Sterling Shepard savoring his likely final days as a Giant

Sterling Shepard was free to go. There were no more meetings scheduled, the Giants’ walk-through that served as the practice was over, and some of his teammates had already begun heading out toward the parking lot to call it a day.

The wide receiver, though, found himself looking for reasons to stick around a little longer. Maybe there was a Ping-Pong game to elbow his way into, or someone who wanted to go over a few more frames of game film. Something. Anything to prolong the experience.

“I’m hesitant to leave,” he said on Wednesday, resorting even to chatting amiably with reporters rather than departing. “I’m just taking it all in, you know what I mean?”

That’s what this week has become about for him. Shepard, who turns 31 next month, has come to grips with the obvious, that his time with the Giants and as the longest continuously tenured player on the roster is down to a precious few days. When the season ends on Sunday against the Eagles, so too will his time as a Giant. Eight seasons that bridged from Eli Manning and a playoff appearance as a rookie in 2016 to Tommy DeVito and yet another double-digit loss record this year, and everything and everyone in between.

“It’s been great from top to bottom,” he reflected. “I know not everybody has that Michael] Strahan story, leaving with a ring on their finger and having some good seasons behind them, but I’ve enjoyed every minute of it and I’m very appreciative of this organization and all they have done for me, my family. I mean, it’s truly a blessing, man.”

He hasn’t made any firm decision about whether he’ll try to play elsewhere next season, although he conceded that at this point any comeback attempt would be voted down by his daughters, 5-year-old Cali and 4-year-old Cassie, if he were to put it up to a family vote. But it’s clear that the Giants have made their decision about him based on his sparse playing time. While the circumstances of this season have left many prominent Giants players with uncertain futures, from Saquon Barkley to Xavier McKinney to Daniel Jones, Shepard’s fate feels like it was decided long ago.

It might have disappointed him at some point earlier in the schedule when it became clear the organization was focusing on the younger receivers such as Wan’Dale Robinson and Jalin Hyatt. He could have asked for his release or a trade back then the way Cole Beasley did. But Shepard kept showing up to practices, kept working and pushing teammates, and now this is the payoff he gets.

One more week.

One more game.

“I’m just looking forward to taking it all in and walking out of that tunnel,” he said of Sunday’s finale. “That’s my most favorite things about football, just running out of that tunnel. The feeling you get, it’s indescribable. I’m looking forward to that, for sure.”

He’d like to end up with another few catches — two more would give him 371 for his career and tie him with Jeremy Shockey for fifth place all-time in franchise history — and certainly doesn’t want the last pass thrown his way to wind up being the one he dropped in the most recent game against the Rams. But given how he’s been deployed the last few weeks, there’s no guarantee he’ll get any targets. In the last game he played just five offensive snaps. Guard Mark Glowinski ran more significant routes as an eligible receiver than Shepard did.

“I’ve got a tremendous amount of respect for Shep, and if we have things in for Shep he’ll be ready to go,” was all Brian Daboll would promise.

Fellow wide receiver Darius Slayton said it is “weird” to think about the Giants locker room without Shepard in it next season . . . and, he joked, “a lot quieter” too. Shepard has been a fixture for everyone currently on the team, a presence even when he was rehabbing from his torn Achilles and torn ACL.

“I’d love to be able to send him out on a high, on a win,” Slayton told Newsday. He recalled the end of his rookie year when the Giants played the Dolphins in what wound up being Manning’s final start. “Anybody who has played here for a long time and been a staple for the Giants, it’s nice to be able to send them off on a positive note.”

Shepard already believes he has gotten that.

He might not have ever won a Super Bowl or appeared in a winning playoff game, but his legacy goes beyond that. He said he wants to be remembered more for his “character than my play on the field.”

“I want guys to say that I’m their favorite teammate, you know what I mean? I do this for them and that’s what it has always been about for me.”

That he gets to end this run while in uniform on the field and not on the injury list where he spent most of the previous two seasons is a win, too.

He recalled on Wednesday how when he was a kid growing up in Oklahoma his teachers would ask what he wanted to be when he grew up. His answer never wavered.

“I would say, ‘I want to be an NFL football player,’ ” he said.

He made that dream a reality. On Sunday he gets to enjoy it one last time.

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.