Former Giants quarterback Timm Hasselbeck has commented on the absence of tight end Jeremy Shockey from the team.

“People there are relieved he’s not around.  There’s this big stink about he’s on injured reserve,” he said.  “How come he’s not on the sideline supporting his team?  Let me tell you something, they don’t want him there. 

“They’re going to say all the right things, ‘Oh yeah, we’d love to have him around’ and all that stuff because he’s their teammate, he’s under contract next year and you can’t do that,” he said.  “But when they’re talking to people and it’s not necessarily being reported they don’t want him around.  He’s a distraction.

“Eli [Manning] is playing better without him because he doesn’t feel like he has to force the ball to him,” said Hasselbeck. “I was in the offensive meetings where they said ‘Listen, we need to get the ball to Jeremy early to keep him involved so he doesn’t start going crazy.’  Any time you have to start forcing the football to somebody to keep them happy it’s not good and bad things happen.”