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Giant rookie safety Kenny Phillips itching to KO a wide receiver


Lubeck

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ALBANY - Kenny Phillips understands these are non-contact drills, but that goes against his instincts. He's a heat-seeking missile in the Giants' secondary. He needs something to hit.

 

So it has become a daily occurrence at Giants training camp to see the rookie safety lining up his prey and streaking toward a receiver, only to pull up at the very last second while his coaches and teammates cringe.

 

"That's the part I like the most," the Giants' first-round pick said Tuesday at the University at Albany. "It's also kind of frustrating at the same time because I'm there and I know what I'd do if I had the chance to hit these guys. It just feels good to know that I'm in position. And when the time comes, I will make those big hits."

 

The Giants can't wait for that time to come for the 21-year-old out of the University of Miami. They drafted him to help replace Gibril Wilson, who signed with Oakland during the offseason. But they see Phillips as the fear-inducing big hitter that their secondary has lacked for years.

 

Phillips played closer to the line of scrimmage in college, so he didn't often get to take out his frustrations on receivers. But that, he said, is his favorite part of his job. He'd even rather separate a receiver from his senses than pick off a quarterback's pass.

 

"If you knock a guy out, that just scares him for the next time he comes across the middle," Phillips said. "That's when you get that interception. So most of the time when you see me, I'm probably going to try to take the big hit first and get the interception later."

 

Of course, while that's something the Giants might encourage during games, that's not always the best idea during practice. More than once, Tom Coughlin has had to pull Phillips aside and gently remind him that these are non-contact drills - and that the players he's targeting are his teammates.

 

"They see me trying to pull up," Phillips said of his teammates. "Plus," he added, "I ain't hurt nobody yet."

 

Statements like that, of course, will only add fuel to Phillips' fire and help him develop a reputation as either a big hitter or a head-hunter, depending on your perspective. And if he keeps this up during games, he'll really get that reputation because it'll be easy for opposing players to see his remarkable closing speed and aggressiveness when they break down the Giants on film.

 

"Yeah, you see that. You notice guys like that on film," said Giants receiver Sinorice Moss, who was nearly one of Phillips' victims Monday night before the rookie pulled up (barely) and threw up his hands. "It's intimidating to some guys."

 

That's exactly what Phillips wants to hear.

 

"That's what I'm hoping for," he said. "When I go out there in the preseason I'm definitely going to try to do what I've been doing in practice - get in position to take someone's head off. I won't try to hurt them intentionally, just do my job. If that reputation comes, then...cool. I'll take it."

 

BAD-SHAW: The NFL is still investigating whether RB Ahmad Bradshaw's recent 30-day jail sentence was a violation of the league's Personal Conduct Policy. The Giants and Bradshaw's lawyers claim it stemmed from an incident before he came to the NFL. Bradshaw has declined repeated requests to be interviewed by the media since camp began. League spokesman Greg Aiello said a decision should be coming "soon." ... WR Amani Toomer (leg), WR Steve Smith (soreness) and OT Adam Koets (dizziness) were held out of practice. WR Plaxico Burress (ankle) has still not been cleared to practice.

 

 

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Haha, nice. I'm getting flashbacks of a two-hand touch game we played a couple of years ago... the game lasted 2 minutes and we ended up playing tackle as I'd been lobbying to play tackle all day long..

 

It seems one of the guys on the opposite team caught a ball and my "2 hand touch" was a bit rough.. ok.. the kid (who was exactly my size) was leveled much to his surprise and everyone else's. To his credit he wasn't expecting to get hit.. and neither was it my intention to hit him.. it was more football instincts than anything else... After laughing our asses off, my friends knew I just can't play two hand touch so we decided to play the game the way it was meant to be played.

 

It must be torture being out there and not be able to hit.. regardless on which side of the ball you're at.

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The pickup games my friends and I play started out two-hand also but quickly turned to tackle. It just doesn't seem right playing without the violence. And people just stay too clean when they are not slammed into the mud puddles.

 

And on the offensive side of things, I prefer having to fight through a tackle than simply try and avoid a guys hands.

