Well, Tom Coughlin certainly hopes so.

At 7-6, the New York Giants are on the brink of missing the playoffs after such a strong start to the 2009 NFL football season a few months ago.

Yes, it looks like the Dallas Cowboys are not the only team having their fair share of problems this December as we witnessed the New York Giants squander away all the momentum they’ve generated during the early parts of the season.

Once lording over the NFC East, Eli Manning and the rest of the Giants now find themselves sitting third behind the struggling Cowboys. Their remaining three games are huge if they want to clinch that wild card playoff spot. A loss could very well be the killer to their hopes of a run at the Super Bowl.

On Monday Night Football, they have the Washington Redskins in the first of three must-win games for the Giants. After this NFC East rivalry, the Giants have the Carolina Panthers before heading to the Metrodome to face the red hot Minnesota Vikings.

Yup, it doesn’t look too good for the Giants right now. But if there’s that one guy who can help the Giants make that final push for the postseason, it’s Eli Manning. Sure, he can be inconsistent at times but the fact of the matter is, the guy can make plays when it counts the most.

Just ask the Patriots after Eli led the Giants to win…

It’s too bad that the league lost another one of its premiere stars to prison.

Plaxico Burress, the former Super Bowl star of the New York Giants, was sentenced to two years in prison for possessing a weapon at a Manhattan nightclub. He will be supervised for two years after his release.

Burress pleaded guilty before the start of the 2009 NFL football season to attempted criminal possession of a weapon. He expects to begin serving time immediately and says he hopes to return to football.

The gun, which Plaxico Burress was carrying, was not licensed in New York or in New Jersey, where he lived. He had been charged on two counts of weapons possession and one count of reckless endangerment.

No charges were filed against Giants linebacker Antonio Pierce, who was with Burress the night of the incident, drove him to the hospital and took the gun to his home in New Jersey before arranging to have it returned to Burress.With time off for good behavior, Burress likely will serve 20 months. He could be released from prison as early as the spring of 2011 and will be monitored an additional two years after he is freed.Burress hired a consultant to teach him how to use his time in prison productively and is already planning for a comeback in the NFL just like Michael Vick, who was given the second opportunity after committing a crime.

”When I get out, I’ll be 33, not 43,” Burress said in an interview…

The Manning brothers have become two of the best quarterbacks in the game and yet, they don’t have anyone to throw the football to this year.

You read it, Peyton and Eli Manning have quite a dilemma coming to the 2009 NFL football season. Both of these guys lost their primary receivers and without that playmaker to throw the football to, they better learn some pointers from Peterson and start running for TDs.

However, if there’s anyone in the league who can win games without a decent wide receiver, a Manning can. And as far as both Peyton Manning and Eli Manning are concerned, the 2009 season will definitely bring both of these guys new challenges but I expect both of them to persevere.

And since Peyton Manning is the older brother, we’ll start with him. The Indianapolis Colts will be missing some very familiar faces for the 2009 NFL season. The most glaring of which is the departure of premiere wide receiver Marvin Harrison.

However, as unfortunate as the absence of Marvin Harrison will be on the Colts’ playbook, many probably saw this one coming as early as last season and even the season before that. You see, Harrison has struggled to stay on the field with health issues the last few years. And although he was able to come back from it time and time again, he was simply never the same guy the Colts knew to be.

Fortunately for the Colts, they still have guys like…

Former New York Giant and Super Bowl hero Plaxico Burress is on the hot seat.

While NFL athletes are getting ready for the 2009 NFL football season, Plaxico Burress is walking into a Manhattan courthouse just a few days ago to give a grand jury his version of events the night he put a bullet through his leg.

The 31-year-old Plaxico Burress said nothing to a horde of reporters as he walked into court with his lawyer, Benjamin Brafman. The NFL star arrived in a black Lexus sedan, riding in the back seat. He wore a light grey suit with white stripes for his appointment before the panel which will determine the charges against him.

Brafman made no comment as the pair disappeared inside the courthouse.

The decision to put the now former New York Giants wide receiver on the stand came as a surprise, and it came as NFL teams were opening training camps. The star receiver’s status for the upcoming season remained uncertain due to his legal woes.

Burress, who caught the winning touchdown in the final minute for the Giants in their 2008 Super Bowl victory over the New England Patriots, also could face disciplinary action by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell under the league’s personal conduct policy.

The disgruntled NFC receiver has yet to…

In case you missed it, the Giants and Plaxico Burress finally parted ways.

Yep, you read it, Plaxico Burress will no longer be playing for the New York Giants once the brand new 2009 NFL football season gets here.

After everything Plaxico Burress has done to further spoil his stay in New York, I guess hearing about Plaxico shoot himself in the leg last season was the one that led the Giants organization to draw the line somewhere.

I mean, how stupid can one man be? You’re already a sports hero earning butt-loads of dough playing for a world champion and you decide to bring a gun in a club and shoot yourself in the leg with it? The New York Giants had enough and releasing him was only inevitable.

”We hung in there as long as we could in hopes that there could be a resolution to this situation other than the decision we made today to release Plaxico,” New York Giants manager Jerry Reese said.

”It wasn’t to be, so now we have to move on.”

However, moving on WITHOUT Plaxico made some Giants fans irate. They feel that…

Since there’s a scarcity of good wide receivers available in the free agency pool, every team will probably gun for T.J. Houshmandzadeh.

