FanHouse New York Giants

While there is speculation of Michael Vick eventually becoming a Dolphin, Yahoo! Sports' Jason Cole has a pretty firm story that says Vick won't be playing in the NFL anytime soon. Cole also says that wide receiver Plaxico Burress is facing an indefinite suspension as well, which would put a giant bucket of cold water on any hopes he has of landing a solid free agent deal.

Cole cites three sources with knowledge of the situation. According to them, commissioner Roger Goodell will continue to throw his weight around when it comes to suspensions. He's already slapped wide receiver Donte Stallworth with an indefinite suspension after Stallworth pled guilty to DUI manslaughter. One of Cole's sources says its likely that Vick will be suspended for the entire 2009 season as well, which would mean he would be out of football for three seasons, making any return even tougher in 2010.

Braylon Edwards heard his name in the rumor mill.

He was supposed to get traded. It was draft day and the Browns were talking with the Giants about a proposed deal. Cleveland was serious about getting rid of Edwards, the star wide receiver who saw his receiving totals drop drastically last season. But the Giants didn't want to give up first and third-round picks for Edwards.

There was this perception that Edwards wanted out of Cleveland. He could have sulked, and maybe he did, by missing several offseason workouts following the draft.

But in an interview with FanHouse, Edwards said he's committed to the Browns.

The Giants announced in a press release today that linebacker Michael Boley had arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn labrum in his hip and is likely to miss 8-to-10 weeks as he recovers. That obviously means Boley won't be ready for the start of training camp, and it throws into doubt his availability for the start of the regular season. But the hilarious way in which the Giants constructed this press release was designed to make sure you know that they don't consider this a very big deal at all.

The release is titled "Giants Rookie Signings; Boley Surgery." The first three paragraphs announce the signings of third-round pick Ramses Barden and fifth-round pick Rhett Bomar. Then, out of nowhere comes the totally unrelated fourth paragraph:

Plaxico Burress might be able to find a new NFL team without having to find a new home -- and without having to hop on a plane for his next court date -- as New York Jets owner Woody Johnson has confirmed interest in the former New York Giants receiver.

Prior to the 2007 season, when Eli Manning led the Giants to a championship, there were some rumblings that maybe he would never become a franchise quarterback, forget about playing as consistently as his brother.

Those sentiments lingered through most of '07 (rock bottom had to be the Week 17 four-interception effort -- three of the pick-six variety -- in a home game against the Vikings), before it all came together. Manning played like a grizzled veteran during the final weeks of the regular season, and was close to flawless in the run to the Super Bowl.

Last year, Manning was the unquestioned team leader, and if not for an unpredictable Eagles team, the Giants would have returned to the NFC Championship game for the second time in as many years. And now, Manning, who was the first overall pick in 2004, is in line for a new deal.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The most exciting thing that happened at New York Giants minicamp Wednesday was a press conference to announce Timex as the naming-rights sponsor for the team's new training facility here -- the "Timex Performance Center." It's a beautiful complex, but unless you're the ones pocketing $35 million from the deal over the next 15 years, this wasn't exactly the stuff of big headlines.

That's fine with the Giants, who got their fill of headlines at last year's minicamp.

Coming off a Super Bowl championship, the Giants convened last year amid loud, obnoxious Jeremy Shockey and Plaxico Burress contract controversies. Neither of those players was on the team by year's end, but they were here a year ago, and they were making it noisy. This year ... not so much. And Tom Coughlin couldn't be happier about it.

Plaxico Burress' immediate future remains uncertain -- there's still a decent chance he spends some time in the clink -- but this much is clear: the Giants have moved on. They released Plax in early April, and then used two of their first four draft picks on wide receivers at the end of the month. The Giants selected Hakeem Nicks 29th overall, and took Ramses Barden two rounds later.

Both are big receivers -- Nicks, 6-1, 215, has been compared to Anquan Boldin; Barden, 6-6, 226, is more physically similar to Burress -- but rookie wideouts are notoriously slow to transition to the NFL, sometimes taking two or three years to get acclimated. There are exceptions -- Dwayne Bowe and Marques Colston come to mind -- but I don't think the Giants are expecting Pro Bowl-type performances from Nicks or Barden next season.

It was a simple question toward two different NFL players who responded the same. Why do you Twitter, Facebook, Yardbarker, MySpace?

"To get in contact and reach out to another level of fans I would never get to connect with," Terrell Owens of the Bills said. "I had Myspace, Facebook, Twitter and its an interactive way for me to connect with all my fans."

Said Cowboys tight end Martellus Bennett: "I like to have fun. It's a chance for me to interact with people I don't know, which is the best thing ever. It's pretty fun. The blogging I do is a chance for me to express my mind."

Sometimes it's not only about football.

Well, football is important -- the sport helps some go to college, and if you're lucky enough, you go to the NFL. Giants defensive end Justin Tuck is about helping people, and is using football to do it.

Tuesday night at Chelsea Piers in New York, Tuck, along with several people associated with athletics on and off the field, will talk to about 150 kids in high school and college about the importance of using sports as a means to better their lives. The program is put on as part of the New Yorkers For Children organization.

Tuck will be joined by former NBA star Alonzo Mourning and CJ Brown, a former football player at Columbia, who now works for JP Morgan.

About two months ago, we learned that there was a high likelihood Plaxico Burress was going to wind up in jail. The second-degree weapons charge that Burress has been charged with carries a 3 1/2-year minimum sentence. Even under a reduced third-degree charge, Burress faces up to two years behind bars.

So a plea deal that would include just three months in prison and a bunch of community service seems like a nice little bargain for Burress. Except the wide receiver doesn't see it that way, according to Giants play-by-play announcer Bob Papa, who said Burress is "deathly afraid" of going to jail and wants to take his chances in court.