NFL

Giants Put Kenny Phillips on IR

Kenny PhillipsKenny Phillips had a sensational game Sunday night, picking off two Tony Romo passes -- one an amazing pick on a ball that ricocheted off Jason Witten's heel -- as the Giants notched a huge win in Dallas. New York's going to have to find a new defensive playmaker going forward, though.

The Giants placed Phillips on injured reserve Thursday, according to Pat Hanlon, the team's VP of Communications, ending Phillips' season. Phillips had been dealing with a knee injury all season, and Pro Football Talk first reported that the safety was trying to decide whether or not to have surgery to correct a cartilage issue.

This announcement indicates that he will go through with the procedure.

"I hate to miss out on this season," Phillips said. "We have such a great team, I wish I could just be a part of it, helping them out. I know the team is going to support me. They are treating me like family, like I am their son, brothers or whatever. Jerry Reese came down and talked to me, coach [Tom] Coughlin, the training staff, everyone has been real supportive of me."

"I really feel for Kenny because he had worked so hard during the offseason to prepare himself for the '09 season," general manager Jerry Reese said. "He had a great camp and was just beginning to come into his own and showed flashes of being one of the premier safeties in the NFL. We expect him to recover from this setback and come back stronger than ever. This league is about making adjustments and we will do that."

Those "other issues," no doubt, involved the Giants waiting to find out if they had been awarded a waiver claim on former Green Bay safety Aaron Rouse. That news came in after 4 PM ET, at which point the Giants announced Phillips placement on IR.

The Packers released Rouse on Wednesday, three days after he'd started for Green Bay against Cincinnati. Rouse struggled in that game, getting burned on a couple of long Bengals' plays, including Chad Ochocinco's 44-yard touchdown catch. Rouse had 12 tackles in two games with Green Bay this season, and totaled 78 combined tackles and four interceptions in his first two years with the Packers out of Virginia Tech.

Rouse will battle with C.C. Brown to take over Phillips' starting safety spot. Brown started 47 games for Houston from 2005-08.

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