Steve Serby

Steve Serby

NFL
exclusive

Tuck states case to stay a Giant

Justin Tuck is loving life as a Giant again, making his move in this contract year to stay in the only place he has known and wants to know. To stay a Giant. To retire a Giant.

No longer is the game not fun for him. No longer is he handicapped and handcuffed by one injury after the next, ravaged by self-doubt. No longer he is emotionally weighed down by the loss of loved ones. No longer does the fleeting thought of walking away from the game he loves again distract him from being the player he still knows he can be.

He is 30 years old now, married and a father of two boys, and he has seen so many of his former teammates come and go, the Ahmad Bradshaws, the Steve Smiths, the Chase Blackburns, the Chris Cantys, the

Michael Boleys. It’s a great life, playing a kid’s game for millions, but it is also a cruel, bottom-line business without compassion.
In a quiet corner of the Giants locker room, a locker room he has known since 2005, Tuck is asked whether any part of him is trying to make a case there is no way the Giants can part with him.

“It’s every part of me trying to make a case for that,” Tuck told The Post. “If you ask me ‘Do I want to end my career as a Giant?’, that’s an obvious ‘Yes.’ But I also understand the business side of things, I also understand that I haven’t played my best football the last three years.

“Will it crush me to not be a Giant? I don’t think it’ll crush me, but … I want to be a New York Giant.”

Most importantly, the men who play alongside him want him to be a New York Giant.

“He’s the ultimate … perfect figure of what you want on a football team. If you’re going to start to build a team — like LeBron James — that’s the type of guy you want to start with,” Jon Beason said.

Beason, as perceptive as they come, is aware Tuck is on the last year of his contract.

“Got to bring him back … got to do something to bring him back,” Beason said. “I would love to see him back. I would love to be back, too.

“He is Big Blue, you know?”

Captain Rolle doesn’t want Captain Tuck going anywhere.

“He’s pretty much the type of guy that you want to have in your locker room, you want to have as a teammate,” Antrel Rolle said. “ Just playing alongside of him I think has been nothing less than phenomenal.”

Tuck is playing like he wants to show the club he still has plenty left.

“Well I hope they understand I got a lot of gas in the tank,” Tuck said.

“I got healthy, and was able to train the way I needed to train, and eating the right things. … I’m in a great place mentally in my life. I really don’t have any complaints.”

I ask him if he is playing as well as he has played in a while.

“I always tell people regardless of what they say about me, I’m my biggest critic, and right now I feel like I’m Mr. Almost,” Tuck said, and chuckled. “I got about 30 almost sacks this season. I feel good. I feel fast. I feel … I’m healthy for the first time in a long time. For me, man, it’s about just helping this team win, and I think the coaches understand that I’m willing to do whatever it takes, and that’s the biggest part.”

Beason has made a huge difference as the 3-6 Giants dig out of their 0-6 hole. And so has Tuck.

“I think he’s definitely been playing the best football I’ve seen him play in a long time,” Rolle said. “It’s hard to go out there and play in this league when you have certain kind of injuries.”

I ask Tuck: Is football still fun to you?

“Well when it’s not fun, I won’t be here,” he said.

He bares his soul as he recounts when it wasn’t fun.

“It’s been time the last three years that it wasn’t — it was definitely time in the Super Bowl [XLVI] year it wasn’t fun,” Tuck said. “ I think when you had successful years like I had back-to-back and winning Super Bowls, you really take things for granted. Now I can look at that and really appreciate what I’ve accomplished and what this team has accomplished, and look at it for what it is. I understand that one day that’s all going to be over, and right now I want to enjoy it, and right now I am.”

When his body kept breaking down, it was a dagger to his ego, to his pride.

“At that time in my career, I really felt as though I should have been one of the top defensive ends and players in the league, and it just wasn’t happening for me, so you kind of get down on yourself, and you start thinking if you’ll ever be that caliber of player again,” Tuck said. “And for me, I always wanted to be the best. So when it wasn’t happening, it’s easy to kind of look at … the fallen angel, I guess, where you were to where you are now. In some ways, you start to be selfish in some regards.

“But, for me, man, it really was an eye-opening experience to go through that, and now being where I am now, I really appreciate the game a whole lot more.”

And he appreciates being a New York Giant.

“I’ve always appreciated that, man … this is what so many feel is the best-run franchise in any sport,” Tuck said. “And obviously, I’m biased in saying that, but I know a lot of people in this league, and just having war stories back and forth? I wouldn’t trade being a New York Giant for anything.”

There would be a void in the room without him.

“He’s been that guy for us for so long,” Spencer Paysinger said. “Back when I was in high school, I saw him get drafted here and everything, so I’ve known him to be synonymous [with] the New York Giants for as long as I can remember.

“He’s that voice of the defense. Obviously we’ve had some guys step up over the years, now we have guys like Antrel stepping up into that role, and guys like Beason, but when it comes down to it, he is that vocal leader on the defense.”

The Tuck stops here.