--DT Rocky Bernard signed with the Giants, who also added LB Michael Boley in the first 48 hours of free agency. Bernard played his first seven seasons with Seattle, where he recorded 29.0 sacks in 103 regular-season games.
"He's a veteran defensive tackle with skins on the wall," general manager Jerry Reese said of Bernard. "He plays hard, he's stout against the run and he has to be accounted for as a pass rusher. We're happy to have Rocky on board in our defensive tackle rotation."
--WR Plaxico Burress, scheduled for a March 31 court hearing in New York City for the charges of carrying a concealed and unregistered handgun last Nov. 30, clearly was not ordered to stay in New Jersey. He was spotted on a flight to Miami-Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday night. It is assumed he was on his way to the off-season workouts in which he and several other players (including former Giant TE Jeremy Shockey) participate rather than join their teams.
--It seems to have escaped the attention of most Giant fans, but one of the six servicemen who raised the flag over Iwo Jima in one of the world's most famous (if staged) photographs was former Giant player Andrew Jackson "Jack" Lummus, who was subsequently killed in World War II. He was a recipient of the Medal of Honor and left the Giants in 1942 at the age of 29 to enlist in the Marines a month after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
--With the question of whether WR Plaxico Burress will be available to the Giants in 2009, reports are that the team is targeting one of three wideouts with their first-round (29th) choice: Maryland's Darrius Heyward-Bey, Rutgers' Kenny Britt and Florida's Percy Harvin.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "Our offensive line is great and will continue to be great and I'm looking for big things out of this team and this offense in the next several years." -- Giants' RB Brandon Jacobs, on signing a four-year, $25 million contract.
