November 19, 2009
I feel like the bye week happened at a perfect time for us. It’s a great time to get everybody back on the field, get everybody healed up. It’s the latest in a season I’ve ever had a bye week and we’ve got a tough stretch ahead of us.
We haven't played our best football the past couple of weeks but that is history. And the best thing is we still control our own destiny. The NFL is made in late November and December, when all the teams are making their playoff push, getting ready to play their best to get into the postseason.
It was nice to get away from football, to sit around watching NFL games all day on Sunday, but now everybody is excited to be back and about the opportunity in front of us. What happened in the past is in the past, the only way to erase it is to take care of now, starting with the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday.
You hear the criticism, bits and pieces here and there, but I don’t read the newspapers and I don’t listen to the sports shows. I understand the fans are disappointed, but it’s even more disappointing for us as a team because we have high expectations. We feel it just as much as the most loyal Giants fans. We know we haven’t played our best football, but now we’re doing whatever we can to get back on course and play confident Giants football.
The bye week was a good time to recharge and regroup, now we’re back on the grind for the next seven weeks of the season. It’s going to take extra work from all of us. If you think you’ve worked hard, then work a little more. All of us are competitors and we’re pissed off about where we are right now. The only way to get back is to go back to the drawing board, use the bye week to evaluate yourself, what you have done well, what needs improvement, then make any negatives into a positive and make the positives even stronger.
We had a great practice today, guys had a lot of energy, flying around, having a lot of fun but with a business attitude. Everybody is spending extra time on the field and in the film room so we can leave it all out on the field on Sunday, so after the game no one can say they didn’t do absolutely everything they could to be prepared to play their best football. That’s how you build your confidence.
I stayed after practice and worked extra with Dave Tollefson to make sure I’m doing everything I can to be ready both physically and mentally. We were doing some extra pass-rush drills because the Falcons have a good group coming in. They have an array of different guys that they rotate, Abraham, Davis, Biermann, and Anderson. They’re not a huge D-line but they play physical and they play fast, they play with a lot of confidence, lots of twists and line stunts. They rush open side ends and tight end side ends, they slant the D-line while applying pressure with their linebackers, they try to change it up and keep you off-balance.
Tomorrow I’ll be hitting it hard again in practice, making sure there’s nothing else I can do to make sure I’m ready to leave it all out on the field on Sunday. I know every guy in this locker room is ready to sell out for every other guy.
Dave Diehl is an offensive lineman for the New York Giants. His blog for www.playerpress.com runs at www.davediehl66.com. Find him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/davediehl66.
October 15, 2009
As an athlete and a competitor there is nothing better than a challenge. This week, the Saints are going to be an excellent challenge. They’re 4-0 and coming off a bye week and out playing us at home so I know they’re going to be fired up and excited. We’ll be on the road so we have to get off to a fast start and match their intensity.
As always, we’re ready for a 60-minute fist fight, and it’s going to take good, smart football to go in there and come away with a win.
Everybody is talking about the Saints offense putting up a league-best 36 points per game and controlling time of possession. Nobody is really talking about their defense, which has given up only 16 points per game and an average of only 83 on the ground. It’s going to be a great test for our offense. We have to play our game, do what we need to do to become successful and come away from New Orleans with a win.
Obviously we’re going to focus on getting the running game going, making sure to keep momentum on our side, which is especially important on the road, convert third downs and control the clock so we keep our defense fresh and their offense off the field. That’s how you have success on the road. The Super Dome will be a loud, hostile environment. The city of New Orleans is going to be alive and fired up come Sunday so we’ve been working in practice with crowd noise. We do all that so when we get there, we can focus on our job, which is to win a football game.
I think it’s been awesome to see the development of our offense. But even though we’re 5-0, nobody is satisfied. Nobody is content with where we’re at, they continue to raise the bar and push each other to become better players and a better unit. It’s great to see Brandon and Ahmad push each other, to see Eli working with the receivers, constantly talking it out to make the routes crisper. That’s the true sign of a good team. That’s when you see the character of a team, when things are going well but they keep working to improve and do better.
This team continues to push the buttons, to do whatever needs to be done to be a better team. It starts with preparation and crisp practices, where guys are flying around. Everyone spends extra time with their playbooks. I always see guys at the facility all the time.
The schedule gets tougher as the season progresses, we’re going to keep playing better and better teams. But we don’t care about that because we’re not looking ahead. The only important game right now is against the Saints, because that’s the next game.
Dave Diehl is an offensive lineman for the New York Giants. His blog for www.playerpress.com runs at www.davediehl66.com. Find him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/davediehl66.
October 8, 2009
We’ve got Oakland this week at home. Though they don’t have a great record, from the standpoint of an offensive lineman this will be a tough game. They have a very good front four with Richard Seymour, Greg Ellis, Tommy Kelly and Gerard Warren, they’re all veterans with a ton of experience.
Those guys all line up and play hard and they have a good linebacking crew behind them. They’re fast, downhill running linebackers who aren’t afraid to fill a hole and aren’t afraid to hit. So as an offensive line it’s going to be an awesome game and an awesome challenge.
The Raiders have good players but they also play well together. Their schemes are designed well for them and it will be exciting for us to match up with such a good front seven.
I believe that in every NFL game, the battle is won or lost between the offensive and defensive lines.
Some of the guys are nicked up a bit, but you just have to fight through it. There’s nothing you can do about it, this is the NFL and everyone has bumps and bruises and whatever. But being an NFL player, you are a Sunday Warrior, you do whatever it is that you have to do to be out there on the field and fight through it. When you win the football game, it makes it all worth it.
It was great to win three games on the road. It’s a great accomplishment but that’s in the past. We’re moving forward with our season and we’re excited to be back at home playing at Giants Stadium. No planes, no trains, no busses this week. To be able to play in our own environment with our home crowd, to have that intensity, will be a great boost for us.
When we play at home we always talk about getting off to a fast start to get the crowd into it. That really makes it a tough place for our opponent to play. We’re just fired up to have the home crowd rally behind us, and we’re ready to do whatever we need to do to come out with another win.