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I'm not sure how old you gents are, but tackle is fun when you're in your 20's as you move into your 40's +, the idea of tackle football starts to sound more like the next reason to use your insurance card. I miss it the old way, but then again at 25, I was much more duable

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I'm not sure how old you gents are, but tackle is fun when you're in your 20's as you move into your 40's +, the idea of tackle football starts to sound more like the next reason to use your insurance card. I miss it the old way, but then again at 25, I was much more duable

 

Still in my 20s.. getting really close to that 30 :D. But I confess when I play now, which is not as much (mainly because everyone's gotten old and I'm the only one still yelling to play every week).. but when I do I'm sore for weeks.. not to mention the injuries.

 

The injuries part is mainly because guys are bigger. Certainly tackling my friend when we were both 110 lbs and 140 was a lot easier than now.. now they're easily pushing 200 lbs on average and while I'm almost always successful in bringing them down, I'm in a world of pain on each tackle.

 

 

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How about just making the tackle and not hurting yourself trying to knock the guy out of his shoes? This is the same attitude that saw Gibril sidelined for so long with his "burner".

 

That happened against AZ, I remember that game, I was at it.

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How about just making the tackle and not hurting yourself trying to knock the guy out of his shoes? This is the same attitude that saw Gibril sidelined for so long with his "burner".

 

AGREE 100%. These are your team mates asshole. Save the kill shots for the games that count. If I was his coach I would bench that stupidity right out of him real quick.

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umm....yeah how is this supposed to be encouraging to us when our own guy is trying to take out his own players,lets remember this asshole is wearing Sean Taylors number he might try to hit us against Washington think hes Sean Taylor and go for the wrong team. First off slow the fuck down rookie

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umm....yeah how is this supposed to be encouraging to us when our own guy is trying to take out his own players,lets remember this asshole is wearing Sean Taylors number he might try to hit us against Washington think hes Sean Taylor and go for the wrong team. First off slow the fuck down rookie

 

I think the point of the article is.. he isn't.

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Hell I still remember the Ray Green had on Larry Fitzgerald in the 2004 preseason I believe. He didn't stick but you heard that hit no matter where you were sitting in the stadium. Larry bounced back up but he was tearing after that one.

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umm....yeah how is this supposed to be encouraging to us when our own guy is trying to take out his own players,lets remember this asshole is wearing Sean Taylors number he might try to hit us against Washington think hes Sean Taylor and go for the wrong team. First off slow the fuck down rookie

 

He isn't trying to, if he were he wouldn't be holding up. Phillips is just an aggressive safety who likes contact, why is that such a bad thing?

 

Already calling the guy an asshole and you don't know one thing about him, smart.

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umm....yeah how is this supposed to be encouraging to us when our own guy is trying to take out his own players,lets remember this asshole is wearing Sean Taylors number he might try to hit us against Washington think hes Sean Taylor and go for the wrong team. First off slow the fuck down rookie

 

 

Dude, what the fuck are you blabbering about? Jesus Christ.

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slow down everybody i was being sarcastic, i hope this guy wouldn't take out one of his teammates. I loved that we drafted this guy, we have needed a stud safety since the parcells era, when Terry Kinard i believe was our last pro bowl safety twenty years ago. The safety play digusted me last year, i watched Jason Witten get wide open twenty times, twenty fucking times he was wide open, now i am having visions of Kenny Phillips knocking Jason Wittens fucking skull right off his head. Lets just hope this guy isn't the bust Shaun Williams was

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Still in my 20s.. getting really close to that 30 :D. But I confess when I play now, which is not as much (mainly because everyone's gotten old and I'm the only one still yelling to play every week).. but when I do I'm sore for weeks.. not to mention the injuries.

 

The injuries part is mainly because guys are bigger. Certainly tackling my friend when we were both 110 lbs and 140 was a lot easier than now.. now they're easily pushing 200 lbs on average and while I'm almost always successful in bringing them down, I'm in a world of pain on each tackle.

 

 

you youngin's

 

I already crossed that 30 threshhold. Next up marriage and ball removal

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