Giants' Umenyiora has knee surgery

And the winner in the Great Osi Umenyiora staredown is . . . nobody.

The defensive end, unhappy with his paychecks but apparently thrilled to have been back on the field for the last three practices, underwent arthroscopic surgery on his bothersome right knee Friday. The team called it a "simple debridement" that will keep Umenyiora sidelined for 3-4 weeks.

So after two weeks of bicycle riding and a week of relative peace, neither side is getting what it wants. The Giants will likely not have Umenyiora for the start of the season, although coach Tom Coughlin did not rule out a faster-than-anticipated recovery and a return by the Sept. 11 opener against the Redskins, which is three weeks from Sunday. Umenyiora has seemingly hurt his market value for a new contract or a trade by looking more and more like damaged goods. For Umenyiora, who is a speed rusher, this is his third lower-body surgery in the last three years and follows left knee surgery in 2008 and hip surgery this offseason.

Maybe the only real winners in all of this are the teams that did not trade a first-round pick for the soon-to-be 30-year-old player.

Coughlin said the Giants knew that surgery could be an option six to eight weeks ago (which was during the lockout). "There's no surprise," Coughlin said.

Still, last week Umenyiora received a green light from a specialist in Atlanta to begin practicing and manage the injury with the Giants' medical staff. He practiced three days in a row earlier this week. The team was off on Thursday, but that night Umenyiora told general manager Jerry Reese he needed to have the scope.

"After practicing for three days he had some swelling in the knee, and it was clear that we were going to have to adjust his practice routine to every other day to maintain his knee," Reese said in a statement through the team. "Osi's feeling is he wants to get it cleaned up now because he is looking forward to playing this season, and he wants to do it without the knee being an issue for him. He told me how much he really enjoyed being back on the field this week, and he's looking forward to getting back out there once he recovers from the procedure."

Umenyiora had given affidavit testimony this spring in which he said Reese promised to give him a new deal or trade him to a team that would. He has two years remaining on his contract with the Giants.

Umenyiora turned down incentives offered by the Giants, saying at the time in an email to The Associated Press that the front office doesn't "really respect the fact I sacrifice my health for the franchise."

Umenyiora issued a statement through the Giants on Friday.

"It was better to do it now as opposed to midseason," he said. "It was going to have to be done, the only question was when. If I'm going to miss a little while, I would prefer it be now than at the crucial part of our season. It's the best decision for the team and myself."