Damon Harrison doesn’t want to be a captain
Giants defensive tackle Damon Harrison walks off the field after a preseason game against the Steelers at MetLife Stadium on Friday, Aug. 11, 2017. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The Giants have voted on but not officially announced their captains for the season. Damon Harrison will not be one of them — by his choice.
The All-Pro defensive tackle said he has no interest in being a leader for the team and that if elected, he would decline the honor.
“I just want to be that behind-the-scenes guy,” Harrison said Thursday. “There are some guys in here — JC [Jonathan Casillas], who has been in the league a long time and earned that right, JPP [Jason Pierre-Paul], DRC [Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie] and other guys — who could do a better job than myself.”
Linebacker Devon Kennard let it slip on Twitter Thursday night that Casillas will get a second year as captain. The Giants could have two or three, though.
Many players have gravitated to Harrison, a second-year Giant, and suggested that he would make a fine captain. Harrison refutes that.
“I call myself the Broadway Bully,” he said. “I bully bullies. I don’t bully other people. I’m not a leader. I’m not a captain.”
Harrison would not say whom he voted for, but he did say it was not himself. “I’m not one of the leaders,’’’ he said, “I’m just one of the guys. We have some really, really good leaders in this locker room. It’s not fair to them.”
Grad school for ‘D’
As he heads into the third year of his second stint with the Giants and a second season with essentially the same players, defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo doesn’t think there will be much of a learning curve this season. “I feel good about knowing what we can and can’t do, and I think the players feel the same way,” he said.
Spagnuolo told the players about the elevated expectation the other day, relating their progress to being freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors. “I expect them to think as if they were in graduate school with the scheme,” he said. “I believe that they think that way. It puts the pressure on all of us to make sure we get it right. There’s no margin for error now.”
Giant steps
Linebacker Keenan Robinson (concussion protocol) did not practice. Besides him and Odell Beckham Jr. (ankle), all other Giants were full participants . . . Spagnuolo is not surprised that Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott will play Sunday despite his six-game suspension. “I’ve been in the league long enough to know that those things are never over,” he said of the litigation of discipline . . . The Giants had a full-padded workout. “We had to grind through today’s practice,” Ben McAdoo said. “We were moving around [Wednesday] at good speeds, but guys fought through it. It was a long practice, but a much-needed practice.”
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.