Dave Diehl is an offensive lineman for the New York Giants. His blog for www.playerpress.com runs at www.davediehl66.com. Find him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/davediehl66.
October 1, 2009
When fans look at the weekend’s NFL matchups, they use records as one of their main aspects in determining who is going to win. But it’s not that easy. Winning games in the NFL is tough. Everybody on the outside looking in is saying that Kansas City should be an easy game for us, but that doesn’t matter. As a player you can’t allow yourself to think that way.
If you don’t come to play, you’re gonna get your butt kicked. It’s part of the job of being a professional athlete, you have to be prepared to play, no matter what else is happening, no matter what people are saying. You constantly strive to become a better player and a better team.
Our team has a great attitude and I love the direction that we are headed in. We had a great day of practice today, guys are fired up. You can never take for granted your current state. It’s always about where you want to be, not where you are now, and it’s all about how you’re going to get to where you want to go.
The Chiefs defense has some great players even though their record doesn’t show it. They have four first-round picks on defense, they play hard, they’re fast, they run around and attack to the football. I’ve never played in Kansas City before but everyone talks about how loud Arrowhead gets. It’s a tough environment. The season isn’t going the way they want it to at this point, but I know that as competitors and athletes, they’re going to go out there and lay it on the line on Sunday. They are going to do whatever they can to get their home crowd to get behind them and come away with the win.
We’re preparing for another fight, a solid, 60-minute fight. We’ve been working all week to get better, because if you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse.
Someone mentioned to me that I’ll be starting my 100th straight game since I was drafted in 2003. Obviously, it’s a great feeling, but I still have a long way to go. I’m not looking to end my career anytime soon. Knock on wood, the whole point is just to keep going out there and starting every game.
It’s an accomplishment and something to be proud of. I definitely take pride in always being there for my teammates and playing no matter what the circumstance, fighting to do whatever it takes to win the football game.
But I’m far from done, and I’m far from being where I want to be as a player. I will keep doing whatever it takes to be out there for every down of every game for as many years as I can play.
Dave Diehl is an offensive lineman for the New York Giants. His blog for www.playerpress.com runs at www.davediehl66.com. Find him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/davediehl66.
September 24, 2009
A lot of people are saying Tampa Bay won’t be tough because they’re 0-2. But in 2007 when we won the Super Bowl we had that same experience. We started 0-2 and people were counting us out from the get-go.
When a team is down, it will fight, scratch and claw to dig out of that hole and get their season going in the right direction. So we’re looking forward to a 60-minute fight. The Bucs are going to come out swinging, with energy, especially playing at home. We’re preparing for a fistfight, because that’s what it’s going to be Sunday at 1 p.m. in Tampa.
The regular season is 16 1-game seasons, you can’t look past anybody. I hate to use a cliché, but on any given Sunday, if a team comes out and plays hard and focused and mistake-free football, they can win. That’s the parity of the NFL and why you can never look past anybody ever.
You have to do what it takes to improve every week, so week in and week out you become a stronger football team. You make your weaknesses your strengths and make your strengths even stronger. Our team has great character and our coaches do a great job of telling us what we do well and what we need to improve.
After our win last week I can see two things we need to improve on as an offensive line and as an offense. We need to strengthen the running game. Sometimes you get in a situation where you need to throw the ball, like against Dallas. It’s a challenge to run the ball when they’re loading up the box, but regardless of the situation you have to be able to run the ball. It’s a challenge for us but we look forward to it and we wouldn’t want it any other way. We’re going to work hard to make sure we get Brandon and Ahmad more involved, and we’ll scratch and claw and do whatever it is we need to do that.
The other thing we need to improve is our offense in the green area. Getting a field goal is always great, but putting those six points on the board instead of three, down the stretch that’s going to make all the difference. We don’t want to keep settling for field goals.
Dave Diehl is an offensive lineman for the New York Giants. His blog for www.playerpress.com runs at www.davediehl66.com. Find him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/davediehl66.
September 17, 2009
What do you have to do to get pumped up for this? Sunday Night Football, once again against a division rival, at Dallas, opening a new stadium. It doesn’t get any bigger or better than this. It’s going to be a tough game, a physical game, the crowd is going to be fired up and into it and we’re going to have to match the intensity of the Cowboys.
To be successful we have to get them out of their game and do our job on offense, which means controlling the ball. I hate to use a cliché, but we really do have to take it one play at a time. On the road, it’s crucial to think about it that way. Things won’t always go your way on the road, there will be adjustments to be made, but you can’t let anything throw you off of your game plan or make you fail to execute.
I like to say I play with no conscience. If you make a mistake you learn from it right away, learn why that play didn’t go your way and then move forward. If you let it trickle down, especially on the road, it will lead to disaster.
I’m excited to be going to Dallas, it’s always a battle, always a challenge. They’re going to be fired up. Our coaches have done a great job of putting us into the right game plan, using our strengths to make us successful. It’s got to be a group effort, the whole team has to rally around each other and go out and play a great football game.
Dallas has a great defense. They not only have great players but the 3-4 scheme they run puts players in the right position to use their talents to the best of their ability. In the 3-4 they use one defensive end on my side and one standup linebacker. The main guys I’ll be blocking are Igor Olshansky as the end and either DeMarcus Ware or Anthony Spencer on the outside. Usually it’s DeMarcus.
As a football player you always want to challenge yourself against the best in the NFL, and DeMarcus is one of them. He’s athletically gifted, he’s 6-5, 265 and runs like a linebacker, he’s smart and instinctive and fits into their 3-4 system perfectly. You have to account for him at all times.
DeMarcus also plays the game real hard and real fast, you really have to play him to the whistle and make sure you finish him or he’ll make plays downfield and on the back side.
It’s awesome, I’m excited to go up against him again, so I’m making sure to study all the film I can to see if he’s done anything different from last season during the preseason or their first game against Tampa Bay.