And since T.J. Houshmandzadeh is really the only big impact wideout available from free agency, teams probably won’t mind spending a few bucks more than they usually do in putting the quite lengthy Houshmandzadeh name on their own jersey for the coming 2009-10 NFL football season. Good thing Ben Roethlisberger isn’t available, YET.

So where will T.J. Houshmandzadeh go? Will he stay in Cincinnati or will he finally move on after all those losing seasons he had playing for the state of Ohio? (Yes, he probably won’t even bother signing up for the Cleveland Browns…)

As of this writing, Houshmandzadeh already resigned himself to another season with the Cincinnati Bengals. Normally, a player with a definite decision would mean that it won’t be anything indefinite but since we live in an era where Brett Favre can retire, play again, retire, play again and (you guessed it…) retire again, we should now know better.

But for the meantime, we’ll buy in with what Houshmandzadeh has already said. And if he does stay away from the Queen City, which of the league’s other 31 teams will he play for next? Let’s start with probably the most intriguing one, the New York Giants. Now that the Giants are…

With all of Plaxico’s problems with the law lately, it certainly looks like the Giants have decided to move on without their primary receiver.

As unfortunate as it is, looks like the New York Giants have decided to plan for the future without the very guy who caught that game-winning touchdown that earned Eli Manning his very first Super Bowl championship ring.

Yes, Plaxico Burress, the guy who technically won Super Bowl XLII for New York, is no longer included in the Giants’ plans. For a guy who has been sued at least nine times over the past six years, I guess it was only a matter of time before the Giants exclude Plaxico completely.

According to the Giants organization, Burress has brought all these upon himself. Apparently, Burress, amidst all of his troubles on and off the field, has continued to refuse any assistance being offered to him by the Giants organization or anyone outside for that matter. Heck, he has even refused to hire someone to clean up his shit when he could’ve just easily have done it painlessly. He’d rather handle them on his own.

”He won’t let anyone help him,” said one longtime member of the Giants organization. ”He’s a loner by nature, so he doesn’t trust anyone unless they grew up with him.”

That’s probably the reason why the Giants have decided to exclude…

First, let me just point out that contrary to Roger Goodell’s comments last Sunday, 43 failed to top 42 last year.

And in case you have no idea what I’m trying to stress here, the 43rd edition of the Super Bowl is now history as the Pittsburgh Steelers won Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa, Florida. It was a fitting end to what has been an unpredictable season and although many did picked Pittsburgh before the big game, nobody predicted the Steelers needing to score in the last two minutes of the game just to win a title that many thought they should’ve won easily.

And since Super Bowl 43 ended the way it did last Sunday, I have to point out its similarities with last year’s Super Bowl championship game, when the New York Giants drove down the field in the last two minutes of the game to beat the New England Patriots and win Super Bowl 42.

You see, like the Giants last year, the Pittsburgh Steelers had to find an answer after watching the opposing team’s primary receiver score the go-ahead touchdown in the final minutes of the contest.

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady found Randy Moss in the end zone to give the Patriots the lead in the final minutes of Super Bowl XLII last year. Last Sunday, it was Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner finding Larry Fitzgerald in the end zone to give them the lead with 2:37 left.

As soon as that happened, I had a feeling then that I’ve seen this…

The Super Bowl is almost here and guys from BetUS.com already have their picks on who will be crowned Super Bowl XLIII champ in Tampa.

If you’ve been following the 2009 NFL playoffs lately, you should already know by now that the favorites to win the title early into the season already went out unceremoniously.

Of course, the heavy favorites were the defending Super Bowl XLII champions New York Giants. After a strong start to the season, many bettors were already expecting these guys to make a return trip to the Super Bowl.

But after Plaxico Burress was ruled out for the rest of the season due to personal issues, the Giants began their gigantic demise, if you will. And not even their bye week to start the postseason gave them enough time to recuperate.

Losing four of their last five games were enough to send the Giants to an early vacation. Taking their place this postseason were mirror images of themselves in last year’s postseason wars, the Philadelphia Eagles. Like the Giants in 2008, the Eagles caught fire in their last regular season game and have never looked back since.

The Eagles decimated the Dallas Cowboys in their last game before the postseason to ultimately put the Cowboys out of…

It has been well documented that this year’s Eagles were last season’s version of the Super Bowl XLII champs New York Giants.

Last Sunday, the Philadelphia Eagles were simply known as ”giant killers” as they ended the reigning champs’ campaign at Giant Stadium, beating the Giants 23-11, to advance to the NFC title game.

The Philadelphia Eagles will visit the Arizona Cardinals for the 2009 NFC championship at the University of Phoenix Stadium, the very field where the Giants won their Super Bowl title last season.

You read it, the Philadelphia Eagles will have the opportunity to play for the Super Bowl again since Donovan McNabb and Terrell Owens stopped calling themselves buddies in Philly. Of course, the Arizona Cardinals are no pushovers. But still, you can’t help but root for McNabb who is probably on his last season with the Eagles.

”He is the best quarterback in the NFL,” Philadelphia Eagles head coach Andy Reid said of Donovan McNabb. ”I don’t think I have to say anything more than that.”

McNabb lunged for one touchdown, threw for another and converted several key third downs to move the sixth-seeded Eagles (11-6-1) into next Sunday’s title game at…