Jim Lang

Jim Lang is a Connected anchor and NFL reporter for Sportsnet. Also check out Jim's website, www.jimlang.ca

The first words out of the mouth from head coach Tom Coughlin set the tone for Thursday's Giants morning practice: "nice and steamy". I am not sure if the Giants' 330 lb offensive tackle Kareem McKenzie felt as happy about the humid weather as his head coach, but it was time to get to work for New York’s oldest football team.

Located on the campus of the State University of New York at Albany, the Giants were a serious bunch at the start of practice. It is hard to blame their serious mood considering the Giants started the 2009 season going 5-0, then proceeded to crash and burn, ending the year a very disappointing 8-8. After dealing with Albert Haynesworth at Redskins camp and Michael Vick at Eagles camp, the Giants camp was downright subdued. It's hard to believe that any team from New York could ever fly under the radar, but the Giants have enjoyed a relatively quiet camp.

The first half of their practice was filled with a lot of teaching and instruction from the individual positional coaches and the coordinators. It was great to hear tight ends coach Michael Pope go into minute detail about whether to block on the inside shoulder or outside shoulder on a particular play. I also noticed the Giants spent a fair bit of time working on getting their running backs involved in the passing game.

It was fairly quiet at Giants camp until they went to their live contact 11-on-11 drills. The Giants new defensive coordinator Perry Fewell had his players flying around and really getting after it in practice. Considering how poorly the Giants defence played the last half of last season; they need some more intensity and passion this year.

The highlight of my visit to Giants camp was being able to spend some time with their assistant G.M., Kevin Abrams. A Toronto native, Kevin went to the University of Western Ontario and always dreamed of having a job in a football front office. After getting a Masters degree at Ohio University, Kevin started grinding away and paying his dues. That meant taking a lot of unpaid internships until he proved himself enough to start getting paid. Eventually he started to climb the ladder of NFL head offices until he landed a job with the Giants.

Once in New York, Kevin had to pay his dues again and eventually landed a coveted job as the Giants assistant GM and capologist. Kevin and his boss, GM Jerry Reese, decided the Giants needed a veteran presence on defence and in the off-season brought in safety Antrel Rolle and linebacker Keith Bulluck. Already you could see the impact Rolle is having as a leader in the Giants secondary. While Bulluck is still getting his surgically repaired knee into game shape, he’s been setting the tone for the rest of the linebackers in the film study and meeting rooms. While we were watching practice and talking I said to Kevin, “you know you are going to be a GM in the NFL some day”. He just smiled and told me it would have to be quite the job for him to leave what he has with the Giants.

After practice I did a one-on-one interview with Eli Manning. Now I had interviewed Eli before when I covered Super Bowl 42 in Phoenix, but it always amazes me how big of an athlete Eli is in person. The guy is under a lot of pressure from the fans and media in New York to repeat his magic from Super Bowl 42, but you would never know it from talking to him.

After wrapping up with the Giants, we took off for Cortland, New York, home to the Jets training camp. I wanted to give my over-worked camera man Mario a break, so I decided to drive. I was bombing along in the Sportsnet NFL training camp rental truck, listening to the Clash’s greatest hits, when a New York State Trooper pulled us over. After informing the officer that we were are on a NFL camp tour and heading to Cortland, he went back to his cruiser with my licence. At this point Mario noticed the “Semper Fi” tattoo on his left arm. An Ex-Marine? Yes, I thought to myself, we just might get out of this one. He came back and said “Mr. Lang, do you realize that you were doing 83 MPH in a 65 zone?” To which I replied, “No officer, no I didn’t realize I was going that fast”. Turns out he’s a big Dolphins fans and the Trooper let us off with a warning.

Such is life on the road covering the NFL. Friday morning we will be at the Jets camp for the first of their two practices. This is the same camp that is being filmed for the HBO series “Hard Knocks”. It should be quite a gong show.