I’m preparing for a 60-minute battle, because that’s what it’s going to take to be successful out there.
Dave Diehl is an offensive lineman for the New York Giants. His blog for www.playerpress.com runs at www.davediehl66.com. Find him on Twitter @davediehl66.
September 9, 2009
There’s no better way to start the season than with a home game against the Redskins. This is what we play the game for. This is what football is all about.
Don’t get me wrong, you have OTAs, mini-camp and the preseason, but all of that is to get you prepared for the regular season. You have to put yourself in the best position possible both physically and mentally heading into the season.
When it’s over, no one describes your season by how you did in training camp or preseason, it’s all about what you did in the regular season. It is what gives you an opportunity to get to the playoffs and to win the Super Bowl. It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. You have to go out there each and every week for a 16-game stretch and do whatever you can to be in the best position to make a run at the Super Bowl.
That’s what we’re all playing for and it starts now.
It was awesome to go in yesterday on our day off and see so many guys in there, preparing themselves to play, breaking down Redskins film. It just goes to show how excited everybody is and how willing they are to put in the time, to make sure Sunday at 4 we’re ready to take on the Washington Redskins.
You always want to start fast and on a high note. What better way to start than a home game against the Redskins, not only our long-time rival but a division rival. All games in our division are important.
This is why everybody watches preseason games and follows the draft. It’s all in preparation for this weekend. THE NFL SEASON.
On any team, you have younger guys and the veteran leadership. For the rookies, nothing matches the speed and intensity of a regular season NFL game. They’ve gone through preseason and practices, but none of that accounts for what they are going to experience this weekend in a real game, so the older guys are going to do their best to make sure the younger guys are fully prepared. When the ball is snapped, it’s a 60 minute fist fight and you need to be the aggressor.
I’m excited and looking forward to seeing how this team handles itself and how it responds. It all starts this week with practice and preparation. I know the energy is going to be there, the team is fired up, we’re excited. Now you have to have crisp, clean practices and everybody has to be on the ball. Have our game plan down so when adjustments need to be made you are all over it. We have to spend extra time watching film so when we go out there on Sunday we’re able to adapt to anything the Redskins are going to do. They’re going to do something different with their defense that we haven’t seen. Whether its alignment, blitz, etc., and when they do we have to be able to adjust and move forward.
I’m not one for predictions, I’m not going to guarantee a certain number of wins or a Super Bowl or anything, I just know this team is going to play hard, play fast, play with a lot of energy, and play with confidence. We will sell out and do whatever it takes to win the football game.
Dave Diehl is an offensive lineman for the New York Giants. His blog for www.playerpress.com runs at www.davediehl66.com. Find him on Twitter @davediehl66.
August 19, 2009
Man, you get so sick of hitting each other, day in and day out, it was awesome to go out there and hit someone other than your teammate. It felt good to get the competitive juices flowing and get that game day feel back. More important, what a great way to end a game. That's why we work so hard in practice. To get out there and play hard, play fast, play smart, and transfer what we've learned in practice to a game situation and get a win.
As an offense we did a great job of coming out strong and fast, setting the tempo, pushing the running game and getting play-action involved. Eli did a great job of managing our offense and putting us in the right plays. He was confident with all his calls and made sure he was on the same page with everybody on the offense.
The running backs did a great job stepping up. Brandon Jacobs ran hard and made good reads on which holes to run through. But he wasn't the only one. Ahmad Bradshaw came in with fire and Danny Ware also had a good game as well. A lot of different wide receivers caught balls, and they're getting better as a group, pushing each other to compete. The receivers are definitely getting more confident with things out there and with Eli.
It's exciting to see the direction this team is going in.
I think I played pretty well, but you are limited to just so many plays. There are definitely some things I'll see on film technique-wise and scheme-wise that I'll make sure to hammer out. That's what these games are about, to help us improve come the first game of the regular season. Each week you have to get better, even though your snaps are limited and you don't have a lot of opportunities. So you have to go out there and play fast and play hard.
Now it's time to get into the film room and see how I can improve heading into preseason game 2. This team is headed in the right direction, you can see the camaraderie and the team coming together. The offense was cheering for the defense, the defense was cheering for the offense and everyone was rallying around special teams. That's what training camp is all about, a team establishing its identity.
Dave Diehl is the starting left tackle for the New York Giants. His blog for www.playerpress.com runs at www.davediehl66.com. Find him on Twitter @davediehl66.
August 5, 2009
I spent the last 5 weeks before training camp going back and forth between Chicago and New Jersey. In NJ, I worked out at Joe DeFranco’s gym, working on strength, power and explosion, using weights and rubber bands. In Chicago I worked out at Attack Athletics with Tim Grover, the guy who trained Michael Jordan, working on quickness, agility and balance, side-to-side, lateral movement. In both places I did conditioning.
I feel like I’m in the best shape of my life right now.
I’m excited that we’re back in training camp. There are always some little butterflies heading in, though. I got here a day early so I could check in, get my keys, get settled in my dorm room and get in the locker room so I didn’t have to rush the first day of camp. That day I woke up, had breakfast and relaxed before camp officially started.
By 1 p.m. the first day of camp you had to have a weight/body fat test right away. There are certain goals everyone has to make after having 5 weeks away from the team. Then we have the conditioning test, which is 10 half-gassers, up and down each sideline and back, under a certain time.
I did the test before camp last Tuesday to make sure I could, just to ease my mind, and I felt great afterwards.
I know I’ve done everything I can to make myself a better football player and help the offense.
It’s just one of those things, every year you have to come back to training camp and reestablish yourself, who you are, reestablish your identity, regardless of how many years you’ve been in the league. This is my 7th training camp and I still feel that way. I want to show how hard I’ve worked in the last 5 weeks away from the coaches, that I’ve done everything in my power to come in in the best shape I can be in and show that I’m willing to work again to earn my position. Even though I’ve been a starter for 6 years, nothing is ever given to you in this league.
