NY Giants Punter Feagles To Retire Friday

[Mr. P]

At today's press conference, Giants coach Tom Coughlin called Feagles "one of the greatest Giants of all time."

 

"I'm proud to be a football player, and I'm proud to say I'll always be a New York Giant," the punter said.

[Mr. P]

No Comeback For Feagles: 'I Won't Pull A Favre'

 

Jeff Feagles woke up a week ago Monday with a sore back and a swollen knee and suddenly feeling every one of his 44 years. So instead of going to workout, he made a pot of coffee for his wife and then told her that his NFL career was done.

 

That’s the whole story on how Feagles, one of the best directional punters in NFL history, finally decided to hang up his spikes. And unlike some people, once he made his decision, it was final. There will be no changing his mind.

 

“I’ve taken my last swing,” Feagles said inside the packed auditorium at the Giants’ practice facility. “I’m not going to be the guy that goes back and says ‘Yeah, well, you know I’m going to be training.’ I was trying to train to play this season. If I was going to train, I would play.

 

“But I’m not going to be the guy that comes back and pulls a Brett Favre on you.”

 

Assuming that’s true, Feagles put an end to a remarkable career this afternoon - - one that included nearly 41 miles of punts in the regular season alone. In his 22 years, he never missed a game, playing in an NFL-record 352 straight. He punted 1,713 times for 71,211 yards.

 

That’s 213,633 feet … or 40.5 miles.

 

No wonder Tom Coughlin hailed him as “in my opinion, one of the greatest Giants of all.”

 

“I will forever in my mind have a vision of Jeff Feagles, who is an incredibly talented directional punter,” Coughlin said. “My vision is of Jeff lofting the ball down into the corner of the field, inside the 5 yard line, and David Tyree catching the ball before it goes out of bounds and before it goes into the end zone.”

 

Feagles was one of the best at those “coffin corner” kicks because, as Coughlin said, he was a master of “an art which is fast fading in our game.” Nowadays, punters are more interested in showing off their leg strength, booming kicks down the field. Feagles was more of a technician, especially in his many later years.

 

But Feagles knew those years in the NFL were at an end, even after he re-signed with the Giants earlier this month. He said that “as I got older, one of my goals was to be able to walk away from the game on my own terms,” but he feared that was growing increasingly unlikely. He also feared that he wouldn’t be able to kick up to his usual high standards.

 

“I didn’t want to get out there and put my team or myself at risk,” he said. “And I’m miserable when I’m not playing well. (My wife) Michelle can attest to that. So can the kids. I didn’t want to go through that again.”

 

So instead, he made the decision to walk away while he still could.

 

“My mind was telling me that I want to go back and do this,” Feagles said. “I think my mind will tell me that I always want to do this. Because it’s a great game. I’ve been doing it half my life.

 

“But I started working out and my body, it’s just not recovering the way it’s supposed to. I’ve always been very, very hard in my training. That’s why I’ve been able to play so long. But I just can’t do it anymore. My body is just not letting me respond to it. It’s time to move on.”

 

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/giants/2010/04/no-comeback-for-feagles-i-wont.html

[Treehugger]

GOAT

[BlueInCanada]

GOAT!!!

 

No doubt about it, we're going to miss his punting. Hopefully he stays as a ST coach and shows our punters how to pin the ball inside the 10.

[Mr. P]

Feagles Retires With Class

 

 

In front of his wife and kids and with K Lawrence Tynes, owner John Mara, GM Jerry Reese and head coach Tom Coughlin watching on, punter Jeff Feagles retired and did it like everything else he did - with class.

 

Feagles said he decided to end his 22-year career when he realized his body could no longer recover the way it normally did after hard workouts. He said one morning he awoke with a bad back and a swollen knee and just knew that a 23rd season was not going to happen.

 

"I've taken my last swing," Feagles said. "I’m not going to be the guy that comes back and pulls a Brett Favre on you.”

 

Feagles never missed a game, playing in a record 352 consecutive games. The numbers he posted are astounding and Coughlin called him "one of the greatest Giants of all-time."

 

Coughlin praised Feagles for his dead-eye directional punting, something he called "an art which is fast fading in our game." Coughlin also said he will always have a vision of Feagles drilling punts in the corner inside the five-yard-line during practice and into the hands of David Tyree.

 

Feagles told stories of how he nearly missed two games in his career. Once when he broke his arm but played during a game for the Seahawks and another game with the Giants when his knee was bothering him. The Giants brought in Sean Landeta for a workout but Feagles said there was no way he would miss that game which happened to be his 300th consecutive game at the time.

 

His greatest game? Feagles said it came against the Giants during a 9-6 loss at the Meadowlands in 2002 as a Seahawk. Feagles punted six times for a season-high 47.8-yard average.

 

"I had six inside the 20 that day," Feagles said. "And lo and behold, I was a New York Giant the next year."

 

Feagles mentioned former Redskins kick returner Brian Mitchell among those he loved and dreaded punting to. He may not have gotten the attention he deserved because of the position he played. But in the end, Feagles retired with several reporters in attendance.

 

"I'm a punter and I got a press conference," Feagles said with a smile. "That's good to me."

 

http://espn.go.com/blog/new-yorkgiants/post/_/id/227/feagles-retires-with-class?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

[Mr. P]

video from feagles' retirement press conference:

 

http://www.giants.com/player/ivideo-09.asp?file_300=rtmp%3A%2F%2Fcp50514.edgefcs.net%2Fondemand%2F50515%2F50515%2FOffseason+2010%2F10_430_FeaglesRetirement.flv

[Mr. P]

 

When Giants long snapper Zak DeOssie was a rookie, he was speaking to a reporter about his new role snapping for punts. “I just put the ball where Mr. Feagles asks me to,” he said at the time.

 

“Mr. Feagles?” repeated a reporter, a smirk spreading across his face.

 

That would of course be the Giants’ now former punter Jeff Feagles, a 22-year NFL veteran, two-time Pro Bowler and Super Bowl Champion who today called it a career after realizing that his body just wouldn’t’ allow him to continue to complete at a high level.

 

The 44-year old Feagles, whose other nicknames included “Papa Feagles” and “Pops,” was often the target of jokes by his younger teammates, who would for leave a package of Depends undergarments or an application for AARP in his locker stall. Jokes that the Giants’ senior statesman took in stride much in the way he took the ups and downs of life in the NFL.

 

But all kidding aside, the man was so greatly admired by his younger teammates – represented today by DeOssie and K Lawrence Tynes -- that he was a team captain and a player whom many of the younger teammates could approach not just when something wasn’t going right on the football field, but also if life had them down.

 

The admiration was mutual. For instance, in 2008 when he was named to his final Pro Bowl, Feagles was all set to pay for DeOssie’s trip to Hawaii until DeOssie was added to the NFC squad by the NFC’s head coach Andy Reid. “I got off easy because the league will pay for Zak now,” Feagles said at the time.

 

http://trainathought.insidefootball.com/2010/04/jeff-feagles-says-goodbye-.html

[Treehugger]

[Mr. P]

http://www.wfan.com/topic/play_window.php?audioType=Episode&audioId=4617296