Deon Grant wants you to know he wasn’t faking an injury in Monday night’s win over St. Louis.
He really wants you to know.
“Nobody ain’t gonna step to me with the softness [label], but if you want to talk about toughness I have the injuries to speak for itself. I ain’t never missed a game yet,” Grant said. “I’ve got two torn MCLs, had wrist surgery, a torn labrum, a torn rotator cuff and a broken hip with metal plates and screws in it. And I’ve never missed a game.”
Following a formal complaint by the Rams, the NFL sent out a memo yesterday to all teams, warning against faking injuries to slow down teams’ no-huddle offenses. Grant said if his team is fined he’ll bitterly dispute it.
“Check my medical reports and it’ll speak for me. I don’t fake nothing. How can another person that’s not in your body tell you when you’re faking an injury? Usually I’ll suck it up, but this time I knew I couldn’t get to the sidelines in time, so I just dropped … that’s not something our coaches teach us or something that was planned. It just happened. I’ve been sacrificing my body for my team and for the NFL my whole career.”
Head coach Tom Coughlin said while he took Grant at his word that his injury was legit, he added that “it would not be a smart thing to do” if one of his players were to engage in such shenanigans because of the 15-yard unsportsmanlike penalty it would accrue.
Grant, a 12-year vet, took great umbrage with the Rams’ assertion that he was faking it and noted this issue is masking the real issue: the Rams were inept in the red zone.
“The down and distance was like 1st-and-goal and I went out on the next play, so they had four plays to score. They had already gotten down the field, so I wasn’t trying to slow them up,” Grant said. “But they had four plays to score and they couldn’t get it in but that’s what they want to complain about? The Rams drove the ball on us the whole game but when it came to the red zone they couldn’t do their job and punch it in.”
Big Blue notes
» Grant’s controversy isn’t the only thing that’s plagued the secondary. Rams quarterback Sam Bradford’s 331 yard performance marked the fourth consecutive game in which the Giants allowed the opposing passer to exceed the 300-yard mark. Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers did it and the Redskins’ Rex Grossman did it twice. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, this is the first time in Giants history they have given up an individual 300-yard passing performance in four consecutive games.
» Despite having a decent pass rush (they’ve sacked Grossman and Bradford six times in their first two games) and a sturdy run defense (third in the league at 66.5 yards per), Big Blue has struggled in pass defense (24th overall at 283 yards per). They’ve surrendered 11 passes of at least 22-yards long, including four that were more than 30 yards. The Rams gashed them for a 68-yarder when Aaron Ross and Grant failed to tackle Danario Alexander after he went to the ground while catching the ball.
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