View from the back of the first level of seating...

View from the back of the first level of seating at the new Meadowlands stadium. (April 8, 2010) Credit: Joe Epstein

I had a chance to meet up with James Brewer last night, part of the They Might Be Giants draft class that was claimed by the team over a month ago but so far has had just the most minimal contact with the organization. He was at Lifetime Fitness in Syosset speaking to some youth football players from Jericho.

It wasn’t a shock to hear that Brewer had not heard a peep from the coaches or front office folks since he was drafted since they are the ones locking him out. But I was a little surprised to learn that he hasn’t heard anything from his new teammates yet either. Not one of them has reached out to him, he said. And when I asked him if he planned on attending the full-squad workouts that the Giants veterans are starting to consider, he had a look on his face like a third-grader who wasn’t invited to a birthday party everyone was talking about.

Brewer also said he hasn’t heard much about the NFLPA’s* conference for rookies in late June that is supposed to take the place of the cancelled rookie symposium. He was quoted last week as one of the players not too upset about missing out on that event when the league scrapped it.

Right now, he’s spending his time training at Indiana University and waiting.

“I’m definitely going to be excited,” he said of looking forward to being an NFL player not only in name but in function. “It’s going to be like the first day of college camp and everyone is back and excited and you’ve been gone for a while. Guys have been working out and you’re ready to play football again. The breaks you get in the offseason are nice, you can get away from it a little bit and get your body right, get your mind right. But then the time comes when you’re ready to play football again and you’re ready to hit. It was always fun in camp the first couple of days when guys first come back and there’s a buzz.”

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