Giants Downplay, but Umenyiora Affair Raises a Question

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- They were in full smoothing-over mode, and the Giants do it well. You can't be successful in New York without knowing damage control. In less than 24 hours, the "Osi Umenyiora Leaves Practice" story had become, very convincingly, a "Families Have Disagreements All the Time, No Big Deal" story. Umenyiora was contrite, joking about (though not revealing) the size of his fine, laughing about the "Wanted" and "$1 million reward" posters his teammates had hung up in the locker room. A dispute between him and new defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan? Overblown. Trivial. Nothing to see here.

And they may be right. The Giants could win a lot of games this year. They have enough talent and depth on defense to be dominant, and if they are, nobody's even going to remember that Sheridan is the coordinator now and Steve Spagnuolo was last year.

But if they're not ... well, then when he walked out on practice Monday, Umenyiora kicked open a can of worms that could have -- and should have -- very easily stayed closed.

Now, if the Giants' defense does struggle, the questions will lurk in the background. Is Sheridan doing a good enough job as Spagnuolo's successor? Does he lack his predecessor's bedside manner? Was the well-liked Spagnuolo a crucial buffer between the gruff Tom Coughlin and the defensive players? Is Sheridan too much like Coughlin?

If the Giants' defense isn't the monster we all expect it to be, these questions will come up, and Umenyiora's little tantrum will serve as evidence for those who defend their legitimacy -- no matter what he or anybody else said today.

"It was so stupid for me to do that," Umenyiora said. "The issue was so trivial, it should have never escalated to that point."

Umenyiora said he realized immediately that he shouldn't have left practice, and so he returned Monday afternoon to the Giants' complex, where he met with Coughlin, Sheridan and defensive line coach Mike Waufle.

"We had a good discussion," Coughlin said. "He got emotional and he did something he wished he didn't do. The point that was made was the communication part. Everybody's a man here, and if you have something that needs to be discussed, you make an appointment and you come in and discuss it."

End of story, they all insist. Umenyiora said he spoke with several teammates about his going AWOL and swore he'd never do anything like it again. In truth, there's nothing in Umenyiora's history to indicate this was anything other than an isolated incident. And other than the part where he left practice, whatever the dispute was that made him mad was described by those who saw it as nothing out of the ordinary.

"We have flare-ups all the time," Umenyiora's fellow defensive end Justin Tuck said. "That's why our D-line room is so interesting. Waufle encourages us to do it. This is probably the first time it's happened with the coordinator. But if you heard what Osi said, it wasn't even about Sheridan."

No more details would Tuck offer. He revealed more than most did, but he was on message -- these things happen, it wasn't that big a deal, it's over, it won't have any impact on the season. Everybody, in his own way, said basically the same thing.

"When I think about it, I can't believe I even reacted like that," Umenyiora said. "I've never behaved like this."

Then, looking at the crowd of cameras and reporters around his locker, he got off this one:

"If I'd know it was going to be all this, I would've done something really bad."

Damage control was the order of the day here in the shadow of Giants Stadium, and the Giants are pretty good at it. They have a room full of players and coaches that know what it takes to navigate an NFL season in the biggest media market in the world and finish it off with a Lombardi trophy.

"We're good about handling stuff like this," Tuck said. "We chalk it up. We have the serious part of the conversation first, and then we laugh about it. Sometimes you say some things or do some things you immediately regret. But we're men about it."

And because of that, this has a chance to blow right over. Especially if they come out of the gate hot and start the season 8-2.

But if they don't -- if the surprising, nagging troubles of August linger into September and beyond, and the Giants don't win as many games as they believe they will -- well, then Umenyiora will have raised a potentially very serious question this week. Whether he intended to or not.