NFC East: New York Giants Producing Most Drama-Free Offseason So Far

New York likes to call itself the city that never sleeps. And indeed, the city of my birth remains a wonder after dark. Where else can you get whatever food you might want at 4 AM? But it's appropriate that the Big Apple's most revered football team calls sleepy East Rutherford, N.J. home because the Giants have been very quiet since coach Tom Coughlin's "kiss my ..." tirade became public in the first days after New York won its finale but still missed the playoffs with a 10-6 record.

In contrast, the New Meadowland Stadium's other team, the Jets, coached by media magnet Rex Ryan, dominated New York's sports pages for most of January with their braggadocio and their bravura performances against the Indianapolis Colts, New England Patriots and, in defeat, the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC playoffs.

And the Giants' three NFC East rivals have also made plenty of noise.

Just this week, the Washington Redskins -- with the furor over owner Dan Snyder's lawsuit against a local weekly having died down -- have been in the news for the off-field trauma of rookie receiver Brandon Banks and more alleged bad behavior by Mr. Malcontent, Albert Haynesworth. The team also named a new tight ends coach.

The division champion Philadelphia Eagles haven't endured those kind of off-field woes, but coach Andy Reid certainly has been quiet since the team's season ended with a wild-card upset loss to the eventual Super Bowl-winning Green Bay Packers. Reid dispensed with defensive coordinator Sean McDermott and the men who coached the defensive line and linebackers (secondary coach Dick Jauron left to run Cleveland's defense) and stunned everyone by making longtime offensive line coach Juan Castillo the new defensive coordinator. The move caused more than a few Eagles observers to think it was April Fool's Day, but then they realized that Reid had traded face of the franchise Donovan McNabb to the Redskins on that occasion and that, was as the case then, this was no joke even though Castillo hasn't worked on that side of the ball since some of his players had yet to be potty-trained.

This week, the Eagles put the franchise tag on quarterback Michael Vick, the NFL's most controversial player, and the transition tag on kicker David Akers, who had seemingly bid farewell to Philadelphia after blowing two field goal tries in the playoff loss to the Packers.

Then there's Jerry Jones' team. The Dallas Cowboys didn't come close to playing the Super Bowl in their own stadium, but the incredibly bad weather and the search for every last dollar combined to cause a week that North Texas won't want to remember between the virtual shutdown of the area with the nation's favorite event in town for the first time and then with the temporary seating snafu on the relatively balmy game day that left the NFL looking like amateurs trying to get the big show started on time. The House That Jerry Built is gaudy, but its first -- and quite possibly only -- Super Bowl was a house of horrors unless you happened to be a Packers fan in a permanent seat.

As for Jerry's team, the Cowboys also made news this week by finally introducing new coach Jason Garrett's staff, led by defensive coordinator Rob Ryan, Rex Ryan's equally blunt and pugnacious brother, to the media and the public.

The big news from the Giants during the past month-plus? Running back Ahmad Bradshaw had cleanup surgery on his ankle. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz. And that's just how the franchise, from co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch through general manager Jerry Reese and Coughlin, like it. Nice and quiet. Until it's time for football.