Don’t get me wrong, I took some breaks, too. I love Chicago-style pizza and I made sure I got some. You have to splurge sometimes, even though you’re working hard, because before you know it summer is over and look, it’s time for training camp.
The way I look at it, each year is more important than the year before. Each season is completely different. As a team, you come to training camp and set the standard for how you’re going to compete, how you’re going to prepare. What we do now reflects on what we’re going to do the rest of the year.
Heading into last season we were Super Bowl champs, now we have a chip on our shoulder. We didn’t play a good enough game our last game of the season to move forward, and that still lingers in my mind. That’s the type of thing you use as motivation to push yourself in the right direction.
Dave Diehl is an offensive lineman for the New York Giants. His blog for www.playerpress.com runs at www.davediehl66.com. Find him on Twitter as davediehl66.
August 3, 2009
I know I haven’t been blogging a lot recently, but for me it’s never about what you say, it’s all about what you do, and all I was doing the last 5 weeks was training and keeping myself physically and mentally prepared for training camp. It was my time to take care of business and I used that time to the best of my ability to get ready for the weeks that lie ahead.
We start training camp today in Albany. We know it will be tough, that pretty soon every day will start to feel like Groundhog Day and we’ll be going through the heat and tough two-a-day practices.
In New Jersey and Chicago we’ve had plenty of rain this summer, but when we get to training camp it never seems to rain. We joke that Coach Coughlin made a deal with The Man upstairs that it will only rain when we’re done practicing for the day. In the six years I’ve gone to training camp I think we’ve had maybe two rainouts. And it just seems to get hotter and hotter every day after we show up for camp.
Every once in a while a guy will do a rain dance, but that never works out. Even when it does rain it seems to stop the minute we start practicing, then we have to practice in the muggy heat, which is even worse.
But the truth is this is a fun time for everyone, too, as hard as it is. It’s great being around your teammates all the time. Don’t get me wrong, it’s tough being away from your family, but it allows you to focus on football. As hard as training camp is it’s also some of the most fun you have all season because of the camaraderie. Everybody comes back and shares stories about how their summer was, the funny things that happened.
That’s what football is all about.
When people step away from the game that’s what they miss most. The sweat, the blood you all share, these are the guys you do it with day after day. Guys miss that common thread when they retire.
Also, there’s always the rookie hazing at camp. Every rookie has to stand on a chair in the lunchroom, say their name, school and signing bonus, and sing a song other than their school fight song. It’s always a lot of comedy that breaks up the monotony of being in training camp. It’s a ritual, I had to do it, that’s the way it is and it’s a lot of fun. I sang Eazy-E, “Eazy-Duz-It.” If a guy’s not good, they make him sing another one. I only had to sing once, though.
One thing I don’t look forward to about training camp, though, is dorm life, and waking up at 6:30 every morning. You’re only there to sleep, really, but after a while the room starts to get a musty smell to it, with a bunch of nasty football players living in the dorm. You’re living out of your suitcase so your clothes choice is limited, and after a while you have to wear some of the same clothes if you don’t get a chance to do laundry. And the cafeteria food starts out good but gets old real fast. It starts to get repetitive, especially for the guys who really like food.
Training camp is a great time and a bad time. It’s bittersweet. It’s the toughest three weeks physically, and regardless of how you feel, how sore you are, you have to block out the temperature, block out injuries, block out everything that’s happened and go out there and perform. When everyone does that together it can make the difference between winning and losing during the season, pushing through everything and getting the job done.
This is where a team’s identity is formed. Here, we all go through it together.
Dave Diehl is an offensive lineman for the New York Giants. His blog for www.playerpress.com runs at www.davediehl66.com. Find him on Twitter as davediehl66.
May 28, 2009
Up until Wednesday, the rookies had just been lifting and meeting on their own. Now, because of the OTA’s, they have started to lift, practice, and are in the meeting rooms with the vets. It’s and exciting time for them. I remember what it was like to be a rookie just stepping in. Every NFL player had that experience and has been through that situation, as rookies or free agents.
It’s nice to have guys coming in hungry. As a Giants player, we have a lot of faith in Jerry Reese and what he’s doing upstairs to help us win games and go back to the Super Bowl.
The fans and media worry a lot about our wide receivers, and it is tough to lose a player like Plaxico Burress, of course. But we’ve got guys who are hungry and are excited about getting the opportunity to play.
Bringing in Hakeem Nicks as a first-round pick is exciting, he’s a tremendous guy and tremendous athlete. We have the same agent so I know that he’s already found a place to live so he can stay here all summer and catch passes and run routes with Eli. It’s awesome to see a guy with the intensity and dedication. He can make a splash right away.
Steve Smith is a player who has made big plays for us and we just got a glimpse of what Domenik Hixon can do last year, he’s just coming into his own and should get a lot more playing time. Sinorice Moss and Mario Manningham are also players look to get into the mix. And even though he is a tight end, I see Kevin Boss playing a big role in our offense this year. Best thing about all of these guys is that they are still young and have tons of potential.
I have a lot of confidence in the wide receivers we have, it is definitely not a problem spot for us. I know we’ve got the pieces in place to have a successful offense.
Off the field this year I’ve gotten very involved with Project Sunshine. Project Sunshine is a nonprofit organization that provides free educational, recreational, and social programs to children facing medical challenges and their families. Project Sunshine serves 60,000 children each year in 150 medical facilities. It’s an unbelievable organization. To learn more about this terrific organization visit www.projectsunshine.org. Comix, the comedy club in New York, got in touch with me with the 12 Angry Mascots through my management firm, PR PR, and said if I did some comedy with them, they would donate profits from the night to Project Sunshine.
So I did it. Every once in a while I think you have to try something new, challenge yourself by going outside the box. But more importantly, I was doing it to raise money for charity. Click on "videos" here on my site to check it out or click HERE.
I was more nervous than I have been with most things in my life, because there’s nothing worse than watching a comedian bomb. A lot of the sketch was improv, and I had a great time doing it. I’m not looking to become a standup comedian or an actor, I’m a professional football player. But it was fun, people laughed and thought it was funny, and it was for charity.
