Unhappy Umenyiora reports to camp

The Osi Umenyiora holdout is over. The drama may just be starting.

After skipping out on the first day of training camp Friday and missing Saturday morning's walk-through, the disgruntled defensive end arrived at the Timex Performance Center at about 4 p.m. Saturday, too late to take a physical and be on the field for the first full practice of the season.

He'll take that physical Sunday and, his agent said, he's looking forward to meeting with the media at some point to discuss the reasons for his holdout and, undoubtedly, his fractured relationship with general manager Jerry Reese. "It should be quite entertaining," said Tony Agnone, Umenyiora's agent.

Perhaps as entertaining as Umenyiora's affidavit that essentially called Reese a liar for not trading him or giving him a new deal (Reese dismissed the sworn testimony in a court document as "offseason chatter"). Umenyiora clearly holds a grudge against Reese, and there are reports that Umenyiora has vowed never to speak to Reese again.

"That might be the case," Agnone said.

Tom Coughlin said he saw Umenyiora briefly Saturday afternoon. "Just a real quick conversation," Coughlin said. "We didn't really have a chance to sit down upstairs. We came in from the jog-through this afternoon and I had a chance to see him, say hello. That's about it."

Did Coughlin ask why Umenyiora wasn't in camp Saturday?

"No, I didn't," he said. "I didn't really spend an awful lot of time talking to him. I asked him how he was doing and he said 'Fine.' "

While some may be surprised to see Umenyiora report so quickly -- he's missed about 30 hours of training camp -- Agnone said the point was not to sit out in protest.

"This was never a hard-and- fast holdout until the cows come home," he said. Umenyiora was waiting to see if the Giants would reach out to him with either an offer or a proposed trade, but he heard nothing.

Oh, he did receive a letter telling him he'd be fined $30,000 for each day he missed at camp. But Hallmark doesn't really make a mushy card for that occasion.

Umenyiora still wants a trade or a new deal, although it would be difficult to hammer out the latter if he's not speaking to the general manager. As to whether his reporting is just a way to dodge the fines as some players have done -- showing up and not participating -- Agnone said, rather ominously, that would be up to the doctors. Umenyiora had offseason hip surgery, and when asked if he will be healthy enough to practice Sunday, Agnone gave a vague "we'll see."

If Umenyiora does remain a Giant -- and right now he has no real other options with two years remaining on his contract and the Giants seemingly unwilling to budge on a trade -- he apparently would not be a happy one. While the root of that dissatisfaction would be traced to Reese, the problem would have to be handled by Coughlin.

"It's not what you would like," Coughlin said of unhappy players. "You'd like everybody to be in a great frame of mind. It's basically what I said yesterday or the day before. I'd like him to come in. I'd like him to be excited about being a Giant. I'd like to put these four defensive ends out on the field together, let them play together. I'd like to be able to take the flexibility that is there and move people around and force problems for the opposition in protection. That would be a very interesting challenge and a great opportunity for our team."