David Diehl doesn’t give ground easily, on the field or off it and he goes about his football business grasping a singular thought:
“In order to get me off the football field you’re going to have to shoot me,’’ he said yesterday.
Diehl has been an unhittable target for more than a decade with the Giants as he enters his 11th season, making him the longest-tenured player on the team. He has been on the scene longer than Eli Manning and Chris Snee, who are entering their 10th seasons. Heck, back when he was drafted, in the fifth round in 2003, Ernie Accorsi was the general manager and Jim Fassel was the head coach.
No one exhibits that sort of staying power without more than a little stubbornness. Diehl has never lost a summer training camp battle, as for 10 years running he has emerged as a starter on the offensive line. So he must be forgiven at the age of 32 for not buying into a widely held belief he’s on the downside of his career and will be overtaken by rookie first-round pick Justin Pugh for the starting right tackle job.
“I’ve heard that since I was 5 years old. … I [couldn’t] care less,’’ Diehl said with no small measure of defiance in his voice. “I’m a fifth-round draft pick who’s started as long as I have, been in the league for 11 years. You hear that stuff all the time. I love haters, keep bringing it. I don’t care.’’
Diehl entered camp No. 1 on the depth chart at right tackle, but Pugh already has taken some reps with the starters. What appeared to be an uphill battle for Diehl tilted heavily in his favor when Pugh sustained a concussion on Thursday that figures to keep him out a few weeks. Coach Tom Coughlin yesterday said Pugh had difficulty getting through a meeting before the concussion was diagnosed.
“It’s never good when you have a teammate go down, especially a guy who’s going to be a critical piece to our offense, a guy who can play numerous positions, that’s challenging me for the starting spot at right tackle,’’ Diehl said.
A huge part of why Diehl has thrived is he’s a living, breathing enactment of the Woody Allen maxim: “Eighty percent of success is just showing up.’’
Diehl started every game his first seven seasons and missed a practice about as often as Coughlin oversleeps. Counting the postseason, Diehl’s starting string reached 127 consecutive games.
“That’s a good thing to be in our business,’’ Coughlin said. “Be there every day, be reliable, be dependable, and know what you’ve got. It’s still a huge factor in our profession. It really is.’’
Diehl, in 2010, missed games (four) for the first time in his career, with hamstring and hip injuries. Last season, he missed three games with a knee injury that severely limited his mobility when he did play, an injury that eventually required surgery. In order to stay on the roster, Diehl had to accept a hefty pay cut, slashing nearly $3.5 million, leaving him with a 2013 salary of $1 million.
Clearly, he was at a crossroads. Diehl re-sculpted his body and now he’s carrying only 305 pounds on his 6-foot-5 frame, down, he says, 10 or 11 pounds from a year ago. He says it’s the lightest he has been since the 2004 season.
“Or maybe sixth grade,’’ Diehl joked. “Or birth.’’
Diehl said he also dropped 3-4 percent in his body fat by eschewing the food groups usually associated with big, bulky offensive linemen needing to maintain heft.
“I … cut out bread and pasta, the nasty stuff that usually you have to eat as an offensive lineman to keep the weight,’’ Diehl said. “Just eating clean, conditioning-wise I pushed myself to the limit coming off the knee surgery. I have no regrets what I did this offseason.’’
Coughlin described Diehl’s physique as “slim and trim’’ and said he hopes the tackle did not overdo it.
“We may want him a little bit heavier,’’ Coughlin said.
Diehl said he’s just right and primed for yet another battle.
“I’ve never been more ready to play football,’’ Diehl said. “Challenge me, throw what you want at me, I could care less. I know what I’m capable of and I know what I’m going to do.’’