Giants Stadium Fans Show Appreciation for Seubert
Home crowd goes wild when officials announce, "69 is eligible!"
By Aron Angel, Giants.com December 15, 2006 EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – It was during the second half of the Giants Week 13 home game against the Dallas Cowboys that head referee Walt Coleman, announcing a penalty into his microphone, elicited an enthusiastic response from the Giants Stadium crowd.
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OL/TE Rich Seubert 's efforts have been well-received, and acknowledged, by the Giants Stadium faithful. |
But it wasn’t a penalty against the Cowboys that had the spectators all revved up. It was the seemingly insignificant words Coleman’s microphone picked up from Giants guard
Rich Seubert that had everyone cheering.
“Number 69 reporting, sir.”
It occurs approximately 20 times each game as the 6-foot-3, 305 pound Seubert comes in to line up at the tight end position and informs the officials of his status. Each time, the game’s head referee has to announce that Seubert—normally a guard—is reporting as an eligible receiver.
The crowd’s response, whether it be simply for Seubert—an undrafted guard/tight end from Western Illinois in 2001 who managed to start every game at left guard in 2002—or for the fact that his presence means they are likely to run the ball, has not gone unnoticed by Seubert or his fellow linemen.
“They laugh about it and stuff,” said Seubert about his teammates. “It’s funny. Who knows what they’re cheering for. Whether it’s me, or because we’re running the ball, who knows? You notice it. It’s appreciated.”
Seubert, who lost his starting role after breaking his right fibula in the sixth game of 2003, said during games he cares more about facilitating the Giants game plan than he does about the response from the crowd.
“I’m just out there,” he said. “If I can help the team, I help the team. I don’t even notice it.”
Seubert is usually deployed during the Giants short-yardage situations, often coming into the game with running back Brandon Jacobs, another crowd favorite.
“He’s an athletic guy and he’s a physical player,” Giants head coach Tom Coughlin said of Seubert. “He matches up well with some of those big defensive ends that are more prevalent today that line up over the tight end. That’s been a very good move and he’s done well with that job.”
Using Seubert, an experienced run blocker, helps the Giants run game, and also frees up the likes of tight ends Jeremy Shockey and Visanthe Shiancoe on play-action passes.
“It was the idea that we knew we needed a player in that role,” Coughlin said. “And we have a guy who has very good mobility, has some knowledge of the position in the past, so let’s take full advantage of him.”
And while we have yet to see Seubert run a pass route or catch a pass in his five-year professional career (he caught six as a tight end in his freshman and sophomore years at Western Illinois), the idea of Seubert making a critical catch in one of the Giants’ upcoming games is not out of the question.
“We developed this theme, not only with being at the point, but now moving him, utilizing him in the pass game as well and not always just as a blocker,” Coughlin said. “These things have evolved. And of course the primary concern was the run game, initially, whether it be short-yardage, or goal line or whatever it might be. And it has evolved even beyond that.”