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New Look Gains Fans
Topic Started: Aug 6 2004, 09:48 PM (26 Views)
BlueHeart
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New look gains fans

By MARK SINGELAIS, Staff writer
First published: Friday, August 6, 2004

ALBANY -- John Connor left the heart of Cowboys country to come to New York Giants' training camp.

Connor lives in Dallas, not an easy place to be when you're a die-hard Giants fan. The Cowboys and Giants are fierce NFC East rivals.

He made his annual pilgrimage to the University at Albany on Thursday, when training camp concluded its first week, accompanied by his 7-year-old son, Jack.

"That's why I'm bringing him here, to keep him away from being brainwashed," Connor, 40, a consultant with automobile dealerships, said jokingly.

Wearing an Amani Toomer jersey, John Connor looked out on the UAlbany fields and said he could immediately notice something different about the Giants under first-year coach Tom Coughlin.

"I was impressed with the whole way practice was run," said Connor, who was raised in Connecticut. "The organization. The way it went from one drill to the next and there was no lollygagging around. To see it person, it really becomes clear to you."

If even a bystander understands the demands of Camp Coughlin, you can be certain the players do after one week.

Defensive tackle Norman Hand, a 10-year veteran in his first season with the Giants, said most camps are physically grueling. The difference is Coughlin's eye for detail.

"I've been through tough ones," Hand said. "The only thing about this camp is he forces everybody to be a smarter football player and not beat yourself and be mentally tough. That's the thing most camps never have. You're accountable for everything."

Coughlin uses each practice to work on specific game situations, even those that rarely occur. For instance, in the Thursday morning session, the Giants worked on this final-minute scenario: The offense must run a play quickly when an instant-replay challenge fails and the clock starts running.

"I want to get very minute because there is nothing that we do (in practice) that doesn't happen," Coughlin said.

Offensive tackle Luke Petitgout said he understood the obsession with detail because the Giants' 4-12 record last season included games that turned on a play or two.

"If you don't bring it out in the open, it can come back and bite you," Petitgout said. "Hopefully by working on it, it'll happen in a good way for us."

Coughlin is trying to instill discipline in a team that ranked third in the NFL in penalty yards last season. The Giants committed illegal procedure penalties early in camp, which Coughlin said "drives me crazy."

Perhaps surprisingly, the camp hasn't been quite the boot camp some expected. No practicing in full pads twice a day. Not much tackling, except for the occasional goal-line drill, although there has been plenty of contact.

"It's a marathon, it's not a sprint," Hand said. "We still have a whole season to play and four preseason games, and he's doing a very good job of keeping our legs under us."

The Giants were plagued by injuries last season, which hasn't been a major problem this camp.

Offensive guard Rich Seubert (broken leg), Pro Bowl tight end Jeremy Shockey (foot) and defensive tackle William Joseph (pectoral muscle) have yet to practice.

While the Giants continue to make progress, the fans continue to come to UAlbany in impressive numbers. Training camp has drawn 10,010 fans through six days of practice, far more than the 8,235 fans at the same point last summer.

Some of that boost is surely due to the arrival of rookie quarterback Eli Manning, the first overall pick in the NFL draft, who is competing with two-time NFL Most Valuable Player Kurt Warner for the starting position.

Jill Mattis, camp manager for Boscov's, said the store's merchandise tent at UAlbany has sold far more of Manning's No. 10 jersey than any other players'. She did not have specific sales figures.

Manning signed autographs for a few minutes after Thursday morning's practice before he had to leave. As he jogged up the hill toward the team's locker room, small children on the other side of a wooden fence chased after him and yelled, "Eli! Eli!"

This summer, the Giants seem very much in demand.

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