It Really Wasn’t That Big A Deal

Jesus, you'd think Ronde Barber looked up the names of each of the Giants' mothers and individually called them whores. The New York Daily News has a two page article with Plaxico Burress's response to Barber's "smack talk" the other day.

"I don't think he needs to worry about No. 10," Burress told the Daily News on Thursday. "He needs to worry about No.17."

Then the Daily News has to go and research last year's Bucs/Giants game and call out Ronde on his play. In case you don't remember, that game was really, really shitty for the Bucs and was perhaps Jon Gruden's worst display of game calling ever.

He also has a history with Barber, the twin brother of ex-Giant Tiki Barber. Last season, Burress had seven catches for 86 yards against the Bucs on an incredibly windy day at Giants Stadium. The 6-5 receiver also made a spectacular, one-handed touchdown catch over the 5-10 corner that made Barber look silly and small.

The memory of that is one reason Burress said, "I like Ronde. He's a good guy. But hey, I'd be worried about No.17 more than I'd be worried about No. 10."

Actually, Barber has a few other numbers to worry about since Burress wasn't the only one to push the Bucs corner around in the Giants' 17-3 victory back on Oct.29, 2006. Brandon Jacobs, the Giants' 6-4, 264-pound running back (No. 27) hit Barber so hard on a third-and-1 play that it sent the Buc backwards four yards. On the very next play, Barber tried to tackle Jacobs around the legs, but Jacobs just kicked right through his arms.

Those plays are pretty much etched into my memory and I can't seem to drink enough to kill those particular brain cells. The Giants won that game 17-3 and it was never close. Honestly, though, the 2007 Bucs don't really resemble the 2006 Bucs at all. And all this back-and-forth jabber over something as innocuous as pointing out Eli Manning's inconsistency is getting kind of silly. I mean, just look at Manning. Ronde could have been sooooo much meaner.

Amani Toomer gets the award for the best line of the article.

"You never try to reason with a DB," said Giants receiver Amani Toomer. "They have their own logic."

I remember my sophomore course in "DB Logic 201" and it was pretty hard for a while until I realized that the answer to every test question was, "I thought you had him over the top."