So all in all it was a win-win. What I couldn’t believe was how fast the buzz spread on the web. I did it last Wednesday, and by Thursday night and Friday morning people were calling me, it was on NFL Live, it was just crazy.
Sure, I poked a little fun at Brett Favre, but let me get it straight that I love Brett. I doubt there will ever be another quarterback like Brett Favre, a guy who sold out each and every game for his love of the sport. I mean, who didn’t love watching Brett Favre play football?
I hope everyone knows that the joking about him was done in the spirit of an NFL locker room, where we joke about everybody and play pranks on everybody.
Dave Diehl is the starting left tackle for the New York Giants. His blog for www.playerpress.com runs at www.davediehl66.com. Find him on Twitter as davediehl66.
It has been an interesting off-season for fans this year considering the losses to the team and we all know what they are so enough said. What i'm excited about is the new guys.I live in California and have seen Ramses Barden play alot and he will surprize alot of people during the season. He always seems to get better as the season goes along and plays up to and ahead of the competition.Plays better than he practises, and seems to be a good guy when I met him. I had a chance to chat at camp with Pat Hanlon last year(see my picture with David)for a minute and told him about Barden. I hope it prompted the office to take a look at him. Lets have a great season!!!
May 26, 2009
I just want to say I know I haven’t been on the site in a while but I’m back now and I’ll be updating a lot, so I hope Giants fans will keep checking in on the website.
We officially start OTAs tomorrow and it’s always exciting when you have new teammates, preferably guys who can come in and help us win football games.
It was real tough losing to Philadelphia. We play the game for one reason, to go to the Super Bowl and be champions. When you don’t make it there, all the hard work and dedication from the season feels like it didn’t count for anything and then it’s all over.
It’s very sudden, one minute you’re playing the Eagles and the next day you have an exit meeting, exit physical and then that’s it. Everyone goes their separate ways until off-season training starts on March 16.
In the off-season you have a lot of time to think about things. I went to the Bahamas with my family and friends. It was great to spend vacation time with them. You are so busy during the season its nice to be able to give them the attention they deserve. I went swimming with my daughter in the pool, walked the sand and went in the ocean. You play, you relax but the loss was always in the back of my mind and left a bad taste in my mouth. Same when I went back to Chicago to spend time with my family.
As a Christmas gift, Eli Manning flew me out to the Pro Bowl in Hawaii. I’m not going to lie, I always said that the Super Bowl and the Pro Bowl were two games I would never go to unless I was playing in them. Being a Pro Bowl alternate last year was a great accomplishment but it’s not the same thing.
But Eli really wanted me to be there, he said he wouldn’t be going if the offensive line didn’t do their job.
Honestly, I left Hawaii angry with an even bigger hunger in my stomach to be a better football player. I saw how much the guys there were enjoying themselves and what it meant to them to be there.
It was probably one of the best things I could have done to give myself extra motivation to push myself even harder this season. I left Hawaii at 5:30 p.m., was in Chicago at 5:30 a.m., and by 7:30 a.m. I was in the gym working out.
I’m excited about the direction this team is headed and where I am. I feel like I came into the off season program in the best shape I’ve ever been in to start the program on the 16th. This whole game is about accountability, each guy on the field selling out for one another. You always know that all the guys in the huddle are depending on you. I know that I’m doing everything I can to make this a better football team.
I’m doing everything in my power right now to be in the best shape possible and to become the best left tackle in the NFC. That’s my goal.
It also helps to have someone call you out. The Redskins said they drafted defensive end Brian Orakpo from Texas because the tackles in the NFC can’t handle speed rushers.
That will stay with me during the season. There’s nothing better than being personally challenged.
Dave Diehl is the starting left tackle for the New York Giants. His blog for www.playerpress.com runs at www.davediehl66.com. Find him on Twitter as davediehl66.
Written By Dave Diehl
January 9, 2008
This is why we work out so hard in the off-season. This is why we run, lift weights, have training camp, go through everything we go through. Everything we do as an NFL player is to get to this point, to get the opportunity to get back to the Super Bowl.
To hold that Super Bowl trophy was a feeling like no other, and the only way to get to hold it again is to take care of business and that starts Sunday against the Eagles.
The Eagles are a good team, they know us, we know them. The team that goes out there and plays more physical for 60-plus minutes, and lays everything they have got on the line is the team that’s going to come away with a win and continue their season. I don’t want the season to be over. We want to keep playing.
It’s win or go home at this point, and I have a lot of confidence in what we’re doing right now.
The Eagles beat us last game but that doesn’t matter now. It’s all about the now. The present. It’s all about this game, and the postseason is completely different than the regular season because everyone has to play up to the best of their ability on every play.
You leave it all on the field because that’s what it takes to win these games, and if you don’t you won’t be on the field again until next season.
Playing at home is a huge factor for us, we’ve been good at home. We want to get off to a fast start, get a big play to get the crowd into it and use that as an advantage.
I know I said the last game against the Eagles doesn’t matter, but losing that game still left a bad taste in our mouths. When that happens you just hope to have a chance to redeem yourselves, and we’ve got that opportunity this weekend. Never let history repeat itself.
We’re expecting a slugfest, a real heavyweight bout. That’s what playing in the NFL is all about. You have to go in with everything you’ve got. There’s nothing better than challenging yourself against good players who bring it every week, and I’ll be facing one of those guys in Trent Cole. He’s been to the Pro Bowl, he’s one of the leaders of that defense and plays hard to the whistle. I am going to sell out each and every play because my teammates are depending on me and I know they are going to do the same for me.
In the playoffs the key is to sell out and hold all your blocks just a little longer, and finish every play because everything you do counts. You have to go as hard as you can every play, whether it’s holding a block, getting to the next level and making a block, whatever. If you don’t and something bad happens, you don’t want to look back with your season over and have any regrets.
I know our guys are going to lay it on the line. We want to get back to the Super Bowl. This team still feels like it has something to prove.
