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Tuck: Giants the team to beat in '09

A Philadelphia-New York rivalry where a player describes his squad as "the team to beat."

Where have we heard this before?

As you know by now, while we love baseball here at MTC, this is an NFL blog. So we're not talking about Phillies-Mets.

We're talking Eagles-Giants.

And instead of Jimmy Rollins, the player here is Giants defensive lineman Justin Tuck.

"The players here and the coaching staff," Tuck told Paul Schwartz of the New York Post in reference to why the Giants are the team to beat. "The experience, we have been there and done it. We know what it takes to get there. No one can deny that the team we had last year was headed that way until we got some injuries here and there, along with distractions. All of that happens for a reason. On paper I think the team to beat is definitely us."

Ok, so he's not exactly calling anybody out or making a powerful declaration. But, given the fact that professional athletes find motivation in the most ridiculous of places, we thought the quote warranted some attention.

More interesting to me than the "team to beat" part is the "along with distractions" quote, an obvious reference to the Plaxico Burress situation.

The Giants started their offseason workout program this week, and as expected, Burress did not attend. Per Schwartz, he is due for a March 31 court date on felony gun charges.

Like the Eagles, the Giants have been linked to every offseason wide receiver rumor out there. But, also like the Eagles, they have made no additions at wideout, instead focusing on bulking up the defensive line during free agency.

Sidenote

I've done a couple radio spots in the past week. Last night with Eric Chase of AM 1470 The Fox to talk Eagles and the NFL.

And last week with Greg DePalma of profootballcentral.com.

Click on the above links for the podcasts.

By the way, now would be a good time to explain what that sound icon is next to the headline of each post on the blog. You can click on it to listen to the entry being read aloud. Is it a little creepy? Sure. But kind of cool nonetheless. I was pushing for a female with an Australian accent for the voice, but instead we got some dude. Maybe if MTC continues to grow traffic, we can put pressure on management to make the change.