Tuck's rough journey paralleled Giants'

Eli Manning may be the face of the Giants' franchise, but Justin Tuck was the personification of their season.

Like the team itself, Tuck spent most of the last seven months bouncing up and down through injuries and personal losses. He finally began playing well late in the season, and so did the Giants. Together, they won a Super Bowl.

"The reason we're so cool with it is because we believed," Tuck said of the swagger of the team at the celebration at MetLife Stadium on Tuesday. But that didn't always seem to be the case for Tuck, who predicted a "historical" collapse during the team's four-game losing streak in the second half of the season and was very critical of his own performances because of the injuries he played through.

Tuck reflected on his own journey after the Super Bowl, in which he had two sacks and forced Tom Brady into an intentional grounding penalty for a safety.

"I think it made me a stronger person, it made me a better leader, and I know my uncles and my grandfather and my grandmother, they're looking down and smiling," Tuck said of the hardships he endured. "I know all the heartaches I had this year were for a reason. All of that feels like it's gone away with this win. I'm blessed to have this opportunity."

Like the Giants themselves, Tuck seemed poised for a strong season in training camp. He injured his neck in the third preseason game, though, and that setback lingered for a few months. He also dealt with injuries to his groin, shoulder, ankle and toe.

Late in the season, he said, he had an "epiphany" and a conversation with Tom Coughlin about his role on the Giants. Tuck then decided he would not allow his injuries to hold him back and pushed through them.

He had three sacks through the first 15 games of the regular season, four of which he missed because of injuries. In the last six games the Giants played -- all of them do or die -- he had 5.5 sacks. He had 24 tackles in the first nine games he played this season, 25 in the final seven after he seemingly made up his mind to play.

Tuck may have been a doubter early on, but he finished a believer. And a champion.

"We got 53 guys in that locker room that believe," he said Tuesday. "That's all that matters. We don't really care what other people outside say, the oddsmakers, or whoever. As long as we believe in each other, man, the sky's the limit."

Notes & quotes: Free-agent CB Terrell Thomas, who missed the season after tearing his ACL in preseason, told Sirius NFL Radio Wednesday that talks are under way between him and the Giants but nothing is certain until they sign a contract. He said he believes the Giants see him as an offseason priority. "And if not, I'm pretty sure another team would think so," Thomas said. "All I need is one team to like me." . . . The Giants signed nine players who spent most or all of the season on their practice squad: DB Brandon Bing, RB Andre Brown, OL Selvish Capers, WR Dan DePalma, DT Dwayne Hendricks, TE Christian Hopkins, QB Ryan Perrilloux, WR Isaiah Stanback and DE Adrian Tracy.