On Giants knees, numbers and jinxes

A few nuggets from Giants Universe this morning:

First, The Record is reporting that tight end Jake Ballard not only had his ACL reconstructed after injuring it in the Super Bowl, but he required microfracture surgery. That likely rules him out for the 2012 season, although there is still a chance he could recover in time to come off PUP at midseason. Interestingly, Ballard said he was told immediately after the injury that he had torn his meniscus and when he tried to test the knee it buckled. He believes that’s when he ruined the cartilage in the joint, requiring the microfracture to regenerate some of it.

"The first thought I had was I can’t believe they got it wrong on the field," Ballard is quoted as saying (although given that it was the Super Bowl, he likely would have tested it out to try and get back in the game anyway). "The second was I was at the end of my contract, and I was afraid that they wouldn’t sign me."

They did.

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Second, a few new jersey numbers for you to know about. Well, they’re actually numbers of players who have signed with other teams (or, in one case, are not expected back). The Giants have issued Stevie Brown Brandon Jacobs’ old number 27; James Brewer gets Jimmy Kennedy’s number 73 from last year; and Dan DePalma gets Devin Thomas’ 15. Jacobs and Thomas have signed elsewhere. Kennedy has not yet done that. Clearly he’ll not be back with the Giants. At least not in his old jersey number.

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Lastly, you need not worry about Victor Cruz getting jinxed. The Giants receiver was eliminated from the voting to be on the cover of Madden ’13 this football season. He was beaten out by No. 11 seeded Patrick Willis by a heavy margin, 55-45 percent. Willis is the only defensive player left in the Final Four. He’s going to be facing top seeded Cam Newton in a semifinal. The other semifinal has No. 1 Aaron Rodgers against No. 6 Calvin Johnson.