Jul 24th 2008 3:23PM by Tom Mantzouranis (author feed)
Filed under: Giants, Saints, NFC East, NFC SouthHey, you might not be aware of this, but Jeremy Shockey is a normal human. I know that might surprise you, as everything you’re led to believe about the guy paints the portrait of a 15-foot-tall demon who breathes fire beneath glowing eyes as he randomly steals babies from their strollers and tips over people in wheelchairs.

So as the Saints took the field this morning for their first training camp practice, attention was understandably focused on what Shockey was doing. But in his first comments since the trade, he seemed pretty … collected.
“They won the Super Bowl last year,” Shockey said. “They really deserved it. I’m going to miss my teammates and my coaches, the owners, everything.”
…
“The last thing I wanted was to go back to the Giants,” Shockey said. “If I had went back, no matter what, it would have been a circus. The last thing I wanted to do was be a distraction. That’s one of the reasons I didn’t want to go to the Super Bowl. I wasn’t healthy. They did a great job. I didn’t want to be a distraction to that team. If I went, I was a distraction. If I didn’t go, I was a distraction.” As Shockey notes, he’s real. He wears his emotions on his sleeve. And that might rub you the wrong way, but it doesn’t make him a bad guy. I’d rather know where I stand with someone than not. Which is why I believe that what he’s saying is genuine; he’s never had a history of putting on a different face for the camera. And maybe moving south will allow everyone a different perception of the supposed monster.