Mark: Shockey ready to face his former team

When the Saints line up on the Superdome turf on Sunday against the New York Giants, New Orleans tight end Jeremy Shockey will see a lot of familiar faces across the line of scrimmage.

Shockey spent the first 6 seasons (2002-2007) of his NFL career with New York. In those six campaigns Shockey was voted to the Pro Bowl 4 times.

Shockey's Big Apple run ended following the Giants 2007 Super Bowl season. During the offseason Shockey was traded to the Big Easy.

Looking towards Sunday's showdown, Shockey says it won't be a typical game day. "It's definitely gonna be different but, I'm not the only guy that's gonna play against his old team, so it's gonna be handled as any other team. I'm very familiar with those guys, so it's gonna be strange in that aspect, but they change a lot of personnel over the years I've been gone," Shockey said of facing his former team for the first time. "I'm just gonna deal with it as we do every week."

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Getting ready to face his former tight end, Giants head coach Tom Coughlin has only good things to say about #88. "Jeremy was an outstanding football player. I was impressed with his blocking ability. People always wanted to talk about him as a receiver. I thought he was an all around player and a very good one. Jeremy is an outstanding football player who played extremely well for us, did a great job as a blocker, an all around vertical receiver, was obviously a Pro Bowl player before I even got here."

Also praising Shockey is New York QB Eli Manning who gives his ex-teammate a lot of credit for their championship season of 2007. "Shockey was a tremendous player for us. He got fired up. A lot of times he us fired up, got our team going and got the crowd into it. My first touchdown pass was to Jeremy. I only have good things to say about him. I've been hearing the media say a lot of stuff about me and what was going on. They kind of said the same thing with Jeremy. We did good things when he was here and a big reason for us even making it into the playoffs that year (2007) was because of the games that he played in early in the season where he made big plays to help us win."

A guy who can relate to what Shockey will be going through on Sunday is former San Diego Charger quarterback Drew Brees. "You can tell. I know the feeling. Jonathan Vilma (former New York Jet) knows the feeling from last week. I mean there's plenty of guys where you're playing against your old team for the first time, and I think any competitive person - you're gonna have that little extra juice, that little extra fire. Jeremy Shockey's a guy who doesn't have any shortage of energy during the week or on game day. So, really for him it's just gonna be about just kind of staying poised and composed while all at the same time playing the kind of football that he's used to playing... you know somewhat of a wild man mentality, but very much within the scheme of what we're doing," Brees said. "I'm confident he's gonna be just fine."

Saints head coach Sean Payton says what Shockey will be feeling and going through on Sunday is common place in today's NFL. "I think everyone gets excited to play each weekend. Every weekend with the way the rosters are now, there's somebody who has been with the other team. Last week it was Jon Vilma with the Jets and the same thing takes place with the opponent. The rosters change so much now that it's fairly common. It gets back really to the team thing and getting prepared and getting ready to play a good team and eliminating mistakes. That's really the focal point."

Shockey, who has had a solid first month of the season (18 catches / 162 yards / 2 TDs), also wants to keep the focus on team. "This isn't about me. It's about a team,two teams going against each other. I want to make that clear. There's already been some references about vendettas and stuff like that. It's nothing about that. It's about two teams and it's two great teams playing each other. I just want to win every week."

Remember WWL AM and FM is your radio home for the New Orleans Saints. Be with us Sunday when the Saints take on the Giants in the Superdome. Our pregame coverage starts at 9am, kick-off is set for 12pm, then talk about the game with Bobby Hebert and Deke Bellavia until 6pm on WWL!