Dave Diehl is the starting left tackle for the Super Bowl champion New York Giants. His blog for playerpress.com runs at www.davediehl66.com.
Written By Dave Diehl December 18, 2008 Part of being in the NFL is that when you’re winning, you’re on the highest of highs, and when you lose a couple of games it’s like the lowest of lows. We lost two games in a row, but we still have confidence in ourselves and our team. Don’t get me wrong, we haven’t played our best football the last two games, but we’re turning the page now and calling this a single-game season. All that matters is what we do on Sunday, and we’ve prepared extremely hard, pushed each other and made sure we learned from our losses. People talk about it like we don’t care when we lose, we got complacent, but that is definitely not the case .We work extremely hard and when things don’t go right it hits you hard. The only way you can fix things is to get back up when you get knocked down and make sure it doesn’t happen again. I know every one of our guys will be there on Sunday, ready to sell out for the team against Carolina. This season is not over for us and we’re focused on the task at hand. We’re playing for high stakes, home field advantage and a first-round bye, which is crucial. It’s a huge advantage for the playoffs. Carolina is going to come in with a lot of intensity, because these are the best two teams in the NFC right now and they have the same amount at stake. This is the NFL in December, every game matters so you better make sure you’re playing your best football. The most important thing, something we didn’t do the last two games, it’s all about starting fast, setting the tempo and controlling the line of scrimmage. Once we do that we have to maintain our intensity on offense, control time of possession and convert third downs, then score TDs when we get in the green zone. Carolina comes in not only with a good D, but a good offense that controls the clock. It will be a huge factor, which team can control the clock. It’s going to be a complete 60-minute fight, the team that wins the physical battle, plays smart and avoid turnovers is going to win. For me personally I love the challenge of going up against a guy like Julius Peppers. He’s a Pro Bowl player, an excellent athlete, a real ballplayer. He plays hard and I have to go out there and play to my utmost potential with full confidence. I know it won’t be perfect, but when it’s not I just have to recharge my battery and look ahead, focus on the next play. In the NFL, the next play is always the most important one. Jon Beason also is a tremendous player, the leader of that defense, he lines up all the guys, communicates and points stuff out. He leads the team in tackles and is on the top three in the league, plus he’s fast and plays extremely hard. People have always doubted us, even when we won the Super Bowl. To change people’s perspectives you just have to keep winning. We’re at home with a lot to play for, and I have no doubt that every player on this team is going to play with confidence and sell out to help us win this football game. As an offensive line we didn’t play our best football the last week. Giving up sacks and not getting the run game successfully going against Dallas is not what our unit is about and we take that very personally. We have a lot of pride in our group and have taken it upon ourselves to make sure that never happens again. From this week forward, we are putting on and strapping up our helmets with determination and a single minded focus to go out there and get the job done. Period! You can’t make excuses in the NFL. All that matters are the results. Dave Diehl is the starting left tackle for the Super Bowl champion New York Giants. His blog for playerpress.com runs at www.davediehl66.com.
Written By Dave Diehl
December 18, 2008
Obviously it’s awesome and an honor to be recognized as a third alternate for the Pro Bowl, but as a player the goal is always to go as a starter. So I’m going to use this to motivate me to work even harder and make myself a better football player. I also owe credit to Rich Seubert who plays left guard next to me. He made my transition go smoothly and is a great guy to play next to. Rich and I prepare extremely hard during the week watching film together, doing drills together, communicating through everything so that on Sundays we play with confidence because of the way we approach the game. My relationship with Rich has made me a better player.
Maybe I have a chip on my shoulder, but I’m a 5th round draft pick who has gone on to start every game of his career at four different positions on the line. I’m playing a position everyone said the Giants would be crazy to put me at, people were telling me I couldn’t play left tackle, that if I did the Giants were in for a very long year. I used that as motivation to push myself harder and prove all the doubters wrong. We did have a long year all the way to the Super Bowl.
The goal is to be one of the best at your position in the NFL, and right now I’m not. I’m going to do whatever I can to make myself one of the best and use this as a steppingstone to get there. During these last two games and the playoffs, I am going to sell out and leave everything I have out on the field. That is what it is going to take to try to win another Super Bowl.
It’s even more important to me that Eli is going to the Pro Bowl, that means I’m doing my job and our O-Line as a unit is doing their job giving him time back there to throw the football. Eli does everything he can to be the best quarterback on the field. He has had his ups and downs and faced criticism head on and never letting it get the best of him and continue to work and be determined to be the best. Eli has earned this and I am proud of him as a teammate and as a friend.
Chris Snee and Shaun O’Hara are going to Hawaii, too, and both are very deserving. I work out with both of them throughout and they both work extremely hard. Shaun was a free agent rookie for the Browns, then worked his way to a starter at both the guard position and center. He came to us in 2004 and hasn’t lost a beat. Shaun is our starting center and does a great job of starting us off with calls to put all of us on the same page. Snee is a very determined player and a physical one, too. He is a technician that if he does something wrong, he walks through it or goes through it in his head so that he doesn’t make the same mistake again. It’s awesome that they got recognized because they earned it.
Individual awards are awesome, but the most important things to me are our team goals. I’d much rather win another Super Bowl than go to the Pro Bowl. That’s how it’s always been, I’ve always put the team ahead of myself. The most important thing is that we’re doing well as a football team.
Dave Diehl is the starting left tackle for the Super Bowl champion New York Giants. His blog for playerpress.com runs at www.davediehl66.com.
I’m sure fans wonder what goes on with the team in between Sundays. So here are the basics of my work week during the season:
MONDAY
We go to our training facility and lift and run. We have to be done by 11:30 a.m. And the lifting and running are mandatory. We have a special teams meeting at 11:30 and then a full-team meeting at 12:15 where the coach gives out game balls for offense, defense and special teams from Sunday’s game. Everyone gets a grade sheet to tell you how you did in the game. If you got a knockdown, that’s on there.
After that we break down into offense and defense for meetings and go over all the good things we did, all the bad things we did, and as an offense we usually watch the first quarter of the game we just played.
