Tom Coughlin is flabbergasted, and rightfully so.
The Arizona Football Cardinals have filed a complaint with the NFL that the New York Football Giants were sneaky about Brandon Jacobs' injury.
Basically, the Cards contend that the G-Men listed Jacobs as "probable," when, in fact, he was unable to play. By NFL rules, if a player is listed as probable, he is (as is implied) probably going to play. And by the looks of things, the Giants broke that rule.
Except they didn't. And seriously, the Cardinals should quit their whining. They have no case.
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Jacobs practiced on Thursday and Friday last week, so all indications pointed to his starting. However, on Saturday, the knee swelled up, and he was shut down. So he was probably going to play...but then he didn't.
See, that's why it's called "probable." It's not definite.
The Giants did not hide the injury. It was quite public, and Jacobs appeared on the injury report despite practicing twice late in the week. They weren't shady at all.
Jacobs was injured. He practiced, so they thought he could play through it, and they listed him as probable. They were wrong. The end. But the Cardinals are trying to save face.
They're looking for some (deserved) respect, and they had hoped to gain it by beating the Giants. They didn't. There's no shame in losing to a superior team, but the Cards missed out on this golden opportunity to stun the world, and now they're trying to make excuses.
Their plan is backfiring, as this childish move is causing them to lose respect.
Coughlin summed it up nicely when he said, "We did everything the right way and felt like he'd be able to play. We logged every issue every day. There was no hidden...What was our mistake? Listing him as probable? We did think he was probable."
And you know what? The Giants are probably not going to get punished.
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about 1 month ago
This is one of the stranger things Ive heard.
What could the Cardinals possibly expect to get out of it?
about 1 month ago
Actually the media blew this up into something bigger than it was. It turns out the Cards didn't really reuqest this. Here's a post from MG's blog in the star-ledger:
wanted to take a sec to address our report from Sunday night about the Cardinals "complaining" to the league about the Giants' listing Brandon Jacobs as probable when he didn't play. I use quotes around that word because that was apparently the wrong one to use.
I spoke with Cardinals PR director Mark Dalton today. Dalton had told me after Sunday's game he spoke to NFC information manager Randall Liu about the Jacobs issue. What Dalton clarified today was that it was part of a bigger conversation with Liu about several things that happened before and during Sunday's game. In other words, it's not like Dalton looked at the inactive list and immediately picked up the phone to start screaming about how his team was misled. Did they talk about it? Yes. Was it a huge issue? According to Dalton, no.
Plus, as I mentioned in the story on Sunday, the league always needs an explanation when a player is listed as probable and doesn't play. So the Cardinals didn't need to tell the league something they already had on their radar.
Dalton also wanted to clarify that everybody in the Cardinals organization preferred Jacobs to be on the sideline instead of bearing down on defenders. So while there was a conversation with the league about the injury report - and, as I mentioned above, several other elements of Sunday's game - it apparently wasn't with the tone and venom of a "complaint," whether it be informal or not.
Bottom line: the Cardinals want everybody to know they're not making excuses for Sunday's loss.
Sorry for any confusion. Still waiting for word from the league on what, if anything, will be done to the Giants.
Any complaints (no quotes necessary), post them below as always.
MG
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