Grant and Jacobs having trouble coming to grips with secondary roles

I wrote about Tom Coughlin being a little stingy with the words this morning. Carolina's John Fox had a few one-sentence answers himself during his conference call. And Steve Smith, the Panthers' receiver, gave a few long-winded rambling answers, including one that put a fire extinguisher to any spark of conflict between him and Michael Johnson.

But not everyone was trying to keep their feelings to themselves. Enter Deon Grant and Brandon Jacobs. Or, perhaps more to the point, EXIT Deon Grant and Brandon Jacobs.

Both are established startes in the league and both are now dealing with not starting.

Grant handled his situation by talking about his potential unhappiness with Kenny Phillips apparently taking over the starting job at safety. He said he knew it would happen eventually, but Grant figured he'd have a few games to start as they eased Phillips in. That would have given Grant time to play well enough not to be pulled. Instead, as soon as he's ready to fly, Phillips has taken over the job.

You can read about Grant's reaction here.

And then there is Mr. Jacobs. He grumbled after the preseason finale about it being hard to stay positive when he's a second-string running back, then earlier in the week reportedly said he was more miffed with his lack of carries in that particular game than his overall role. Come today, he simply refused to answer questions about how he feels he's being used, and when he was asked if players need to put their egos aside in two-back running attacks like the Giants had in 2008 with him and Derrick Ward, Jacobs stormed off and shouted Rex-rated words at the media.

You can read about Jacobs here.