Giants LB Sintim is out for season

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Clint Sintim knew right away. As soon as he hit the turf at Gillette Stadium, he ripped off his helmet and slammed it on the ground. It was the first time he'd shown any kind of frustration this preseason, and no one could blame him.

"It's bad," Tom Coughlin said of Sintim's right knee injury, which came about nine months after he had the ACL in that leg repaired. "A ruptured patella tendon to start with."

And, for this season, that's enough to finish with. He'll have an MRI Friday but likely also suffered a torn ACL, the team said.

Sintim became the latest Giants defender to suffer a season-ending leg injury, following Terrell Thomas, Brian Witherspoon and Bruce Johnson. Walking through the locker room after the Giants' 18-17 win over the Patriots in the preseason finale, Sintim was choked up by emotion.

"I knew," he said of the severity of the injury. "As soon as I hit, I knew. It's unfortunate. I worked really hard to get back . . . It's just unfortunate, but that's the way football is. I'm going to give myself a couple of days and I'm going to get back on the grind."

Sintim played with the first unit Monday against the Jets after Mathias Kiwanuka left the game with a mild groin injury, and he even recovered a fumble. He spoke about finally earning the trust of the coaching staff after 2 1/2 years of expectations that came with being a second-round pick.

"You have to feel bad for a guy who is coming back off a serious knee, works his tail off, really didn't say a word the whole preseason, just did what he had to do and worked on the field, and then to see that happen," Coughlin said. "It was devastating. He'll bounce back, he'll be back out there, but to have to go through what he's got to go through again in terms of the rehab, we feel real bad for Clint."

Coughlin may have shown some empathy, but the NFL is heartless. Sintim going down means that in the next two days, someone else will be given an NFL job. It could even be an undrafted linebacker on the Giants such as Mark Herzlich, who had a sack Thursday night and an interception earlier this preseason.

The Giants must cut their roster from 85 players to 53 by Saturday night. For players on the bubble, the wait will be excruciating.

Then again, so was watching the first half of the game against the Patriots. With the starters resting after playing Monday night, the backups did little early on to impress the coaching staff. Forget cutting down to 53 players; it seemed the Giants would be lucky to find 53 worthy of playing in the league.

"They did make a lot of errors, particularly in the first half, but they kept playing," Coughlin said. "They played hard."

Trailing 17-3 in the fourth quarter, the Giants closed to 17-10 when Da'Rel Scott took a fake punt 65 yards for a touchdown. Then Brian Jackson forced a fumble midway through the fourth deep in Patriots territory and Derrick Martin returned it 11 yards for a touchdown.

Down by one, Coughlin followed preseason protocol and went for the two-point conversion. Ryan Perrilloux hit Jerrel Jernigan for an acrobatic catch in the back of the end zone.