Then we break down into position groups and watch film. After that we go outside and walk through our corrections, because you want to do that while the game is still fresh in your mind. We’re done by about 2:30 or 2:45 p.m.
Usually after practice on a Monday I will get a massage and acupuncture, sit in a cold tub, start getting my body healed up and feeling fresh after mashing all day on Sunday. The day after a game you’re sore, banged up, you just went out there the day before and for 60-plus minutes constantly smashed into people, so you do what you can to work on your body.
I think it’s important to try to have at least one night a week with my wife, and usually it’s Monday because practice is short. Our daughter, Addison, is 22 months old, and as much as we love her you still have to work on your own relationship. When you have a child there’s not all the time in the world to spend together, so Monday night we go out, either with other players and their wives or just the two of us. Eli will come with his wife, or the offensive line will all go out together, or my wife and I will just have a nice bottle of wine and go out for dinner and talk, just the two of us.
TUESDAY
This is the day off all through the NFL. I usually spend as much time as possible with my little girl, in the backyard on the playset. I’m so busy during the week, I don’t get home until about 5 o’clock and she goes to bed at 8:30. That gives me a very limited amount of time to spend with her, so Tuesday I spend as much of it with her as I can.
WEDNESDAY
We get to the facility and the offensive and defensive lines lift at 7 a.m.
At 7:45 there’s a special teams meeting with the kickoff group, kickoff returns and field goal units.
At 8:25 we have a full team meeting where we’re introduced by the coaches to the team we’re going to play on Sunday. Coach Coughlin runs this meeting, he runs down the other team’s personnel and tells us what they do well and what they don’t.
Then we break into offense and defense for meetings. As an offense we go over what fronts they run, the different packages they do. Another coach goes over their blitz packages and we install the plays for our running game and passing game.
Seattle was a 4-3 team, but this week we’re playing Cleveland and they’re a 3-4 team. A lot of the schemes are different, so they’re blocked differently. Plus, you have to show the defense something a little different every week so you don’t show all of the same tendencies.
Even though defensive players aren’t as smart as offensive players, they will still eventually catch on if you don’t change anything week-to-week. ;-)
After meetings we go out on the field and have a jog-through of what we’re going to do. Wednesdays we focus hard on first and second downs.
After the jog-through we come back in, get in our gear, put on our helmets and shoulder pads and have a full practice, about two hours or 2:15. After we come back in, hit the showers and eat lunch. We have a great big buffet line with almost anything you could want, cold cuts, chicken, steak, vegetables, lots of healthy foods.
Then there’s another special teams meeting to watch practice on film, and after that we break up into position groups again and watch more practice. It’s important to watch every aspect of practice on film because we have a scout team that runs the defense of the opposing team, stunting and blitzing like they do to give us a good look at what it will be like on Sunday.
THURSDAY
Thursday is a lot like Wednesday, except we focus on third downs. All the meetings are at the same times and we usually practice until about 4:15 p.m.
There’s no full team meeting, we go right into offense-defense meetings and go over third-down packages, called “sub-defenses” because there a lot of substitutions from the basic, or “base” defense, used just for third downs. You also have different packages for third-and-long.
There’s the jog-through, meetings, all the same except you’re always looking at third downs.
FRIDAY
Again, same times as Thursday and Wednesday, but on Friday you focus on short-yardage situations, third-and-1, third-and-2 and goal line. We focus on the “Green Area,” or from the 20-yard line and in. Most teams call it the “Red Zone.” We call it the Red Zone when we’re on defense, but the Green Area when we have the ball. That’s Coach Coughlin’s idea, because he says when our D is in there it means stop and when it’s our offense we need to go.
We don’t have any post-practice meetings on Friday, we try to get off our feet and start resting, get our bodies healed. I get massage and acupuncture again.
SATURDAY
The first thing I do is hop in the cold tub for 10 or 15 minutes to treat my soreness.
Then there’s the special teams meeting and we break down into offense-defense. We talk about how the game is getting closer, how things went in practice, and after that there are positional meetings and we watch practice from Friday.
We go out on the field for a walkthrough for an hour…we practice getting the kickoff team on the field, the kickoff return team off. Any type of situation you could come up with, we run through the script right then, third down, move the field, Green Area. Mayday, no time on the clock, rushing the field goal unit out on the field and the regular team off. We’re usually done by noon.
If it’s a home game, we stay in a hotel the night before the game. I won’t say which hotel, although it’s really not a big secret anymore because there are always like a thousand fans there. We don’t have to be anywhere until 7:30 p.m., which in Coughlin time is 7:25 p.m., for a special teams meeting.
Then we break down into offense and defense, watch the opposing defense some more, we watch tons of film. We talk about different plays, different problems we’ve had and other teams have had.
Then we relax until Sunday.
If we’re on the road, after a walkthrough at about noon we shower, get box lunches and fly out to wherever, where we have the same 7:25 p.m. meeting we would have had at home.
SUNDAY
Game day. If it’s a 1 p.m. game I’m up at 8 a.m. for a stretch, take a shower and meet the team for our pregame meal from 8:45 to 9:45. After that I go right to the stadium. I like getting there early, taking my time setting up my pads. I don’t like to be rushed before a game.
Then I plug into my iPod and turn on a playlist that I call Tunnel Vision. It’s got rock, rap, everything from Jay-Z to Led Zeppelin, The Doors to Metallica. I also listen to songs from “Last of the Mohicans” and “Gladiators” that get me pumped up.
For a 1 p.m. game we’re on the field at 12:10 for about 25-30 minutes, then come back in, meet with our offensive coordinator. There’s a team prayer and Coach Coughlin says a few words and we’re ready to go out there.
Dave Diehl is the starting left tackle for the Super Bowl champion New York Giants. His blog for playerpress.com runs regularly at www.davediehl66.com.
The NFC East is the best division in football this year, so it’s good to have a bye week to get everybody healed and recuperated, take care of all the nicks and scratches because we know every time we play a team in our division it’s going to be a royal rumble out there.
