Addition by Subtraction

With the Giants on the way to the Super Bowl, I beg for a moment for a quick Giants rant.

One of the best things about the Giants going to the Super Bowl is that Tiki Barber is not and the man he said was a laughable leader, Eli Manning, is on his way to the biggest dance in all of sports.

I bet that you're not gonna see any Giants talking to Tiki for the Today Show. I doubt Eli would answer that call at all and why should he? Tiki would be lucky to get the kicker on for an interview at this point. Antonio Pierce has no reason to call Barber and either does the Coach who saved Barber from fumbling his way out of the league, Tom Coughlin.

I also don't think it is just a coincidence that Manning is playing so much better since Shockey has been hurt. Eli doesn't have to worry about him whining and complaining about not getting catches all the time and he doesn't have to worry about Shockey dropping the ball when he does throw it to him. It so would not surprise me in any way if Shockey was cut after the season...if he has a contract coming up or something that makes that kind of move an option. If not, I say trade his disturber ass and get whatever you can for him. Kevin Boss has played well and has made some good catches when he has needed to. He does it a lot cheaper and at a lower decibel level than Jeremy Shockey. The NFL is all about dollars and cents. Let him walk. Giants GM Jerry Reese has already proven that he can pull the trigger on guys who are overpaid and under-producing. He told Luke Petitgout to take his bad back to Tampa and cut Lavar Arrington and Carlos Emmons out of the league. He dropped Will Demps even though the defensive backfield was considered weak. Demps ended up in Houston. Houston!

Over the next few weeks--and yes, it is "weeks"--we're going to hear and read a lot of stories about how Eli Manning "turned the corner" in his career and became the kind of quarterback everyone wants him to be. We're going to hear from Ernie Accorsi, the former GM, who made the draft-day trade for Manning and he'll say that he knew Eli had it in him all along. We'll hear from Archie Manning, a man who is more famous for having two kids that play quarterback than he ever really was in his own playing career. And we'll hear from the so-called experts and other talking hairdos who will claim to have seen the same flashes of brilliance that we all saw in Manning for the last four years and they are all going to be correct in varying degrees.

No one will put their finger on the real reason Eli has been able to play with so much confidence because no one is going to understand simple mathematics: addition by subtraction. Get rid of the me-first element that corrupted the offense for years and undermined the development of your quarterback. Allow him to lead rather than having him feel like he has to placate the problem children. Let the guys who are on message take it to the pinnacle--and let the player you drafted to take the team to the proverbial next level lead the team to the Super Bowl.

Lead them to victory.