JEREMY Shockey broke his post-Super Bowl silence yesterday.
“Everybody said that I agreed to get traded and that I would welcome a trade or that I’m unhappy. . . . But you can’t find one article that had my direct quote, except from an anonymous source or from this person or from that person, OK?” Shockey was saying yesterday at the POWERade Pro Challenge for children and heat-stricken media at Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
That was the good news.
It doesn’t mean Shockey and the Giants don’t desperately need to sit down and clear the air.
His broken leg isn’t 100 percent yet and his broken relationship with some member or members of the front office requires immediate healing.
To wit: why was he watching the Giants shock the Patriots from a skybox?
“And the truth is, I went to the Super Bowl game to go watch my team play; the Giants wouldn’t let me sit on the sidelines with my teammates – I was forced to sit up in a box,” Shockey said.
I said to Shockey: “And that ticked you off.”
“Words can’t explain,” he said.
I asked him: “What is your relationship with the front office right now?”
“That’s between the management and myself,” Shockey said.
I asked him: “Do you want to and expect to play for the Giants this year?”
“Tough questions,” he began. “I’m not the Giants front office, because they feel like they have to tell the world about things that happened . . . when it’s a situation like this that’s so severe, you don’t leak it in the media. I’m not ever going to be a leak, its a team. But they feel like they’re obligated to put their feelings in the media, which really hurt my family and myself, with the things I’ve done for them.”
Shockey said he had texted yesterday morning with co-owner Steve Tisch.
“I consider him a father figure to me – and he would never betray me, like some other people that are there,” Shockey said.
I asked him: “Would you welcome a trade?”
“I’m not saying that – no comment,” Shockey said. “Whatever’s happened between the Giants and myself is gonna stick between the Giants and myself.”
I asked him: “Will you be at minicamp?”
“I plan on fulfilling my contractual obligation but the No. 1 thing that I’m going there for is to be with my teammates (who) I miss so much,” he said.
When he arrived, wearing a black POWERade T-shirt and shorts, he had offered a statement: “I’m here for POWERade, fellas, and the statement I would like to make about the Giants and the speculation in the offseason is that whatever happens between the upper management, the lower management, the owners, any management, is gonna stay between my representation and them. Unlike the Giants, I’m gonna be quiet. They’ve released multiple things about myself and if you look back into the media, there’s always a source. Well I’d like to know who the source is, and we’ll go over here and we’ll deal it out ourselves because I haven’t said one negative thing towards the Giants.”
At the event, he instructed youngsters how to catch a football. “Concentrate . . . it’s all in your eyes!” He eagerly helped a young child off with the Jets jersey he was wearing: “Take your shirt off, take your shirt off!” He stopped and posed for pictures and signed a football for Jake Weingarten, my seven-year-old nephew.
Antonio Pierce reiterated yesterday that the Giants would be fools to trade Shockey. Yes they would. They need to make him wanted again. It was hell for him watching that magical run on crutches from afar. Their best chance to repeat is with a happy, healthy Shockey. They are a better team with him. Time for a group hug.