With two weeks off there’s a real learning process, the coaches breaking down plays ands schemes, going over what we did well in the first three games, what we didn’t do so well and figuring out what direction we’re going to go in. We evaluate every phase of the game, do whatever we have to do to make corrections.
This week is a great challenge for us playing against the Seahawks, they’re a great team with a great defense, they play extremely well together and do a good job of playing sound football. Their defensive line does a good job of tying up O linemen and freeing things up for the linebackers. Those linebackers fly around and make plays.
It’s exciting to play the Seahawks again because we lost to them in ’05 and ’06, and those five-hour trips on the way back with a loss leaves a bad taste in your mouth.
This time we can really do something to make up for it. We’re at home this time, so we want to get off to a fast start and do all we can to use our home-field advantage. We’ve got to play with energy, get a big play or a big hit early, get the crowd into it and let the Seahawks know they’re playing in Giants Stadium.
I’ll be going up against defensive end Lawrence Jackson, he’s a rookie, a first-round pick out of USC. He’s very young but he plays with a lot of confidence and has a lot of speed off the edge. He’s about 271 pounds and uses his long arms to his advantage, to keep the offensive tackle off him with leverage. He tries to create a short corner where he can knock down your hands, turn his shoulder and flip his hips and try to skin himself around the edge. He makes himself small so there’s not a lot of surface area to hit and uses his inside arm to cut the edge.
He doesn’t look like a rookie out there, he’s not lost. He knows what he’s doing and he has a plan, he plays very well in their schemes. As a veteran there are certain things I’m going to try to change up from last week. He’ll be watching me on film all week, so I’ll try to do little things differently to change them up and give him a different look. Part of being a veteran is that you have experience and remember things, and he doesn’t have that experience yet. It’s not a huge advantage, but I’ll try to change things up and try to confuse him.
Our goal, as an offensive line, is the same every week. We have to control the line of scrimmage so we can run the ball early, set a physical standard, go after them and play hard, play physical. Our thing is to play physical, get after them from the snap to the whistle, not allow the defense to get momentum, get hyped up. As a line that’s what we pride ourselves on. That opens up the play-action pass and allows us to take big shots downfield.
We also want to control time of possession and convert on third downs, do what we can to keep our defense fresh by keeping them off the field. Then they’re able to attack, and we understand what it means to have the defense fresh and constantly attacking. We know our defense is going to attack the QB, apply pressure and make hits.
We’ve had two weeks to prepare for this game and our coaches do a great job of preparing us and giving us a good game plan. Obviously, any team would in the NFL would rather have it later in the season, but whether your bye week is Week 4, Week 8 or 10, we’re professionals, and as a team we’re not going to complain about it and we’re going to prepare ourselves for battle each and every Sunday from here on out.
Dave Diehl is the starting left tackle for the Super Bowl champion New York Giants. His blog for playerpress.com runs regularly at www.davediehl66.com.
There’s nothing like the feeling of getting ready for a new season and for your opening game.
And we are definitely ready. We had a great camp, we worked extremely hard and a lot of guys have stepped up and filled key roles. Coming off winning the Super Bowl we still have a lot to prove this season, so we just have to go out there and play each and every game as hard as we can, give it our all, lay it on the line each week. We’ve got a target on our back this season, everybody’s gunning for us, but we’re going to be ready for every shot that’s taken at us.
Lots of people talk about a “Super Bowl hangover,” but I don’t think that’s going to happen. Once you get that feeling of holding that trophy, you just want to do it again. No one here is complacent, no one is happy. The only time you can be satisfied is when you retire. Right now every team is 0-0 with a fresh new start.
This is a Giants team that if it gets knocked down is going to get back up even stronger.
Everyone is nervous for the first game, everyone is excited, but this is a great way to start the season, at home, a Thursday night game against the Redskins. They’re a division rival, a team we play twice a year in a tradition that’s been going on since before any of us started playing for the New York Giants. It’s going to be a fun game, a physical, smashmouth game where the last man standing will win.
Once you get that first hit out of the way, you remember what it’s like and you’re ready to roll.
One of the tough things about the year after you win a Super Bowl championship is the quick turnaround. We won the Super Bowl on Feb. 3 and we started our off-season training on March 21. But this is a team with a tough mental attitude, willing to work hard to get back to that pinnacle again. It’s hard to win games in the NFL, you’re not going to win every game, so the key is when you lose, you get knocked down, you have to learn something and move forward. You can’t let a loss linger, and the good thing about this team and the character of all of these guys, there are a lot of leaders who can step up and rally the team, pull it together and get things going in the right direction.
We have lost some players, Michael Strahan to retirement and Osi Umenyiora to injury. It’s always tough losing great players like that. But I can tell you that our defensive line is in good hands with Justin Tuck and Mathias Kiwanuka. Mathias moved back to the position he was drafted at, and he’s a hard-working guy, he’s tough, and even more important, he’s a team player. He will play any position you put him at and he’s going to go out there and give it all he’s got. Knowing the type of athlete and player he is, we all believe in him.
The same goes for Tuck replacing Strahan. Justin had a great season last year, but still had people telling him he wasn’t an every-down player. So he’s going out there with a chip on his shoulder. He’s replacing a Hall of Famer and he wants to go out there and prove the critics wrong.
Seeing the way Justin and Mathias do the little things, work hard during practice, work on technique and spend time in the weight room and in meetings watching tape, I know they’re going to do a great job.
This first game is real important. This is when you set the standard of what the season is going to be like. You want to start on a high note, get yourself rolling early in the season. Plus, we’re going against a division rival, a team we’re going to see again, a team we’ll have to beat to win the division.
We started out 0-2 last year and we all know how that season turned out, but that’s not how you want to start. You want to start fast.
Dave Diehl is the starting left tackle for the Super Bowl champion New York Giants, who open their season Thursday, Sept. 4 at home against the Washington Redskins. Dave’s blog for playerpress.com runs regularly at www.davediehl66.com.