Odd situation for Bradshaw: Beating out best buddy

Imagine getting a big promotion at work and not being able to tell your best friend about it. That's the sort of conflict that Ahmad Bradshaw is working through these days.

Bradshaw used to be a backup running back, a guy who came in as a second thought and took whatever scraps were left behind from the starter.

Now he's the starter. The problem, of course, is that the guy he has replaced is Brandon Jacobs, Bradshaw's best friend on the team. And Jacobs has made a very limited effort to keep his displeasure about the scenario to himself.

Bradshaw said the situation has not affected their relationship.

"We're still brothers," he said. "If he has a problem with the front office, it has nothing to do with me, which he's told me."

Still, Bradshaw and Jacobs are coming at the problem from very different angles.

"Different people have different [perspectives] on it," Bradshaw said, "and obviously he has a different [perspective]."

Jacobs' perspective is well documented, from his labeling of football as a "cutthroat, back-stabbing business" last week to his noting that it is "almost hard to stay positive" as the second option in the running game.

Bradshaw's perspective?

"This is what I play the game for," he said. "I want to take pride in being the starter. I've worked hard these last three years and going into my fourth year, I feel like I deserve it."

The Giants' coaches clearly think so, too. Since training camp started, Bradshaw has been lining up as the "starter" in virtually every drill and series of plays. He's also started all of the games except for the one he entered during the second quarter as punishment for being late to a meeting.

Perhaps most telling, after having three surgeries on his feet and ankle during the offseason, Bradshaw has not missed a single practice. He spent most practices last year in a protective boot on the sideline, hoping to build up enough of a reservoir of stability to play on Sundays.

Bradshaw said he feels 10 times better than he did last year. He said he had some soreness from cutting the first week of camp, but that went away. He said he feels good "explosion-wise" and talked about his repaired feet as if they were separate from his body.

"I can't wait to see what they do for me this year," he said of the wheels.

Many can't wait to see what Bradshaw does as the starter. There will be some slight changes for him. He'll get more carries and he won't be running against tired defenses.

"Last year after Brandon would soften them up, I'd come in and you could feel some weaknesses," Bradshaw said. "I just have to take over the job."

But he's also got to have Jacobs. Bradshaw has extended a hand to his buddy.

"I tell him all the time, we're going to do this together," Bradshaw said. "If he's not focused, I'm always going to be there for him. We're brothers. We're always going to talk to each other like brothers. It'll be like that forever."