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Shockey is gone, but not forgotten

Neil Best

July 22, 2008

New York wanted to love Jeremy Shockey from the start, and often did.

He was Mickey Mantle 2.0, a brawny, reckless, untamed Okie who immediately announced himself by brawling with Brandon Short in the training camp dining room after a disagreement over some low-level rookie hazing.

Soon, he was bowling over various hapless members of the Houston Texans in his first appearance as a rookie, the 2002 Hall of Fame Game, causing TV types to scramble for old tapes of Mark Bavaro.

That was only the start of an eventful first year. He made the Pro Bowl as a rookie, then capped his season with a day in San Francisco that foreshadowed the career to come.

Early in a playoff game against the 49ers, he tossed a cup of ice water behind him into the stands after hearing heckling from spectators; he hit a young fan in the face.

Later, he dropped what should have been an easy scoring pass that would have given the Giants a 42-14 lead in a game they went on to lose, 39-38, one of the worst collapses in NFL history.

That was Shockey. Inspire the team and its fans with talent and tenacity, let them down with immature behavior and a maddening inability to complete a basic job requirement: securing a forward pass.

Finally, in December 2007, he made an error that proved fatal to his New York career: He broke his leg. Enter Kevin Boss.

And, of course, Eli Manning, the anti-Shockey, whose aw-shucks demeanor frustrated fans who saw that as a flaw, until it turned into an attribute when he faced the sport's ultimate pressure in February.

Where was Shockey? In a suite, drinking adult beverages, and later complaining that he wasn't invited to watch from the sideline. He blew off the victory parade.

Yup, fans sure did love Shockey, for his flowing locks and gossip page exploits and rebel's approach to sports and life. And they chuckled for a time over incidents such as his use of a slur against homosexuals in discussing Bill Parcells in a magazine article. (He denied having said it.)

He even was a favorite of Wellington Mara, visiting his home the day before the beloved, strait-laced co-owner died three years ago.

But unlike Mickey Mantle, Joe Namath, Walt Frazier, Lawrence Taylor, most of the 1986 Mets and other charismatic men about Big Town, Shockey in the end was exposed for what he was: an intriguing, engaging, ultimately superfluous figure when it came to winning a championship.

Some predicted trouble from the start because he was not the Giants' kind of guy. That's laughable, of course, because the best player in the history of the franchise made Shockey look like a boy scout.

But let's put it this way: LT would have caught that pass in the end zone in San Francisco if asked, then would have snapped Jeff Garcia in two just to make sure there would be no comeback.

So now there is a new Boss in town, a guy so un-Shockey-like that he told Newsday Giants beat writer Tom Rock this spring that he was frustrated by his inability to watch the Suns in the NBA playoffs.

Why? Because they were on past his bedtime.

Shockey, for his part, has been liberated from what he saw as blocking drudgery under Tom Coughlin, reunited with old pal Sean Payton, who might well get another few productive seasons out of him.

Good for Shockey, and good for Jerry Reese, Coughlin, Manning, Boss and the Giants.

On Sept. 30, 2005, for my first media column, I brokered a nasty, entertaining spitting match between Mike Francesa and Shockey, who spent a rocky season as a regular on WFAN in 2002, during which he had a habit of not calling in on time for his weekly spot.

In that column, Shockey predicted Francesa would have a heart attack, and Francesa said this about Shockey: "I'll be here in New York doing what I do long after he is forgotten in this town."

Francesa still is at it, and Shockey is gone. So score one for Mike. But "forgotten?" Shockey?

Someday, perhaps so. But not today. For better and worse, it was a heck of a show.

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