Blackburn goes from meager beginnings to captain

Who picked the special teams captain this year, Horatio Alger?

Yes, Chase Blackburn is the NFL’s rags to riches story, a player who was really the last of the 80-something players added to the roster just prior to 2005’s training camp, made the team, led the Giants in special teams tackles each of the last five seasons, and is now a captain. Quite the journey.

Of course, he’ll have quite the responsibility too. Special teams was probably the least productive area on the field for the Giants this preseason. And Blackburn did miss three weeks with a sprained MCL suffered against the Jets in the preseason opener. We’ll get a chance to talk with him a little later.

Someone asked me late last week if I thought the Giants would cut Blackburn when they trimmed to 53. My initial reaction was no, but then I thought about the injury and the numbers at linebacker and I started wondering. Ultimately I felt he was safe, but I wasn’t as sure about it as I was before the bug was put in my head. It’s a good thing they didn’t cut him. Maybe he would have come back to receive his C.

The other two captains come as no surprise. Eli Manning gets the nod on offense for the fourth straight year and Justin Tuck gets the patch on defense. He’s a first-timer. The Giants have been trying to pry more vocal leadership out of him for the last two seasons. Maybe wearing the C will force him to do that. We’ll see.

Tom Coughlin also picks two additional game captains each week to represent the team on the field for the pregame coin toss.

I hope none of the responsibilities of the captain is to buy meals for the team, because special teams captains come cheap. A look at the 2010 base salaries of the three captains:

Eli Manning: $6.5 million

Justin Tuck: $1.6 million

Chase Blackburn: $650,000