It took Justin Tuck years to grow into his role as a leader of the Giants defense, as he waited his turn and learned at the feet of players such as Michael Strahan and Antonio Pierce. It took Jon Beason about five minutes to do the same after he was traded from Carolina last October and helped restore order to the chaos of a reeling team.
That’s the thing about leaders in sports. They develop in various ways. They aren’t anointed by coaches or the media. They just evolve, and almost always when there is a need. So yes, with Tuck now in Oakland and Beason sidelined for at least the summer, there appears to be a leadership void on the Giants defense.
But it’s only a void until it’s filled. And the players on the Giants’ defense think it already is.
“People respect production,” defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka said. “If you’re out there on the field every day and you’re producing . . . that’s something that people want to follow. Everybody wants to be great so they follow the ones that are working to get there.”
He pointed to veteran cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie as an example, along with veteran defensive tackles Cullen Jenkins and Mike Patterson. He also could’ve pointed to himself or safety Antrel Rolle, or new middle linebacker Jameel McClain. Over the last two seasons, as the Giants restocked their defense they purposely loaded up on veteran players.
It was their way of cutting down on the confusion that had become a hallmark of their defense. It was their way of having leaders in place to guide the team through tough times.
“You guys don’t recognize them here as much, but wherever they’ve been they’ve been leaders,” Kiwanuka said. “So we’re going to jump on their back and make sure we get the job done.”
Perhaps the most important cog in that leadership machine will be McClain, the former Baltimore Ravens linebacker who signed a two-year, $4.5 million contract in mid-March. He was rarely recognized as a leader outside of his locker room, since he played on a defense for six seasons with the vocal and charismatic Ray Lewis.
But he said a leader is something he always was.
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“People try to make it seem like it’s something out of the ordinary for me, when in reality it’s the game I’ve been playing,” McClain said. “I consider a person that’s more worried about another person’s well-being as a leader — an unselfish person. The media likes to make the person that makes the most money the leader. I see the guy who just works hard and cares more about others than he cares about himself as a leader.”
And it doesn’t necessarily have to be the grizzled veteran in the locker room. There isn’t always a natural line of succession, like from Strahan to Pierce to Tuck. Beason needed neither the time nor the Captain’s C last season to earn the role, not to mention the respect of his teammates.
Leadership can come from anyone at any time.
“To me it’s not a matter of how much you played in this league or any of that,” McClain said. “It’s just about how you work and how you treat others.”
And it’s about opportunity, which McClain now has. He admitted that when he arrived in April, for the start of the offseason training program, “I had to turn it down” out of respect to Beason. But when Beason hurt his foot last week, McClain had no trouble turning up the volume. “It was just me turning back into who I am,” he said.
So on Tuesday, during the first day of minicamp, he was the loud voice that could be heard on the field, and he was the one leading the defense with a Ric Flair-style “Woooo!” as they broke the huddle. Meanwhile Rodgers-Cromartie and Rolle acted as leaders in the secondary, while Kiwanuka and Jenkins and others did their leading up front.
None of them is Tuck. And for now, at least, none of them is Beason. But there are plenty of veteran players available on the Giants defense to make sure there is no such thing as a leadership void.
