They arrived from all corners of the NFL, from near (Jameel McClain, Baltimore) and far (Walter Thurmond, Seattle; Rashad Jennnings, Oakland) and nearly everywhere in between (Geoff Schwartz, Kansas City). For the past seven weeks, the 14 newcomers — veteran free agents who played elsewhere in 2013 — were immersed in the Giants’ offseason program, and in 10 days they will go their separate ways until they must report July 21 for training camp.
As football information is poured into them, there’s a different kind of nourishment needed to connect this collection of disparate athletes.
“I’m talking simple things,’’ McClain explained recently to The Post. “I’m talking life. I’m talking your kids, what you like to eat, which foot you like to plant off best with, the right or the left, so this way I know if we get to that side, I’ll give you the side you like.’’
McClain is talking about bonding.
“It manifests itself off the field,’’ he said. “We go out to eat, we go out to try to understand each other. Someone wants to know of a good restaurant, they ask a teammate and a teammate can easily tell him, and the next thing you know, they might show up there. It’s those things of becoming a team before you can become a good football team. You got to become a good team, a good family first.’’
Ideally, this all has time to marinate, but the Giants, with so many new faces, have to fast-forward this process. Antrel Rolle, as much a Pied Piper as anyone on the Giants, was part of a large group that got together last week in Manhattan to watch Game 1 of the NBA Finals. There have been informal pick-up basketball games, sessions of shooting pool together, card games.
“We’ve been hanging out a lot, we’ve been doing a lot of down time just relaxing, chilling, getting to know each other off the field,’’ Rolle said. “The new guys that have joined the Giants team this year, they’ve been embracing it and they’ve been having a ball with it.’’
So much so, Rolle believes, that the newly created secondary — now with Thurmond, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Quintin Demps and Zack Bowman — is “definitely a closer unit than we’ve had in the past.’’
What that says about the departed Corey Webster, Aaron Ross, Will Hill or Terrell Thomas is up for discussion.
“Everyone had their own thing going on,’’ Rolle said, “but when you find guys that want to hang out with other players, it doesn’t matter what it is, just to get another guy off the field, get to know his mind, what triggers his mind. So far it’s been good for us.’’
This is the third team in as many years for Schwartz and, after a series of one-year contracts, the three-year deal he signed with the Giants to move in as the starting left guard allows him to, at least mentally, put down some roots and “immerse myself in the culture of the Giants.’’
Just as Rolle has shepherded the defensive backs, 11-year vet Chris Snee has aided in the transition for Schwartz, J.D. Walton (Broncos, Redskins), Charles Brown (Saints) and John Jerry (Dolphins).
Thurmond was a part of the Legion of Boom secondary that was instrumental in guiding the Seahawks to the Super Bowl and the Lombardi Trophy. The football transition is moving along seamlessly because of his “pretty high football IQ,’’ and it’s the off-the-field relationships that he’s equally excited to see develop.
“At the end of the day, it’s a brotherhood and we’re all brothers and to keep that bond is something special and unique,’’ said Thurmond, the Giants’ new nickel cornerback.
McClain knew only one way — the Ravens way — as he spent the first six years of his NFL career in Baltimore. He’s moving in as the starting strong-side linebacker, but before he does, he wants to know anything and everything he can about the others sharing the Giants locker room.
“It’s little details and little understanding you get from people in six to seven years, and we have to build in this amount of time and it’s very possible,’’ McClain said. “Everyone on this team is so open in sharing who they are or what they like in the game, it makes it easy to understand to help your teammate play his best.’’
Schwartz, admittedly not a big hockey devotee before this, has already been to three Rangers playoff games (they are 3-0 with him in the building) and sees this as a part of the camaraderie-building he wants more of in the Stanley Cup finals.
“We’ll see if I get tickets,’’ Schwartz said. “I feel like I’m the new guy, so we’ll see, but I’m going to ask anyways.’’