05-10-2008, 01:48 PM
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Both of them
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 10,142
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Phillips To Wear #21 To Honor Taylor
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/10/sp...ll&oref=slogin
Quote:
Kenny Phillips said he figured all the telephone calls he had made to the Giants paid off when he spotted the blue practice jersey hanging in his locker Friday morning at Giants Stadium, and the No. 21 was on it.
The number had been worn by running back Tiki Barber during a notable 10-year career with the Giants that ended in 2006. But that was not why Phillips, the team’s first-round draft pick on April 26, lobbied so hard to get it.
Phillips plays on the other side of the ball, at either safety position. He wanted the number as a tribute to a ferocious safety who preceded him at the University of Miami — Sean Taylor, who wore No. 21 when he played for the Washington Redskins.
Phillips never met Taylor, who was shot and killed during an attempted burglary in his home in suburban Miami on Nov. 27, three days after Phillips’s 21st birthday. But Phillips had kept a photo of Taylor in his locker at Coral City High in Miami. He had gone to Taylor’s funeral. He loved the way Taylor played football.
“The plays he made were crazy,” Phillips said. “I just wanted to pay my respects by having his number and trying to live up to that.”
Late Friday morning, Phillips began to do just that. He joined 58 other rookies for the first workout of a two-day minicamp. The Giants will be thrilled if Phillips, the 31st choice in the draft, can simply replace Gibril Wilson, the free safety who signed a free-agent contract in February with the Oakland Raiders.
Perhaps because he played at Miami, Phillips has already been compared with Taylor, as well as with Ed Reed, who also played for the Hurricanes. Reed is a four-time Pro Bowl safety for the Baltimore Ravens.
Even if the Giants had given him another jersey number, Phillips would be expected to do a lot. Giants Coach Tom Coughlin seemed impressed with Phillips from the time he showed up Friday.
“Well, obviously, he can run,” Coughlin said after the first practice. “He is big, he is smart. He was real good in those early meetings this morning. I didn’t get a chance to see a whole lot of him out here on the field. But I like the way he moves, and I like the way — so far — that he has grasped what we are doing.”
Coughlin told the rookies before the first meeting that if they had to make a mistake, it was best that they made it at full speed. Phillips and Terrell Thomas, the cornerback from Southern California who was the Giants’ second-round pick, came prepared. They said they studied a packet of schemes Thursday night in their hotel room.
“We were going back and forth — ‘What’s this? What’s that?’ ” Thomas said. “It is just all new terminology — things they do compared to what we did at U.S.C. or Miami. We tried to compare and contrast and come up with the best solution to learn the playbook.”
They seemed to do fine. Phillips, 6 feet 2 inches and 210 pounds, drops effortlessly into pass coverage, then glides to the ball. He was effusive even during a practice in which the Giants wore no pads, slapping hands with Thomas after a play.
Phillips, the first safety drafted this year, said he thought he could go as high as 13th. He did not seem too disappointed that he ended up with the Giants at No. 31. He said with a smile that he felt as if he had won the Super Bowl, except he did not get a ring.
“I just want to prove to them that they made the right decision by drafting me,” he said. “I want to play special teams, free safety, strong safety, bring the coaches water, whatever they want.”
He said he would try to forge his own reputation. Phillips, who wore No. 1 at Miami, will attempt to do it in a jersey that he says will give him inspiration.
“I can’t be Sean Taylor, and I can’t be Ed Reed,” he said. “I can just be me.”
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Phillips To Wear #21 To Honor Taylor
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