GIANT NOTES
Add Jason Sehorn to the list of ailing Giants starters.
Sehorn was a surprise no-show on the field last night as the Giants faced the Jaguars in a preseason game at Giants Stadium. Sehorn, who is finally enjoying an injury-free summer, complained of tenderness in his right knee for the past few days. He was examined by team physician Dr. Russell Warren and then underwent an MRI yesterday morning. No ligament damage was found.
It was decided that Sehorn would not play in last night’s game in order to rest his knee – the same one he had surgically repaired and forced him to miss the entire 1998 season.
“I practiced all week long, and it was tight,” Sehorn said. “My feeling is, ‘Why make it worse?’ This is the time of year when you can afford to rest something like this. If this were the regular season, I couldn’t miss a game for this. I’ll take a couple days off now and let it rest. It got inflamed because it didn’t like what I was doing to it. I’d rather take a couple days off now than have it linger through the season.”
Kenny Holmes also was re-examined by Warren and it was confirmed that he suffered no ligament damage after he went down late in last Tuesday’s practice in Albany.
“Both Jason and Kenny have some swelling and tenderness in their knees,” Fassel said. “They both need a few days for things to quiet down, and with some rest and rehab, I think both will be back on the practice field sometime next week.”
With Sehorn and Holmes out of action, five Giants starters did not play against the Jaguars. The others were C Dusty Zeigler (sprained ankle), RB Tiki Barber (broken hand) and WR Ike Hilliard (toe). With backup center Jason Whittle (hip) also out, the Giants’ starting center last night was Scott Kiernan, a natural guard. Backing up Kiernan was to be Chris Bober, a natural tackle. Emmanuel McDaniel started in place of Sehorn.
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Former Giants DE Cedric Jones, their first-round draft pick in 1996, will miss the entire season for the Rams because of a fractured left hip socket. Jones was set to be a reserve in the Rams defensive line rotation.
It came as no great surprise to Fassel that if a game was going to be postponed because of field conditions, the site of the problem would be Veterans Stadium. Monday’s Eagles-Ravens game was not played because the surface under the new turf was not level and unsafe. “I felt it would happen to Philadelphia at some point in time, but not after they got a new surface,” Fassel said. “I know the changeover of the field is tough to do and there could be little problems with it. It’s embarrassing to everybody, especially those two teams and Philadelphia, you get everybody there to come to the game, you can’t play the game because of the surface.” The grass field at Giants Stadium will be replaced following the preseason schedule.