fingers for rings before we even played a football game. Doesn’t look like people learned too much from last year.’’
Clearly, Tuck was taking a shot at the “Dream Team’’ Eagles of 2011.
“We’re not a team that looks for bulletin board material, I’ve always told the guys if you need someone to say something bad about you to get you to play a game then you don’t need to be in this league,’’ Tuck said. “Our energy, our attitude going forward to our next games are going to be great regardless of if we got a team singing our praise or a team telling us we [stink]. It don’t really matter to us that much.’’