Throughout the 2007 season, Plaxico battled near-crippling injuries, and despite rarely practicing, being heavily bandaged, and on serious painkillers, he led the New York Giants in receptions, yards, and touchdowns. He continued to play through pain in the playoffs, only to be further injured before Super Bowl XLII. Playing the arrogant Patriots—who were inviting the Giants to their victory party before the game was over—Plaxico concealed a significant injury that might have changed the outcome of the game if the Pats had known.
When he first joined the Giants, Plaxico expected to be the go-to guy for the young quarterback Eli Manning. What he didn't expect was the media and fan scrutiny that was heaped on Manning as they battled to win games.
What Plaxico also didn't expect was the difficult relationship he had with head coach Tom Coughlin, who was a stickler for discipline and who would fine players for even the mildest offenses. For five years Plaxico had played for the laid-back Bill Cowher and the Pittsburgh Steelers. In contrast, within weeks of joining the Giants, Plaxico and Coughlin were butting heads, and the fines followed.
But there to make things a little easier were friends like Jeremy Shockey and Amani Toomer, nearly polar opposites. With Shock, everything was always full-tilt and his mouth would usually get him into trouble. Toomer was the easygoing elder statesman—at times absentminded, but a brilliant receiver.
And in 2007, Manning, with Plaxico's advice and support, would rise above the scrutinizing media and come into his own, and Coach Coughlin would relax his grip somewhat and let the team breathe. The results were obvious.
It's all here. The ups and downs, the trash-talking, the sweat and blood, and what it takes to be the best.
One
Only One Way to Turn
It's three or four in the morning on Wednesday, January 30, 2008, four days before the Super Bowl, the biggest game of my life, and I'm asking, "What does this mean?" My left knee is swollen. It looks like there's a golf ball attached to the inner side of my left knee. New York Giants trainer and coordinator of rehabilitation Byron Hansen has just told me I have a grade one sprain of the medial collateral ligament in my knee. All I know is that it hurts like hell and I can barely put any weight on my knee.
I've never had this, so I'm asking, What does this thing mean? They tell me the swelling will be there for like seven to ten days. I say, "Will I be able to play?" "I can't answer that question," Giants head trainer Ronnie Barnes says. I just bust out crying. How can this happen to me? It's going on Wednesday of Super Bowl week. I'm talking trash in the press all week. Now maybe I can't go on the fi eld with my teammates and play with them? Can you imagine how that's going to look to the media—I predict we're goi ... read full excerpt from Giant ebook
You'll need a Palm OS or PocketPC/Windows CE Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), or a Windows or Macintosh desktop (or laptop) PC. Palm OS Hardware: PDAs including: Palm III series, V series, VII series, m100 series, m125 series, m500 series; Handspring Visor series; TRG Pro; Sony CLIE; IBM WorkPad. 134KB of free memory for the Palm Reader application, plus sufficient free memory for each book (varies from 200KB to 2MB, depending upon the length of the book). Palm Personal will not work with the Palm Reader. It doesn't have enough memory to handle all of our eBooks and there are some important technical differences in the Palm Personal's operating system that make it a less suitable platform for the Palm Reader. Palm OS Software: Palm OS 3.0 or greater. Synchronization software for downloading the Palm Reader and eBooks to your Palm device (e.g., the Palm Desktop software) PocketPC/Windows CE Hardware: PocketPC series handhelds 167-260K of free memory for the Palm Reader application, plus sufficient free memory for each book (varies from 200KB to 2MB, depending upon the length of the book) 256KB free program space PocketPC/Windows CE Software: PocketPC or PocketPC 2002 Synchronization software for downloading the Palm Reader and eBooks to your PocketPC device (e.g., the ActiveSync 3.1 software). Windows: Windows 98 / ME / NT 4.0 / 2000 / XP Macintosh: Mac OS 8.6 or later, using CarbonLib 1.5 or later/Mac OS X 10.1 or later
You'll need a Palm OS or PocketPC/Windows CE Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), or a Windows or Macintosh desktop (or laptop) PC.
Palm OS Hardware:
Palm OS Software:
PocketPC/Windows CE Hardware:
PocketPC/Windows CE Software:
Windows:
Macintosh:
The Palm Reader can read doc files. A doc file is a type of PDA file that ends in either .pdb or .prc. These text files have been specifically packaged for use on a PDA. Doc format is pretty much a standard for PDA documents, and the latest version of the Palm Reader can view them.
Yes, the Palm Reader is compatible with the following PocketPCs: Hewlett-Packard Jornada420, 430, 430se, 540, 545, 547, 548, 680, 690, 720, and 820 CompaqiPAQ H3600 series, iPAQ H3100 series and Aero 1500 series CasioCassiopeia E115, E-125 and EM-500 series.
Yes, the Palm Reader is compatible with the following PocketPCs: