Vanishing act

After he was torched for a touchdown that might go a long way towards ending the Giants' season, CB Corey Webster stood in front of his locker and answered questions. Webster would probably have rather been anywhere other than where he was, but he acted like an adult, took ownership of his role in the loss and was accountable.

Antonio Pierce did none of those things.

Pierce ran his mouth again all week leading up to the game with San Diego. He called the match-up a 'Super Bowl' for his team, blah blah blah. Naturally, after the Giants looked like the French trying to hold off Germany on the last drive, Pierce got out of Dodge before the media could get to him.

Guys who duck the media always bother me, but this is particularly bad, because A.P. holds himself up as some kind of defensive leader. Leaders don't leave teammates to deal with the fallout of a bad loss.

We always hear about how important 'intangibles' are in sports, almost always in the context of assigning added value to an aging player whose skills are diminishing.

On Sunday, Pierce couldn't even muster up those crucial intangibles.