Toomer's only regret: That he's no longer a Giant
Photo credit: Getty Images | Amani Toomer runs the ball against the Carolina Panthers last year. (December 21, 2008)
Giant of the Day: Amani Toomer
Week 13: Giants 31, Cowboys 24
Picture an honorary captain and it's usually a guy who has put on 30 pounds and shuffles to the coin toss on arthritic knees. It's almost never someone who thinks he still should be playing.
But that's what the Giants are getting Sunday night with Amani Toomer, a 13-year veteran of the Giants and a significant player for them as recently as 11 months ago. He'll be wearing his not-so-old jersey for the ceremony and believing he still should be wearing it in the huddle.
"I think I could have played," Toomer told Newsday when asked about his first year of non-voluntary retirement. "I think the last couple of games [of 2008] let me know that they wanted me back as a mentor. But I felt like I could still play and I wanted to play. My reaction to the role they were putting me in the last couple of weeks let them know that I wasn't really willing to be a mentor. I'm a player."
"Or," Toomer said, correcting himself, "I was a player."
He was one of the best the Giants have had at receiver, their all-time leader in catches and receiving yards. He has three of the top four seasons on the team's single-season reception list. He's an all-time great Giant.
But the way his career ended still rankles him. Last winter, when he still was a Giant, Toomer spoke out about how he was misused, citing an "agenda" on the part of the coaching staff and expressing disappointment that he wasn't a bigger factor in the game-planning, especially after Plaxico Burress missed the final month of the regular season.
Toomer had one big game - five catches for 85 yards and a touchdown against the Redskins the day after Burress accidentally shot himself - but had only 11 catches for 126 yards and no TDs in the last five games, including a playoff loss to the Eagles.
"I still believe that we had a better chance had they used me the last couple of weeks," Toomer said Thursday. "But what happened is what happened, and there's no use crying over it now. We just move on from there."
Players often talk of a desire to "leave the game on their own terms," the way Toomer contemporaries Tiki Barber and Michael Strahan did. It rarely happens. For the Giants' three honorary captains Sunday (Toomer, R.W. McQuarters and Sam Madison, who will represent the Super Bowl XLII team), that exit strategy never came true.
"I'm sure it'll be tough for them," Giants center Shaun O'Hara said. "When you play long enough, you understand the business side of it, and as tough as it can be, all three of them had great careers."
Toomer still casts a shadow on this team. "We're still talking about things that he told us years ago," Domenik Hixon said. "We're trying to educate the rookies with it now."
And on Sunday, Steve Smith has a good chance of breaking Toomer's single-season receptions record of 82. Smith has 78.
"He's doing a good job," Toomer said of Smith. "That's one record down; there's a couple more for him to go after."
Despite his belief he could have helped the Giants more last season and even this season, Toomer said he's on "good terms" with the organization.
"I enjoyed the career I had," he said. "Looking back on it, I'm proud of what I did. I have a very positive feeling about my career, a positive feeling about the Giants . . . I feel good."
Part of that feeling came from his two weeks with the Chiefs this past summer, a move he said was "a mistake." He signed as a free agent, showed up at their training camp and was blown away by the difference. He eventually was cut, a mutual decision.
"It was like night and day, the minor leagues when you're on the bus and the big leagues when you're flying planes," Toomer said. "I appreciate more where I was after going to Kansas City for that short period of time. I realized that New York is a special place and the Giants are a special team to play for."
