(Neil Miller/Sportsday Wire)
No one doubts the Giants have the talent to compete, but the last few years, it’s always been the injury bug that kept them down.
So Tom Coughlin is trying something different. What he calls a “GPS Week” – as the Giants broke camp – the coach wants to get the players ready to play.
” Yoga, massage,” Coughlin said. “There are some fancy names for things we do with rollers and sticks and so on and so forth — cold tub, but it is basically just the recovery cycle muscular so on and so forth along with yoga and some of the other things we employed.”
You can call him “New Age Tom,” as the oldest coach in the NFL is looking to do something different to keep his players off the shelf. He is using a computer system which will monitor their workload and see if they need the rest.
Of course, it’s all experimental and it’s going to be touch and go as the regular season starts.
“We are going to see,” he said. “I will see what it looks like and again tomorrow is another day of this experimentation, so we are going to go through with that and we’ll see how we like it at the end of the week.”
The GPS day will be in place of a practice according to the coach. “What you would do is you would load up according to the GPS system the first two days of the week. In other words, you cover a lot of territory. I don’t know if you noticed, but yesterday’s practice was quite long and could’ve actually been another five minutes. So you’re getting a lot of things done on an overload kind of a day and then you’re having an unloaded cycle and then the week’s not over yet.”
What’s next? Chants and candles?
The players welcomed the GPS, but obviously were somewhat surprised.
” It’s definitely new, but I don’t think any of the guys are complaining anytime that we can get rest,” defensive back Prince Amukamara said. “But also, work on our soft tissue muscles and getting massage and stretching. And spend more time in the meeting room. So it’s more of a mental day. I think guys really like that. Coach said he’ll just see how we respond—and that’s just our energy and our enthusiasm at practice tomorrow. If we respond right, hopefully we can keep the schedule.”
It’s an important weeks for Coughlin’s Giants as well with the game against the Jets coming up on Saturday. He is looking to see if the starting varsity will be ready for the season this week, with the final pre-season game in Foxboro more for the backups and filling out the roster.
For the team, it’s just another pre-season game, sincethey have to get ready for the Cowboys on the Sept. 13, but the Snoopy Bowl does take on a different meaning.
“It’s a rivalry only because it’s in-state, both teams in-state,” Amukamara said. “We’re about like an hour away from each other and we play at the same stadium. I know for our fans it’s a huge game. Jets and Giants can split families, so I’ve heard. I’ve never played against a rivalry being at Nebraska. We were the only team there. So I’m excited about this game, it’s fun. And I think there’s going to be great matchups with like [Darrelle] Revis and Cro [Antonio Cromartie] going against—I don’t know if Reuben is up, but Reuben [Randle] and Odell [Beckham, Jr.]. And then with me and [Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie] going up against [Eric]Decker and [Brandon] Marshall. I’m excited for this game.”
Probably just as excited as he was today for the GPS.
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