In his weekly Monday Morning Quarterback column, Peter King had some interesting thoughts on both New York football teams.
About the Jets.
What I like about the Jets is they don’t care if you hate them.
You’re going to be hated when you say over and over that you think you’re going to win the Super Bowl, when you allow NFL Films and HBO Sports into your camp for the most entertaining reality show/infomercial on TV and you’re brash and full of yourselves doing it, when your coach swears like a sailor after 11 shots of Jack Daniels ("News flash — football coaches curse!’’ linebacker Bart Scott says), and when you annex every aging, famous player trying for one last shot at a Super Bowl.
And I mean it: They truly don’t care.
About the Giants.
It’s August, and the Giants again have the best defensive front in football.
You see how far that got them last year. Too many injuries last season, from the start. Chris Canty, the rich free agent, and Rocky Bernard and Fred Robbins. Once the season began, Justin Tuck got dinged, and Osi Umenyiora got trashed inside and outside the building. It was pretty much a disaster.
This year, new defensive coordinator Perry Fewell has lots of toys to play with, and the Giants could play some of the most interesting line combinations the league has ever seen. Fewell has experimented with rushing four defensive ends — from among Tuck, Umenyiora (up to 257 from 250), Mathias Kiwanuka, first-round pick Jason Pierre-Paul and Dave Tollefson, who is having a great camp — with no tackles on some passing downs. Tuck is playing all four line spots in practice. Canty’s playing all over the line too. "So far it looks good,’’ Umenyiora said.
Thus far, of course, it is all talk. What will be interesting is to see which team has more to talk about when the season is over.