Giants defensive end Justin Tuck is tired of hearing suggestions that the Giants only won the Super Bowl because other teams beat themselves.
We’ve recently heard Packers linebacker Clay Matthews and 49ers safety Donte Whitner on that topic and both men felt that their team’s playoff losses had little to do with anything the Giants were able to do on the field. Tuck said Monday that he’s heard that privately from other players around the league as well and he had some choice words for those around the league who agree with that assessment.
“There’s some sore losers in the world, ain’t it?” Tuck said, via Tom Rock of Newsday. “It doesn’t bother me much. Last time I checked we won the Super Bowl and that’s what everybody strives to get to every year. I’m not the type of guy to make excuses about a loss or a win. Regardless. The better team won. You played better that day, thats why it’s a game. That’s why we have the slogan: Talk is cheap, play the game. It don’t really matter what we say, it’s about what we do on the football field.”
While the Giants have been pretty good at using such talk as motivation in the past, Tuck admitted that he worries some players will let the talk cause them to start thinking that they might have been lucky to win the Super Bowl. The Giants did get some bounces that went their way last year, but so did every other team that made it to the postseason. They took full advantage of those opportunities, something they share with just about every other championship team in the history of football and something that none of the teams playing against them were able to do.
The attempts to replay those games through words just drives home that neither the Packers nor the 49ers were able to put the breaks that went their way to good enough use last season. And all that does is make the Giants look better by comparison.